UK Parliament / Open data

Energy Saving (Daylight) Bill

Proceeding contribution from John Robertson (Labour) in the House of Commons on Friday, 26 January 2007. It occurred during Debate on bills on Energy Saving (Daylight) Bill.
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention, but I do not agree with his point. With the Olympic games in 2012, we are trying to encourage our children to become the sportsmen and women that they can be. I believe that extracurricular activities will be provided in all schools, so our children will be going home later. I hope that there will be extra activities in order to provide the high-jumpers, runners, long jumpers and swimmers that we want for the 2012 games. In Glasgow, about which I can speak at first hand, a new world-class swimming pool is being built, along with a velodrome and indoor facilities that are second to none anywhere in the world, not just in this country. Children might go from school to the sports centre, but they will still go home from there. The Government have tried to increase the number of people who walk to school. Families have been encouraged to walk their children to school, to give them exercise and to cut back on obesity. We have to get children exercising not just after school, but on the way to school. It is difficult for anyone to encourage a child to walk two miles to school, as I used to do, when it is a pitch black, rainy, snowy, icy or completely miserable morning. Kids do not like the dark—I am not completely pleased with it myself; I like sunshine. I had to walk, however, and I did. Nowadays, children do not have to walk because more cars are on the road. It is a well-known fact in Glasgow—and I assume that we are no different from any other city in the United Kingdom—that most accidents more or less coincide with the school run. They may not involve fatalities or severe injuries, but they tend to happen at about the times when schools open and close. The Bill would encourage more people to drive their children to and from school. With the best will in the world, the Government do not want that, and I doubt that any member of the Opposition parties wants it either.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
455 c1740 
Session
2006-07
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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