GFTU BGCM 2019 Minutes

collaboration is absolutely critical if we are going to overcome some of the most

significant challenges I believe we face in society today, the opportunities for

our young, how we invest in them and how we provide a future that we can all

see intergenerationally and whole society, because it will have to be whole

society. There is no getting away from this. Don’t anyone think that they are

immune from having to address this issue.

I achieved my black belt in 18 months. Self discipline. My mum’s tough love

was intense. People always said to me, “Was there ever a chance of you

ending up being a bad boy?” Not a chance. My mother is the most intense

warrior I have ever and will ever face on the square or off the square! Believe

me, women are first, foremost and uttermost the single reason-- Don’t forget,

we take away discipline from society, we can basically go home. We are

Homosapiens. We have to have habit, ritual and know what those lines are,

not blurred. Discipline was the reason again that I was to survive everything

that I would achieve, but karate is a curriculum for life, all combat sports are.

School teachers who tell me that boxing is barbaric, do you want a black eye or

a bullet wound or a stab wound, because that is the reality. We have got so

much into this liberal notion of the utopian existence that suggests that

aggression is best channelled, focused, harnessed. I achieved that black belt

and Mr Kobayashi spoke no English, but he led by example. The wonderful

thing about sport, especially combat sports, is that it provides that whole

selfdiscipline, collective discipline, personal and collaborative respect, but it is

not the solution and it is both good and bad. Combat 18 is back, the English

Defence Alliance is back. Sport reflects society.

But Mrs Thatcher told me that sport was for the unclean. I did not like her

politics, but I certainly respected her leadership, because she believed, and I

will respect anyone who believes in what they believe in and follow that

ideology. When she said sport was for the unclean I challenged her. She

challenged me and, as I said, here I am, 27 years on in public life, transcending

six Prime Ministers on having to sell, promote and even beg and plead on all

the things I have said I have been the beneficiary of. I could go into any one of

seven facilities when I was younger. My mother gave me a key. When I lost

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