Here are my thoughts on the Sport Relief mile at the weekend:What a load of cobblers. All I could see was a few hundred people pushing their kids around the park while the police looked on, happy in the knowledge that it was the softest double time they'd ever earned. I mean, it was hardly going to kick off was it? Worse than that I think it fosters the notion in people that they are doing some real good. Allow me to address a couple of falsehoods.

Point One: Fat kids in sportswear with their fat parents (a sweeping generalisation but necessary for this argument) WALKING around the park for 35 minutes or so (ooh a whole mile. Seriously, what good is that going to do them?) are not going to become health freaks just because of Sport Relief. Fact. The danger here is falsely inflating the value of their frankly laughable efforts, consequently skewing their expectations of exercise, charity and life in general (OK, the last one is a bit harder to argue but I'm always up for trying).

Point Two: The police overtime bill will very likely exceed the money raised and by some margin. Factor in the inherent costs of organising the event, producing the 'runner's' numbers, printed promotional material, admin, wages and all the rest of it. Then send what's left to some African nation where a fantastically corrupt government will spend the lot on building some gaudy ego palace while the kids continue to starve and drink filthy water, if they're lucky. Then send the BBC out with all their gear and the huge bill that accompanies that (footed by the license payer) to show us what a lot of good that particular walk around the park is doing in the wider world while the aforementioned dodgy regime stage-manage every second of the trip.

Discuss. (mini-rant over)