Fit to run your country?

As election day on May 6^th draws closer, and our next government hangs in the balance, is it time we assessed our political leading lights and their physical capacity to lead our country?

Recent research links running with brain growth (see link below) and surely that is reason alone we demand our next leader is fit as a butchers dog.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7022900/Running-could-help-jog-memory-and-help-brain-grow-says-Cambridge-study.html

David Cameron dispels class divide and hurdles champagne in Chariots of Fire in re-enactment

 While Gordon Brown tries to show he has not popped his cork & is still bubbling with vitality for retaining leadership…..

 LGN could not find a sporting image of Mr. Clegg, but apparently he is very fond of trampolines….

 http://www.trampolinesonline.co.uk/news/Trampolines/Nick-Clegg-'uses-kid's-trampoline-to-keep-fit'-_553/

 So having looked at the sporting CV of the election current candidates – how about the best of the political rest?

 The LGN sporting-politico Top 5:

Sir Menzies Campbell

The pre Cleggmania leader of the Lib Dems, Campbell competed for the Great Britain team in the 200 metres and 4x100 metres relay at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and held the British 100 metres record from 1967 to 1974. At one time he was known as "the fastest white man on the planet, running the 100m in 10.2 seconds in 1967.

Sebastian Coe 

An enthusiastic Conservative, except when it conflicted with his career, Coe declined Margaret Thatcher’s invitation to boycott the Moscow Olympics of 1980 and won 1500m gold instead. “It crossed my mind not to go” he later remarked and then grabbed second Olympic gold in 1984. After a brief stint as Tory MP for Falmouth, Coe entered the House of Lords and then popped out to head London’s victorious Olympic 2012 bid and gained national treasure status.

Jeffrey Archer

The one-time deputy chairman of the Conservative Party and convicted perjurer, but the sprinter and hurdler did win an athletics Blue at Oxford in 1964. He also represented Great Britain in the 200m against Sweden in 1966, but as the athletics supremo Sir Arthur Gold noted: “It was late in the season and the Swedes beating us suggested it was not our strongest team.”

Idi Amin

A big unit, who before taking over Uganda and killing up to 500,000 of his countrymen, became the nation’s heavyweight boxing champion in 1951. He lost the title after allegations that, as a soldier, he was a keen torturer.

Imran Khan

As arguably Pakistan’s greatest cricketer and a man who loved his country almost as much as he loved himself, it made a certain kind of sense that the Lion of Lahore could run for president on a promise of wholesale reform of a corrupt political system. Naturally, the Pakistani people were far too smart to fall for him and in the 1997 election his Tehreek-e-Insaf party won exactly no seats in the National Assembly. However, in 2002 a landslide towards Tehreek-e-Insaf resulted in them winning one seat. No prizes for guessing who is their MP.

And finally - Running facing government ‘drug ban’

Your vote on May 6^th will also be crucial steering the course of drugs policy in the UK, after the speedy ban on ‘natural drug’ Mephedrone, it looks like the runner’s natural  high known as Endorphin, might be next on the banned list… http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2010/03/31/government-bans-jogging-due-to-‘natural-highs’-from-endorphins/ 

Happy running and happy voting for the next fit 'n proper government....

Do a runner with LGN

www.lgnwellbeing.com