THE Duke of Wellington once remarked that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.

In other words, events on the battlefield were hugely influenced by preparations made many years earlier.

The Duke’s remark came to mind after England lost to Germany last week. Why did our players fail to achieve anything like their potential during the 4-1 defeat? I’m not prepared to concede that German players are head and shoulders better than English players. That’s simply not true. So, could there be something in the way we nurture our young talent that sets us at a disadvantage? Was the game lost years before kick-off?

I suspect England’s young footballing talents don’t dream of winning the World Cup. My hunch is that, as boys, Steven Gerrard, John Terry and Jamie Carragher dreamed about winning the Premier League or the Champions League with their clubs, and not so much about winning the World Cup for the nation. In Brazil, I guess it’s the other way round – and this can make half a yard’s difference during a game.

And, for that reason, I doubt our current generation of international players will ever lift a major tournament trophy.

The dream of national glory needs nurturing in the next generation now. But where will the inspiration come from?

We saw national sporting investment pay off during the last Olympics, when Britain came back from China with a big haul of medals. That could be an even bigger haul in 2012. We have seen huge sums of National Lottery cash put into British athletics.

And what is true about sport is also true about the rest of life. If Britain wants to thrive as a society, it needs to invest in its youth.

Such investment might be in cultural activities, science and academia or business and enterprise. All of these things need to be taught and nurtured in our schools. British industry needs a workforce capable of winning in the global marketplace. When the next generation enters the internationally competitive world of work and business, it has to be numerate, literate, self-confident and willing to work hard.

So it’s all the more pity that the Government has cut the schools building programme. Hundreds of thousands of children are going to be educated in sub-standard buildings. How do you teach British youngsters the fundamentals that will allow them to thrive in the global knowledge economy in science laboratories built 40 years ago?

Make no mistake, in this era of globalisation, our children are already engaged in a fiercely competitive battle with those of other countries, so every £1 of cuts matters. Indeed, in this technological age, the cuts announced this week could even make a difference to the outcome of future wars. Some future British general may have to account for a terrible defeat by saying the battle was lost in the labs of Fazakerley High.

The schools building programme needs to be top of the list when it comes to reinstating public spending programmes in a few years’ time.

VANCOUVER Airport Services clearly has big ambitions for its newly acquired Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

The Canadians see growth coming from establishing links between their 18 existing airports, dotted around the Caribbean and the Americas, and Liverpool.

Of course, an airport operator doesn’t fly the planes, and so they need to show that a big enough market exists in the north of England for such flights.

Perhaps the city could soon be home to the pilots of the Caribbean.