DOWN FALL

So Andy Murray has capped the most wonderful summer of sport we have ever known.  I tried to watch the progress of the Murray game on Twitter, but the tweets were flashing across my screen so rapidly I couldn't read them.  It was as though I had my finger permanently on the scroll button.  I checked the online news and saw that he had won the first two sets, so went to bed.  In the morning, as expected, I heard that he had won.  What I had missed, however, was the intervening 2 hours where he was definitely not winning.  So well done, Andy.  He has matured extraordinarily over the last year from his collapse at Wimbledon through his recovery at the Olympics to his first Grand Slam (our first Grand Slam win for 76 years).  Hopefully now he can relax a little mentally and go on to greater things.
But what of this summer?  Andy's win came at just the right moment.  The Paralympics Closing Ceremony had ended on Sunday, the parade of Olympians through London on the Monday had finished, and we were in danger of slipping into anti-climax.  And then along came another feat of sporting excellence.  What a summer it has been!
But it is over.  And, as if to underline the end of that chapter, the weather, which had behaved beautifully throughout the Olympics and Paralympics, and even during the Parade, now turn decidedly autumnal.  The magical summer is over and the end of the year is approaching (I saw the first Christmas decorations in the shops last week and my first Christmas tree in the pub today!) and the slight chill in the air hints at an ominous return to reality.  How long will it be before we stop hearing how inspired everyone in Britain is and what a united motivated society ours is, and start hearing people ask, ‘what has then Olympics done for me?’
Sadly, consumer spending was down during the summer, the recession is still with us, and various problems relating to production, transport and education have floated to the top of the public’s champagne glass of euphoria and consciousness.  Never slow to take advantage, the unions are talking of strikes and even a general strike (as though not working will solve our production and export problems).  I fear we will soon have forgotten the patriotism and collective well-being of the last few months.
But it needn’t be like that.  I hear so many stories of children being inspired, from my neighbour’s little girl who decided to sign on for diving lessons, but found there was already a waiting list, to the little boy, looking in his colouring book at Captain Hook, with one leg and a hook for a hand, and assuming he was an athlete.  Whatever else happens in the adult world, we must make sure this juvenile focus on sports is maintained.
How do we avoid sinking now into the doldrums?  Well, one of the problems of course is the sudden lack of programmes to watch on television.  I loved Boris’ assertion that the athletes created such enthusiasm and excitement on the sofas of Britain that, now only have they inspired the next generation, they have probably inspired the creation of another one.  Anyway, to avoid misery and pessimism now, don’t revert to watching soaps; nothing happy ever happens there.  You can watch the new season of Strictly Come Dancing if you like, but much better would be to invite the neighbours round for a game of boccia, or carpet bowls, or even dominoes.  Me?  I’m playing more bridge.  I’ll get it into the Olympics one day.

COUNTRY FOLK

Well, we had a fabulous day at the Olympics yesterday.  The atmosphere was just incredible.  I also revise my view of fast food - apart from the largest MacDonald's in the world, there were kiosks selling everything British from oysters and champagne to pie and mash.  We arrived early, although our hockey match didn't start until the evening, just so that we could wander around and soak it all up. 

 

 

 

 

If I have one criticism, it is only that there are no scoreboards or screens anywhere (except for the one big screen in the park showing live performances), so that, although yesterday was the most successful Olympic day in British history, we knew nothing of the scale of it and nor did anyone we asked.

 

We watched Jess Ennis win the javelin and the high jump on the big screen, but the broadcast switched to another event before we saw her spectacular finish.  Whew, you can see why she's my hero - as vicious as a springbok and not much bigger, but wow, see her go!  Anyway, we knew nothing more of the goldrush until we saw it on catch-up later. 

 

The Olympic Park is really impressive though.  Everywhere is planted with wild flowers, like the live screen park.  Here's the outside of the main arena. 



And this is a view of the Orbit from the entrance walkway.

 

 

Maybe they're supposed to be red white and blue?



And just one more at the periphery.


And remember, this was a brownfield wasteland before the park was built.  It took 2 years just to clean the soil.
I loved all the venue buildings; they were as pretty in real life as I had seen in the press.  Here's a view towards the basketball arena with the Royal Barge Gloriana on the canal.

And the Orbit looked even more insectiform, and just as wonderful, at night.


Anyway, the striking feature of this Games is the extraordinarily enthusiastic crowd.  It's almost as though they're going over the top in their wish to prove the media wrong.  It doesn't matter who's competing (unless they're Brits involved of course), but everyone gets a roar and resounding applause.  There were Americans at the hockey and New Zealanders too.  But the crowd was 99% British and waving all the Union Flags they could, even though there were no Brits playing.  It's the party everyone hoped for!
 I tried to take pics of supporters of all the countries represented by my friends.  Sorry, couldn't find them all.  But with everyone dressed in red, white and blue, it was tricky to find French or Thai or even Icelandic supporters.

 

 I didn't only take pics of young ladies either, although there were plenty of attractive girls around.

I don't know, there's something about this lady, don't you think.

And, after all the fuss, security was provided with a light touch.



And here are the army bringing in the Olympic torch.

CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT

I was going to comment eruditely on the popular reaction to HM's Diamond Jubilee celebrations over the last 5 days.  But I think most of it has been said now.

I was constantly amazed.  Not because The Queen is unpopular particularly, but just simply at the gushing outpourings of affection and support.  There is, it must be acknowledged, an anti-monarchist, or Republican, or a purist democratic, movement in the UK, which I kept expecting to see or hear disrupting events.  But there was nothing anti.  Even the official, organised, pro-Republic demonstration could raise no more than 50-odd people chanting 'Down with Liz', as opposed to the millions cheering and singing in support.

We booked our spot on the river to watch the flotilla at 8am, even though The Queen didn't lead the boats past until 2.30 that day.  But there were people on The Mall who had camped overnight to make sure they saw The Queen glide by some 20 hours later.  And that was just a couple of carriages, not the 1,000 boats that we saw. 

After the Buckingham Palace concert, the band struck up the National Anthem and, remembering the chanting at football matches and the silence at other public events, I thought, 'oh no, they're going to dampen the concert euphoria or spoil the success of the event'.  But, no, the crowd sung with gusto and raised three cheers afterwards for The Queen.  They even chanted support for The Duke of Edinburgh who had been taken ill the night before.

With recent royal cock-ups and a succession of PR difficulties since Diana's death, despite a pretty successful Golden Jubilee 10 years ago, I felt that public enthusiasm for the Royal Family had waned in Britain (and in parts of the Commonwealth for that matter), particularly among the young.  But I appear to have been wrong.  It seems to have been impossible for interviewers to find a member of the public willing to say a downbeat word about The Queen.  Far from it - nearly every sentence spoken seemed to include great affection and, not to put too fine a point upon it, loyalty and devotion.
 
There were even frequent spontaneous chants of 'God Save The Queen!', as though we were fanatical subjects in North Korea, rather than democratic and irreverant Britons.  There were plenty of irreverant references too of course, not least the number of masks worn.  But even they showed affection; ridicule was far from anyone's mind.

Of course the story might have been different north of the border, for all I know.  And I'm not entirely sure how the Commonwealth felt.  But I noted that even the Australian Premier's message of congratulation and admiration was gracious in the extreme, when again it could have been more subdued, given her antipathy towards the Crown.

But what really struck me was the way the celebrations had united people.  I mentioned in my earlier post that The Monarchy works much better here than a putative Presidency might.  As was pointed out in one of the newspapers today, there isn't a President that hasn't proved divisive (or totally irrelevant) in their own country in some way.  Yet, apart from a residual minority view that maybe she shouldn't be there at all, there was no sign of any of the divisiveness that our political masters have managed to achieve. 

The second feature was that that unity was formalised under the Union Flag.  It may seem odd to some of you that I say this, but our flag, except maybe in times of war, isn't really held in the same reverence as many other national flags are by the populations of those nations.  We tend to like it as an emblem and, from the swinging sixties onwards, have decorated everything from cars to home accessories with it.  And indeed, this last weekend, most people in the crowds were wearing red, white and blue, if not Union Flag clothing from head to toe, painted faces or nails, etc.  I even saw a Union Flag scarf on a Muslim girl by the river.  This patriotic upsurge is unusual for us in the absence of outside attack or physical national achievement; seeing it to celebate simply the survival of one person, however important constitutionally, was heart-warming, but still a surprise.  If nothing else, this inclusive, non-religious, non-political coming together under the national flag has done more for Britain than any other achievement that might be found in the 60 years of her reign.  And yet it is an achievement purely of passive survival.  We are merely celebrating the fact that she hasn't died or abdicated.

Finally, the other notable point highlighted in the press was the number of children and young people celebrating in the crowds.  I'm not sure many of the very young will have understood exactly what was going on and in fact many of their parents were not that clear either - there were a good many comments such as, 'well, we won't ever see it again', which made me wonder if they were there for the spectacle alone or maybe for the party.  One reporter, trying to inject a modicum of seriousness, asked one lady whether she was there because she supported the Monarchy per se or whether it was simply to recognise The Queen's achievement, but she looked a bit puzzled and just mumbled something about 'once in a lifetime'.  But those kids will be monarchists for life.  I remember even now collecting my commemorative glass at school and watching the Coronation on our new TV.  That event shaped my enthusiasm for the royals for many years.  There is now a new generation of enthusiasts coming through.

So here's to the next 60 proud, patriotic years . . .

Tags: politics, britain, flags, patriotism, royals, jubilee