It wasn’t only a great Olympics for Great Britain and Team GB. It was a great Olympics for London too.
First, everything (almost) worked, even the transport system. Second, we presented a hugely positive face to the world. The Olympic volunteers, the history and the pride of London were all on display.
Paras replacing G4S in other parts of the world would look as if a coup was in progress. Here it underlined that this is a society in which democracy, the rule of law and mature civil society are (sometimes too much) taken for granted.
Third, it told us a lot about ourselves. Aidan Burley MP, the former Hammersmith and Fulham councillor, offended almost everyone with his description of Danny Boyle’s inspired opening ceremony as ‘multicultural crap’.
Two weeks later the number of people who recognise Mr Burley’s Britain, rather than that of Mo Farah or Jessica Ennis, must be vanishingly small.
Danny Boyle celebrated diversity and much-loved institutions like the NHS. It is a message Burley’s government should hear as they try to close our local hospitals and one that his former colleagues in the town hall should hear as they force poorer, larger and ethnic minority families to leave the borough because of their housing and planning policies.
There are many battles still to fight but after the greatest show on earth has passed through our capital, we should feel more confident about winning them.
