Fanning the Flames

That was the Olympics, then. It all seemed to go rather well, despite some of the press initially thinking it would bring chaos, famine and pestilence to the capital of the UK. But once it was clear everyone was having a lovely time and, more importantly, the British team were actually doing very well, even the likes of the Mail and Express were getting giddy.

It took a little time, mind. The opening ceremony brought somewhat tedious moans of it being some kind of Marxist propaganda vehicle and/or a love-letter to New Labour values. Such idiocy was quickly laughed away, as the media realised we all actually quite like the NHS, especially those of us without the spare wedge to put aside for BUPA premiums.

I have to admit watching the Olympic torch being lit even brought a bit of warmth to this cold, black heart. It helped that the actual flame was burning away in a rather spectacular fashion and that the coverage was on the good old BBC - no three-times-an-hour ad breaks for us.

What also helped was having top athletes like Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis winning gold. Despite myself, I was cheering away when they were tearing across the tracks. I don't know, they just seem so likeable. But then it was also thrilling to see the guy from Kenya break the world record at the 800m - I was clapping away at the guy deciding to just dispense with the whole idea of having someone else set the pace and just tear away from the off.

After the event, there's a lot of talk of "legacy", whatever that means. Not being a London resident, it's hard to see what long-term effects it has on me per se. There's been some talk of the whole event bringing raising self-esteem across the nation, which strikes me as a load of crap: this country in the main is too divisive for any true national identity to grasp us and for one thing, the English especially love to be told what worthless pieces of shite we all are.

What I hope is that we see through any attempts by the government to claim false credit for how everything went off. The success is down to huge amounts of funding, which is always the key to sporting success. It's no good having talented athletes if they don't have top-notch facilities and coaches to make sure they fulfill their potential. The whole "Big Society" would see these costs cut and enthusiastic volunteers step into the void.

I'm also pissed off to a stupid degree by Cameron's dismissal of "Indian Dance" as part of PE lessons and the over-emphasising of competitive sports. Here's the reality: not every child likes sports, because a lot of us are crap at things like football, hockey, rugby etc. Having extra options to make sure a kid gets exercise can only be a good thing, with emphasis on getting a bit of a sweat on being fun being the prime point. Much better than some skinny kid being pummelled on a patch of mud doubling as a rugby pitch, right? Not that I'm talking from personal experience, of course. (cough)