Team GB’s performance in Rio is both remarkable and refreshing, a ray of sunshine in the relentless gloom surrounding not just the usual dire outings in international football, but fears over Brexit, home-grown terror, a dysfunctional Labour Party, childhood obesity, housing shortages, a collapsing health system, rail crises … the list goes on. Britain’s magnificent haul of gold and silver has finally given us something to shout about. Hasn’t it?
Sadly, for many, the answer is a sneering No....
Britain's Olympic success and post-Brexit vim are cause for celebration, not cringe
Zoe Strimpel
18 August 2016
The Telegraph
Team GB’s performance in Rio is both remarkable and refreshing, a ray of sunshine in the relentless gloom surrounding not just the usual dire outings in international football, but fears over Brexit, home-grown terror, a dysfunctional Labour Party, childhood obesity, housing shortages, a collapsing health system, rail crises … the list goes on. Britain’s magnificent haul of gold and silver has finally given us something to shout about. Hasn’t it?
Sadly, for many, the answer is a sneering No. According to the arbiters of socially acceptable opinion, national pride can only be one of two things: a money-grubbing charade, or a show of photo-fascism. For the Left-wing grandee Sir Simon Jenkins, British Olympic pride in Rio is not only the result of a nasty, cynical government spending spree, but also evidence of both a far-Right and a “Soviet” sensibility. For Sir Simon, the BBC’s coverage of the Games has turned British success in Rio into something “close to a British National Party awayday”.
Sir Simon Jenkins feels Team GB's Olympics efforts display both a Soviet and a Far Right tendency
That the Left seems confused by Olympic success – unable to decide whether it’s an odious capitalist stitch-up or a jingoistic harangue – is hardly a surprise. After all, vitriolic anti-Britain sentiment has been on full display among them since before the European Union referendum.
Some Remainers didn’t even seem to think Britain deserved to exist outside Europe. As one Cambridge academic told me: “I don’t give a –––– about this country, to be honest; I only care about Europe”. Others spoke of the regret that “idiots” (meaning people who live outside London and Brighton and are over 60) were allowed to vote.
Following the result, veteran Leftist Polly Toynbee spoke for thousands of doom-mongers when she wrote of “the dark place” that “Britain for the British” would become after Brexit.
Little wonder that the idea of a triumphant Team GB rankles such people: celebrating the victories of athletes draped in the Union flag is intellectually impossible for those who believe any move by Britain to assert its national independence is by definition a backwards and morally dubious step.
Are the Left embarrassed by Mo Farah brandishing the Union Jack? Credit: Matt Slocum/AP
Britain’s detractors will always find a way to blame the Tories, or Ukip, or capitalism, or stupid voters, for what they are convinced is the parlous state of the nation. But why do the naysayers live here – many out of choice – and not elsewhere? It’s because Britain has a huge amount going for it, including a culture of full and free and frank public debate that allows them to engage so vociferously in self-laceration.
The period since the Brexit vote – seen as the beginning of the end on the Left – actually testifies to this country’s dynamism. Out of chaos, our political system rapidly produced a strong new Prime Minister at the head of a stable and popular government. Then there were the predictions of economic apocalypse: instead, unemployment has gone down and retail spending has risen sharply. The property market Armageddon hasn’t happened either in most places. If London prices are cooling, they were overdue a correction anyway. And the predicted 3 per cent slowdown in property prices this year is hardly worth weeping over.
Contrary to the doom-mongers, retail spending has gone up since the referendum
Such facts will, of course, cut no ice with people who decry British “neoliberalism” – namely market economics. They don’t fit the narrative of British decline, so they will be ignored. Likewise evidence that Olympic glory is boosting a country that – away from the chattering classes in their metropolitan ghettoes – actually cares about sporting prowess.
It’s never been the British way to celebrate our virtues too loudly, of course. We can leave that to the Americans, with their flagpoles on the front lawn and their odes to the star-spangled banner. But as we reach the end of an Olympic Games where Britain may well finish second only to the US, perhaps we can learn a small lesson from the Americans about how to deal with national success.
We don't all need to go as far as model Jennifer Nicole Lee to demonstrate our pride in Britain Credit: -/Splash News
We don’t need to wear Union Jack bikinis, but should learn to give credit where credit is due. Taking pride in Britain and its triumphs should – at the very least – be as acceptable as doing it down.
Britain's Olympic success and post-Brexit vim are cause for celebration, not cringe
Sadly, for many, the answer is a sneering No....
Britain's Olympic success and post-Brexit vim are cause for celebration, not cringe
Zoe Strimpel
18 August 2016
The Telegraph
Team GB’s performance in Rio is both remarkable and refreshing, a ray of sunshine in the relentless gloom surrounding not just the usual dire outings in international football, but fears over Brexit, home-grown terror, a dysfunctional Labour Party, childhood obesity, housing shortages, a collapsing health system, rail crises … the list goes on. Britain’s magnificent haul of gold and silver has finally given us something to shout about. Hasn’t it?
Sadly, for many, the answer is a sneering No. According to the arbiters of socially acceptable opinion, national pride can only be one of two things: a money-grubbing charade, or a show of photo-fascism. For the Left-wing grandee Sir Simon Jenkins, British Olympic pride in Rio is not only the result of a nasty, cynical government spending spree, but also evidence of both a far-Right and a “Soviet” sensibility. For Sir Simon, the BBC’s coverage of the Games has turned British success in Rio into something “close to a British National Party awayday”.
That the Left seems confused by Olympic success – unable to decide whether it’s an odious capitalist stitch-up or a jingoistic harangue – is hardly a surprise. After all, vitriolic anti-Britain sentiment has been on full display among them since before the European Union referendum.
Some Remainers didn’t even seem to think Britain deserved to exist outside Europe. As one Cambridge academic told me: “I don’t give a –––– about this country, to be honest; I only care about Europe”. Others spoke of the regret that “idiots” (meaning people who live outside London and Brighton and are over 60) were allowed to vote.
Following the result, veteran Leftist Polly Toynbee spoke for thousands of doom-mongers when she wrote of “the dark place” that “Britain for the British” would become after Brexit.
Little wonder that the idea of a triumphant Team GB rankles such people: celebrating the victories of athletes draped in the Union flag is intellectually impossible for those who believe any move by Britain to assert its national independence is by definition a backwards and morally dubious step.
Are the Left embarrassed by Mo Farah brandishing the Union Jack? Credit: Matt Slocum/AP
Britain’s detractors will always find a way to blame the Tories, or Ukip, or capitalism, or stupid voters, for what they are convinced is the parlous state of the nation. But why do the naysayers live here – many out of choice – and not elsewhere? It’s because Britain has a huge amount going for it, including a culture of full and free and frank public debate that allows them to engage so vociferously in self-laceration.
The period since the Brexit vote – seen as the beginning of the end on the Left – actually testifies to this country’s dynamism. Out of chaos, our political system rapidly produced a strong new Prime Minister at the head of a stable and popular government. Then there were the predictions of economic apocalypse: instead, unemployment has gone down and retail spending has risen sharply. The property market Armageddon hasn’t happened either in most places. If London prices are cooling, they were overdue a correction anyway. And the predicted 3 per cent slowdown in property prices this year is hardly worth weeping over.
Contrary to the doom-mongers, retail spending has gone up since the referendum
Such facts will, of course, cut no ice with people who decry British “neoliberalism” – namely market economics. They don’t fit the narrative of British decline, so they will be ignored. Likewise evidence that Olympic glory is boosting a country that – away from the chattering classes in their metropolitan ghettoes – actually cares about sporting prowess.
It’s never been the British way to celebrate our virtues too loudly, of course. We can leave that to the Americans, with their flagpoles on the front lawn and their odes to the star-spangled banner. But as we reach the end of an Olympic Games where Britain may well finish second only to the US, perhaps we can learn a small lesson from the Americans about how to deal with national success.
We don't all need to go as far as model Jennifer Nicole Lee to demonstrate our pride in Britain Credit: -/Splash News
We don’t need to wear Union Jack bikinis, but should learn to give credit where credit is due. Taking pride in Britain and its triumphs should – at the very least – be as acceptable as doing it down.
Britain's Olympic success and post-Brexit vim are cause for celebration, not cringe
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