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Carla Buzasi

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The Week That Was: Bonkers but Brilliant

Posted: 29/07/2012 00:00

I'm sure there was something to complain about this week, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was. And I'm definitely not the only one suffering from an overdose of brain-washed cheerfulness. From the beaming grins waltzing down every British street yesterday, you'd be forgiven for thinking Danny Boyle completed some kind of Men in Black-style manoeuvre with that singing cauldron of flames.

No money in the bank? Lost your job? Business about to go under? Nope, can't remember any of it, we're all just really, really happy. And really, really proud to be British, and we definitely, at no stage, thought the Olympics were going to be a disaster. Absolutely not. Dancing nurses are a cultural triumph. Danny Boyle's a hero. The Queen has a sense of humour after all. And Mr Bean is funny again! Oh, and the sun's come out, too.

So the opening ceremony took a little getting used to, but once you'd stopped worrying about whether the rest of the world got it, the utterly insane, bonkers brilliance of it all meant there was nothing left to do, but pour another glass of champagne, sit back and send a few smug Tweets out about how, well, brilliant it all was.

As Mitt Romney discovered to his cost this week, while us Brits are more than happy to criticise our own Olympics, we don't take kindly to anyone else doing it.

Of course, not everyone got sucked in quite so readily. Even a few home-grown individuals dared to voice dissent, but let's not indulge them here, and for one weekend at least, bask in the collective glory.

In fact, if Cameron wanted to bury any bad news, Friday night at about 11pm would have been an excellent time to try it. He might also think about re-running his nationwide happiness index. One would expect the results to be slightly different to those published last week.

So, now there's the small matter of a few hundred matches, races and the like to get through, but what we're really waiting for is the closing ceremony. Nothing like wishing your life away...

 

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I'm sure there was something to complain about this week, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was. And I'm definitely not the only one suffering from an overdose of brain-washed cheerfulne...
I'm sure there was something to complain about this week, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was. And I'm definitely not the only one suffering from an overdose of brain-washed cheerfulne...
 
 
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SecularAdvocate
Media Watcher
02:24 PM on 07/29/2012
Danny Boyle has taken his chance to re-define Britishness. And succeeded.

All respect is due for that.

If we had people with half his vision in politics today we'd really be going somewhere.
07:31 AM on 07/29/2012
It wasn't 11pm on Friday, but around about 3.30pm Gove announced that academies (that's nearly half the high schools in the UK) wouldn't have to employ qualified teachers anymore. This has provoked a bit of a Twitter storm. It marks the end of teaching as a profession in the UK, with any enthusiastic amateur fron November 2012 being able to blag a job on the basis of their life skills. There isn't any need for potential teachers to have a degree either, providing they can demonstrate decent subject knowledge.

This is nothing short of a national standard, a disgraceful, ideologically driven, callous attack on teachers and their professionalism. The timing of the decision was also a disgrace. Gove is intent on destroying state education to path the way for private providers to come in and make huge profits from running UK schools. For him, this was just another obstacle removed. For us, those of us who love teaching and value a good education for all young people, this is a horrendous piece of news.
09:35 AM on 07/29/2012
Well said. if he just wants experts then let us see some criteria.
01:17 AM on 07/29/2012
Someones happy Carla. And since your speaking for the brainwashed, can I have a word us grumpy
old farts who don't buy into this corporate sponsored anaesthetic for the masses.
Is the Olympic spirit distilled by sponsors Dow chemicals, they of Bhopal infamy ?
Is the Goebels inspired flame going to stop our old people freezing to death this winter ?
Will the 40% of our athletes who were educated at public schools be taking up posts in the city post competition ?
Will gentrification foster community harmony in the east end, when the rich snaffle up all that legacy ?
Never mind the pseudo Grecian inspired Olympic guff, this is all bread & circus', Roman style.
Have a nice games.
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SecularAdvocate
Media Watcher
02:01 PM on 07/29/2012
Happens every week with football. Why pick on the Olympics?
02:33 PM on 07/29/2012
Your right, and the reason why the poor old Olympics ? Read the comment again, Blokems too.