Just a few weeks ago, Britain was deep in the doldrums. A stagnant economy, morally and financially bankrupt banks, journalists and politicians and never-ending rain had over months and years slowly sapped the country of its spirit. Even the much-hyped Queen's Jubilee in June, with a somewhat flat river pageant and sometimes unremarkable concert, failed to lift the public mood.
The Olympics were causing dread: there were to be missiles on residential roofs; the road and tube network was threatening to grind to a halt; huge failings in private security and a general bah-humbug-ishness all validated a general public cynicism about Britain, the Olympics and Britain's place in the world. Just one year ago, London was routed with riots and looting. Commentators flagellated the country further - look at those poor London boroughs the right-wingers said - the kids are feckless, greedy, poor and mongrel-raced. The lefties blamed the banks. Meanwhile, London burned.
What a difference two weeks makes. 50 plus medals (and counting), half of them gold, an inspiring opening ceremony, great strides for the role of women in sport: the country has enjoyed a Union flag-waving cacophony of togetherness - and the flames that burned in London have been a source of joy and wonder, not despondency. GB's collective heart has swelled with pride - and it has embraced all of its children - the white Northerners, the Somali immigrant, the old Etonians, the mixed-race poster girl, the gay older gent, the anti-independence Scots, the black Yorkshire lass, the ginger kid, the public schoolboys and the stable girls. Our gold medallists were born in England, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man as well as Germany and Belgium, Somalia and Nigeria. They came from the North and the South of these Isles, from comprehensives and private schools, from families of billionaires and from those with nothing. They were born in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. They excelled in competitive sports born far from these shores - in Taekwondo and Judo - and in sports invented and codified in London itself.
What do the last two weeks say about Great Britain? We are diverse. We know how to laugh and smile. We are organised. We are eccentric. We are charitable. We are welcoming. We are world-class. In short, Great Britain and London 2012 showed that despite the economy, despite the inequalities, despite the rain - the country, and London in particular - remains united, tolerant, energetic and human. We are a veritable beacon, an example to the whole world of modern civilisation and of unity in diversity.
In 1968, the British Conservative MP Enoch Powell made a speech where he bemoaned immigration. He feared that immigrants would dominate and ultimately overrun the existing population - like American immigrants did to the Native Americans. He foresaw "the River Tiber foaming with much blood". In some aspects he was prescient. He feared that indigenous white men would find themselves strangers in their own country, "their children unable to obtain school places, their homes and neighbourhoods changed beyond recognition". Indeed these are the cries and fears of a despondent and broken white British underclass - the people to whom the BNP and latterly the English Defence League so carefully represent, in a vacuum of political incompetence and misjudged political correctness.
However, Powell was severely misguided in his use of the "Rivers of Blood" analogy. In Virgil's Aeneid, the prophetess Sibyl foresaw the battles that the foreigner Aeneas would face with Italy's indigenous peoples. She mentioned the rivers of blood in Rome's Tiber, which alluded to the struggles and conflict the city would go through before Aeneas could found his new, multicultural, global city. However, despite being a foreigner - a Trojan - Aeneas, through his honour and duty towards his country, his family and his followers, set a moral example for the youth of his adopted city and state. Guided by piety, selflessness and charm, Aeneas became the legendary founder of a new Rome.
Our rivers of blood are not yet running clear - the questions about integration, welfare, Islamism and disaffected black and other ethnic youth will remain - all to be discussed in the inevitable post-Olympics hangover. However, I would strongly argue that our Olympians - our Mo Farahs and Jessica Ennises - are to London what Aeneas was to Rome. Despite "foreign" blood and that despite the real or imagined rivers that flow with it, these Olympians have become legends with their own duty, charm and moral example to today's young. Just as Ancient Rome was a successful multi-cultural society, so we have shown to the whole world (Powellians included) that the same is true of London today.
More importantly than any analogy, our diverse and united, humble Team GB Olympians; our smiling, uniformed and cheery volunteers; our flag-waving, face-painted, unashamedly proud crowds; our smart, polite and dutiful armed forces; our modern and competent national broadcaster; our creative, artistic and talented singers, writers and performers - have all, without question, colluded in a perfect storm to create a rejuvenated, reborn city. We have shown the world that we are a modern city and a great nation.
London 2012 and Great Britain never sounded more accurate.