As you may or may not know, we are currently at the 'end of the beginning' of the Third Industrial Revolution (as some call it). Otherwise known as the Digital Revolution. I don't know about you, but at my age, I am kind of surprised to find myself part of a revolution! Flattered perhaps. And there's nothing like a revolution to get that old body out of bed on a Monday morning.
Against all my own expectations, the Olympic Games have emerged like unexpected blossom on a tree that only flowers erratically. When was the last time GB could stand so proudly tall? I'm reminded of the post war years when the response to the end of WW2 was to implement the Beveridge Report and build the welfare state. Am I comparing a few sporting triumphs to the construction of, amongst other things, the National Health Service? No - that would be pure bathos. But I am comparing a display of national character, where the choices that were made in a moment of coming together, were open, inclusive and dynamically forward looking.