Normal Service Resumed

Why should it surprise us that we are good at sport ? We are the only country in the world ,(except Australia ) ,where on any given weekend, the entire population seeks out bizarre equipment from the back garden shed, and heads off canoeing or hiking or cycling or whatever ....
This simply does not happen elsewhere. Italian men sip sugary drinks, while their mothers stroke their hair .The French only like sports where you can wear pink lycra and get away with it , like climbing . Americans would be fit if they ran around each other, and so it goes on. We are the country that has contributed the best games to the world ,and that is because we are the sportiest. It is astonishing looking back at it the good grace with which we put up with the fraud of the 20th century Olympics.
In the boxing the professional Eastern block put gnarled 38 years old army veterans against our callow teenagers , it was hopeless. Our swimmers were finishing work as a Quantity Surveyor in Crawley, before catching the National Express to Hull for three hours night training ,in a paddling pool. Why , because we thought when they said amateur , they meant it ?
In women’s athletics the East Germans were unleashing men on steroids, and in the field events it was the drugs ‘man’. Many records still stand as a testament to the perfidy of the rest .Our occasional successes were the result of fantastic self motivation worlds away from the elite coaching centres of the Australians in which talented youth soon found themselves fed peeled grapes and back rubs by relays of speedo clad virgins.
This golden Summer is simply the proper reward we have been denied . Others may be good at the main events, like football, but at the miscellany of hobby horses we excell. Sport in Spain means watching a tiny percentage of circus performers skip about on TV , not actually doing it .
Typically we interpret our medalling maestros as recipients of good fortune , intended for others . But ,we are not only the most sporting nation in the world (except the Australians damn them) . We are also the fifth largest economy and the fourth largest army. Mighty China only overtook our GDP last years and it is not clear they can continue their geometric progression. What about when the one child rule catches up and their large working population to small dependency ration reverses? Who will buy yet more cheap tee shirts? We are not roughly equivalent to Malta we are a big beast and in addition to our innate talent for games ,we have a not unrelated talent for social organisation
That is why we should not cravenly sacrifice our Parliament to Europeans bureaucrats , that is why we need not put up with scare stories about” Going it alone”.They need us more than visa versa. This is why we must always look at our own resources first.
As the odd 20th century ,with its strange imported doctrines ,fades away, we can face the future ,proud of what we are, and whilst open to the world , no longer cringing and apologetic .At heart this is what meek little internationalists are .Still hurting because we went from being an Empire to being good at pop music.

Get over it losers !