OLYMPIC REQUIEM

Published at the time of the 2012 Olympics. Republished here to coincide with the opening of the Rio Olympics.

by Colin Liddell

Here in the UK the London Olympic Games have been considered a great success. After two weeks of competition, the British Olympic team has won an astounding 29 gold medals and has finished third in the medals table, above the mighty Russians and below only the USA and China. One of the most mentioned facts in recent days is the single gold medal we won at the 1996 Olympics. On the naïve level of simple, uncomplicated sporting enthusiasm it has been a resounding success, and an easy sell to the sporting inclinations of the UK public.

But looking at the bigger picture, the hidden agendas, and the crunched numbers, a different picture starts to emerge; one that suggests Britain’s Olympic success is merely the phosphorescent glow of an entity walking in death’s shadow.

THE PRESENT IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY

"The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there," is the famous opening sentence of The Go Between, a 1953 novel by the English novelist, L.P. Hartley. It is used to set up a flashback to 50 years before, and to reflect on the changes in English culture and manners wrought by two world wars and the torrent of modernity.

SELFISH, WHINING MONKEYS

Selfish, Whining Monkeys
by Rod Liddle
Buy it at Amazon.com

Reviewed by Kevin Scott

The latest book by caustic newspaper columnist, Rod Liddle, who also writes for the Spectator magazine, called Selfish, Whining Monkeys (subtitled: 'How we ended up greedy, narcissistic and unhappy') is an entertaining read for all those who want an offbeat (and sweary) alternative to the politically correct, sterile left-liberalism that currently dominates modern British political and social life.

Liddle, who previously worked for the Labour party and the BBC, intertwines autobiographical reminiscences with pointed observations about the unravelling of British society since the Second World War, some of them amusing, others quite touching, particularly about his parents, and laments the decline of the working class, blaming, among others things, mass immigration, Mrs Thatcher, the Frankfurt School, and left-liberal elites (of all political parties and none!), most of them public-schooled educated and predominant across society, particularly in the legal system, media and politics, for the current abyss.