Letter: Opening ceremony impressive but reality different
I thought that the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony featured some really good moments.
I thought that the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony featured some really good moments.
However, nearly all of these were connected with ‘Britain past’ – from the traditional rural village setting to our nation’s industrial heritage.
Sadly, the portrayal of ‘Britain today’ just left me cold. The stage fantasy of a multicultural utopia may well entertain the dumbed down masses for a short while, but the reality is much different.
Peer behind the scenes and see the surface to air missiles on buildings, amphibious assault ships and machine guns holding the fantasy together.
N Pritchard
Shrewsbury
Comments for: "Letter: Opening ceremony impressive but reality different"
ph7
Are you Aiden Burley in disguise?
Devilschair
Who cares! It was entertaining and funny - inaccurate, yes - but did you really believe Mr Bean runs the country (then again with this current lot..)
You want accuracy? Go film a documentary, but someone will claim it's not accurate.
I'm not an Olympics fan - it's cost far too much and its been stolen by the corporations (and in plain sight too).
The opening event was a pastiche of British life nice and not so nice - like a painting, perhaps one of those Victorian era ones where everything means something but you can just look at the view if you want.
pickaxe
"dumbed down masses"? What makes you so superior?
And if you really believe that the temporary Olympic security measures are designed to "hold Britain together", rather than act as a terrorist deterrent, then your view of life is the real fantasy here
HM
I think the point the writer is making is - Britain has now become a country dangerously fragmented.
The worse things get, the more the State will be forced to prevent things falling apart.
The first casualties of this crises appear to be free expression.
sordid
This 'celebration' merely keeps us proles entertained. I though it was ironic how the NHS was glorified yet Camoron and his ilk are selling it off through the backdoor. The militarisation of the games is also something to be ashamed of, that and all the thousands of empty seats provided for our corporate masters.
DevilsChair
'ironic' yes deeply - look upon it as a image of civilised society people built up in the last century.
It's currently being dismantled and sold off to corporations who fully expect to profit but provide no service for it.
It's a product of faulty capitalism - if you hand provision of vital supplies to commerce then equivalent powers of regulation need to be in place .. but with govt closing its eyes to corruption till inconvenienty found.
Remember what they said about not needing to look into banks and newspapers and now the pandoras box is open - and they still harp on about having no need for regualtion!
Beware and be active - don't sit back and whine. I think there will be a bank-sized corruption in pensions found next.. and that will hurt everyone.
Peter
Presumably the letter writer preferred the opening ceremony of the 1936 Summer games...
I do think it was a bit odd including the NHS in the presentation. Whilst it's something we should take pride in as a nation this celebration seemed at odds with the fact that it's about to be subject to wholesale privatisation...
AC
I get the impression that by including the NHS section in there, Danny Boyle was trying to embarrass Cameron et al... I think he may have been wasting his time as Cameron's hardly the sharpest tool in the box and even if he did see the meaning, he'd probably not give a monkeys!
The Original Jake
Bang on.
I'd go as far as to say he'd probably not give an Arctic Monkeys.
DevilsChair
Completely agreed - understood by those who believe in a decent honest society - ignored by those who don't give a caber tosse anyway.
Andrew finch
It was entertaining, but lets all be honest it was as accurate as the an Hollywood movie based on a true story.
007 bond james bond!
i thought that betty windsor and james bond stole the show. all credit to hm the queen for agreeing to the idea, i would loved to have been a fly on the wall when the suggestion was first madeto her. all in all a good show, and well done.
the highlight of the olympics so far apart from the medals was boris johnson's high wire act.
oo7. bond james bond.
as an after thought, could boris persuade messrs cameron and clegg to join him on the wire!
HM
I thought that the moronic rap 'music' part was totally apt for what Britain is fast becoming.
meadow matt
Assume you mean Dizzie Rascal? He was born and grew up near the Olympic stadium and is now one of Britain's biggest music acts. Music is an area of the country that is actually doing very well.
He also does a lot of work in the local community raising education standards through summer workshops and encouraging kids no to join gangs.
Think it was great he got to perform at the games, as he had a real connection with the area the games are held in and is someone younger audience members could identify with
Helen
You only have to listen to the lyrics from his “Sirens” video to see that (like a lot of rap) violence is glorified to the hilt.
But given that London is now awash with gun and kife crime, perhaps having a rapper perform at the ceremony was fitting afterall.
Katherine de Gama
In contrast, I loved the simple closing ceremony of the winter games at Vancouver. The Canadian national treasure, Neil Young, sang 'Long May You Run' under a burning pyramid/tipi so enormous he looked the size of an ant. That's class!
Stu
I see that the usual crew of malcontents and curmudgeons who inhabit this page - you know who you are - would have us believe that the Olympics and the opening ceremony were somehow not as good as they should have been. Presumably they could all have done a better job.
Never mind that there were various elements which we didn't all agree with, it was a spectacular show and what"s more the whole Ollympic event so far has been fantastic - a triumph of sound planning, good organisation and, despite those who carp on about congestion, ticketing etc. etc. A brilliant exposition of what Great Britain can do.
We should all be proud
Colin Dodd.
"a triumph of sound planning, good organisation"
Were there two Olympics on then Stu? The one you are talking about and the other one that was millions over budget, and where they had to bring in troops to bail out G4S, who it seems could not organise the proverbial in a brewery?
The only thing that went to plan was the nauseating barrage of publicity shots of the royals, Barmy Boris, Coe and Beckham, and the fact that the main players all made a lot of money out of it.
I don't think the events of the last couple of weeks, (seems like years), will change the world at all.No doubt there will be a glut of "sirs" for us all to worship. Oh we are lucky.