by
Nick Cohen / August 13, 2012
Britain may look confident to the eyes of the Olympics spectators, but its
leaders are clueless. The Games are going rather well, but a small incident
illuminates the wider malaise. Once, Britain’s
future seemed clear. It would abandon manufacturing and embrace services.
However, the 2008 crash crushed old illusions and paralyzed the British
political class. The City could never return to the wild days of the bubble.
The “normal” is over and gone. The Olympic opening ceremony revealed that Britain
had had a glorious millennium but that its future would be clueless, as the
ceremony failed to show anything worth mentioning.