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Nationalising the Olympics

I think that corruption and bad behaviour probably infect any political system. In Britain, the trough that public capital projects have become for demonstrably second-rate private companies has undermined the cause of privatisation far more than any left-wing argument ever did.

Today, though, sees a new phase in the country's re-engagement with social ownership. Now that public control is an option for banks--the very heart of the model of capitalism adopted in recent years--it is a potential solution to each new problem.

I'm not that keen on sport because I don't really have the sports gene. We are constantly being told, however, that sporting competitions like the olympics are about essentially public virtues, if privately embodied. We are told that the show will be uplifting, and in almost Roman terms that it will improve public life.

Until recently, the public were meant to pay taxes through local authorities to a quasi-private body that would then have distributed the money privately in the service of this spectacle. A minister was appointed, but was able because of the private connection to dodge parliamentary accountability by claiming to be cloaked at key points in 'commercial confidentiality'.

No more. The Olympics may be about to be nationalised. Next?

The picture at the top of this post depicts Jesse Owens showing the Nazis the folly of their pretended racial truths on days that will live as long as free men do. The Olympics are at least good for that sort of thing.

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