There were tears, laughter and wide-eyed wonderment at Liberal Democrat Voice Towers on Friday night as we marvelled at Danny Boyle’s innovative Olympic opening ceremony. While some of us will remember Boyle as the guy who persuaded the Queen to “jump” out of a helicopter, our own Stephen Tall has looked a little deeper.

Over at CentreForum’s blog, he’s awarded Danny Boyle the accolade of Liberal Hero of the Week. While Labour supporting Boyle may smart at this, Stephen talks about what the Ceremony conveyed to him:

First, the human potentiality which has formed Britain, made her what she is today: from music to immigration to sport to film to literature to comedy to protest to sacrifice. Yes, there are moments when we have got it wrong; but never so wrong we couldn’t put it right. That is a simple, profound, optimistic message: topical, yet timeless.

Secondly, this was a celebration of the ordinary individual, as well as our collective power. They say the opening ceremony is about the athletes — the Olympians — and it was. But it was also about the spectators, the volunteers and the construction workers, too: all who had played their part in making the day happen were given their place in the limelight. And when it came to the lighting of the Olympic cauldron how perfect that it should be an unknown group of athletes from the next generation who lit up London: symbolism which seems almost inevitably predictable in hindsight, but which no-one actually predicted.

You can see the full post here.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social