It is, perhaps, an understatement to describe the Diamond Jubilee festivities as a dress rehearsal for the Olympics: the celebrations for the Queen were just as exciting. But the Mayor, Boris Johnson has a point in calling the Jubilee an important test: this weekend’s programme showed that London can make a success of grand events on a grand scale. In terms of managing large numbers of people, we showed what could be done: there were no fatalities, no riots and less disorder than on any day of the Notting Hill Carnival, which attracts a million visitors. There are lessons here for the Games which its organisers should heed.
The most obvious is, to prepare for rain. Granted, the Games will happen in high summer, but the great thing about the weather is that you cannot take it for granted. If we assume there may be downpours, it may not happen.
The other is to organise at the outset for a grand clear-up after the event. Today, most of London returns to work in a capital where the only signs of a really huge party the night before are festive streams of bunting. It is a very big achievement to return London to a pristine state so rapidly after the event; we want the same after the Games.
The reason why traffic was still allowed to flow relatively freely during the weekend is that a good deal of policing was authoritarian. Many people have complained, as
A.N. Wilson does in this paper today, that they were prevented from seeing the events they wanted by bossy police officers. And we know already that large areas of London, including the Mall, are going to be closed for most of the summer. Yet if the Olympics are to be well-run and safely managed, we shall have to get used to police telling us what to do — politely, we hope. Great events curtail our liberties; that is a price we pay for them.
In the end, though, the inconvenience was worth it. The Queen and the capital had a memorable four days. We look forward to the same celebratory atmosphere for the London Olympics.
The rain in Spain
This is what the financial authorities across Europe did not want: the crisis in the eurozone spreading from Greece to Spain. The Spanish government wants to recapitalise banks with money from Europe but without going cap in hand to European institutions. But if its banks do get a direct injection of cash without its government doing a deal with the lenders, that could set a precedent for other states wanting easier bailout terms.
There is an inexorable momentum here towards greater integration within the eurozone — at the same time as the pundits are talking about the chances of its disintegrating. The softer option is for a full-scale banking union among the eurozone members, with one regulatory authority overseeing eurozone banks. Indeed, the European Commission today issues rules for any future bank bailouts, which would protect taxpayers at the expense of bank bondholders: that wouldn’t come into force until 2014. The other option is full fiscal union, which would play badly with most European electorates. The British government favours anything that would make for greater stability, including fiscal union. And that, with its implications for a two-speed Europe, would have interesting repercussions for the debate on the EU here.
Venus in transit
While we have been understandably preoccupied by terrestrial events, Venus has been in transit across the Sun. Naturally in London this was hidden by cloud for all but five minutes. But it was exciting to know that it was happening.
