Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Barney Ronay in Paris

Do not adjust your reality: how slick Team GB played its part in dividing Britain

The Olympics cross-country event at the Palace of Versailles.
The Olympics cross-country event at the Palace of Versailles, part of the ‘$10bn of expertly staged sporting spectacle’. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

Managing Victory while the world burns. The British Olympic Association has an impressively large selection of mottoes and taglines at its disposal. Even its main competition handle, “Team GB”, is basically a cool slogan, a mid-90s rebrand of UK plc’s Summer Sport division.

Beyond this we have a full roster, many already safely trademarked: Believe in Extraordinary. Pride the Lion. The Lion Awakens. Patriotic Lion Alternatives For A Brighter British Tomorrow. On closer inspection the last couple of these may in fact be taglines for the current spume of British nationalist movements which, in an unfortunate coincidence, tend to have the same kind of vibe, vocab and big cat imagery.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.