Fighting against invisible enemies

Harry McCue, Political analysis

The opening sentence from Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities was written about London but in another era. But no 10 words could more neatly describe the two extremities of ecstasy and anguish experienced in one place within the space of barely 20 hours.

On Thursday morning, London seemed dizzy with the great prize it had captured from under the nose of Paris the previous day. As commuters travelled into central London, the newspapers they read were blanketed with coverage of London's successful bid to host the Olympics in 2012.