school students: a grotesque dumbing-down of standards, the stifling of the brightest pupils, examinations rendered almost meaningless through the ease with which they can be passed -- and all so everybody gets to win and nobody is allowed become part of an elite of excellence. You can see this in microcosm at your local primary school sports day; the ingrained resistance to have any pupil singled out as a 'winner', in case this made the other kids feel bad about themselves. At my daughter's school last year, the 50m sprint took the following form: all the kids lined up and ran as fast as they could to the halfway point. Then they waited for the fatties to catch up and, holding hands, all walked or trotted to the finish line, where everyone received an identical token. This plainly mentalist aversion to the notion of success, and hypersensitivity about those who have not won, runs through every strand of our society. Incredibly, it is even present in the hype being whipped up about the Olympic Games: the official propaganda insists that this costly jamboree is not about the physical excellence of the elite competitors but is instead an 'inclusive' event, something in which we can all take part and all be winners. No, it isn't. It is a celebration of elitism. And as such, one might hope that Trenton Oldfield expresses his opposition to it by invading the field of play halfway through the finals of the javelin. If this chappy