The right kind of "leftie" Olympic show

Conservative MP Aidan Burley took to twitter yesterday to complain about the “most leftie opening ceremony I have ever seen,” spluttering that it was even more leftie than the previous one in communist China. The thing is, you have to be careful these days when using the political terms left and right. Burley should be more specific. If he means that it was the least militaristic, racist, sexist and homophobic opening ceremony ever, he should say so, and reveal his real opinion about those things. By the way, I have no idea whether London 2012 was the “most leftie” Olympic ritual ever in these terms, since I haven’t seen every Olympic opening ceremony ever, and I doubt whether Mr Burley has. But maybe I interpreted his comments wrongly. Maybe he wasn’t disparaging “leftie” ideas such as embracing diversity, political correctness and providing universal healthcare. Maybe he thought the London games opening night was actually the most totalitarian, military, state-worshipping, communist (or "leftie") ceremony in history. Well, if that’s the case, I’ve got news for you, Burley. You clearly haven’t seen any footage of the Moscow 1980 performance: