We've already won the race

As my twitter account is testament to, I sobbed, swore, exclaimed, laughed and clapped my way through the utterly glorious Olympic Opening Ceremony last night. I am generally not interested in the Olympics themselves (like my infamous childish declaration that "these chips have too much potato in them", I'd like the Olympics more if they had less sport in them) but I love a good show and Danny Boyle gave us that in spades.

Far greater writers than me have today put into words how well the entire show captured what we, the people on the street, know to be the true spirit of Britishness. From the things that inspire us (great literature, landscape and music), to the things that make us laugh (A monarch with a sense of humour, farce and farts), to the things that bring us sadness (the loss of the innocent past, the loss of innocence of childhood and the loss of lives), to the things that drive us daily (hard work, the health of our families and love) - all were depicted in a wondrous technicolour dance.

So it sadness and angers me greatly to see the complaints that it was somehow too left-wing, too working-class - and worst of all - too multi-cultural.

Growing up in the 70s and 80s in a large Scottish city, I wasn't exposed to many cultures. In primary school, there was one African boy who would rub his big, round Afro and give each of us curious, fascinated kids a little bit of his springy black hair. One year we had Vietnamese twins in class, who flirted like mad, grinned and played a mean game of Heads Down, Thumbs Up, but I learnt nothing of Vietnam. By primary school, I knew a coupe of Indian kids and knew snippets about their religion and how it differed from my own Presbyterian upbringing. Racism was something I knew about only from TV and the news. I knew I hated it (at age 8 I drew an anti-Apartheid poster) but I didn't experience the glory of mixed cultures until much later in life.

In fact, it is only NOW I have read journalists talking about how unrealistic it is to find an educated, middle-aged, mixed race family living HAPPILY that I stopped and thought that I've not only witnessed it - it's part of my family.

In 2005, I travelled from my home in Dundee, Scotland to London to attend the wedding of my wonderful older brother at the beautiful Battersea Arts Centre. It was one of the best days of my life for so many reasons - surrounded by my family, on an amazingly gorgeous day, in stunning surroundings celebrating the happy event of my brother's commitment of love to his Londoner Indian bride.

All the things that certain right-wing commentators claim don't exist was there. The bride and groom were both from working class parents. My late father was a systems analyst in a factory, my mother was a cleaner and carer. My sister-in-law's father was a grocer and her late mother a stay at home Mum. She spent the early part of her life in Kenya before growing up in council housing in east London, while my brothers and I grew up in council housing in one of the poorest housing schemes in Scotland.

Yet, these two people had brains and a hard-work ethic drilled into them by their families. Both left university with degrees and both ended up working in the City in London. However, they never met.

It is here, that the other theme of the Olympic Opening Show is connected to their story - Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the world wide Web - because this story is a truly digital age tale of love. My brother had fallen in love with computing ever since his Basic "10. You smell of poo 20. Go to line 10" days and was now a software engineer. My sister-in-law had taken a much more diverse route but ended up working in the usability area of a mobile phone company. It seems fitting then, that it took the Internet to bring them together. Yes, like my husband and I - my brother met his wife online dating.


And so like Frankie and June in last night's show - they fell in love. And less than 2 years after their first email exchange, I was at their wedding as a witness to their love.

On the day it was simply a day of love and meeting new family and friends, but looking at it from a purely factual point of view the multiculturalism rolled through the day in a delight of colour and laughter. The families of the happy couple wore suits and kilts, saris and sherwanis. (The kilted men expressed their envy of those in the cool linen loose trousers and tunics as they sweated in unseasonably warm weather under their yards and yards of heavy wool). The civil ceremony was followed by a Scottish lunch (shepherd's pie and cranachan) and later everyone devoured a spicy, Indian buffet.

The traditions of east and west mixed, the drink flowed and in the evening I did my bit as I took the stage to lead everyone in some traditional Scottish dancing. I called out the moves to the experts and the enthusiastic uninitiated alike. It became a whirl of laughter, squeals and hysterics as people were swung around and around by people they barely knew. Saris and kilts swirled; kids were lifted off their feet, the confused were ushered around the dance floor and the voices that rang out lilted with accents from London, Manchester, Dundee, India, USA, Canada, France, Taiwan. The "Eightsome Reel" became the "Elevensome reel" and people told me later it was the most fun they'd had in a long time.

No one cared what colour anyone's skin was, what country they came from, how much their father earned or which god they prayed to. We were all people who cared about a couple who were declaring their love and commitment to each other and us all.

THAT is what I know of multiculturalism. That is the Britain I know that exists now in the 21st century. They are middle-aged, educated and happy? Well, my most beautiful perfect almost 5-year-old niece is a testimony to that.

She is Indian and Scottish; Hindu and Protestan; she teaches me Gujarati words and what she knows about narwhals; she kisses me and tells me she loves me but that I need to clean my bedroom more.

So yes, they're happy. And more than that, we're happy. We're happy my brother found the love of his life; we're happy she brings new wonderful things and people into our family; we're happy the union gave me my only niece and my Mum's only grandchild. Race doesn't even come into it.