The best thing about these glorious Games? They’ve made us a United Kingdom again

At long last, something new for the entire country to argue about. let smug Brexiter and sour Remainer lay down their hatchets.

let frothing nationalists, fratricidal lefties and wounded tories park their grievances, their party leaderships and their Article 50s for a moment, ponder the past few days in Rio de Janeiro and then answer this: What has been the defining moment of the games?

Because we can all quarrel about that for weeks to come.

this country has never known a run of form like it at an overseas olympics.

Having used up all the obvious sibilants to describe ‘super’, ‘sizzling’ Saturday, the headline writers had to produce even more to describe Sunday’s haul of five golds — one of the great days in British olympic history — not to mention our elevation to second place in the medal table.

Speechless

It was just 20 years ago that Britain’s olympians came home from the Atlanta games in 36th place with a solitary gold and 14 lesser medals. this time we entered the second week ahead of the whole world bar the mighty U.S.

Was it best encapsulated in the early hours of yesterday morning by a speechless Andy Murray, gulping for air as he embraced his defeated opponent in what tennis legend Martina navratilova has described as ‘the best embrace ever at the net’?

or was it the unalloyed astonishment of a blinking Max Whitlock at winning Britain’s first ever gymnastics gold, only to snaffle another one an hour later?

For my money, it wasn’t even a result. It was the moment that Mo Farah, defending his 10,000-metre olympic title, was sent tumbling flat on his face during the final.

the nation held its head in its hands. no one could possibly come back from such a calamitous setback at this level. And then . . .

on one point, however, there can be no debate. After one of the most turbulent periods in Britain’s post-war history, our olympians have shown us that the gloomsters’ apocalyptic portrait of a nation irreparably divided is as bogus as a Russian drug test sample.

We look at Rio and see a wholly united cross-section of Britain which would gratify the most zealous diversity box-ticker.

From Hertfordshire’s veloqueen laura trott, to boxers lawrence okolie and Josh Kelly, representing london’s East End and Sunderland respectively; from sporting millionaires such as Murray and golfer Justin Rose to taunton farmer Ed ling, who followed up winning a bronze in trap shooting with flying home to help bring in the harvest.

Some hail from the Armed Forces. A disproportionate number — 28per cent — have come through the private education system, though many of those will have enjoyed bursaries and scholarships.

the number of ex-pupils from £33,000-a-year Millfield School in Somerset (including one still awaiting his A-level results) is larger than the entire olympic squad of Pakistan.

But the only way into team GB — or team UK as it should be known, given the contribution of northern Ireland — is on merit.

It spans every background, minority, region and sexuality. Between them all, they have given every corner of the kingdom something to cheer.

And they have done it with a sincerity and a wholesome, infectious exuberance which even the flintiest old cynic would have to salute.

take Jessica Ennis-Hill, the gold-winning darling of 2012, losing her heptathlete’s crown in Rio.

Afterwards, as she cradled her silver medal, there was an enchanting smile on her face, looking like she’d loved every minute of her extraordinary journey.

take Adam Peaty, who kicked off the UK’s gold run — with a new world record — in the 100-metre breaststroke. Aged 21, he still lives at home with his parents in Uttoxeter, Staffs, where Dad works at the local lidl.

All those punishing 4.30am starts and countless lengths in the City of Derby pool; all the years without family holidays; all the local fund-raising events to cover the cost of getting a teenage Adam to all those crucial early competitions — and it all came to a head in just 57 seconds.

And what did he have to say afterwards? He thanked his parents, his coach, his deliriously proud grandmother (now a twitter celebrity in her own right as ‘olympicnan’).

And then he thanked the whole country. ‘I’m so proud to be British,’ he said. ‘I’d like to thank the Royal Family and everything that makes me proud to be British.’

It’s athletes like Peaty, of course, who make us proud to be British.

the same cannot be said for some of the other so-called ‘heroes’ who profess to compete for their country.

think back to the start of this long summer of sport and those dismal, curmudgeonly performances — on and off the field — by the England football team at Euro 2016.

Boosted

they might earn more in a week than Adam Peaty takes home in a year. But who would you rather line the streets to cheer as they pass by on an open-top victory bus?

the team spirit is self-evident. there was no green-eyed grumbling when Andy Murray was chosen to carry the British flag. He might play in a parallel universe when it comes to prize money and fame, but he has been just another member of the olympic team in Rio.

While there were Saltires and ginger wigs in the crowd at Sunday night’s final, they were joined by a much larger number of Union flags. Come the end, Murray was draped in the latter. His superhuman exertions during that four-hour, sweat-drenched epic could leave no one in any doubt about what a British win meant to him.

And while many of the big names of golf have given Rio a miss — adding fuel to the debate about the sport’s renewed olympic status — there was no question of what it meant to Britain’s Justin Rose to stand on top of the podium.

Perhaps the esprit de corps has been boosted by some of the downsides there, notably the grim spectre of the zika virus and the spinelessness of the International olympic Committee in dealing with so many doping scandals.

the overall organisation has not been up to much either, with second-rate facilities and woeful ticket sales.

It must be galling to give your all in a three-quarters-empty stadium, particularly with those images of packed houses at london 2012 so unforgettable.

Unsung

But none of that seems to have had the slightest impact on our olympians.

While we’re at it, let us doff our caps to some of the unsung architects of Britain’s triumph, not least the blazers, the bureaucrats and the national lottery administrators.

As Sir Dave Brailsford, former head of British cycling, pointed out yesterday: ‘UK sport [has] created a performance model that is the best system in the world.’

And if John Major, creator of the lottery back in the sporting doldrums of the nineties, is feeling a little pleased with himself this week, then he has good reason.

In the meantime, spare a thought for the producers of this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards as they try to come up with some sort of 2016 shortlist.

It should also be a busy few months for the Queen. As well as the traditional Palace reception for all the Rio medallists, there must surely be a bumper crop of olympic gongs, knighthoods and damehoods to distribute after the next honours list.

given what this lot have done to lift the mood of her fractious kingdom in the past few days, she will be more than happy to oblige.