The decision to support a bid for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games was the most important and the best decision I took as a secretary of state. After 10 years of preoccupation, planning and worrying – we are here, 27 July 2012.

Nothing could overrun, and it hasn’t. It all had to be ready on time, and it is. The support of the country, essential, is visible everywhere. London, the greatest, most diverse and most tolerant city in the world, has its arms wide open to welcome the world today.

This is, at its heart, a progressive project that has transcended tribal politics. Its fuel is optimism, ambition and lasting legacy. A celebration of the country that we are and that we hope to be. A festival of sport, alongside the biggest cultural celebration this country has ever seen, will make this summer live long in our memories long after the last athlete has left.

Today is also the first day that members of the public will enter the Olympic Park, where fast-forward regeneration has brought 60 years of progress in just six. Contaminated wasteland has been transformed into the largest urban park for the last 150 years. A mountain of fridges has been turned into a stadium. Hundreds of thousands of people will be welcomed in a space that, seven years ago, was inaccessible without climbing over barbed wire.

Lives have been changed in the process. 46,000 people, including 457 apprentices, worked on the Olympic Park, 21 per cent of whom were from the host boroughs and 13 per cent of whom were previously unemployed. 1,500 British businesses, of which around half were from outside London, saw their order books kept busy when there was little coming in from elsewhere. This transformation of life chances will continue after the Games, with 20,000 new permanent jobs, 11,000 homes and five world-class sporting venues that the people of east London can call their own.

But the legacy of the Games may be more than opportunity, bricks and mortar – however important these may be. They appear to be changing the spirit of our great city, indeed the spirit of our country – creating a new sense of pride across the nation and the communities that we live in.

For 69 days the Olympic torch has visited every corner of our country. There were no centrally planned celebrations, yet wherever it went, thousands of people came together to celebrate. They weren’t just excited about the Games, but they were proud that it was coming to where they live. They aspired to Olympic excellence and wanted to show the rest of the world the best of their community.

The most striking celebrations I witnessed were when the Olympic torch entered Brixton at lunchtime yesterday. Just a year ago the high street was covered in broken glass after the riots shook our community’s very foundations. But yesterday people lined up in their thousands, along with their British and Jamaican flags – with whoops, screams and cheers. They were excited to see the torch, but they were also proud of what its arrival meant.

So what of the future, what do we learn from this? The challenge that we face as progressive politicians is how we can harness this energy when the athletes are gone. The resounding message coming out of Brixton, and Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool and so many other cities before it – is that our communities are not broken and that they are proud of where they live and who they are. They need a party that will stand up for them, support their needs, and make a realistic offer of hope when they are told that all they should expect is despair.

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Tessa Jowell MP is shadow minister for London and the Olympics. He tweets @jowellt

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Photo: Ben Sutherland