7th April:

China has today denounced the protests that interrupted the Olympic torch relay in London yesterday. And in other news, the Pope really is apparently Catholic, although we await absolute clarification of this fact from the Vatican.

You would expect the Chinese government to make grand, sweeping statements about how sport and politics should never mix, precisely because they don't want them to, but this is clearly offensive nonsense to anyone with half a brain and at least one good eye. Perhaps more worrying, however, is the number of British Olympians who have been queuing up to agree. OK, I understand that an Olympic medal may well be the pinnacle of a sportsman or woman's career, and a potentially lucrative pinnacle at that, but there is a wider and more important moral issue at play here and these glib "we just want to compete and not get involved in the politics" statements just don't cut it.

French participants in the forthcoming games have been debating how to take part but still make their feelings known. There has been discussion of athletes perhaps wearing special badges or shirts bearing some slogan that relates to China's record on human rights issues. At the heart of it though, regardless of the mechanism of protest, is the belief of France's Olympic Federation that some form of statement by athletes is necessary and proper. Compare and contrast this with the lamentable and apologist line being peddled by some of our medal hopes, and it hardly makes you proud to be British.