I'll be thinking about the case Jon has made in the post immediately below. Meanwhile here's an argument from Marcel Berlins against an Olympic boycott. He is opposed to it on the grounds that a boycott by Britain would be both ineffective and hypocritical. Leaving this aside, I was struck by the way he concludes his piece - which is by mocking even the idea of a protest in Beijing, one expressed through staying away from the opening or closing ceremonies. 'Now that's what I call a threat', he says.
Imagine if no one ever protested about anything except when they were confident their protest would succeed. Would the world be a better place for it? I doubt it. I doubt that Marcel Berlins himself thinks so. Maybe he just got carried away with opposing any political preoccupation with the Beijing Games.