Boycotting the Beijing Olympics

There seem to be two camps in the row over whether Britain should boycott this year's Beijing Olympics: those who believe British participation in them condones China's utterly attrocious record on human rights, especially in respect of Tibet; and those who argue that Politics should not interfere with sport.

Although I'm strongly critical of China in respect of Tibet and their human rights (lack of) record, I can see the difficulty facing the Government. Matters are also complicated by the fact that the UK is going to be the next host of the Olympics - something that traditionally incurs additional public responsibilities at the preceding games.

But this doesn't have to be an "either/or" choice. We should try to keep politics and sport separate as far as possible. So our athletes should go to Beijing, without any criticism, pressure or censure from their fellow countrymen and women. But I'm struggling to see why politicians should attend - albeit that many of them have been looking forward to this junket for some time. I hope it won't come as too much of a devastation to our leaders that their presence will make little difference to the performance of those competing for Olympic honours.

However, it is naive to argue that never the twain shall meet between politics and sport. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has to be more aware of the political regimes of the countries that bid for the Olympics. This is not playing politics - the IOC has a charter setting out the Olympic ideals, and it must pay more than just lip-service to measuring whether bidder nations share those ideals. I struggle to see how China can reasonably claim to.

That, of course, cuts both ways. It has been mantra in the West for getting on for two decades at least that "bringing in" China and trading with them is far more likely to bring reform than isolation and criticism. As part of this process of inclusion Western governments strongly encouraged the IOC to look favourably on China's Olympic bid. The IOC must retain independence - because I can see very little reciprocity from China during this time that the West has been turning a blind eye to its misconduct.