Politics and sport

The scenes yesterday in London as the Olympic torch was hustled through the streets shielded by what looked like half the capital's police and a gang of Chinese heavies were astonishing, a precise comment on the semi-police state Britain has been reduced to under Blair and Brown.

Forget the talk about sport. This was an explicitly political event, designed both to cosy up to the Chinese and to celebrate what the Labour party, more out of touch than ever, still hasn't realised will be a disaster entirely of its own making, to wit the 2012 games.

That Gordo somehow thought he had not been contaminated by these sordid scenes because he had not touched the torch himself was utterly pathetic.

Simon Jenkins sums it all up precisely here.