Heard on Radio 4 news a few minutes ago: one Duncan Mackay, athletics correspondent for the Observer, speaking about the Olympic flame which arrives today in London.

Mackay, who is one of those invited to carry the torch, said that he had major reservations about what is happening in China and Tibet. He also described the furore over the Beijing games as the biggest crisis faced by the International Olympic Committee since the 1936 games in Berlin. These, as we all know, turned into a fortnight-long Nazi Party rally.

So will Mackay be refusing to carry the wretched flame through London? Oh no, not a bit of it!

FYI: Duncan Mackay has a bachelor’s degree in politics with Chinese history.

Some people either just don’t get it, or cannot be arsed.

Sam Leith in the Daily Torygraph:

“And in default of an Olympic boycott it is my fervent hope that, somewhere along its London route, a brave protester - or, better yet, its bearer - takes the Olympic torch captive and extinguishes its silly flame in a puddle.”

He gets it.