I'd have no problem with tight security for the Olympic torch if it were being relayed from Olympia to Beijing by the shortest, fastest route. But for the torch to be protected by a phalanx of police and armed guards while on a ceremonial jog through London and San Francisco, that is the height of absurdity.

No, wait a minute, the height of absurdity is to hide the torch for forty minutes and change the route at the last minute so that no one actually knows where it is. As happened in San Francisco today.

The awarding in 2001 of the 29th Olympic Games to Beijing was always a troubling decision. Having accepted it then, we have no real reason to get uppity about it in 2008. But nothing justifies the politicised sideshows.

It's worth remembering that the Olympic torch relay has little to do with ancient Greece, and plenty to do with Leni Riefenstahl. The first torch relay took place in 1936 for the Berlin Olympics - another games awarded to a country with a dodgy human rights record.

The torch looked great in Olympia, Riefenstahl's dazzling public relations film promoting National Socialist values and Aryan supremacy. As it does in 2008 in that other carefully-edited public relations film promoting Communist values and Tibet Autonomous Regional freedom, namely the CCTV News.

The torch relay is totally extraneous to both the Olympic Games and the Olympic ideals, whatever they were. If a torch relay is necessary, then make it as short, as direct, and as quick as possible. In other words, beam it via satellite from Olympia to Beijing on the night of August 8.