So the battle lines have been drawn in the debate over the Beijing Olympics, to devastating effect in London last weekend.

On one side is the anti-China lobby. They have, interestingly, been quickly been re-cast as the pro-Tibet lobby in a piece of benevolent editorialism that suggests they have the backing of some in the media. And on the other side are the pro-Olympians, who have not quite played ball in entirely refusing to get into a fight.

The problem is, the pro-Olympians' position is that they have no position and it's a non-position they're not willing to defend. That much was neatly summed up on the weekend when people tried to attack them as they handed around the Olympic torch not unlike a hot-potato and they just ran away. Of course, the idea was that they would be running anyway, but it's hard not to use it as a metaphor for their attitude nonetheless.

"It's not about politics, its about sport!" They cry, with that whiney contention that sport exists in a vacuum and/or is above the rigours of actual life. The annoying thing, for members of the general community rather than people who are into obscure and boring sports like curling, is that the Olympics and politics have a habit of bumping into one other.

They bumped into each other in German in 1936, when Hitler used the games to illustrate the 'greatness' of his Aryan nation, only to be undone by the brilliant black athlete Jesse Owens. They bumped into each other when Tony Blair decided he wanted the games as his legacy, the figures were fudged and millions of Londoners who couldn't give a monkeys were saddled with a bill running into the billions. And they are bumping into each other now as China sweeps its carbon emissions and human rights breaches under the Olympic carpet to create an advertising campaign for its industry and commerce that will make Charles Saatchi cry with envy.

Those people who advocate the Beijing games should stand up for the Chinese government and defend the arguments made against it. If they use the argument that the Olympics is beyond or immune to politics then they must hold that there was nothing wrong with holding the games in Nazi Germany for the same reason.

The Olympics are an exercise in glorification. To glorify the athletes involved, which should be applauded, but more significantly to glorify the Chinese government as it grows in stature as a world power. Unfortunately the two are not mutually exclusive, they are bound to one another.

The prospect of a boycott is not as outlandish as it may seem. Both the USSR and USA boycotted one anothers Olympics and although the ethics might have spurious, the world carried on turning. It's shocking now that our athletes attended the 1936 Olympics, although it could be argued the extent of the scourge was not yet clear, and what a statement it would send out to the world if we boycotted Beijing on moral grounds.

It would, however, leave us open to allegations of hypocrisy as our business leaders and politicians actively court the Yuan. And that, after all, is what keeps the world turning.