All this in a city convulsed by massive welfare, housing benefit and legal aid cuts, spiralling unemployment and rising social protests. It is darkly ironic, indeed, that large swaths of London and the UK are being thrown into ever deeper insecurity while being asked to pay for a massive security operation, of unprecedented scale, largely to protect wealthy and powerful people and corporations.

That awful David Mitchell piece in The Observer last week, pushing the idea that criticism of the Olympics is spiteful grumbling for the sake of it, seems sadly typical of a wider attitude. If anyone tells you that something is ‘above politics’ they are either stupid or lying. Possibly both.

Olympics 2012 security: welcome to lockdown London