London 2012 will of course over-run in costs by billions, burden taxpayers in London in particular, cause immense problems for the host city, not get a return on investment and generally result in a lot of moaning. As a libertarian who would prefer it to have been run as a private venture – the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles made a $200 million profit – you would expect Guido to moan.

It will however also generate a lot of pride and excitement, so rather than begrudging it, maybe we should just make the most of it. Who knows, with Boris in charge and a Conservative government in power, it might, like Ronald Reagan’s 1984 Olympics, even make a profit – we can dream...