Should we all be boycotting the Beijing Olympics?

Well there seem to be a million reasons why we should be boycotting the Beijing Olympics and few to suggest we shouldn't. However, I think this is a subject which makes people incredibly uncomfortable, particularly us 'stiff upper lip' Brits who like to separate work from pleasure and, in this case, sport from politics.

However, the Olympics have always been political - it seems ridiculous to state (as Douglas Alexander did on Question Time this evening) that they are not. The 1968 Mexico Olympics famously saw Tommie Smith and John Carlos turn and raise their arms in a black power salute, alerting the crowd to the political struggle that was raging outside the stadium walls. However, earlier this year, our own British athletes were reportedly 'gagged' and told that they should not use the Olympics to make political statements as Pete Gardner, chief executive of the British Athletes' Commission, said: "Any athlete going to China with the overt intention of making a political statement would not in our view be fully focused on the job in hand ... and would not be going for the right reasons." But how about those athletes who feel morally obligated to say something, those who cannot stand blindly by and smile for the camera in a country, which is repeatedly abusing the human rights of its own citizens. This does not mean that they don't care about their sport. But why should you have to compromise your own principles to participate in a sporting event? Surely the very fact that sportsmen and women have had to be gagged shows how innately political the Beijing Olympics are going to be?

I feel saddened for those participants who will have to purse their lips and get on with it, despite their personal feelings. However, and call me an idealistic hippy youth if you wish, but I feel worse for those politicians who don't see it as their duty to themselves to follow their moral centre and refuse to hob-nob with those responsible for enforced sterilisation and torture in Tibet, those who refuse to stop funding the genocidal activities in Darfur. Or perhaps I am being too harsh. My views are not the views of every member of the British public and I am sure (well, I know from the number of facebook groups) that many people are in support of the Olympics regardless, so perhaps these politicians have a duty to attend and represent them and support the wonderful sportsmen and women of this country who have worked so hard to get to the Olympics in the first place. But I just don't think that, in all honesty, I could turn on the television this summer without thinking of the suffering of Tibetans, or the Burmese, or the displaced Sudanese or indeed of the Chinese people themselves, who have had their human rights suppressed for so long.

And it saddens me to think that others do not feel that way; that it is possible to soulessly separate your head from your heart. Although, politicians must represent the people, and maybe more Brits would prefer the Olympics to go ahead with the clear separation between sport and politics intact. Perhaps my freedom of speech without responsibility, my ability to voice all this, is a luxury politicians cannot afford.

However, neither can it be afforded by Tibetans...or the Burmese...or the Sudanese. And they have not had the luxury of making that choice. So, I cannot help but stand by the belief that this year's Olympics should be boycotted. Activists argued that giving Beijing the Olympics would shine a light on the abuses that are occurring within China. Now that this has happened, how can we ignore what we have seen?