I saw the IOC President Jacques Rogge only once, happily at his most uncomfortable moment. Rogge refused all pleas to have a moment of silence at the opening ceremony to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Munich Olympic massacre of Israeli athletes. Originally I had some sympathy with this because it sometimes seems there are too few non-minutes of silence in modern Britain. But at a ceremony in the Guildhall, put together to make up for Rogge's refusal — and gamely attended by him — I changed my mind.

The politicians — Cameron, Clegg and Miliband — said the necessary platitudes.  But an Israeli minister, the head of the United Jewish Israel Appeal Mick Davis, and two widows of Israeli athletes murdered at Munich absolutely socked it to him. One of the widows relayed a recent conversation with Rogge in which she said she had asked him if he would have refused to permit an official silence if the victims had been any other nationality. "Difficult question," Rogge apparently replied.

 If that is the case then it becomes imperative that all decent people insist on the Munich victims being commemorated at every future Olympics.

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