It has been a great Olympics for anybody heartened by Britain’s medal success - and who would not be - and for the armchair spectators 5,000 miles away. It has not always been a great experience for those watching in Beijing, as we report today, although some of that can be put down to Chinese officialdom and a country still not entirely at ease with foreign visitors.

Today the baton passes to London. It would be nice to think Britain’s success will ensure a smooth ride through to 2012 but it will not. We should enjoy the Beijing honeymoon while it lasts but questions about 2012 will reemerge. Some of those will be about cost despite firm pledges from Tessa Jowell, the Olympics minister, and Boris Johnson, the London mayor, that the £9.3 billion budget for the Games will not be breached. Anybody who can say that hand on heart four years before the event, at a time when the inflation outlook is uncertain, has forgotten the history of cost overruns on large-scale public projects.

There are lessons from Beijing to make 2012 an even bigger success without breaking the bank. London has to be friendlier, for both competitors and spectators, something lacking in China. London will not match the cold spectacle of Beijing’s opening ceremony and nor should it try. We need something professional but also quirky, funny and quintessentially British. Beijing had no fewer than five Olympic mascots, including a panda and a Tibetan antelope. We’ll make do with a cuddly toy.