After years of planning, the greatest sporting event in the world is about to explode into life as the London 2012 Olympic Games get under way in just a few hours.

Much has been made recently by a certain US politician and presidential hopeful about the apparent lack of interest being shown by the general public in the UK.

What he and other critics fail to recognise is the fact that for the past seven years, people in the UK have been fed an almost daily diet of Olympic stories, not all of them positive and that this kind of media overload has inevitably led to a kind of national fatigue over the event.

However, that is all about to change and tonight’s opening ceremony, while not perhaps matching the jaw dropping scale of Bejing’s extravagant but ultimately rather soulless opening, promises to bring some fun and music back to the proceedings – a kind of Beatles meet Beefeaters.

There has been a growing and palpable sense of excitement and expectation here in the UK over the past few weeks and that is about to erupt as the nation embraces the Games and gets behind its athletes.

Mitt Romney, prepare to be dazzled.