Charles Lewington: Cameron may get an Olympic bounce. But there's little precedent for it - if any

Charles Lewington is Managing Director of hanover.

London 2012 is here. The hairline cracks in the M4 have been fixed, the strikes have been called off, the VIP ‘Zil’ lanes are open and the athletes have been trying out their new Stella McCartney uniforms.

In the corridors of power in Whitehall, there’s an unspoken hope that a successful games could help improve David Cameron’s reputation following a deluge of PR disasters. The last Budget was followed by so-many policy U-turns that commentators lost count, and the UK economy is sliding into a prolonged recession.

Sadly, there is little political precedent to suggest that incident-free sporting events can restore a politician’s fortunes.