Political mavericks come no more, well, maverick than Boris Johnson. The London mayor did his level best to do everything as it should not be done according to the Olympic rule book during Sunday's closing ceremony.

Jacket undone, hands in pockets, fists pumping, he accepted the Olympic flag from his Beijing counterpart according to a script he had presumably borrowed from an Ealing comedy, then started waving the thing as if beating away an annoying wasp.