The London 2012 Olympics logo must surely be the most grotesque eyesore ever seen. It is the most revolting artistic disaster of all time and something which none of Britain’s leading advertising or design agencies can take any credit for.

For the last week or so, this shameful cartoon-cum-scribble has defaced the back pages of every British red-top tabloid and broadsheet. It has also splashed onto the covers of just about every international newspaper and magazine in the world.

This horrible caricature is supposed to be an Olympic symbol to be proud of, yet at this moment the British public can only be squirming with embarrassment.

If this is the best that Britain’s eminent artists can come up with after a year, then all hope is lost. As they scratched their heads and chewed their pencils, you were left to wonder what exactly was going through their imaginative heads.

For most of us, the Olympics is one of the greatest sporting festivals in the world. It unites otherwise warring nations in a way that no other sporting competition has been able to do. The rituals are now a four-yearly treat; the opening ceremony, the Olympic flame and the march-past of the teams into the stadium.

But the Olympic logo is something special. It is a vivid representation of the hosts' sporting tradition. What London has produced is nothing short of an insult. It is a series of jagged shapes taken straight from the pages of a school maths book.

It looks like a group of drunken pin-stripe suits staggered into their offices and slumped over their crayons, producing the work of a tired four-year-old. It is to be hoped that at their next brainstorming session, the Olympic designers come up with something better.

Alas, it does look as if the logo is here to stay. In a fit of stubbornness, the Olympic organising committee refused to apologise. The commonly held view is that this is the 2012 design so that’s the end of the matter.

As they swallow their lattes and cappuccinos, the Olympic scribblers seem to be blissfully satisfied with their efforts. Forgive our ignorance, but the tournament that gave us Mark Spitz, Lasse Viren, Emil Zatopek and Valery Borzov doesn’t deserve this childish doodle.

The designers should go back to their drawing board, use a full set of jazzy graphics and then come back with something eye-catching and innovative. Instead, the current logo tells us everything about Britain as a society and its inability to take its head out of the sand.

For too long, perhaps, Britain has been content to make the wrong decisions at the right time. After the Olympic announcement was made, London should have grabbed the opportunity and run with the baton.

Sadly, though, we are left with an Olympic logo that looks like an awful trailer for a 1970s children's TV programme. It’s time to tear up the original, make the most of our resources and liven up the Olympic logo.