OPINION: Should the Bahrain Grand Prix go ahead?

The Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix is scheduled to take place in 11 days time, and, like last year when it was cancelled, the question of whether this year's race should happen has been raised.

Bahrain is a wealthy Arab state with what can reasonably called a strict and oppressive government. Last year, when peoples across North Africa and the Middle East rose up against a number of oppressive regimes as part of the Arab Spring, the Bahrain authorities crushed opposition to their leadership and, in the wake of that, and ongoing troubles, it was thought best that the race didn't happen.

Opposition groups have, over the past couple of weeks, been raising the temperature as the race date gets nearer. They would like the race to be cancelled again because, they say, human rights have not changed and the authorities are still clamping down severely on anyone found to be speaking out against the government.

Formula 1's supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, has said that the teams have a contractual duty to turn up to race but, in practically the same breath, he says he can't force them. In all likelihood a decision about the race in Bahrain will be taken this weekend at the China Grand Prix.

Yes, that's right, the China Grand Prix!

So, Formula 1 might not go to Bahrain to race because of ongoing human rights abuses but there are no calls for the race in China, the country that many consider to be the world's worse abuser of human rights, to be cancelled. After all, there's a big potential audience in China, isn't there? Formula 1 can make a ton of money there.

Formula 1 needs to look much more carefully at the countries it chooses to take races to. Yes, this is sport and not politics, but only the most naive political virgin would argue that the two aren't closely linked.

Formula 1 is an enormous cash cow - it goes it generates thousands of dollars, but, like Apple have found with the problem of workers' rights in factories making iPhones and iPads, with global wealth must come some moral responsibility.

I hope that the Bahrain Grand Prix doesn't happen, and I hope it stays off the calendar until there are sufficient positive changes happen to improve the lives of ordinary Bahraini citizens, but I hope that Formula 1 will also reconsider the morality of its races in China, the UAE, and several other countries.