By Cyril Almeida

Events, dear boy, events. Would that the American and Pakistani governments had taken to heart the apocryphal advice of Harold Macmillan.

When Raymond Davis preposterously shot to death two Pakistani youths in broad daylight in downtown Lahore and a rescue vehicle crushed to death a third Pakistani, the two governments did what they do best: they screwed up.

By Frederick Bowie

Maybe western leaders are afraid that, having seen what it is like when a people dictate to their government what it should do for them, rather than the reverse, we might start to take our own rights back, wholesale.

By Dr Rob Berkeley

So we’re back to what is becoming an old chestnut; as the latest senior politician condemns multiculturalism. On Saturday, David Cameron took his place, behind Tony Blair, Jack Straw and Trevor Phillips, arguing that “state multiculturalism” has encouraged “different cultures to live separate lives” with a particular Cameron twist – that the UK needs a stronger national identity to prevent people turning to extremism.

By Matt Hill

On Friday, the UK followed the lead of Mubarak’s former ally the US, in withdrawing its support only when it became clear it was backing the wrong camel. Leaders and opinion-makers in Israel were even less enthusiastic about the protests: freedom and democracy are all well and good, they seemed to say, so long as they don’t expect to move in next door.