Double standards for the Middle East

THE Arab spring has created an intelligence vacuum, according to a former CIA boss, further evidence that the West always ends up being hoist with its own petard in the Middle East.

On one hand leaders preach democracy but on the other they are often in cahoots with the same tyrants they help, directly or indirectly, to topple. They must then face the uncomfortable realisation that a new order invariably turns out to be far less biddable than the old.

A taxing ordeal

BRITONS with Swiss bank accounts will now have to pay UK tax on their deposits.  If some British residents still have enough money in times of strife and hardship to keep some of it in Switzerland, this seems fair enough.  No government is entitled to take it away from them, but they should be made to pay for the privilege of stashing it somewhere safe. 

Symbols of the past

Libya’s new rulers were outraged when Gaddafi’s wife and three of his children managed to escape, but it would be wiser to direct their ire at the tyrant they deposed. The former present belongs to the past and so, too, does tyranny. Those concerned for Libya’s future should keep a weather eye open for future squalls amongst the rebels, especially those bent on revenge, not democracy.