Hague stays vague on Egyptian coup

William Hague was as circumspect as he possibly could be about the situation in Egypt in his Today interview. He insisted that Britain would work with whoever was in power in the country:

‘We recognise states, not government and of course we recognise the state of Egypt and we have to work with whoever is in authority in Egypt, we have to do that for the safety of British nationals, we have to do that because there are so many British companies there, so there isn’t really any question of not recognising a particular government.’

Hague has very little choice, but there are also precious few rewards for a Western country that tries to ally itself with one group or another in these situations. There are plenty more twists and turns to come for Egypt. But the US doesn’t seem to have taken quite the same stance. As Tim Stanley points out in his Telegraph blog, Egypt’s military received a $1.3