High life | 5 February 2011

In 1940, Leo Amery, speaking in the House of Commons, rebuked Neville Chamberlain and his colleagues with the Oliver Cromwell quote, ‘In the name of God, go!’ This was after the fall of France with England on the brink. Those asking for Mubarak to go are on the street, not in parliament, which doesn’t exist in the way we know it.

Mind you, I was in Damascus back in 1970 when a Hearst correspondent, John Harris, burst into my room and announced Nasser’s death from a heart attack. We drove to the airport, got into a prop Electra laid on compliments of the Syrian regime, and landed in Cairo in a jiffy. That’s when Harris put on a Groucho Marx mask and walked up to passport control, where he was waved through. I thought I was seeing things but what I write is the absolute truth.

Harris had been kicked out of Egypt the previous day so had bought in Damascus a mask of his favourite comedian in case he was ordered back there. As the plane was full of hacks, Harris was told in no uncertain terms that what he was doing was childish and counterproductive. In fact, one terrible bore, whose name I simply don’t remember, warned that the bunch of us might be refused entry because of Harris’s prank. ‘That’s how much you know,’ said Harris, once past customs. Nasser was no Mubarak. He was seen as Godlike by a great majority of Egyptians despite the fact that he had lost two wars against Israel. His sudden death brought on paralysis to the extent that even a man wearing a Groucho Marx mask could be waved through.