Missing in Egypt
Sir: Your pundits on the Egyptian crisis (‘The Egyptian explosion’, 5 February) left out one major consideration. The ballast for a solid democracy depends more than anything else on the commitment of a professional, educated middle class with a stake in stability as well as human rights. In the Arab world, this class may play a prominent and vocal role in the removal of tyrannies, but, as soon as things get difficult in the messy aftermath, they are all too ready to jump ship to the West. How can there ever be democracy in the Arab world, so long as the Arab middle classes play at politics while keeping an escape ticket in their back pocket?
Clive Christie
Ceredigion, Wales
Sir: Your excellent coverage of the situation in Egypt brought to mind the fearlessly and frequently uttered observation of a splendidly right-of-centre academic who taught me at Reading University in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
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