Pakistan, the World's Swing State

The wave of concern over the deteriorating situation in Pakistan nudges me into invoking an impish letter to the Spectator magazine published last month. In his brief communication, one Andrew Macdonald from London observed that the unrest in Egypt reminded him of what a “splendidly right-of-centre academic” at Reading University once told him: “You know, Mr Macdonald, there is no advertisement for colonial government like post-colonial government”.