Everyone loves an election where the bad guy is ousted

THE fighting continues on the streets of Egypt’s cities and nobody is sure yet what the outcome will be of the Tunisian revolution that threw out its dictator of 30 years.

A journalist colleague who fled for his life from Tunisia almost three decades ago was exuberant — he had been home on holiday when the protests started. He took part and could hardly believe the outcome. “It was a thing you dream about but never expect”, he said.

Another colleague phoned from Cairo, caught up in the fighting where journalists were being targeted by police. He wanted to get word out that this was a genuine uprising by ordinary people, young people.