Egypt is a lesson for incompetent politicians

What difference does it make whether Mohammed Morsi was democratically elected in Egypt, a term that must be taken lightly given the flawed nomination process for that election.

The fact of the matter is that his mandate was to provide basic utilities and start rebuilding the economy, but instead most of his activity has been focused on implementing various legal changes to suit extreme Islamists.

It is to the credit of the people of Egypt that they were brave enough to demand that stop to the reduction of their rights, limited as those rights are in the first place. Were Egyptians supposed to do nothing when, after a year in office corruption has continued unabated, their standard of living was even worse than before with constant disruptions to the electricity and water supply, and youth unemployment is even worse than in the EU?

This second revolution proves that even in a conservative Middle Eastern country like Egypt, the people have an expectation of a basic level of competence from their government. Mr Morsi failed to be competent and good riddance to him. It should be a salutary lesson to all governments, democratically elected or not, that people have a limit to how much incompetence they will tolerate.

Desmond FitzGerald

Canary Wharf

London

England