"The Londoner saving Syria"

In the Sunday Times, here

"...In person she is perfectly groomed, willowy and model slim. This month’s French Elle rates her as the most stylish of international political ladies (above Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and Michelle Obama)......

Old enmities became entrenched, although inside the country things did begin to change. The new president shut the notorious Mezze prison, linked to human rights abuses, and lowered the retirement age of the army, neutering a number of his father’s hardline colleagues. He has quietly liberalised what was a stolid, socialist economy, welcomed private banks and foreign investment and begun to open up the internet. Syria is suddenly being featured in travel supplements as a hip new destination.....

Unfortunately with Britain, that hasn’t been the case. It seems that all your eggs may have been put into one basket.” By which she means an unhealthy closeness to America – one which may have done us a disservice, despite the sense of optimism around Miliband’s visit....."