British citizens facing great danger in Libya have a right to expect more than David Cameron's shambolic, incompetent government gave them last week.

When the democratic revolt in Tunisia successfully ousted the old regime, the world reacted with amazement. Democracy from below in the Arab world? After the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak’s 30 year-old regime in Egypt, the heartland of the Middle East, amazement has turned into certainty.

In a park in the middle of Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, sits Hosni Mubarak. The bronze statue, erected in 2007, stands against a hokey-looking backdrop of diminutive pyramids, but the subject’s face still bears “the wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command” that Shelley once ascribed to another fallen pharaoh.

An evacuation flight chartered by the government of Canada made it into Tripoli, the Libyan capital, on Friday morning, but after its crew was unable to find any Canadians at the chaotic airport, the airplane left empty.

In his annual State of the Union address, delivered in Washington DC last month, US President Barack Obama spoke strongly about the need to promote science-based technologies to "protect our planet, and create countless new jobs for our people". His words have significance not only for the United States, but also for the Arab world.

As unlikely protests swept across Egypt on January 25, an administrator from the Facebook page that was helping to drive the uprisings emailed a top official of the social network, asking for help.

Anyone interested in the televised appearances of Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi would certainly remember his distinguished interview on Al Jazeera, which was reported in the international press.

After weeks of diplomatic wavering on the tumult in the Arab world, President Nicolas Sarkozy is scrambling to signal to the world that France is back on track, defending core human values and treading with a sure foot in the changed Middle East.