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Vision statements come and go, usually unremarked and always unfulfilled. But today's effort by the self-styled Libyan Interim National Council, the western-backed government-in-waiting, is a masterpiece of the genre.

The two-page declaration, published to coincide with the international conference on Libya's future hosted in London by David Cameron, aspires to all that is correct, admirable, and fashionable in the booming nation-building and nation-shaping business.