By Michael Hirst in Beirut, Sunday Telegraph, Talking politics is normally a favourite pastime in Lebanon. But after a summer of war and an autumn of government in deadlock, Beirut’s shops, cafes and barbers have drawn a line under the heated national dialogue by banning all talk of current affairs on their premises.With the country’s inter-religious tensions at levels not seen since the bitter civil war of the 1980s, the outcome of the trial of strength between the government and the Hizbollah-led opposition is on everyone’s mind.But with little prospect of a swift resolution, and fed up with the custom lost due to a continuing six-week sit-in by Hizbollah protesters in central Beirut, many of the capital’s businesses now want a polite silence.
Banks have emailed staff requesting that they refrain from engaging in political conversation with customers, and some companies have gone as far as to block political websites from their computer systems."Signs are going up in shops, restaurants, nightclubs and even the backs of cars asking people to stop talking about politics," said Tarek Hamid, 42, who owns a boutique designer clothes shop in central Beirut. "If the politicians want to fight they should do it in the parliament and not go to the streets where they stop the people working."
الإنفراج على صعيد الأزمة الحكومية لأنه حريص على الأمانة التي أولاه إياها الدستور اللبناني وهذه الأمانة تخوله الرجوع إلى الدستور في كلّ خَطوة يخطوها مما يجري فضلاً عن قلقه على الأوضاع الإقتصادية والمعيشية التي تطاول كلّ المواطنين بلا إستثناء. 
