Syria’s attempt to crush once and for all the popular uprising against the dynastic dictatorship of the Assad family does not seem to be working. Bashar al-Assad and his family-run security services and elite forces have hit on the worst possible combination: promising change while mercilessly mowing down all who demand it.

The storming this weekend of the Omari mosque in Deraa, the southern town where the revolt broke out six weeks ago, is not the sign of a confident – much less legitimate – ruling class.

The problem the regime faces is that the protests are being fuelled both by the paucity of credible reform – emboldening activists to demand more – and the accelerating savagery of repression, convincing Syrian democrats that if they retreat now they will end up dead or in the dungeons anyway. They have to go on.