Poor Cyprus

A whole raft of problems is affecting this country, and there are conflicting views as to what to do for the best. The root of the problem is that an enormous proportion of Cyprus’ GDP (35% and possibly more) is generated by tourism and hospitality, and the tourists are not coming in any numbers, and are unlikely to do so until the virus dies out, or a vaccine or treatment is proven to work.

This summer season has been a disaster, and the unemployment and hardship felt by the people who work in hospitality is obvious and very distressing. There has been some support for workers who have been laid off, and who have lost their jobs. The Employment Minister fears unemployment will grow rapidly in the autumn, when support and benefits finish - and she was honest enough to say that (with the current state of the economy) the government would not be able to afford to help all those who would become destitute.

Thousands of meals have been prepared by restaurants and bars to try at least give people in need one good meal a day. One café bar in Coral Bay has so far produced over twelve thousand meals for people in that area. How long such volunteer efforts can stem the tide is open to question? Other countries borrow money (or “create” money like the UK) but Cyprus is locked out of the money markets after the “haircut” in 2012/3. The only hope is that financial aid will come from the EU and that will need to be repaid in due course.

There is great pressure on the Cyprus government to open the doors to mass tourism, particularly the British and Russian markets, but this would be an enormous risk. If the virus numbers rose and there was a second lockdown, the economy might implode. Any decision is likely to have dreadful consequences for the people ...

What on Earth are you doing?

I could not quite believe my eyes when I saw photographs of the 1st Test between England and the West Indies. All the players were kneeling down, and some of the West Indies’ players were wearing a black glove and raising a clenched fist in what to people of my generation was called the “Black Power Salute”. How many of the England players wanted to kneel down or was this just a new iteration of ‘virtue signalling’? The match was delayed by rain and so we had the edifying spectacle of Sky Sports providing a platform for Michael Holding to lecture people about racism. I was spitting feathers and - despite missing televised cricket - I will not watch a minute of this match or any other when the players “choose” to demonstrate in this way. And reading the comments in The Times there are many other supporters who feel the same.

This summer of protest was set alight by the unlawful killing of a black man by a white policeman in the USA. A tragic event but absolutely nothing to do with the UK. I cannot remember any protests in the USA or any other country when PC Keith Blakelock was murdered in 1985 during the Broadwater Farm riots. Where was the “White Lives Matter” protest then?

In both the USA and UK it has been an excuse for rioting and looting (I wonder how many widescreen televisions were liberated). Of course no sensible person wants to see police brutality or racism in their country. But demanding the removal of Cecil Rhodes’ statue from outside of Oriel College in Oxford was ridiculous in the extreme. I wonder how many black undergraduates who benefited from Rhodes’ Scholarships to Oxford were in agreement?

And then I come to the apparent surrender of the police to mob rule. Policemen and women running away from demonstrators - or even worse, kneeling down in front of them in a show of “solidarity” - which just shows we now have a Police Service instead of a Police Force. Utterly farcical behaviour and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner should be ashamed, and if she does not resign ...

So depressing to watch this from afar, but no doubt far worse if you actually live in the UK, where it would appear to be a crime to be white and educated. And the Main Stream Media ... I cannot bring myself to comment on their bias.