By Stefanos Evripidou

THE NUMBER of unemployed people in the first quarter of 2013 reached 70,700, counting for 15.9 per cent of the workforce, said the Statistical Service on Friday.

According to a study undertaken by the service, unemployment among men in the first three months of the year reached 16.2 per cent, counting for 37,991 men, while among women the figure reached 15.4 per cent, representing 32,715 women.

The latest figures show a significant increase in unemployment among men and women in the crisis-stricken island compared to the previous quarter, with unemployment in the last quarter of 2012 recorded at 56,650, or 12.7 per cent of the working population (13.2 per cent among men and 12.2 per cent unemployment among the female workforce).

The latest jump in the number of jobless for men and women is even greater when compared to the first quarter a year ago, when unemployment registered at 11.1 per cent, counting for 48,166 people (12.2 per cent among men and 9.8 per cent among women).

The latest data released by the Statistical Service reveals that unemployment is highest among the 15-24 age group, reaching 37.5 per cent of the workforce (39.1 per cent among men and 35.8 per cent among women).

The age group covering school leavers and fresh graduates saw an increase in unemployment of 5.5 per cent compared to the last quarter of 2012, and a whopping 10.8 per cent compared to the same period last year.

The total size of the workforce in the first quarter of 2013 was calculated at 446,099 (234,063 men and 212,036 women), from which 375,392 people (196,071 men and 179,321 women) are currently employed. Women make up 47.8 per cent of the workforce in employment.

In terms of the kind of work on offer, the majority of workers are employed in the services sector (78.3 per cent), while 18.9 per cent are employed in the industry sector and a fraction, 2.8 per cent, in agriculture.

Compared to the same period last year, the share of workers in the services sector increased by 2.0 per cent while in industry and agriculture, these figures dropped by 1.8 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively.

Part-time employment counted for 12.5 per cent of total employment, with 9.3 per cent of employed men working in part-time employment and 16.0 per cent of women.

From those in employment, 82.7 per cent, counting for 310,421 people, were earning a wage, of which 14.1 per cent were temporarily employed.

The average working hours a week for those in full employment was 41.3 hours (42.1 hours for men and 40.5 hours for women), while part-timers worked on average 20.2 hours a week (19.8 hours for men and 20.3 hours for women).

Meanwhile, according to preliminary estimations of the Statistical Service, the average gross monthly earnings of employees during the first quarter of 2013 amounted to €1,880 (males €2,031 and females €1,702).
The service did not clarify the difference in average wages between the public and private sector.

SEVERAL groups have expressed their objections to last week’s decision by the communications ministry to increase bus fares and scrap free travel for students and pensioners. A single fare and a weekly pass were increased by 50 per cent, to €1.50 and €15 respectively, while the monthly pass by 33 per cent. These seemed significant increases, but only because the fares were very low to start with.

The previous government, which had undertaken the initiative to upgrade public transport did not do its homework regarding costs and charges. The investment was too high, the fees it agreed to pay the bus companies operating the routes were too ridiculously generous and the fares it decided to charge were too low. Hence, we ended up with an unviable model that has been costing the taxpayer too much.

While nobody expects the state to make any money from a public transport system, it does not mean nothing should be done about the big losses it incurs. Even if the state was not facing acute economic difficulties, cutting losses should have been an objective. Now it is an imperative, if the bus service is to be preserved so it can carry on transporting the pensioners that the government’s critics are so concerned about. Under the new scheme, pensioners and students are still entitled to a 50 per cent discount, paying a 75-cent fare, which is pretty low.

When the government takes such a decision, it should defend it and not allow its critics to take the offensive. In the case of the buses, Communications Minister Tasos Mitsopoulos said that the “increase is necessary because of the high running costs”. Perhaps he should also have explained how much money was being lost every month thanks to the poor planning, unrealistic forecasts and ultra-generous subsidies to the bus companies.

The other thing that government ministers should keep repeating is that our state cannot afford to provide services for free. It is an impoverished and heavily indebted state that does not have the resources to be generous but is obliged to live within its very modest means. And they should also remind everyone that the main reason the state is bankrupt is because it had been ultra-generous with borrowed money for too long.

For too long, people saw the state as a benevolent, mega-wealthy uncle that was always willing to pick up the bill. So much so, that on the rare occasions the state did not do so it was accused of not performing its duties and responsibilities properly. Now is the time for people to learn that in the Cyprus of the memorandum nothing will be for free and that the good old days are over for good.

By George Psyllides

FITCH Ratings on Friday downgraded Cyprus to ’restricted default’ status following the government’s bond swap procedure, but the finance minister was quick to reassure the public that this was just a technicality and did not mean that the government had gone bankrupt.

According to Fitch, the bond exchange constitutes a distressed debt exchange (DDE), or restricted default. It added that Fitch has downgraded only the affected domestic bonds to “D” from “CCC”, and affirmed the rest at “CCC”.

“It will be possibly recorded as a temporary action of a technical nature until the [bond swap] procedure is completed and it is confirmed that Cyprus has secured its financing needs for the next few years,” Harris Georgiades told state radio.

On Thursday, the finance ministry said it was offering to exchange government bonds with a total nominal value of €1.0 billion, which matured during the adjustment period set by the island’s bailout programme, with five new bonds of equal interest rate and five to 10-year maturities.

The debt is held by banks, most of it by co-operatives, and was maturing in July.

“We should not worry, we should not think the state has gone bankrupt,” Georgiades said.

Cyprus’ action had been welcomed by its lenders.

“The objective of this liability management operation is to facilitate cash-flow management for the government and to ensure adequate funding at terms that support long-term public debt sustainability, an essential step towards Cyprus’ economic recovery,” a statement from the EC and the IMF said. “The transaction is fully in line with the country’s previously announced commitment to roll over €1.0 billion of government debt held by domestic investors at existing coupon rates and extended maturities.”

Georgiades said the lenders’ endorsement was probably more important than any downgrade.

“It was an important chapter in the Cypriot programme and we see that when we achieve goals within the timeframes the lenders’ reaction is positive,” he said.

It also emerged yesterday that the problems faced by the island’s banking sector following a Eurogroup decision to close Laiki Bank and use people’s deposits to recapitalise Bank of Cyprus (BoC), will be discussed in a meeting between President Nicos Anastasiades and European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi in Frankfurt on Wednesday.

BoC had to absorb certain Laiki assets and was also saddled with €9.0 billion in emergency liquidity debt that the now defunct lender had drawn before it was wound down.

Speaking in Brussels at the end of the EU summit, Anastasiades said that talks will not focus on changing the terms of the island’s bailout, but rather on the ECB’s contribution to problems that emerged after the March decision.

The president said he was confident the forthcoming meeting with Draghi would ensure the BoC’s viability and progress.

At the end of the summit, EU leaders called on the European Council and European Parliament to look into the possibility of providing further financial aid to Cyprus in light of the current economic crisis on the island.

In its conclusions the Council recalled that in February it had recognised the particular impact of the economic crisis on a number of member states within the euro-area which had had a direct impact on their level of prosperity and as a result a number of additional allocations were made from structural funds.

“In February 2013 the macro economic assistance programme for Cyprus had not been decided,” a council statement said, noting that “the government of Cyprus has since addressed a request for additional assistance”.

Meanwhile, the public deficit in the first five months was 0.5 per cent or €80.7 million, compared with 2.0 per cent or €357.9 per cent in the same period last year.

At the end of May, the government had a primary surplus (spending, less income from taxes, excluding interest paid on debt) of around €112 million.

The improvement was mainly due to the rise in non-tax income, which reached 67.3 per cent, or €479.2 million, and the 8.6 per cent drop in public spending.

Revenues in the first five months reached €2.5 billion, a 1.29 per cent rise, compared with €2.46 billion in 2012.

Tax revenue however, recorded a significant drop as the recession deepened.

It dropped 6.72 per cent to €2.03 billion compared with €2.17 billion in 2012.

Income from direct taxation dropped by 2.86 per cent to 725.6 million while income tax revenues fell 22.33 per cent to €328.9 million compared with €423.4 million in the first five months of 2012.

Order of play on the main courts at Wimbledon on Saturday (prefix number denotes
seeding):

Centre Court (1200 GMT)
9-Richard Gasquet (France) v Bernard Tomic (Australia)
23-Sabine Lisicki (Germany) v 14-Samantha Stosur (Australia)
1-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) v 28-Jeremy Chardy (France)

Court One (1200 GMT)
25-Ekaterina Makarova (Russia) v 8-Petra Kvitova (Czech
Republic (to finish)
27-Kevin Anderson (South Africa) v 7-Tomas Berdych (Czech
Republic)
4-David Ferrer (Spain) v 26-Alexandr Dolgopolov (Ukraine)
1-Serena Williams (United States) v Kimiko Date-Krumm
(Japan)

Court Two (1030)
Viktor Troicki (Serbia) v 20-Mikhail Youzhny (Russia)
Laura Robson (Britain) v Marina Erakovic (New Zealand)
Feliciano Lopez (Spain) v 13-Tommy Haas (Germany)

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services lowered on Friday its long and short-term sovereign credit ratings on the Republic of Cyprus to selective default (SD) from ‘CCC/C’.

At the same time, Standard & Poor’s said that their transfer and convertibility (T&C) assessment for Cyprus, as for all other eurozone members, remains ‘AAA’.

“We lowered our sovereign credit ratings on Cyprus to ‘SD’ after the government announced an exchange offer on a number of its local law governed bonds. In our opinion, the exchange materially changes the terms of the affected debt and constitutes what we consider a distressed exchange according to our criteria,” S&P said.
“We view the extension of maturities without what we find to be adequate offsetting compensation as the exchange of new debt on less favourable terms to the existing debt. We also consider the offer as distressed, rather than purely opportunistic, given limited financing options available to the government and our previous rating on the government’s debt, ‘CCC’,” it added.

It noted that “more than 50% of the debt eligible for the exchange will be swapped for the new longer-dated securities; most of the participants, we understand, are large domestic banks. We also understand that any capital needs the transaction creates will be met by the European Stability Mechanism (excluding the Bank of Cyprus).”
It said that in terms of design, the new bonds will be tradable and include collective action clauses, which were absent in the original securities. After the settlement of the exchange, which we expect July 1, the liquidity strains on the government, having also just received its second €1 billion tranche under the MoU with the Troika, should be alleviated, it added.

“We note, however, that the government will still need to deal with the forthcoming rollover of a stock of €950 million Treasury bills (5 per cent of GDP),” S&P said.

“Post default, we expect to raise our rating on Cyprus to ‘CCC+’. This rating, one notch higher than the rating prior to default, would reflect the resolution of two pressing challenges to the government’s credit standing”.
The first, it added, comes from the expected successful conclusion of this exchange.
The second pertains to a simultaneous and separate extension of a €1.8 billion bond (9 per cent of GDP) the government originally issued to boost Cyprus Popular Bank’s capital (subsequently transferred to the Bank of Cyprus as part of Cyprus Popular Bank’s resolution), in accordance with the bond’s original terms, S&P said adding that “we expect we could raise our rating on Cyprus from SD as early as next week.”

By Alan Baldwin

Lewis Hamilton stormed to pole position for his home British Formula One Grand Prix on Saturday with German team mate Nico Rosberg qualifying alongside him in an all-Mercedes front row.

The 2008 world champion, chasing his first win for Mercedes after leaving McLaren last year, started the session with a wave for the crowd from the pit wall and ended it with the fans saluting him.

“Storming job there, Lewis, storming job,” the team told him over the radio.

The pole was the 28th of Hamilton’s career and Mercedes’ fifth in eight races.

“The crowd do make a huge difference…I come here with an extra boost of energy. I just want to pay them back,” said Hamilton, who also qualified on pole at Silverstone in his debut 2007 season and won in 2008.

“That was a lap for them,” said the Briton, who jumped out of his car after parking up in the pit lane and stood arms outstretched to applause from the grandstands.

Red Bull’s triple world champion Sebastian Vettel qualified third and will share the second row with team mate Mark Webber, in what will be the Australian’s last British race before quitting Formula One at the end of the year.

“They are bloody quick in qualifying…they seem to be in a different world on Saturday afternoons,” said Vettel. “But points are scored on Sunday and the last few races have been pretty good for us.”

Britain’s Paul Di Resta for Force India and young Australian Daniel Ricciardo, the Toro Rosso driver bidding for Webber’s drive next year, will line up together on the third row.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, 36 points behind Vettel in the championship, qualified 10th in a disappointing performance from the Italian team, who had Brazilian Felipe Massa in 12th place.

“We were not competitive all weekend and it’s not normal to see Ferrari out of Q3 (the third phase of qualifying),” said the Spaniard.

“We need to recover now and it was a bad Saturday. We didn’t improve the car enough in the last four to five races and we ordered some new parts but they didn’t do what we expected. We need to keep on working.”

McLaren had another miserable qualifying, with 2009 world champion Jenson Button 11th on the grid and Mexican team mate Sergio Perez 14th.

Former champions Williams, who have made their home race a celebration of their 600 grands prix in the sport, fared even more dismally.

Finland’s Valtteri Bottas failed to make it through the first phase and qualified 17th behind Venezuelan team mate Pastor Maldonado in 16th.

By Costas Apostolides

THIS ARTICLE has been prompted by the announcement to the Commission of Inquiry into the causes of the economic crisis by a senior economist from the ministry of finance that he was not aware that the Eurogroup would insist on a haircut of bank deposits until the March 14, the day before the crucial Eurogroup meeting. If that is the case it was too late for the government to be properly informed or prepared.

My general view is that the government officials going before the Commission of Inquiry are anxious to cover their backs and avoid blame, shifting the issue to one of political incompetence and not technocratic failings, a view that is supported by news reports during the second part of 2012 and measures being taken by the EU beginning in 2011. Someone was not doing their job at the civil service level, and the blame seems to be in the finance ministry and the ministry of commerce, industry and tourism.

In November 2011 the European Commissioner for the Internal Market Michel Bernier announced the appointment of a high-level expert group on “possible reforms to the structure of the EU banking sector”. He appointed Erkii Liikanen, governor of the Bank of Finland as the chairman of the group. Its mandate was “to determine whether, in addition to on-going regulatory reforms, structural reforms of EU banks would strengthen financial stability and improve efficiency and consumer protection, and if that is the case make proposals as appropriate.”

The chairman of the group submitted the report to the Internal Market Commissioner on October 2, 2012, more than five months before the crucial Eurogroup meeting and stated the following: “The report contains recommendations for further reforms of the banking sector, including structural reform. “He added that the group’s recommendations would if implemented provide for a safer, more stable and efficient banking system. In brief the group recommended the following:
• Mandatory separation of proprietary trading and other high risk trading activities.
• Possible additional separation of activities conditional on the recovery and resolution plan (resolution implies bankruptcy and closure).
• Possible amendments to the use of bail-in instruments as a resolution tool.
• A review of capital requirements on trading assets and real estate related loans.
• A strengthening of governance and control of banks.

Therefore, the bail in involving banks in difficulties taking funds from deposits was on the cards at least since October, covered by a comprehensive report of high level experts. Throughout the period 2011 to 2012 the group of experts was in contact with banks and officials and had an open consultation on bank restructuring with special emphasis on what happens when a bank “too big to fail” actually does fail. Recall that in Cyprus the two biggest banks are involved.

More specifically governor Erkki Liikanen recommended the following:

“The use of designated bail-in instruments is strongly supported by the group. The position of bail-in instruments within the hierarchy of debt commitment in a bank’s balance sheet must be clear so that investors know the eventual treatment in case of a resolution.”

Therefore it was clear that the EU as a whole was considering the bail in as a way of reducing possible government support measures that would increase government debt. Why, then, were the officials in Cyprus caught out and failed to advise properly the government.

The strange thing about all this is that it was undertaken by the Commissioner on the Internal Market not the Commissioner on Economic Policy and Monetary matters. In the Cyprus context this would mean that the ministry of finance would not be directly involved. Instead, it would be a matter for the then ministry of commerce, industry and tourism (now also energy) but officials there may have seen it as a banking matter not under their jurisdiction and not informed the central bank or the ministry of finance.

In 2003 and 2004 we undertook a project with the British High Commission on how to coordinate the civil service once Cyprus was in the EU. In the UK coordination is under the prime minister’s office and it works very well. It is recommended that the Cyprus government re-examine the recommendations made 10 years ago, and get Cyprus coordinated properly for the EU. The planning bureau has already recommended a restructuring, and the unit set up for the EU presidency also supported the planning bureau’s ideas. Let’s hope that they all get their act together.

In the meantime the bail-in of bank depositors that was supposedly unique to Cyprus has now been adopted as EU policy, following the agreement by EU finance ministers on Thursday. Obviously the EU understands nothing about banking psychology.

Costas Apostolides is chairman of EMS Economic Management Ltd costas.a@highwaycommunications.com

DEFENCE Minister Fotis Fotiou on Saturday called for the process of identifying all the missing persons from the 1974 Turkish invasion to be sped up.

The government is seeking to accelerate the investigation and verification of all the missing persons from 1974 according to the minister. Fotiou said he hopes the work of the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) will help bring an end to the pain felt by the missing persons’ families as soon as possible.

The minister was speaking at a church in Anthouplis for the funeral of Demetris Sergiou who was killed during the invasion.

Sergiou’s remains were identified using DNA testing.

“The government would like to pay homage and pledge to the relatives of all the missing persons that it will continue the full investigation and verification of their loved ones’ fate by the committee,” he said.

“During the invasion, Sergiou served in the 33rd commando squadron, based in Bellapais and amongst the missions that he participated in was the retaking of the hill of Ayios Ilarion,” the minister explained.

According to reports, on the morning of July 22 1974, his unit moved towards Kyrenia to assist in curbing the Turkish invasion troops and along with other soldiers manned National Guard posts one kilometre outside the village until noon of the same day.

That was the last anyone had heard from Sergiou until his remains were identified recently.

It was revealed last week that the remains of 72 missing persons had been identified during the first six months of 2013.

The CMP said since 2006, the average number of identified missing persons per year was 56.

The highest number of identifications was recorded in 2009 when 86 missing persons were identified and their remains returned to their families.

According to the committee, people are still coming forward with new information on missing persons. They called on anyone who has information to come forward, promising full confidentiality.

Since 2006, 983 human remains have been recovered, corresponding to 49 per cent of all missing persons on the official list concerning both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.

From the 983 remains found, 409 were identified and returned to their families, counting for over 20 per cent of the total number of missing.

From those returned, 388 were Greek Cypriot missing persons with 71 of them Turkish Cypriot.

By Loucas Charalambous

THE APPEAL filed by district court judges against the legislation imposing wage cuts in the public sector and its upholding by nine judges of the Supreme Court, who also benefited from their decision was no surprise.

Judges are also members of Cyprus society. They are no different from our teachers, civil servants, deputies and bankers. It would have been a surprise if they had behaved differently from the rest, but they did not. The appeals and the decision, in the circumstances, were to be expected.

The substance is not the legalistic aspect of the issue, on which the Supreme Court based its decision. It is the moral example these people set by this behaviour, which is also a reflection of their education, in the broader sense of the word, and values.

At a time when private sector workers on incomes of €15,000 a year are contributing to our bankrupted state, the judges with salaries and tax-free allowances, in excess of €100,000 a year, found ‘legal points’ to keep their incomes intact.

This disgraceful behaviour becomes even more shameful when you consider that private sector workers do not even burden the state in contrast to the judges whose fat salaries are from state coffers – in other words, from the borrowed funds that caused the public debt to rocket to €16bn. Judges’ big salaries are part of the problem facing the country.

I cannot understand the position of the judges that for the legislation on the pay cuts to have been in compliance with the relevant article of the constitution, it had to be in the form of taxation and universally enforced. My humble opinion is that they are playing with words here. What else but taxation were these cuts, considering they were based on coefficients relating to the level of income?

I find ridiculous the other argument claiming that the relevant legislation was not universally enforced as it was “restricted to public and state employees”. The Supreme Court rejected the position of the attorney-general that there was a corresponding taxation of the private sector, through another piece of legislation, on the grounds that in the latter case the contribution was made by the employer. But this was the reasons that employers were made to contribute – so that the measures were universally applied.

The Supreme Court also said that the laws that were challenged “would have been regarded as taxation if they were such that they affected salaries indirectly and not directly through the direct deduction of an amount from the salary of the applicants.” It would appear that our judges are not aware of what direct taxes and indirect taxes are.

But if this is the case, then they should not pay income tax either, as this is the most direct tax that exists and a percentage is deducted from their salary every month.

In the end, the wise judges of the Supreme Court decided that the disputed laws “constitute impermissible, unfavourable change in the remuneration of judges in contravention of article 153.3 of the Constitution,” which “expresses the essential pre-condition of the broader principle of the independence and prestige of justice.”

But surely, the independence and prestige of justice must be safeguarded, primarily by the judges and not anyone else. This reminds me of an appeal, filed by journalist Alecos Constantinides, against a decision of the district court which the Supreme Court has been refusing, for 35 years now, to rule on. The reason for its refusal was that Constantinides had undermined the prestige of justice, because he had criticised the district court ruling that he subsequently appealed against.

Interestingly this weird decision, by which the applicant was being asked to restore the prestige of justice before his appeal was examined, was taken by Judge Giorgos Pikis, who is currently chairing the investigative committee for the collapse of the economy.

This is the standard of our Justice which is on the same level as that of our legislature, our unions, political parties and our banking. We should just accept that our judges are also Cypriots and will behave just like the rest of us.

By Bejay Browne

PEYIA municipality, after realising they had missed out on millions of euros in much-needed revenue for years, has started collecting directly the lucrative fees for sunbeds and beach umbrellas on Coral Bay beach.

The move has brought home to local authorities not only how much they could have been making, but has also prompted some councillors to threaten the remaining private operators with police action in an attempt to claw back years of unpaid fees they owe the municipality for renting out sunbeds.

For the first time, the cash-strapped Peyia municipality is responsible for operating most of the sun bed rentals found at CoralBay, and, according to one local councillor, this has brought to light a “web of deceit”.

Linda Leblanc said that sun bed fees in Peyia are bringing in more than one thousand euros profit a day for the municipality. Beds and umbrellas are each subject to a 2.50 euro charge.

Nicos Konikkos, Peyia councilor and head of the beaches committee said that once the busy summer months are included, the gross payments could reach 300,000 euros a year.

The municipality took over the rental operation at short notice after one private company – previously responsible for operating two beach kiosks and sun beds – agreed to hand back the running of one kiosk and most of the sun bed hire to the municipality in return for waiving thousands in unpaid fees.

The returns have been so high that councillors now believe that some previous operators had lied about how much money they were making and therefore how much they owed the municipality in fees.

“This is the first time that we know how much money is coming in and it’s a real eye opener .How many times did we hear ‘Poor me, tourism is down so I need a discount’,” said Leblanc.

“This is not a great year for tourism – so how much was revenue before? The moaning and groaning was a deception.”

To ensure the cash does not end up in the wrong pockets, the municipality has adopted the system used by Paralimni municipality which uncovered a similar system of false accounting some years ago.

“Twenty years of stealing takings from sun beds was uncovered in Paralimni a while ago. We are now using their current system which was put in place afterwards. Paralimni is confident that Peyia will have full control of the system. It was one of the big concerns of the council,” said Leblanc.

She said there are six other licensed sun bed operators on CoralBay beach and they all have to pay rent. Some have not done so for years and there is an outstanding amount of over 200,000 euros.

Court action has been taken against some of them but whilst the proceedings are slowly winding through the court system, they are still renting out beds on the beach.

“This way, it takes years to get a result and in the meantime the municipality is losing money,” she said, adding that council members want tougher action with some even favouring calling in the police to get them evicted from the beach.

“It’s a goldmine down there and we’re now asking ourselves, how come we haven’t been doing this for years, when every month the municipality is struggling to pay wages,” she said.

“In theory, we have lost millions, and yet we have loans of eight million euros we are trying to pay off.”

By Patroclos

MUCH as we hate foreigners meddling in our affairs and reminding us that we are not as infallible as we think, this is no bad thing as it forces us to face reality, something we are not inclined to do very often.

On Thursday a foreigner, by the name of David Lascelles, took on the sacred cow of co-op banks, shattering the myths and illusions, maintained for decades by the great and the good of Kyproulla, about the grossly exaggerated contribution these organisations supposedly make to our society.

And the irony is that our Central Bank, the independent governor of which is a big fan of co-ops, hired Lascelles to carry out a study of the future of the banking sector. Presenting his interim report on Thursday, he said co-ops had an exceptionally poor business record, their structure was obsolete and had become a “quite a cost to the economy”.

He also asked why the co-ops would be given €1.5bn from bailout funds to cover their capital shortfall. Surely, for the sake of consistency, their depositors should have been bailed in as had happened at the B of C.

He also proposed a complete overhaul of the co-ops and their merging into a single bank, even though he realised these unregulated, micky-mouse banks (not his words) were “politically popular”.

Lascelles obviously knows what’s going on, even though he may have never witnessed how our politicians turn sentimental and their eyes fill with tears when they talk about co-op banks. They get more emotional talking about the co-ops than our occupied villages.

THERE are several reasons for this, the most important being that co-ops are made up of members of the communities they serve that represent a lot of votes. Another reason is that political parties and unions control them and have been using them for good old-fashioned rusfeti purposes, such as jobs and loans for the boys.

That is why they are a model of overstaffing, mismanagement, cronyism and incompetence, run by political placemen who have developed one major skill – covering up for each other and keeping their dirty laundry well hidden. Many prominent Akelites have served as bosses of co-op banks, the current president of the Pancyprian Co-op Confederation, being a former commie deputy.

And the big boss of all the co-ops for the last 32 years, Erotokritos Chlorakiotis who announced his decision to take ‘early’ retirement 10 days ago in order to make way for new blood, was a DIKO stalwart. He was appointed head honcho in 1981 by the father of modern rusfeti, the late, great Spy Kyp.

You do not have to be an expert on banking like Lascelles to know that co-ops run by the political parties and the losers they appoint would have been much worse run than the banks – a banking equivalent of Cyprus Airways.

THIS WOULD be the third time the taxpayer will be bailing out the socially sensitive and caring co-ops. In the late seventies we paid 22 million pounds and in the late eighties 67 million pound which was big money back then. Of course nothing compares to the €1.5bn that we will have to pay now.

Why haven’t our deputies who have been investigating the goings-on at the banks not done the same about the co-ops? Do they consider the required one-and-a-half billion that the taxpayer would be repaying for the next three decades, too small an amount to justify an investigation of what went wrong at the mickey-mouse banks?

Meanwhile, Chlorakiotis, announcing his early retirement, after 32 years in the job, told us that the co-ops had a capital adequacy indicator (whatever that means) of 26.15 per cent for this year and plenty of liquidity. They also had one billion euro deposited at the Central Bank.

It is one of the big mysteries of modern banking how such a healthy credit institution, with an abundance of liquidity and capital, would require a €1.5bn bailout. Could it be the target of a foreign conspiracy?

BIG CO-OP fan Professor Panicos, whose fondness of the movement dates back to the time he was living in obscurity as an unknown academic in the English Midlands and was commissioned by the movement to prepare a study on the negative effects of the liberalisation of interest rates, landed himself in the merde again this week.

Interviewed for a German TV documentary, that was broadcast last week, the professor implied that the ECB was happy to carry on granting ELA to Laiki to give a chance to German and French banks to withdraw their funds which were in fixed-term deposits earning high interest.

This was seen as a direct dig at ECB boss Mario Draghi and picked up by the German press which made a big fuss about the matter directing its fire at Frankfurt. The professor claimed his comment had been misinterpreted by the Kraut hacks, but he will need to do a lot more grovelling and apologising to Draghi when he next sees him in person, because if he loses the ECB’s support, his days as governor may be numbered.

He should also get his story straight. A few months ago he said he kept approving extra ELA for Laiki because the Tof government did not want it wound down before the elections. Now he is claiming that it was the ECB that wanted it kept afloat longer, in order to protect big European investors. Whatever the story one thing is clear – the governor was blameless, an innocent, independent official just obeying orders.

AN OPINION often aired is that AKEL parliamentary spokesman Nicos Katsourides was extremely intelligent and by far the smartest member of party. Well, being the smartest member of AKEL is not much of a distinction given the competition, but the myth has persisted.

Kats’ widely-recognised smartness was displayed the other day when he was responding to criticism by DISY, that AKEL had lumbered us with the memorandum. The smart commie had this to say: “A memorandum that had not been signed could not have been brought by anyone. DISY must decide: Either Demetris Christofias brought the memorandum or he is to blame because he did not sign it. It cannot be both.”

This is not an example of smartness, but of Stalinist sophistry, which Kats is the master of. He gave another example of it when he said: “I made a three-minute statement on the radio and he (DISY deputy Prodromos Prodromou) needed 15 minutes to comment on it, which alone proves what the reality is.”

I need only five seconds to comment on Kats’ three-minute statement – what a load of absolute nonsense – which alone proves what the reality is. It is that you can either be smart or an Akelite. As the smart one would say, “you cannot be both.”

IT COULD not have been called the University of Cyprus if its top academics did not embrace the Cypriot public sector practice of taking as much moolah as possible from the state. The auditor-general highlighted the issue of allowances paid to our top academics, over and above the big salaries they pocketed, saying these were not justified.

Like any public parasites union would have done, the senior academics abused this measure for personal gain. When the university was set up in 1990, in order to attract high-calibre academics, it was decided that an extra monetary incentive would be given – a monthly allowance of about a grand – in exceptional circumstances.

Gradually, these ‘exceptional circumstances’ became the norm. All professors (11K) and associate professors (6K) are now paid monthly allowances which have become a conquest of the down-trodden working people of our state university. This is the union way of rewarding academic excellence, which must be extremely high as our state university academics are among the highest-paid in the world.

GREEN demagogue Giorgos Pordikis was outraged to note that, while the rest of society was suffering the consequences of the economic crisis, academics wanted to maintain their high wages.

He was shocked that the educational elite of our society displayed such selfishness at a time when there were so many unemployed youths and wage-earners struggling to make ends meet. He was worried that these academics might “be teaching our children to look after number one and how to secure an easy life”, which he hoped was not the case.

Strangely the holier than though tree-hugger never expressed such concerns – perfectly legitimate – about our self-serving, secondary school teachers who threaten to go on strike whenever their easy life and high earnings are threatened. Secondary teachers influence a lot more kids than the professors of the university.

He is not bothered about school teachers teaching our kids selfishness, because they represent many thousands of votes.

THERE is not always space to include comments made by people who feel that our establishment has been unfair to them, so we have decided to deal with a couple of them today. On June 9, we had provoked the ire of the supporters of former Environment Commissioner Charlambos Theopemptou, by suggesting that he was also using a petrol-guzzling car, with high carbon emissions, provided by the state.

In a comment in the online edition of the Mail, Theopemptou pointed out that this was wrong and that the Commissioner’s car was an environmentally-friendly hybrid Honda, which was passed on to his successor. And although we had never seen him going around town on a bicycle, it did not mean that he did not use one.

As he said in his post, he regularly used a bicycle and our establishment is happy to put the record straight. It would also like to apologise for mischievously implying that Theopemptou was less committed to protecting the environment than he claimed.

IN THE SAME issue, I had asked to be told by Professor Panicos’ spin doctor Aliki Stylianou where in the preliminary MoU, it said there was “provision for an amount of €10bn for the re-capitalisation of the Cypriots banks,” as she had said in a statement, after a row in the legislature about the fire-sale of the Cypriot banks’ operations in Greece.

The following day I received a reply, with the draft MoU of November 29, 2012, and the reference I was looking for highlighted. It was on page 4, but I am not inclined to interpret it in the same way as the spin doctor and her boss.

The Mo U said “… a bank support facility of up to EUR [10] billion is foreseen under the programme, which will also cover potential future capital needs, determined on the basis of a top-down capital exercise, as well as potential resolution costs.”

What the Central Bank has omitted to mention is the significance of the use of square brackets in working documents produced by EU bodies. Square brackets signify that NO agreement has been reached on the figure or phrase inside them. Sometimes whole sentences are placed inside square brackets in documents that have not been finalised.

So it was a bit crafty to claim there was “provision for an amount of €10bn for the re-capitalisation of Cypriot banks”, when the figure had not been agreed by the troika.

I do not think it is our establishment that needs to offer an [apology] in this case.

THE DEPRESSION we are in, according to the most optimistic forecasts, is set to continue for at least another year and half. No light can be seen at the end of the tunnel, with capital controls set to stay for the foreseeable future, credit remaining unobtainable and unemployment continuing its upward path. There is just nothing to offer a glimmer of hope.

The political parties have been calling for more state spending on development, maintaining that this would spark a recovery while ignoring the fact that the funds do not exist. A cash-strapped, debt-ridden state being propped up by foreign lenders does not have money to spend on development. Calls for securing foreign investment are equally unrealistic given the situation of the banking sector and general uncertainty surrounding the economy.

The government has undertaken some modest initiatives to help businesses and announced incentives (including the bizarre offer of citizenship) for investment by foreign businessmen but these are unlikely to make the slightest difference to confidence that is at rock-bottom. Even talk about the future prospects of natural gas and the government’s determined efforts to proceed with the establishment of a gas liquefaction terminal have failed to lift the general gloom as the benefits from these to the economy are many years away.

As things are, there seems to be only one development that could possibly restore some hope, boost business confidence and attract foreign investment – a settlement of the Cyprus problem. A major breakthrough like this would not only change the economic climate, it would create big opportunities for investment, encourage joint ventures and create the conditions for the recovery we all crave. This is based on the assumption that Turkey wants a deal while the majority on both sides would support it and would want it to work.

On the Greek Cypriot side, the mere mention of a peace initiative inspires the trademark negative reactions by politicians and journalists, who seem to have made it their mission to prevent an agreement which, they are convinced, would be unfair and unjust. But it would be wrong to assume that a tiny clique of opinion formers, accustomed to repeating the same tune for decades, somehow represent the majority’s view. In 2004, many rejected the Annan plan, because they felt it went against their financial interests. They could be swayed now, if they realise that a settlement would benefit them financially or at least not harm their personal interests.

To persuade people of the value of a settlement would require hard work and a communications strategy by the government, but President Anastasiades has chosen to take small steps, in the hope these would not encounter too much opposition. His suggestion for the return of Varosha, as a confidence-building measure, is part of this policy, but it would not have the same benefits as a settlement, which, if anything, it would delay. Even in the very unlikely event that the fenced part of the town was returned, people would not automatically return and re-build their homes nor would many people be prepared to invest in the town, without having the security that would be provided by a comprehensive settlement.

That is why the resumption of talks should be treated as a priority and anything that could delay it, like the negotiation of confidence-building measures, should be avoided. For once, there are obvious practical benefits (including compensation for properties) to be had by the population from a speedily negotiated deal. There would be those who would argue that principles and history were more important than transient practical benefits and self-interest, but it would be up to the government to sell its pragmatic vision.

The question we need to ask is whether we want to seize the opportunity for an earlier exit from the recession than there would be otherwise and create real growth prospects for the economy? We should also understand that the alternative, of carrying on with the resistance rhetoric and the patriotic ‘nos’ to a settlement, now carries a high economic cost which it never had in the past. Opposition to a settlement today is tantamount to blocking the only hope of an exit from the depression that has brought the country to its knees.

By Nathan Morley

RUSSIA appears to be inching closer to gaining a long-coveted military foothold in Cyprus, as the future of their naval port in Syria looks increasingly shaky.

The past fortnight has seen a surge in diplomatic activity between Nicosia and Moscow over Russian requests for military use of the Andreas Papandreou airbase in Paphos and Limassol port.

As it stands, a Russian presence in the region is only made possible by the survival of the Assad government, with Moscow last night rebutting reports of a withdrawal of their personnel from the naval base at Tartus.

The statement appears to confirm the widely-held belief that Moscow will do all it can to hold on to its only foothold in the Mediterranean, but also casts the spotlight on urgent moves by Moscow to re-locate some military units to Cyprus should President Bashar Al Assad fall.

On Monday Defence Minister Fotis Fotiou confirmed that recent defence talks with Moscow had centred on a request by Moscow for the use of sea and air facilities on the island. Russia has been using Limassol port for refueling and supplies its naval vessels for over a year.

Some analysts say it is an opportune time for Russia to use the velvet glove of diplomacy to gain a military foothold in Cyprus – after the fallout to Russian depositors from the March bailout soured relations, followed by Russian reluctance to restructure Moscow’s €2.5bn loan to Nicosia.

However, Fotiou categorically rejected the suggestion that military and financial moves were connected, saying it is no different than services other countries provide for foreign armed forces.

“I want to make clear that there is no discussion about a permanent base in Cyprus for Russia, and to make it clear, I repeat, no ‘exchange’ principle,” Fotiou said.

There are currently no indications what the proper uses and limits of any Russian military force using Cyprus would be.

James Ker-Lindsay, a senior research fellow on the politics of south east Europe at the London School of Economics says that even if there is no reason to believe that a permanent Russian military base is going to be established in Cyprus, recent discussions between Nicosia and Moscow will nevertheless raise a number of serious questions amongst the island’s EU partners.

“For a start, just before the elections President Anastasiades was calling for a closer relationship between Cyprus and NATO; first as a member of Partnership for Peace and then, eventually, full membership. Have those ambitions now been dropped?” Ker-Lindsay told the Sunday Mail.

Fotiou for the moment has been able to put an orderly gloss on the events by insisting that there is no dilemma and that such a move would be ‘natural’ because of historical ties between the countries.

“Russia supports Cyprus and our close relationship will not only continue, but also to deepen. Facilities in our ports will be given to the Russians just as they are given in other countries. It is the same as the United States, which uses such port facilities in European countries such as France and Germany and in Israel,” Fotiou said.

The prospect of a Russian base on EU soil has indeed raised eyebrows in Brussels, with Nicosia having already been suspected of allowing itself to be used as a transit point for Russian arms shipments to the Assad regime. Last year, a Russian-operated arms ship reached Syria after stopping in Limassol, in violation of an EU arms embargo.

“Whatever the underlying reasons, it is certain that many in the EU will feel deeply uncomfortable about the thought of closer defence and security ties between Cyprus and Russia,” says James Ker-Lindsay.

“Another obvious question is whether closer defence co-operation with Russia could in some way be linked to the energy issue? Turkey has even making a lot of threatening noises recently. Many will wonder if this is an attempt by Nicosia to try to lessen the danger of any military action by Ankara against Cyprus.”

On Monday, Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides told Russian State Radio that Nicosia and Moscow would discuss the specifics soon, adding that the possibility of military cooperation agreements could be signed within the coming months.

“This is certainly connected to Tartus,” Margarete Klein of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

“Even if the Russian government assumes Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will retain power, it could change in the future.”

Since the start of the Syrian conflict, Russian warships have made a point of calling regularly at Limassol port. Last week three warships docked, and Fotiou paid a much publicised personal visit to the destroyer Admiral Panteleyev in May.

With the situation in Syria becoming increasingly fragile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the Mediterranean as a “strategic region” in which Russia has its own interests. Last month he also announced the restoration of a permanent presence for the Russian fleet in the region, although the actual location of their base is yet to be announced.

Pravda reports that the Russian Mediterranean naval task force is expected to include about 10 ships taken from the North, Baltic and Black Sea fleets on a rotational basis.

The Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu is expected to visit Cyprus soon for more talks with Fotiou. In their last face-to-face meeting in May, the two men agreed to ‘update’ a Defence Cooperation Agreement and sign another agreement to facilitate Russian citizens in the case of emergency evacuation from Syria.

By Martyn Herman

Novak Djokovic continued to match title rival Andy Murray stride for stride with a nonchalant march into the last 16 as the leading seeds flourished in the Wimbledon sunshine on Saturday.

The Serbian world number one neutralised Frenchman Jeremy Chardy with a 6-3 6-2 6-2 victory in 86 minutes and, like Murray, has now won all nine sets he has played.

American Serena Williams, bidding to equal Roger Federer’s 17 grand slam titles by successfully defending her crown, has also been blemish-free and offered no concessions to 42-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm under the Centre Court roof.

The women’s top seed was scheduled last on Court One but with other matches dragging on she was switched across to Centre where she dispatched the Japanese veteran 6-2 6-0 in an hour.

While Djokovic and Murray have been in perfect harmony, elsewhere the opening week has been a turbulent one with a head-spinning spate of shocks, injuries and withdrawals.

Surprises were thinner on the ground on Day Six with men’s fourth seed David Ferrer coming closest to falling through the trapdoor before battling back to beat unorthodox Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov in five sets to reach the fourth round.

The 31-year-old was joined there by 2010 runner-up Tomas Berdych, the Czech seventh seed, who beat giant South African Kevin Anderson for the ninth time in a row, and Argentine number eight seed Juan Martin del Potro who survived a collision with a court-side chair to overpower Slovenian Grega Zemlja.

As in the men’s draw, only six of the top 16 women have reached Monday’s fourth round which will feature a total of nine players aged 30 or over – equalling a professional era record at Wimbledon.

Australian 14th seed Samantha Stosur was the main casualty in the women’s singles on Saturday, losing to Germany’s Sabine Lisicki, but there was better news for fellow Australian Bernard Tomic as the 20-year-old continued to shake-off his bad-boy image by knocking out dashing French ninth seed Richard Gasquet.

Japan’s Kei Nishikori also fell short, the 12th seed losing a long match to Italy’s Andreas Seppi who has now won his last seven matches that have gone the five-set distance.

Women’s fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, last year’s runner-up, ended the run of American teenager Madison Keys in a hard-fought three-setter, while sixth-seeded Chinese Li Na and former champion Petra Kvitova, the Czech eighth seed, remained in contention after also being taken the distance.

The queue at the medical room has shrunk since Wipeout Wednesday when seven players withdrew or retired but Dutchman Igor Sijsling quit mid-match against Ivan Dodig on Saturday to take the total to a tournament record-equalling 13.

Croatia’s Dodig, who is up against Ferrer next, has reached the fourth round despite finishing only one match.

CLINICAL DJOKOVIC

Djokovic was the definition of efficiency against Chardy, who he had never dropped a set to in six previous meetings.

The 26-year-old Serb made only three unforced errors and crunched surgical winners for fun in a sobering display for British fans dreaming of Murray holding the trophy aloft next Sunday.

Djokovic, desperate to make up for an epic French Open semi-final defeat to Rafa Nadal by claiming a second Wimbledon title, has yet to lose a service game in the tournament and has leaked a mere 29 games – two fewer than Murray.

If he needed to issue a statement of intent to counter the home hysteria, which went up a notch on Saturday when British teenager Laura Robson also reached the last 16, Djokovic did it.

“It was a fantastic match. I felt great from the start until the end,” the six-times grand slam champion, who faces 13th-seeded German veteran Tommy Haas next, told a news conference.

“I enjoyed every moment of it. When you play that well you feel great, you feel confident.

“This kind of performance came at the right time for me. I’m going to expect tough challenges in front of me but I’m ready.”

With Murray enjoying a day of leisure – apart from a brief appearance on Centre Court as part of a celebration of some of Britain’s Olympians from London 2012 – Robson kept the home pot bubbling when she came back from the brink to beat New Zealander Marina Erakovic, prompting resounding cheers around the grounds.

Robson, a former junior champion, won 1-6 7-5 6-3 to become the first British woman to reach the fourth round for 15 years.

Victory over unseeded Estonian Kaia Kanepi would put her on collision course with five-times champion Williams who stretched her winning streak to 34 when demolishing Date-Krumm.

Williams walked on court stoney-faced and said she had been slightly puzzled by the scheduling.

“I was a little surprised I was playing third after two men’s matches,” the 31-year-old, who has dropped only 11 games to reach the fourth round, said.

Her patience was rewarded with her first night outing under the Wimbledon roof which slid shut to allow its lighting system to illuminate her latest dazzling display.

“I love the atmosphere. I love the sound that the ball makes,” she said. “It just feels really cool.”

With Wimbledon sticking to its tradition of having no play on the middle Sunday, Monday promises to be hectic with a total of 16 men’s and women’s singles matches across the courts.

Murray will take centre stage when he takes on Russian 20th seed Mikhail Youznhy for a place in the quarter-finals.

Youzhny loomed onto the Scot’s radar with a straightforward victory over Serbia’s Viktor Troicki and afterwards shrugged off the prospect of facing a home favourite in his own backyard.

“Don’t worry, I will sleep normal,” he said.

Germany’s Nico Rosberg won the British Formula One grand prix on Sunday for the Mercedes team.

Australian Mark Webber finished second for Red Bull, while Spaniard Fernando Alonso was third in his Ferrari.

Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union at midnight on Sunday, a milestone that caps the Adriatic republic’s recovery from war but is tinged with anxiety over the state of the economy and the bloc it joins.

EU flags fluttered from a stage in Zagreb’s central square ahead of the evening’s festivities, though there have been few signs of the gushing welcome that marked past expansions to ex-communist Eastern Europe.

Croatia joins the bloc just over two decades after declaring independence from federal Yugoslavia, the trigger for four years of war in which some 20,000 people died.

But, facing a fifth year of recession and record unemployment of 21 percent, few Croatians are in the mood to party.

They join a bloc deeply troubled by its own economic woes, which have created internal divisions and undermined public support for the union.

“Just look what’s happening in Greece and Spain! Is this where we’re headed?” asked pensioner Pavao Brkanovic. “You need illusions to be joyful, but the illusions have long gone,” he said at a Zagreb market.

The country of 4.4 million people, blessed with a coastline that attracts 10 million tourists each year, is one of seven that emerged from the ashes of Yugoslavia during a decade of war in the 1990s.

Slovenia was first to join the EU, in 2004, but Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo are still years away.

Some in Croatia have drawn comparisons between Sunday night’s celebrations in Zagreb and the Eurovision Song Contest that the city hosted in 1990, when Yugoslavia was on the brink of collapse just as Europe was poised to unite with the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Italy’s Toto Cutugno won with the refrain “Unite, unite Europe”, but instead Yugoslavia fell apart and Croatia went to war with Serb rebels who tried to break away from the newly-independent state with the backing of Belgrade.

MERKEL NO-SHOW

“Back then, it looked to me as if everything should be resolved in a fortnight and we would quickly jump in (to the EU),” Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic told the European Parliament this week.

“But then the war happened, and it didn’t come to pass until today.”

To get to this point, Croatia has gone through seven years of tortuous and often unpopular EU-guided reform.

It has handed over more than a dozen Croatian and Bosnian Croat military and political leaders charged with war crimes by the United Nations tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

It has sold shipyards, steeped in history and tradition but deeply indebted, and launched a high-profile fight against corruption that saw former prime minister Ivo Sanader jailed.

Some EU capitals remain concerned at the level of graft and organised crime. Croatia will not yet join the 17-nation single currency zone, nor the visa-free Schengen zone.

The spirit of the occasion took another knock when German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the bloc’s most powerful leader, pulled out of the accession ceremony, saying she was too busy.

Croatian media linked the move to a row over a former Croatian secret service operative wanted in Germany, though a spokesman for Merkel denied this.

The chancellor, instead, urged Croatia to press on with reforms.

“There are many more steps to take, especially in the area of legal security and fighting corruption,” Merkel said in a weekly podcast.

Despite the mood, however, for some Croatians the merits of accession are undeniable.

“The EU is not perfect but it is Croatia’s only option,” said popular novelist Slavenka Drakulic Ilic.

“We need it for financial and economic reasons,” she told the T-portal website on Friday, “and we need it for the sake of peace and stability. We belong to a region that is still volatile.”

By Nathan Morley

Well, here we are at the start of another summer and the beginning of a few months of al fresco dining by the sea, during these long lazy baking days.
The Magic Sandy Bay Restaurant, just off Sandy Bay near Nissi Avenue is the kind of place you leave with a huge smile on your face, especially if you’ve been lucky enough to dine at a shady table a couple of feet away the town’s most beautiful natural bay.

Unlike many of the other beaches in Ayia Napa, Sandy is fairly laid back – there are no beach discos, competitions or riotous teenagers with ghetto blasters.

The lay-out is a bit basic and higgledy-piggledy, with a scatter of cheap tables that looks very 1970s Pontins, but this is a welcoming restaurant serving a sunny and vibrant local menu from morning till late night. It’s perfect for those wanting a leisurely meal, or just a glass of wine and a snack.
Most of the beach front restaurants can get authentically loud, especially at weekends – but at Sandy Bay, there seems to be a very relaxed air of calm, only disturbed by the traditional Greek music playing at an acceptably low volume in the background.

As its Mediterranean, all of the usual suspects are listed on the menu – kleftico, moussaka, lamb chops and stifado, but I always find it’s just easier to make better food choices in summertime, when heavy, high- calorie dishes seem much less appealing.

And for a quicker bite, there were pita wraps, burgers and gyros with lamb or chicken; souvlaki with chicken or pork or burger. They come with a side of tzatziki and a heap of fries.
To start I ordered a local salad, brushed with oil, garlic and oregano and set on a bed of tasty lettuce and sprinkled with lemon and crumbled feta. No complaints, but alas, the tomatos were still pale – not lush, bright red and ripe, sadly, this seems to be quite a common occurrence nowadays at many restaurants.

So, with an ocean view and the smell of the sea, my main money was on the fresh fish, which is brought in every morning from the local fishermen that work the calm coastal waters between Cape Greco and Ayia Napa.

Within 20 minutes a platter of deep-fried baby calamari with terrific crispy flecks arrived; it was accompanied by chips and more salad (€13.70). The fresh calamari from the local waters is delicious when properly cooked – it has a more concentrated and meatier flavour than some steaks and even though the meal looks small, it can leave you feeling stuffed.

Other seafood on offer include local sword fish at €12.50, king prawns €16 and grilled octopus for €14.50.

And then a special straight off the blackboard – with the temperature at a sizzling 36C in the sun you won’t be able to resist the House Special ice cream to finish. It consists of Strawberry ice cream, whipped cream, strawberry sauce, nuts, tinned fruits and a cherry – topped with an ice cream cone (€5.90). All of the puddings follow a retro holiday Knickerbocker glory camp vibe, with an array of banana splits, peach Melbas and such treats.

Complimentary fresh water melon came with the bill, which tallied at just €21.30. A quick mention to the staff, who were all were nice, polite and very efficient.

VITAL STATISTICS
SPECIALITY local cuisine
WHERE Magic Sandy Bay restaurant, 72 Nissi Avenue, Ayia Napa
CONTACT 23 721480
PRICE Mains from €12.50

Comedy stalwarts Cannon and Ball are in Paphos for two shows this week. It’s a rare chance to see some comedy greats says ALIX NORMAN

Rock on Tommy! Yes, you guessed it, Cannon and Ball are coming to Cyprus! Everyone’s favourite comic duo will be rocking the island next week, all set to raise the roof and wreak merry havoc. The pair’s special blend of stand-up comedy, musical mayhem and sketches have delighted audiences for over 40 years, and now’s your chance to catch them live at one of two Paphos shows they will be performing in July.

A staple on British television during the 70s and 80s, Tommy and Bobby met in the early 1960s while working as welders in Oldham. Starting out as singers working the pubs and clubs of Lancashire, the duo quickly switched to comedy after being told comics earned an extra £3 a night, and the legend of Cannon and Ball was born. Their dry northern wit and carefully thought-out routines were a hit with audiences, and it wasn’t long before television came knocking on the door; their first appearance in 1974 in the show The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club was being quickly followed by the offer of their own series. The Cannon and Ball Show premiered on ITV on July 28, 1979, and such was its appeal that it ran for almost 10 years, with a host of Christmas and Easter Specials delighting viewers all over the British Isles.

But no success story would be complete without the inevitable bust up, and at the height of their popularity, the duo were barely on speaking terms, avoiding each other completely when not on stage or rehearsing. Luckily for audiences everywhere, the tensions were ultimately resolved and now, with Bobby aged 69 and Tommy having just turned 75, it seems the duo are working harder than ever.

It’s been a whirlwind career, and it’s certainly not over yet for these hard-working comedians: their appeal to young and old alike ensures the pair are gaining new audiences all the time, bringing their brand of humour to a whole new generation as their travels take them not only the length and breadth of the UK, but also to the sunny shores of Cyprus!

Brought to the island by Paphos-based business networking group iConnect-Cyprus and In Any Event, Cannon and Ball will be doing two shows in the first week of the new month. Organisers Gary Evans and Anita Hopkins met up with one half of the act in February: “Bobby said he would like to come out and do a show here,” says Gary. “Cannon and Ball are still one of the most popular comedy pairs going and we are looking forward to bringing them to Cyprus.”

Anita agrees: “‘We are delighted to be able to bring a quality act like Cannon and Ball to Paphos and hope that people will support the event and take the opportunity to see one of the UK’s best ever comic duos. They are hugely popular and we can guarantee two superb evenings.” The first show – Evening with Cannon and Ball – on July 5 at Elea Golf Club is a limited ticket event, which includes buffet, wine and beer, and the chance to meet Tommy and Bobby in person, while the following evening sees the duo perform at Kamares Club. With a variety of support acts at both performances, there’s something for everyone, so why not rally the troops and bring the whole family along for a night of raucous – but always pc – entertainment.

Cyprus often plays host to flash-in-the-pan British acts, but it’s not often we have stars of such long standing and universal appeal in our midst. If you’ve already booked your seat, I’ll bet you’re “dead excited”. If you haven’t, well, “Yer mental”! Don’t miss out on the chance to catch the best laugh you’ll have all summer – or possibly all year – with Cannon and Ball.

CANNON AND BALL
July 5, 7.30pm Evening with Cannon and Ball at Elea Golf Club, including buffet, wine and beer. Supported by Bob Clarkson and Davey Woodford. Tickets cost €65. July 6, 7.30pm at Kamares Club. Supported by Bob Clarkson, Michael Antoniou and Melissa. Tickets cost €25. Full details and booking information can be found on the website, www.in-any-event.biz or by calling 99 387 311

Bank of Cyprus (BoC) on Monday will discuss various alternatives concerning the voluntary retirement scheme that needs to be put in place as part of the lender’s drive to cut operating costs.

The BoC board will then meet the employee union ETYK for a final discussion of the matter.

The board will convene again on Tuesday to select the plan and present it to workers, after it is approved by the Central Bank.

BoC aims to shed 1,000 plus staff immediately and around 1,000 more by the end of the year.

To receive a much needed bailout, Cyprus had to agree to close its second-biggest bank, Laiki, and recapitalise BoC by raiding uninsured deposits – over €100,000.

The deal provided that BoC, currently in administration, would absorb certain Laiki assets and its employees.

Following the March 25 decision, BoC has acquired the insured deposits and the majority of Laiki’s assets and loans.

As a result it currently operates in Cyprus through 202 branches and with 5, 640 employees – 85 branches and 2,390 employees were transferred from Laiki.

A Paphos court remanded a 19-year-old Bulgarian man in custody for eight days on Monday in connection with several burglaries in the district.

He was arrested on Sunday.

Police said they found four bank cards and some €580 in cash in his possession, as well as jewellery, other valuables, and electronic appliances.

The items had been reported stolen during three burglaries, police said.

Police said they had also identified the suspect, via security camera footage, as one of two individuals using a stolen credit card last month.

During the remand hearing, the suspect told the court he needed hospital treatment.

Doctors later confirmed he needed to be admitted.

Police did not specify the reason for the suspect’s hospitalisation in their reports and they could not immediately clarify the matter when contacted.