Communism Cyprus-Style

I was amazed to read the other day that the Government of Cyprus is Communist - or at least led by the Communist Party (AKEL).

Now I can only take this to mean that the Communists they have in Cyprus these days - are the same kind of 'Communists' - or former Communists perhaps - who are now firmly in charge of countries like Russia and (Red) China.

In other words the kind of Communists whose Communism is perfectly relaxed about the accumulation of vast personal wealth - without too many awkward questions being asked.

The curious thing about Cyprus is that the country has - more than most - brought the whole sorry mess on itself by becoming a tax haven for wealthy Russians - before the bubble burst at least.

I can't say I will shed too many tears for the ex-pat Russians now living in Cyprus - who stand to lose up to 40% of their savings due to the collapse of Cypriot banks.

But who lured them all to the Mediterranean in the first place? - you have to ask yourself, before conceding that this catastrophe didn't exactly happen by accident.

In which case the Communist-led Government has to answer for - especially the fact that the country will be plunged into penury for years to come, as Cyprus pays off its enormous public debt.

The one saving grace is that the 'poorer' people on this sun-kissed island will be spared the worst - since the special tax on savings will only apply to those savers who have more than 100,000 Euros in their bank Cypriot accounts.

Now I don't know about you, but I don't know many people with 100,000 Euros worth of savings in their bank accounts - in Cyprus or anywhere else for that matter.

So it seems to me that the politicians in Cyprus have a funny idea of what constitutes 'poor' or 'poorer' - in these tough economic times.

Because by setting the tax threshold at such a high level - the vast majority of citizens will not now be directly affected by the special one-off tax.

Instead the burden will fall, quite rightly in many ways, on the Russian ex-pats - but I hope that local voters will remember the politicians responsible for turning their once idyllic island into a low-tax, bolt-hole - for Russian oligarchs and their hangers-on.