Raising a very pertinent issue

Sir,
I am appalled to see the response to the balanced analysis made in Mr B.H. Lait’s article of September 5, in which be accurately tracked the escalation of supermarket retail prices in Cyprus post-EU accession.

He correctly exposed the adverse effect that joining the EU has had on shopping costs on this island, and pointed a finger at the supermarkets for apparently excessive profit margins – a fact that should be of concern to all of us.

In reply there appeared in your issues of both September 12 and 19 a barrage of letters of the ‘whingeing Brit’ variety from correspondents who seem to lack any sense of objectivity, and use your columns to prattle on about how happy they are in their chosen environment.

Why are they so ready to leap to the defence of all things Cypriot where no offence has been given? I do not find any anti-Cypriot bias in Mr Lait’s message, and feel that he has raised some very pertinent points.

Having lived for 24 years here, I am well aware of the adverse changes wrought by the EU accession, and find Mr Lait’s analysis somewhat more stimulating than the endless succession of complaining letters from aggrieved visitors – which appear to go unnoticed by your readers and do not provoke the illogical responses that Mr Lait’s offering did.

John Cochrane

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.