This weeks HARD TALK ON BBC

[sophie]

For those of you who didn't watch it, then you missed a lulu and if you have BBCiPlayer I would recommend you view it. The man concerned was the Minister of Finance for down south and he was on a charm offensive, smiles all the way with teeth gleaming. He wouldn't acknowledge that there was anything untoward with the amount of money invested by Russians, he admitted it was unfortunate that customers could not withraw what they wanted from their own accounts, he wouldn't talk about the "row" between the Prime Minister and the President of the Bank of Cyprus with regard to corruption but he admitted that it was unfortunate that RoC had received a Triple C rating but things had improved greately now, and they had a minus B (at least I think that what it was. Time was going by and I shouted at the screen "ask him about the North" and suddenly she did.

The charm offensive stopped immediately, the smile went, the teeth stopped gleaming, The interviewer said "both sides are in talks in Geneva as we speak, discussing the problems in Syria. Why can't you offer to have talks with Turkey and the authorities in the North. Even if you don't agree at first, surely its possible to comprmise after all these years, you can't keep going like this for ever, can you - a solution must be find some day" Then of course that question was followed by the usual diatribe of rhetoric. The interviewer asked, "there are an estimated 35,000 military personnel in the North, but surely you could meet somewhere to discuss future meetings, what harm would that do"

After a few more minutes of him waffling, the program ended and it proved, if proof were needed, that the South have absolutely no intention of making any attempt to end the problem. The war in Syria is more likely to end first. Sad isn't it?

[PoshinDevon]

It is indeed sad and I will try and locate the interview and watch it.

However; I personally believe that having lived both in the south and north after 40 years that it would be better to leave things as they are. No one can deny that the turkish peace operation in 1974 has stopped the persecution of the turkish cypriot community which went on for many years and for the majority of the time apart from minor incidents the island has been at peace.

Cross border travel is relatively straight forward, there is trading between the two communities and despite politicians the real cypriots do try to work together.

Better to leave as is in my opinion.

[dippersgirl]

It has always been the Cypriot way, make it seem as if you are doing something, but really you do not want to do anything and life goes on, and on, and on, and why not.
We have found it so often with any problem, don't worry and after a while ................................

[dodger]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03txrp9

Is this the one.

Paul.

[sophie]

Yes, that's the one, dodger. If you have half an hour to spare, it makes interesting watching.

[turtle]

Just had a listen to the interview,....the blokes deluded !

[dodger]

Just had a listen to the interview,....the blokes deluded !

What do you expect from a Paulo Di-Canio lookalike

[turtle]

nice one Paul

[dodger]

pm me tats.