LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Sir, WHILST applauding Palma's mayor Catalina Cirer for her motivational campaign “Palma, a City for Shopping” to be launched soon and coinciding with the offer of free public transport, I saw absolutely no mention of the most fundamental change needed to ensure the success of these campaigns.
Without complete deregulation of commercial shopping hours the whole thing is a waste of their time and our money. Until city center shops are allowed to open throughout the day, later into the evening and all weekend, tailoring their hours to fit the products they sell to the market they aim at, then these so called ‘promotional campaigns' are pointless.
Looking further afield, weekend shopping breaks in northern Europe are booming, to those cities that do everything to make the shopper welcome. An empty Jaime III on a Saturday afternoon or a leisurely stroll down the deserted avenidas on a Sunday morning may be fine for inner city dwellers but potential customers will be far away.
Regards, John Little
NO BIG DEAL
DEAR Sir, “Pere Sampol, spokesman of the Majorcan Socialist Party, said that it (the Rasputin affair) was ‘the biggest scandal in the Balearics since democracy restored.* If a 360 Euro bar tab, which has been paid back, is a big deal, the Balearics must have the most honest pristine government in the history of the world. One would have thought that the shoddy construction work that caused injury and endangered lives on the railroad line that had to be shut down at great cost was a tad bigger. Also, the records would be in a recognisable language. But, as the Socialists were responsible for that, it must not count. This guy has serious problem with proportionality.
Howard Whitman
Palma, Spain/Birmingham, England