Person of the week, boos and cheers

... was George Floyd. The homicide may have occurred the previous week, but its consequences intensified last week. Police officer Derek Chauvin was now charged with second degree murder, while demonstrations went international. It wasn't just in the USA that there was talk of a watershed moment, but this was clearly most pertinent to addressing the tensions in the treatment of black people in the USA and to the fight for racial equality and the movement against police brutality. Whatever one's views about George Floyd and the demonstrations, there is no escaping the fact that his murder has commanded the world's attention and the world's conscience.

Three cheers ...

For the Balearic public health directorate having announced that it would no longer be giving daily coronavirus data reports. This sounded like positive stuff. Daily information was not needed any more, given the development of the pandemic. However, it turned out that the directorate would still be giving out national health ministry daily figures. The cheers subsided, although they were probably still merited, as the reason for the directorate not giving its reports was to stop all the confusion regarding what has been occasionally conflicting information.

A big boo ...

For what on the face of it seemed more than just a coincidence. It came to light that on the Friday before a Monday approval by the Balearic government of the decree to ban the building of new homes on rustic land classified as being at risk (because of flooding or fire), a Més councillor in Montuiri had registered a request with the town hall for the building of a home with swimming pool on such land and a further request in respect of the grouping of plots of land. The Partido Popular accused the councillor of having used privileged information, while the mayor said that municipal technical personnel will still need to review the application, which was a particular embarrassment as it had been Més who had been behind the decree.