Comment: Pay the hauliers - and who else?

They provide an essential service. Disrupt this service and everyone suffers. The government knows this full well, hence its willingness to part with cash. Yet the Balearic government can do precious little else. It cannot intervene with prices of fuel. All it can do is say we are on your side (which it has) and put its hands in its pockets. Who else? Taxi-driver associations must have been paying close attention. Not essential in the same way, but still needed.

Some financial aid for us as well, please. Oh, and Palma town hall can get the cheque book out as well. Coach operators. Erm, all those tourists needing transfers. Don’t forget us! With any luck, the government won’t need to adjust its budget and make extraordinary fuel payments. The Spanish government reckons on there being lower prices from the day after the hauliers intend go on strike.

Which might just do the trick. Meanwhile, everyone else who is faced with the higher cost of fuel will be unable to screw some money out of the government while at the same time reflecting - and not for the first time - on just how vulnerable this island can be.