Barometer | 14 May 2011

A better class of tourist


— The Seychelles tourism industry received a boost with the announcement that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are to spend their honeymoon there.

— Like many island states in the tropics, tourism is a huge part of the economy: just over half the country’s GDP and 70 per cent of its foreign currency earnings. When 12 dead sharks were discovered on a tourist fishing trip in 2006 it was a national crisis.

— Yet the Duke and Duchess won’t have to share the beaches with too many grockles: hotel beds have been limited to 5,000, and annual tourist numbers have been capped at 150,000 a year, less than double what they were at the end of the 1970s.

Coalition terms


The coalition celebrated its first birthday. How much longer before it overtakes other coalitions of British history?


                                        Years and days

Lloyd George 1916–22                   5+316

Most popular

Jim Lawley

Spain’s expat tax won’t last long

National government 1931–1940   8+260

Wartime coalition 1940–45             5+10

Lord Aberdeen 1852–55                 2+42

Getting to yes


Do the Scots want independence? It depends how you ask them.

Percentage for ‘yes’:

Do you want a referendum on independence? (ICM 2009) 58%