Today’s Independent has a feature on life in The Isles of Scilly, a beautiful location off the south-west tip of Cornwall. But this is not a tourism story, it is pointing out just how hard it is for the islanders to earn a living. Island life is always hard, but at least if you live on an isolated rock off the north of Scotland you can be pretty sure that no one else will want to live there. Scilly, on the other hand, is a prime holiday home location, and consequently the price of housing is well beyond most of the locals. I’ve spent a lot of holidays on Scilly, and when you stay B&B you get to know the islanders fairly well, so none of this is a surprise to me. As I recall, Fraser Hicks, who is interviewed in the Independent, was one of the stars of the local gig racing teams in his youth.

I really don’t know what can be done. You can’t stop going there on holiday. That would only deprive the islanders of their major source of income. And if you encourage more people to go there then the place is likely to be bought up by people wanting to build hotels and holiday cottages. Sometimes you can’t fix things. But I do hope that one day I will be able to go back, and take Kevin with me so that he can see what a beautiful place it is too.