Saturday 28 April 2012

Still On the Rocks

The Costa Concordia, now almost wholly submerged and lying on her side off the island of Giglio, is to be removed by a firm from Ravenna.  Tuscany is outraged. 

Not only has the removal contract gone to Emilia-Romagna but the port where repairs will be made after the gash in her side has been closed, the water removed  and  the ship made towable in situ, will not be Livorno but Civitavecchia.  There she will be refloated and will then be taken to Sicily where Fincantieri will sort her out  - probably by dismantling her - in the Palermo shipyards.

Chances are the numbers of  holidaymakers in Giglio will  rise.  There's so much advice to be offered to the salvage workers from the serried ranks of watchers on the quay, so much to discuss about how not to hit a large island with a large boat on a moonlit night with calm seas - Elba must be wondering what attractions it can offer to compete.

5 comments:

Antisthenes said...

I see the Italian government have managed to capture C6 billion in unpaid taxes. All that will do is ensure Italians in future change their tax evasion tactics. Obviously tax evasion has been so easy in the past that hiding the trail was considered unnecessary that will now change and things will go back to how they were. Not only in Italy but all over Europe as taxes are rising more of the economies are going to move over to the black ones.

hatfield girl said...

The idea is to reduce taxes now, Antisthenes. So far Monti has done what he has said he will do.

Not unnaturally, faced with Progressive Authoritarian governments, sensible Europeans have resented paying taxes to furnish the life-styles of others.

Personally I was off like a hare to my other life when Brown became the Progressive Authoritarian UK chancellor of the Exchequer so I am one of those that Guardian drabbies denounce as tax avoiders. But so far the Monti administration has been cutting the PAs down steadily, and I still believe my properly paid taxes are about to be reduced. They're nothing like the high levels mulcted by the Progressive Authoritarians in England anyway.

Nomad said...

The Navy Lark personified. The "starboard lookout 'yere" must have been on his coffee break.

Weekend Yachtsman said...

If the contracts have gone to those best placed to do the work, rather than to the brothers and cousins of the shipowners, insurance agents, and nearby harbour authorities, then surely we can conclude that Italy is making progress.

hatfield girl said...

Italy is a lesson to us all at the moment Yacht. It's now cutting government expenditure to avoid raising taxes at the end of the summer. No more tax rises was promised and the government intends to deliver - and deliver tax cuts indeed.

The progressive authoritarian French presidential candidate sounds truly silly when his proposals for 'growth' are compared with the policies the Italians havealready put in place. 60,000 new school teachers are not going to provide growth; but removing decades of inappropriate labour privileges is, removing special interest groups restrictions on access to economic activity is, restricting the public subsidies to political creeps is, collecting taxes due is. And shooting robbers where they stand with guns in their hands is a lot more effective than spending lots more taxes on ineffective 'policing' and health'n'safety and missiles on blocks of flats.