The debate over the payment of Government sponsorship to Hott 107.5 radio station?s parent company to help it to broadcast the cricket World Cup at a cost of $200 per subscriber comes down to one question ? should Bermudians have to pay to watch their team and the rest of the tournament when Government money is already being spent?

The answer must be no. The taxpayer is already subsidising the Bermuda Cricket Board to the tune of $11 million, a sum which makes the sponsorship being paid to Hott parent Inter-Island Communications seem paltry.

While opinion is divided over whether Government was right to give the BCB that much money ? and who can doubt that it has led to the even more generous grant to the Bermuda Football Association for $15 million? ? the idea that the taxpayers, having already done that, and now, having seen Government spend another $120,000 of their money on advertising, should pay to watch the World Cup, is like charging the father of the bride to attend his own daughter?s wedding ? when he has already paid for it.

IIC chief executive and Government MP Glenn Blakeney was within his rights to seek Government sponsorship, just as the Bermuda Broadcasting Company was for its bid to broadcast the matches for free.

But Mr. Blakeney was wrong to explain that he needs to charge customers in order to pay his bills, without telling the public what his company bid for the rights (except to say that they will cost more than $40,000), or what his company?s total expenses are due to mysterious ?contractual? obligations.

But Government was more in the wrong to agree to the sponsorship deal without stipulating that if it was going to give the company $120,000 of taxpayers? money, then the matches should be shown for free.

And if IIC was unable to live with that, then it would have to find other sponsors.

As it is, we have the worst of all worlds. The wealthy and fanatical will have the opportunity to watch the cricket, spliced with Government advertisements from no fewer than ten Government Ministries while the less fanatical and the poor will have to go without, in spite of the fact that they have already paid for the team?s World Cup campaign and $120,000 in advertising.

Last week?s announcement by Jumeirah about the Southlands resort left the unmistakable impression that the developers have already been assured that they will receive the special development order needed to override the zonings on the property.

This newspaper has already recorded its opposition to the proposal and there is no need to go into detail on why it is a senseless proposal for Bermuda, except to say that it will result in the permanent loss of one of the few large pieces of open space in Warwick and that the need for vast numbers of non-Bermudians to build and staff the resort outweigh the benefits that may accrue to tourism generally.

What?s worse, the Government and developers have not even attempted to make a case that it is in the public interest for a special development order to be passed. Instead, they and the Government have declared that it will be so and no doubt it will.

Recently, Premier Dr. Ewart Brown said ?environmentalism? meant more than being anti-concrete. But Loughlands, the initial decision on the new site of the hospital and the earlier Chaplin Estate decision mean Dr. Brown and his Government have no right to even try to lecture anyone on the environmentalism ? it would be like the tone deaf telling Mozart how to write a sonata.