Back to the future 2

And then there is this outrageous puff piece by the BBC – a profile of Liaena Hernandez, who is 18 and the youngest member of the rubberstamp Cuban parliament.

A true child of the Revolution, Liaena admits that things have been difficult in the past for her family.

"As a family we couldn't have all the things we would have liked,” she tells the paper. “For years I had to wear the same pair of shoes to school, we just had to keep mending them. "

But lest you think that this is probably a little like what supposedly happened in Cuba in the bad old days before the Castro brothers took over, our budding politician is quick to point out that, at least she has free health care and free education ...