In just three months, US President Joe Biden, French premier Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will descend on Cornwall for the G7 summit hosted by Boris Johnson.
The world's most powerful leaders will be in the duchy to thrash out plans to tackle climate change and plot their fightback from the coronavirus crisis.
Their private planes are expected to touch down at Newquay Airport – the former RAF St Mawgan base – and they will be whisked to the splendid isolation of the Carbis Bay Hotel, surrounded by steel and police on one side and the North Atlantic on the other.
Announcing the location in January, the Prime Minister said: “Cornwall is the perfect location for such a crucial summit.
“Two hundred years ago Cornwall’s tin and copper mines were at the heart of the UK’s Industrial Revolution and this summer Cornwall will again be the nucleus of great global change and advancement.
“I’m very much looking forward to welcoming world leaders to this great region and country.”
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Yet just a few miles from the heavily-protected, five-star luxury, some of the poorest families in Britain are struggling in poverty.
The contrast between rich and poor is perhaps more stark here than anywhere else on our islands outside London.
Wealthy second homeowners flock from the capital to multimillion-pound boltholes, while hard-up workers on minimum wage or jobless families cram into miners' cottages or council houses.
The fishing industry which provides scallops for the most expensive Cornish restaurants – when they are not closed by Covid-19 lockdowns – is battling the impact of the PM's Brexit deal, and the barriers it has imposed for exporters sending their products to the EU.
The hospitality sector is still shut and will miss the lucrative Easter spell for the second year running – ripping the heart out of many towns and villages.
Each month the local council publishes an “economic intelligence” report.
The most recent shows the impact of coronavirus on welfare claims.
“Numbers on Universal Credit have risen substantially,” it says.
“Between March and September numbers rose from 24,876 to 48,890, up 96.5%.
“Numbers on Jobseekers Allowance also rose from 823 to 1,771.”
The update shows how Cornwall struggles economically compared with the UK as a whole.
According to the bulletin, there are 27,000 “workless households” – 15.3%.
In the UK as a whole it is 14%.
In 2019, there were 34,000 “workless people” – 10.3% of those eligible compared with 9.7% for the UK.
People who have jobs earn almost a fifth less than average.
“Total resident gross annual earnings in 2019 equalled £20,353, 82% of the UK average,” it says.
Unemployment has hit Cornwall harder than the country as a whole.
In August 2020, the UK claimant unemployment rate (as a proportion of the population aged 16 to 64) was 6.6%.
However, in all six Cornish parliamentary constituencies – all won by Tories at the 2015, 2017 and 2019 general elections – it was higher than the UK average: 9.8% in Camborne and Redruth; 7.9% in North Cornwall; 7.6% in South East Cornwall; 9.1% in St Austell and Newquay; 6.9% in St Ives and 7.3% in Truro and Falmouth.
The figures are likely to have worsened over the winter because of seasonal unemployment, and hospitality businesses being closed for months under national coronavirus lockdowns.
But it is not all Covid-19's fault.
Gross value added in 2018 was £19,288 – just two-thirds of the UK average.
At the turn of the century, the county was so poor – one of western Europe's poorest – that it qualified for hundreds of millions of pounds of funding from Brussels under the EU's Objective One scheme.
One of the themes of the G7 meeting is set to be the fight against climate change – which ties in with the UK hosting the United Nations COP26 summit in Glasgow in November.
Cornwall Chamber of Commerce chief executive Kim Conchie hopes the G7 could pave the way for an employment revolution which meant young people could stay in Cornwall.
He believes the county never quite adapted to the last century.
Mr Conchie said: “The 20th Century didn't really suit Cornwall.
“It was the era of mass-production of homogenised products – we didn't have the scale or the skill or the nearness to market to really benefit from that.”
He wants June's summit to focus on highly-skilled industries such as renewable energy, with plans for a floating wind farm off the Cornish coast.
The duchy also has “the most access to sunshine and prevailing winds for solar and onshore wind energy”, he said.
Mr Conchie also pointed to lithium mining to power electric car batteries, and the Cornish space port due to fire satellites into low orbit.
He believes driving a green tech revolution will prevent an exodus of local youngsters forced to seek good employment prospects elsewhere.
“I would like to see jobs and careers created in those areas which will enable young people to stay here in a way that they haven't been able to for 150 years when people have had to leave and seek their fortune elsewhere,” he said.
“I hope this will be a pivotal moment in having the world's spotlight on Cornwall and some of those new areas which I think sit very comfortably with the Cornish psyche and the resources we have got here.”
The beach is stunning... but you won’t be allowed on it
It is 6.15am, sunrise is 18 minutes away and the beach in front of the five-star Carbis Bay Hotel is deserted.
Three seagulls squawk overhead in the grey blue sky, which is gently turning pink in the east.
Tthe only other signs of life are the boot marks and paw prints in the golden sand from yesterday's late-night dogs and their walkers.
In the distance stands Godrevy Lighthouse, which inspired Virginia Woolf's 1927 novel To the Lighthouse.
Less than three months from now this beach will be closed, a Royal Navy warship is likely to be stationed off St Ives Bay and the area will be locked-down, swarming with British police, US Secret Service agents and a host of international protection officers.
Gulls will compete with helicopters for aerial supremacy, and a “geofence” to block uninvited drones will be imposed as organisers try to preserve security at the G7 summit.
Work is underway to tidy the area around the hotel, which fronts onto the beach where dogs are banned between 10am and 6pm from May 15 to September 30 (so no frolicking in the sand, sorry, Dilyn).
The hotel's eight grass-topped lodges, separate from the main building – behind which stands an impressive four-arch viaduct carrying Great Western Railway trains on the single-track St Ives Branch Line – each boast a patio, hot tub and balcony overlooking the stunning bay.
The 1894 Restaurant and Bar could allow the Prime Minister to indulge his love of red wine after a tough day negotiating.
At 7am, the day now fully broken, two young women – one in a bikini, the other in a swimming costume – hesitantly enter the surf despite the 8C air temperature.
Perhaps in June Boris Johnson will follow their path and continue his enthusiasm for sea swimming at major global summits; he took an early-morning dip in the big Mediterranean waves crashing into the Biarritz coast during the G7 in August 2019.
Locals in Carbis Bay are largely bemused by the looming disruption and spectacle that will make their village's name famous across the world.
Retired home economics teacher Edna Holt-Heath, 91, has lived on its main street for 30 years.
She said: “It's only four days, I won't have to worry about it and I can put up with the inconvenience for a few days.
“It's interesting to get them out of London – they can see how the other half lives.”
Joanne Wiggin, 35, who runs Porthminster Beach Cafe, hopes the hordes of bodyguards, media and officials will give her restaurant a post-coronavirus boost.
“It's a good thing, it puts us on the map,” she said.
“I'm not sure how it's going to disrupt residents, getting to and from work and walking the coastal paths – maybe they will be shut.
“But I'm quite excited about it and looking forward to the boost we will get."
County where PM put rocket booster under his ambition
It was here on Truro's Lemon Quay on May 11, 2016 that Boris Johnson held aloft a Cornish pasty and boarded his bright red Brexit bus vowing to “Take Back Control”.
This is where his journey into No10 – and the UK's journey out of the EU – began.
Five years later, he is preparing for what will be the proudest moment of his premiership so far – hosting the world's most powerful leaders at a G7 summit in the Tory-held county where he put rocket boosters under his successful bid to become Prime Minister.
Morocco-born dad-of-two Walid Mardei, 35, remembered the day well.
Unemployed print worker Walid, of St Blazey, near Par, said: “When Boris came here in 2016 I was there, I recorded him on my phone.
“I'm angry with him now, I don't like politicians fighting all the time, I like them to be working together.”
But he was pleased global leaders will descend on Cornwall – and wanted them to discuss immigration.
“It's nice to have them here, and interesting, because it does matter to me,” he said.
“I'm originally from Morocco, I have lived in Spain, in Europe – I'm sure they will be talking about immigration, about leading the world.
“What they say and decide matters to everyone in England and the world.”
Retired senior civil servant Alan Lee, 81, of Truro, was sceptical about practical outcomes from leaders' negotiations.
He said: “Discussing is fine, doing is another matter. I find politicians say a lot but I wish they would say less and do more.”
Former horse logger Shaun Thomas, 45, of Chacewater, did not welcome the summit.
“It shouldn't be happening here, the amount of money and the environmental impact it will have is disgusting,” he said.
“It will bring people into Cornwall but is that the right thing today with this Covid?
“It's bad enough at the moment without half of England and abroad coming here.
“It should be in Brussels, that's the obvious place.”
He also doubted Britain's influence on world leaders, warning: “I'd like to see them talking about unemployment, it's a big problem here.
“But we are one piece in a universal problem.”
Ex-labourer Ellis Green, 62, of Truro, thought hosting the get-together in Cornwall was a good idea.
“We've got all these important world leaders coming over here and they can see what Cornwall is really like, if they haven't been here before,” he said.
“There's more to Cornwall than quaint villages and nice towns.
“I don't know exactly what goes on at these summits but if it brings investment into the local community it's good.
“They are here to do some serious chit-chat.”
Liz Steadman, 77, of Truro, expected global warming – “the most important thing” – to be high on the agenda.
“I worry for my grandchildren, they have got financial chaos because of the Covid problems and then they have got climate change,” said the retired primary school teacher.
But she feared an influx of officials, security and media could jeopardise the county's fightback against coronavirus.
“I'm not too sure with the Covid situation, I just hope it's safe and secure health-wise,” she admitted.
Retired deputy headmistress Susanne Stewart, 73, also worried about the summit becoming a super-spreader event.
She said: “In one respect I'm quite pleased they're coming because it puts Cornwall on the global map.
“But I'm not sure about it being in St Ives and Carbis Bay – there's no room.
“It's Catch-22 because for the economy it might be a good thing to bring all the people, but it's the timing.
“I'm concerned people will see the world leaders are here and will think, 'Oh well, we can come too'.”
Hunger and poverty beneath the surface
Twelve months ago Phil Kitson was earning, by most standards, a very good wage.
He is reluctant to reveal exactly how much but, when commission was included, it was thousands more than the average.
“I was always working, busy, good social life,” he confided.
“I was a bit of a holiday boy, lived the high life.”
Today, he is collecting an emergency food aid parcel from his doorstep, too embarrassed to let our photographer picture his face.
His face swathed in a black mask, Phil, who is in his late 40s, is also waiting for the results of a coronavirus test as he sits on a brown leather sofa in the darkened living room of his small terraced house on the edge of Truro city centre.
His self-described fall from middle-class comfort was triggered by the pandemic.
“I got made redundant through Covid, I was a recruitment consultant in hospitality,” he said.
“I've worked since I was 18 and I've put into the system.
“Now I'm on Universal Credit of £879 a month.”
After his £700-a-month rent, “there isn't much left”.
Three months ago, he was directed to his local Trussell Trust foodbank, at Truro Methodist Church.
He made an appointment but pulled out because he was too ashamed.
But the next time, he had to overcome his embarrassment so he could eat.
“I was like, 'Oh my God, I have no money left',” he said.
“I'd never had to use that sort of service before in my life. We've all been skint and lived above our means but not to the point where I looked in the fridge and freezer and there was nothing in there.
“It's been tough, it made me appreciate how much a can of beans costs.”
Some 25 miles from Phil's house, the leaders of the world's richest nations will meet to thrash out their responses to the issues gripping the globe.
Phil would like to see inequality form part of G7 discussions.
“They should be talking about poverty – we are supposed to be the fifth richest country in the world and they expect people to live on nothing,” he said.
“There's a definite imbalance between those that have and those that haven't.”
Phil plans to leave Cornwall once he has “got myself sorted out and back on my feet”.
“Everyone thinks it's a really beautiful, lovely place – which it is, but for old people and holidaymakers,” he said.
“In Cornwall, average wages are absolutely appalling. If you don't have a car you're stuffed because the buses are really expensive and not very reliable.”
The poverty Phil complains of is reflected in Trussell Trust statistics.
Its 10 Cornish foodbanks provided 13,395 parcels in 2015/16.
With each package containing enough food for three meals a day for three days, that equates to 120,555 meals.
Of the 13,395 parcels, 4,972 went to children, with enough food for 44,478 meals.
In 2019/20 – which does not include the impact of the pandemic, when nationwide demand for Trussell Trust help rocketed by 47% between April and September as the UK was gripped by the worst of the Covid-19 crisis – the charity provided 18,798 parcels in Cornwall, with enough food for 169,182 meals; a 40% increase in four years.
The rise was even more stark for kids, with 7,180 packages handed out – enough for 64,620 meals; a 44% hike.
In recent months the foodbank has provided parcels to student nurses, taxi drivers, postmen, teaching assistants and hospitality industry staff.
Foodbank trustee Wendy Vincent, 67, hoped the G7 summit will force leaders to tackle inequality.
“They should be looking at poverty and how they are going to make sure that ordinary people have enough money,” she said.
“There's so much contrast. On the surface you think Truro is an affluent area and wouldn't need a foodbank, but it's not true.”
Fellow trustee Janet Whitson-Fay hoped the leaders' security bubble will not prevent them seeing the unvarnished Cornwall.
“It's not really reality, what they're talking about, compared to what's happening here in Truro,” she said.
“The people who come here are genuine, working-class people but they are struggling to make ends meet.
“It's nice Cornwall is getting put on the map but they're definitely not going to get a fair representation of Cornwall – they are at a different standard of living to people who come here.
“I would encourage them to go and visit a foodbank because you get to see the reality of what's happening.”
Foodbank manager Simon Fann feared the leaders will “just come down and say, 'What lovely beaches you have here!'”
He warned: “Politicians should be more aware than the average visitor of what they have actually come down to – and that's the difference we are talking about with the summit.
“The Real Cornwall that I know is certainly beautiful scenery – I like enjoying that as much as anyone else.
“But if we are talking about the perception of Cornwall being an idyllic place, I don't think you can say it's an idyllic place if you have established and entrenched true poverty across the county.
“Policymakers and decision-makers need to have an awareness of what the frontline, real issue is.”
