Dawn

Dawn

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

In an interview with the Financial Times today, President Zapatero asserts that Spain has the political will to do whatever's required to ensure the country doesn't go the way of Greece. Shame this can't be said of the commitment to ban smoking in public places 'sometime' this year.

You couldn't make it up . . . I mentioned that my daughter in Leeds had received a letter from the UK National Health Service (NHS) about plans to centralise medical records on a huge new database. And I stressed the widespread concern about the reliability of government IT schemes. My mother received the same message and asked me to access the web page where she can elect to opt out. When I did so, I got the following message:- Sorry, an error occurred. We apologise for the inconvenience. Please wait a couple of minutes and try again. I did. Several times. With the same result. Impressive or what?

Relatedly, I see that “In the midst of the worst recession since the Second World War, average pay for NHS chief executives has gone up by 7 per cent.”

I had my annual game of golf today, with my old friend Mike, at the course in Birkenhead where caddying for my father as a kid instilled in me a deep hatred for the game. But today – in the glorious sunshine my two daughters are not getting in Madrid this week – it was an absolute joy. In part this was because we were joined by two Liverpudlians who asked us to make up a foursome. Like Spaniards, Scousers love to talk. And, like Spaniards, four hours with them leaves you feeling you’ve known them all your life. Though this isn’t always a good thing, of course.

Incidentally, the golf course entrance is opposite a vast cemetery. Every time we drove past it, my father used to say “This is the most popular place in town; people are dying to get into it.” Which drove me mad. So, naturally, I say it to my daughters every time we pass the cemetery in Pontevedra. How they laugh!

Finally . . . Visiting my sister in Liverpool last night, I came upon picture of a defecating dog stencilled every twenty metres or so on the pavement near her house - alongside the written instruction “Pick it up!”. Is there no limit to the barmy schemes Britain’s bureaucrats can dream up? Probably not. My guess is there’ll soon be a picture of a dog on every Liverpool lamppost with at least “Microchip them!” stencilled alongside it. But possibly “Don’t let them piss on this!”

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