Dawn

Dawn

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Binge Boozing; PP Problems; German Guidance; Noteworthy Notaries; Odd Ads; and Silly Searches

In the UK, even intelligent young people (both male and female), set out of an evening with the intention of getting seriously drunk and, quite possibly, violent. This has been a cultural aspect of the country for maybe hundreds of years - before Chaucer even - and is labelled 'binge drinking'. The government plans to attack the problem via the simple but controversial expedient of raising the minimum price of alcohol units. This, of course, will also hit the majority of drinkers who aren't a part of binge drinking even though, in the view of many, it won't make a whit's bit of difference to the problem. Interestingly, at the macro level the consumption of alcohol has fallen 20% in the UK over the last few years. From the Spanish perspective, it's inconceivable that one would set out to become uncontrollably drunk and possibly violent by the end of the night.

The markets have not taken well the news that Spain's governing party, the PP, failed to secure the expected control of Andalucia. This is a region famous, inter alia, for high levels of spend. And the failure can only complicate Sr. Rajoy's task of reining in regional expenditure.

It turns out that the EU officials sent to superintend the formation of Spain's 2012 budget will be bolstered by a delegation from - where else? - Germany. They arrive April 2 and will surely be warmly received. The good news is that Mrs Merkel has buckled under pressure from her colleagues and will now permit the enlargement of the fund meant to ensure that Spain doesn't go bankrupt when it runs out of its own money.

Notaries: Anglo readers will be asking "What on earth are they". This is because they play no part in your lives, where lawyers reign supreme. Not so in Spain, where lawyers have neither the income nor the status of their Anglo colleagues and where notaries are a regular feature of life. Basically, they're involved in almost all official transactions. Including the sale and purchase of property. An activity which made them very, very rich during Spain's phoney boom. An indication of how notaries are regarded can be seen in a recent government announcement that the 17 regions had made an undertaking to get rid of 400 public bodies this year and had done so 'before a notary'. This, it would seem, adds credibility to the promise. Though it doesn't mean it will be kept, of course.

This is getting ridiculous . . Early this morning my Facebook page had no fewer than 7 ads for dating sites. A few hours later a couple of them had been replaced by ads for car insurance companies. No idea why, except that mine comes up for renewal in early April. But how could they possibly know that . . . ? Makes you think.

I see there's a car in Formula 1 racing called HRT. Hormonal replacement therapy?

Finally . . . Two old favourites made their appearance in searches which brought folk to this blog yesterday:- 1. throw donkeys [off church roofs], and 2. faria alam naked

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