I
mentioned yesterday the Catholic Church's success in getting the
'conservative' PP government to reverse some of the policies
implemented by the previous 'socialist' PSOE administration. Flushed with
success, the Church is now demanding that Religion should not
only be a full Bachillerato subject but compulsory as
well. It's a racing certainty that the majority of Spain's population
would be against this - as it would take time from vastly
more important subjects - so it'll be interesting to see how the
government responds. I suspect there's be some foot-dragging.
Corruption
1:
You'll recall that one of the
King's daughters has not yet joined her husband in the dock around
the diversion of public funds into a sham company (Aizoon), en route
to their bank accounts. In part this is thanks to the efforts of the
Public Prosecutor (a government appointee) to stop the investigating
judge arraigning her. But now comes another example of skulduggery
and the question of her guilt and prosecution has again raised
its head. It seems she was party to a contract of office rental,
both as owner and tenant. This ruse artificially lowered the earnings
of Aizoon, reducing its tax bills. Strangely, it's the
right-of-centre El
Mundo which
has revealed this stuff. Does the Establishment now feel her time is
up?
Corruption
2: The mayor of the small town of Barbadás here in Galicia is
having his day in court, responding to the question of how he managed
to pay €650,000 in cash to a single developer for 8 flats. His
explanation for this will be of interest, as will that of why his
company and the developer's shared an office down in Portugal.
Talking
of properties - the national overhang is now said to number at least
800,000. Sales are still taking place but the impact of these is
reduced by the fact that new properties are still coming onto the
market 5 years after the boom peaked. This is because, as with those
behind my house, it can take more than 5 years to build properties
here. Though the average may be around 2 years, at a guess. Anyway,
the government is now said to be considering the option of
demolishing properties, as in the USA and Ireland. But will they
finish them first?
The
majority of the Spanish Cabinet members graduated as lawyers. The interesting
thing about this is that, whereas lawyers rank high in Anglo Saxon
cultures, they fall below notaries and even property registrars here
in Spain. Indeed, they rank below most other occupations, as
evidenced by the low marks in the Selectividad
exam demanded for entry into law faculties. Sr Rajoy is both a notary
and a property registrar. This possibly explains why he's so boring
but also suggests he's quite bright. As for his cabinet colleagues .
. . probably not. But they do have good connections.
I
moaned about the poor service of Honda's local agent the other day.
This morning came some sort of explanation from Honda; the company is no
longer their agent. Honda have been kind enough to give me the
details of their agents in other Galician cities, the nearest of
which, Vigo, is around 30km from here and so is a fat lot of use to
me. I guess the only questions now are whether the ex-agent is still
a going concern and whether they will still competently service my
car. Isn't life a bitch? And arbitrary. In some countries more than
others.
Finally
. . . Life is also full of surprises; It turns out the young Moldovan
friend of the captain of the ill-fated Concordia
was his sleeping partner after all. Who'd have guessed it?
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