Here's
a surprise - 95% of Spaniards don't believe the Public Prosecutor
when he bangs on about there being no case to be answered by the
princess who's married to the guy currently being tried for
malversion of public funds into their shared bank accounts. But does
this mean that she'll face trial at some time? I rather doubt it.
The Establishment has closed ranks. And petty magistrates have no power against this.
And
another non-surprise - Despite the government constantly telling us
that the corner has been turned (but not about the EU demanding
further austerity next year), 88% of Spanirds say they haven't
noticed signs of improvement. And 75% of them don't believe Spain is
beginning to emerge from La Crisis.
I've
been to a couple of Spanish weddings but until I spoke to a local friend about them yesterday, I didn't know I was supposed to
contribute money at them. Indeed, in today's Business over Tapas,
Lenox advises that I should have purchased a bit of the brides'
garters. But, anyway, I mention this because Lenox also tells us
that the Spanish Tax Office wants in on the plentiful cash spent at
weddings, christenings, first communions, community parties and the
like. So inspectors have been instructed to attend. With warrants?
To
me, this is a good example of how life in Spain has become rather
more officious than it was when I came here a dozen years ago. In
this time I've seen many measures introduced which seemed to be
designed more to wring money out of people than for any other reason.
For example, the range of motoring offences is now so vast and the
police so vigilant that, as someone has said, the only way to avoid
regular fines is to stay off the roads. This supersedes my
long-standing advice to drive everywhere outside the towns at at
50kph. In the latter case, you might, for example, put one wheel on a
white line when a police car is stationed at the side of the road. Or there's a camera. Actually, things are now so bad that there was a report from the
South last week of a couple of traffic cops fabricating a series of
offences in order to get 100 euros from a driver. One of these was
that he'd made a phone call while driving. Which was dropped when the
phone's record was shown. Just before said phone was knocked from his
hand. I don't know if it was relevant that the driver was a (soft
touch) Brit, who just happened to speak Spanish.
Which
reminds me . . . several times in the last week the Guardia Civíl
had had a road block at the roundabout halfway down the hill. But
only for traffic coming up the hill. And they've always been around
7.30pm, a strange time to be checking for drunk drivers. The
roundabout is situated just before the road splits to pass both of our
permanent gypsy encampments and herein may lie a clue. I will ask as
and when I'm stopped, prior to which I will have to rip out my
earpieces, as having them in is one of the petty offences I
mentioned. Even if I'm listening to a BBC podcast at less than a
quarter of the decibels of a single Spanish passenger.
Finally
. . . Bloody Gibraltar: Spain's Foreign minister, Motormouth
Margallo, has said that the ship which entered Gib waters last week was acting
under EU orders to survey the sea floor and he has told the Spanish public
that Spain "always follows the law". Putting aside the
latter dubious claim, I guess we're expected to believe that the EU
also ordered the massive rise in incursions into Gib waters since
this right-wing PP government took over from the PSOE government that
was making progress in seeking a tripartite solution to this old
problem. This show will surely run and run, as right wingers tend not
to believe in compromise. Or retreat.
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