Funny RT; Spanish manners; Mercedes the Brave; & Another old song

It's fun to watch the Russian RT channel. You don't have to do so for long to discern its agenda. I've watched state-controlled TV in other countries but, apart from South Africa years ago, none has been in English - allowing me to quickly appreciate what's going on. The current aim of RT is to prove that the EU is a corrupt, undemocratic, power-hungry entity which is a cover for a new German empire and solely responsible for the problems in the Ukraine. A description that, apart from the German empire bit, would more closely fit Russia.

According to RT, the EU and the USA are now hypocritically determined to resist the democratic expression of the will of the Crimean people, having supported self-determination elsewhere for their own political ends. Useful tools in this are the likes of the Bill Cash, a long standing British eurosceptic MP. Yesterday Bill got more air time in one day than in his entire previous career. This is because Bill is a long-standing eurosceptic who thinks the Crimea problem has been caused by the EU. He was allowed to speak at length without interruption, mainly because he was doing the work of the Moscow propaganda ministry without needing any help from them. On screen, words and sentences taken from Cash's address were flashed up in a determinedly partisan fashion. So, in the manner of the selective quotes we see in blurbs for theatre shows or books, we were told 'there's a lot of corruption in the EU'; but not 'as there is in Russia'. As I say, fun to watch.

Bill Cash, by the way, spoke a lot of sense. What was disagreeable was not his views but the way they were distorted to grind the Russian axe. Talking of Brits on RT, there can't be a controversial TV channel without the egregious George Galloway as one of its contributors. And RT duly obliges. George, by the way, doesn't appear to know how the word eschewed is pronounced, giving us escued. Oddly, he has taken to wearing Pakistani-type shirts. Or perhaps it's not so odd given his standard pseudo-Muslim persona. When he isn't in a cat suit, lapping milk from the hand of Rula Lenska. 

But back to Spain . . . A couple of aspects of society not mentioned in my piece on Spanish manners and brought to my attention by readers are time-keeping and the saying of Please and Thank-you. I'll get to these, and possibly others, in due course. Driving and pedestrian courtesies is/are a third addition, I've just thought of. 

One of Spain's more famous judges - Mercedes Alaya - is dealing with a huge corruption case (ERE) down in Andalucia. Demonstrating that she believes an ex-politician from there to be - in all likelihood - guilty, Ms Alaya has imposed a bond of €30m on her. This is serious money, even for a corrupt Spanish politician. But I wouldn't be astonished if it were found. Incidentally, the never-smiling Ms Alaya is a media favourite not just because of the corruption trial but also because she's a reasonably attractive 40-something and because she has good dress sense. Which doesn't mean, though, she goes in for the decolletage of the TV News reporters. 

Finally . . . A while ago, I listed a few songs I'd learnt at primary school, wondering whether they're still taught but assuming not. By chance, I came across another yesterday - The Minstrel Boy - which I hadn't known was an Irish song. You can hear it here. Seems it was the back-track to Black Hawk Down. You can tell it's Irish from the (now American) misuse of the word 'bring', instead of 'take'.