The
murder of the Presidenta of the León Province by a disgruntled
mother is throwing up some interesting questions: How did the
murderer get hold of 2 handguns from a drug addict in Galicia?; Why
was there a kilo and a half of marijuana in her house?; Did she
really have 6 abortive attempts to shoot her victim?; and was her
husband having an affair with the politician? The latter rumour has
yet to make the media - possibly because he's the chief of police -
but a Spanish friend swears it's common knowledge.
When
I first came to Spain, there was a wealth tax (Patrimonio)
which hit everyone with a relatively small amount of (declared)
capital. This was abolished by the PSOE government during the boom
years and then brought back - with a much higher base - by the PP
government a couple of years ago. Now it's been announced that the
Patrimonio is to be re-scrapped and replaced as a source of
income by an increase in municipal taxes (the IBI). I may be wrong
but I suspect this is the opposite of what's recommended by the new
economic guru, the Frenchman Thomas Pikkety. He abhors the growing
gap between the very rich and the rest of us and suggests they be
subjected to wealth taxes. Spain is different.
Folk
in each EU country were asked to respond to the question: Our
country could better face the future outside the EU: Only Cyprus
and the UK had a majority who agreed with this. Spain's populace
didn't of course, by a long way. The numbers:-
Agree: UK 47 Spain 23 Cyprus 51 EU average 32
Disagree:
UK 41 Spain 60 Cyprus 43 EU average 58
Britain
is different.
I
attended a concert by the Pontevedra concert last night. Very
enjoyable but I do get tired with all the semi-compulsory clapping at
the end of the evening. Surely the technology is available for a
'clapometer' on the back of the seat in front of you, so you can use
a knob to give the volume of applause merited.
Finally
. . . Since I continue to get internet cuts, you can imagine how
pleased I was to see that Telefónica has 4 executives in the top 30
best paid in the country. More than anyone else, of course. Worth
every penny. At least if you're a shareholder, rather than a
customer. Takes me right back to the bad old days of BT.
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