Yesterday I mentioned Tracy Emin and her
derisory bed. Today comes even worse news - Yoko Ono will
be exhibiting at Bilbao's Guggenheim when I visit it with old friends
next month. I wonder if the place is flammable.
The EU: Here's our Ambrose's take on
what Sunday means for the technocrats who run the project. A taster: "The EU
authorities are now in a near hopeless situation. The logic of EMU is
a further erosion of nation states." About which no one will be
unhappier than Marie Le Pen of the National Front, who feels that:
"The euro blocks all economic decisions . . .
France is not a country that can accept tutelage from Brussels. We
have succumbed to a spirit of slavery". Fighting talk.
But Omar Khayam said it all several
hundred years ago:-
Life is but a chequer-board of nights and days.
Where Brussels with the states for pieces plays,
Hither and thither moves and mates and slays
And one by one back in the closet lays
But can this go on much longer?
Life is but a chequer-board of nights and days.
Where Brussels with the states for pieces plays,
Hither and thither moves and mates and slays
And one by one back in the closet lays
But can this go on much longer?
Talking of several centuries, the
Spanish town hitherto called "Killjews" (Matajudios) has
voted to change itself to something less offensive. Reading about
this I discovered the answer to the question of why so many places in
the south contain the word frontera (frontier) in their names when
they're nowhere near Spain's borders. It's because they were once
along the border of the Muslim Kingdom of Granada. Simples.
I frequently say the Spanish
are exceptionally pragmatic. I was reminded of this today when
reading there are around 6,000 married priests in Spain and that
bishops turn a blind eye if priest in question stays out of
the media, doesn't attempt to persuade colleagues to abandon celibacy
and if marriage doesn't compromise his faith.
Finally . . . A new political party shot into the
Spanish firmament on Sunday, gaining 5 seats in the EU parliament,
even though it's a one-man-band. The party is Podemos ('We can') and
the man is Pablo Iglesias. Here's the reaction to his success and
here's a profile of the man himself. I doubt anyone knows where the
party will go from here or, most importantly, how much impact it will
have on the next general elections. So, interesting times.
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