Dawn

Dawn

Friday, February 12, 2016

Thoughts on things Spanish/Galician. Mostly.

Spanish (non)Government:Ahead of a meeting today with the leader of the PSOE party - whom the king has (vainly?) asked to try to get an administration together - (ex?) President Rajoy has done the normal Spanish thing and publicly insulted him. He is, says Rajoy, failing to defend the interests of Spain. A line intended to garner further support of the right wing of his already pretty right-wing PP party. But, as ever, he's had nothing to say about the next subject.

Spanish Corruption:
  • The French Institute of Geopolitics fingers the Murcia region as the worst/best in urban corruption. Over 50% of Murcian town halls have corruption issues, it says. I guess this is on the basis of what's public. It might well not be true.
  • The almost-certainly-corrupt PP ex-mayoress of Valencia, has been given a large degree of of inviolability via a job in the Senate. For which she might not have to exert too much effort. This is yet more evidence that the PP party, at least, doesn't much worry about the public perception of it. Tribal loyalties and right-wing fear can be relied on to get them the most votes (“victory”) in the almost-inevitable repeat elections of June. Or September, as the betting is now moving towards. Anyway, it seems that the said lady may yet be prosecuted in the Supreme Court. So it's not all bad news. Except for her, of course.
  • As is the norm here, 2 senior ex-politicians have recently gone to the board of one or other of the oligopolistic companies which profitably provide telecom services or utilities here. Where I'm sure they'll do a great job. In keeping their families rich.
  • A chap who earned €37k per annum for 7 years in Cadiz town hall without ever appearing for work has been instructed to pay back a mere €26.9k – the max under the law. My guess is everything will be in his wife's name and they won't even get this back. Spanish practices and all that.
Bank rapacity: By simply increasing everything and re-introducing fees abolished, a few years ago, when they briefly actually competed with each other, our banks earned €19.3m last year. Or 5% more than in 2014, when inflation was at zero. Nice pure profit, if you can get it. Which, through inertia and lack of true competition, they surely can.

Good News: Info on Spain: Someone - not sure who - has published a free guide to buying a place here. Get it hereAnd possibly elsewhere.

Bad News From Galicia:
  • Trying to evade a strict father and to enjoy the pre-Lenten Entroido festivities, a young woman tied her sheets together and then tried to descend 5 floors. Or 20 metres. She got halfway and then fell. She's now in a serious condition in the hospital. I wonder how her father now feels.
  • Podemos bigwigs have sacked the board of their Pontevedra operation. Not sure why but it seems they weren't too kind about the local nationalist, left-wing Podemos associate, En Marea.
Finally . . . With a HT to my friend Trevor of Kalebeul, here's another funny Irish video, this time of the southern variety. It starts well and just gets funnier and funnier, despite one's best intention. So much so that it leaves you wondering whether it's as genuine as it seems.

No comments: