Corruption:
Much closer to home this time. The Secretary General of the left-wing
PSOE in Galicia is in deep water. This is one of the 2 big cases
which, it's said, have persuaded the president of the PSOE not to
attack the president of the (outgoing?) PP party on this subject.
Glass houses and stones, etc.
Pontevedra:
I took my first look at the Wikipedia page on my city this morning
and, to my disappointment, found nothing to argue with. It seems it
was last updated in 2008 and I had to laugh at the comment that: It
is expected that the AVE high-speed train will reach Pontevedra in
2014.[needs update]. But I was pleased to read that Since 1999
Pontevedra has seen a cultural revival, as this is when I came on the
scene . . . I was also intrigued to discover that the archer on top
of a bank building is a representation of Teucro, the mythical Greek
founder of the city. I'd always thought it was someone else. Finally,
I tried to add my blog to the External References but I'm not
sure I was successful. So, it may be some time before I figure in the
list of Notable People.
It
had to come to this: Back in the UK, an Iranian driver was
arrested for 'racially aggravated aggression', after he labelled a
traffic warden 'English'. Possibly with a well-known noun after it.
Equality at last. On a similar theme . . . A woman in the UK was arrested for attacking an off-duty policewoman in a road-rage incident. Good to know woman have caught up at last.
Equality at last. On a similar theme . . . A woman in the UK was arrested for attacking an off-duty policewoman in a road-rage incident. Good to know woman have caught up at last.
The
Pope Francis Community: After blocking
their posts on my Google+ page, I'm now being hit by Anonymous
Zeal, who've
announced: We just
gonna spam this community? If we are going to list our complaints I
guess I will as well. During the dark ages and beyond that the
Catholic religion made the public believe they had to pay money to be
saved. Paying to get into church, paying so they could pray to the
bones of past popes. Also Catholics believe that the pope is "chosen
chosen by god"and is able to change or add on to the bible. If
the foundation of the religion was built on greed and lies about
paying money to be saved etc then how do you still trust it? They
lied, They stopped humanity from advancing for a long time killing
people who thought to change society. So,
there, Frankie.
Final
thought . . . It should be illegal for people to put small, round
candles in the same dish as small, round bars of soap, especially
upside down so you can't see the wick. It can lead to several
frustrating minutes in the bathroom.
BREXIT
SUPPLEMENT
It
seems that the hierarchy of questions for those Brits who are allowed
to vote (not me, incidentally) are:
- Purely on the basis of national interest, should I vote to stay in or to get out of an undemocratic plutocracy/bureaucracy/technocracy/kleptocracy which – because it's a committee of 28 committees - makes an unholy mess of everything it tries to do?
- How much does my subjective, personal interest override this objective position?
For
the Outers, Richard North of EU Referendum is gettingincreasingly irritated by the antics of those on his side.
Especially, the ineffable Boris Johnson: Why do we have to put up
with this man-child prattling his inanities, and why should anyone
begin to take him seriously – except the media which has
degenerated to an advanced state of infantilisation? If we allow it,
Boris Johnson will cripple this campaign - him and the stupid people
around him who have neither the brains nor the humility to realise
how wrong they are. They are far more dangerous and damaging than the
"remain" campaign. More of this here.
For
the Inners, here's the equally ineffable Jeremy Clarkson,
giving his rather odd reasons for staying in; with the help of the
British media, the EU monster can be reformed into what it was meant
to be. Whatever that really was. As he admits, and I as I've said, no
one really has any clue what the economic consequences will be and
those who say they do are simply lying. Or fooling themselves:-
Call
up the paparazzi army to take Brussels — and keep us in Europe
After
a month of campaigning for a normal election, we are usually fed up
with the mudslinging and the over-analysis and the infernal polls.
But this Brexit referendum seems different, because it seems we are
not.
Everywhere
I go, people are asking the same thing. Are you in or out? Freed from
the rich-versus-poor tribalism of a general election, everyone’s
listening, everyone’s thinking, everyone’s calmly trying to make
up their mind.
Of
course, it’s being billed by the media as some kind of personal
heavyweight showdown between Bouncing Boris and Call Me Dave.
Which would mean we’d have to choose between a man who has screwed
up London’s roads to indulge his love of a Victorian transport
system. And a man whose wife we quite fancy.
Sadly,
however, we are not choosing which Old Etonian we prefer. It’s more
complicated than that, and we need the proper campaigning because
none of us really knows what’s for the best.
I
have spoken in recent weeks to super-rich businessmen who do not know
what an exit would mean for commerce, and I’ve spoken to hedge fund
managers who are similarly clueless about the effect such a move
would have on the City. These guys are opinion formers. They have the
ears of ministers. And they’re all standing around at parties with
their palms upturned and their shoulders shrugged saying: “We don’t
know.”
Normal
people reckon it all comes down to immigration. Will we have more
Syrians if we stay in the EU than if we leave? And no one knows the
answer to that one either. Or whether it’s a good thing ultimately.
Or whether it’s just a phase the world’s going through and it’ll
all be over when Putin stops bombing Aleppo.
What
we think we know is that if Britain chooses to leave, the Scottish
will say, “Och aye the noo,” and refuse to come with us. Which
would mean immigrants could catch a boat to Edinburgh and then simply
walk into England. Which would mean we’d have to rebuild Hadrian’s
Wall. Or would we? Again, I’m not sure.
I
suppose that now is as good a time as any to declare my hand. I’m
with the man whose wife we fancy. I’m in.
When
Mr Cameron was touring Europe recently, seeking a better deal for
Britain by sucking up to the leaders of such places as Romania and
Hungary, I watched on YouTube an MEP called Daniel Hannan make an
anti-EU speech to a group of, I think, students. It was brilliant.
One of the best speeches I’ve ever heard. And, I’ll admit, it
made me question my beliefs. But despite his clever, reasoned and
passionate plea for us to leave Europe, I’m still in. He talked
sense, but a lot of this debate is about how we feel.
In
1973 my parents held a Common Market party. They’d lived through
the war, and for them it seemed a good idea to form closer ties with
our endlessly troublesome neighbours. For me, however, it was a
chance to make flags out of coloured felt and to eat exotic foods
such as sausage and pasta. I felt very European that night, and I
still do.
Whether
I’m sitting in a railway concourse in Brussels or pottering down
the canals of southwestern France or hurtling along a motorway in
Croatia, I feel way more at home than I do when I’m trying to get
something to eat in Dallas or Sacramento. I love Europe, and to me
that’s important.
I’m
the first to acknowledge that so far the EU hasn’t really worked.
We still don’t have standardised electrical sockets, and every
member state is still out for itself, not the common good. This is
the sort of thing that causes many people to think, “Well, let’s
just leave and look after ourselves in future.”
I
get that. I really do. And after I’d watched Hannan’s speech,
that’s briefly how I felt too. But, actually, isn’t it better to
stay in and try to make the damn thing work properly? To create a
United States of Europe that functions as well as the United States
of America? With one army and one currency and one unifying set of
values?
Britain,
on its own, has little influence on the world stage. I think we are
all agreed on that. But Europe, if it were well run and had cohesive,
well thought-out policies, would be a tremendous force for good. I
think we are all agreed on that as well. So how do we turn Europe
from the shambles it is now into the beacon of civilisation that it
could be in the future?
The
answer, I think, lies with the press. Today, in Britain, an MP cannot
even put a cup of coffee on expenses without being torn to pieces by
the media. A duck house will get him the sack. He can’t look at a
pretty girl or pick his nose, and woe betide any of them who says
something that is slightly at odds with what they’ve said before.
Or with what the leader is thinking.
British
MPs work and play in the glare of powerful follow-spots. They are
monitored constantly by the newspapers . . . the same newspapers that
tell us these people are powerless because these days all the big
decisions are made in Brussels.
Right.
So let’s switch our attention. Let’s leave the “parish
councillors” alone and concentrate our big guns on the real
decision makers in Brussels. Let’s have hacks outside their houses
all day long, waiting for one of them to do or say something wrong.
Let’s make them accountable. Let’s turn them from “faceless
bureaucrats” into household names.
That
is the biggest problem with the EU right now. Nobody is really
concentrating on its leaders. Nobody is saying: “Hang on a minute .
. .” And this means they are running amok.
It’s
why we need to stay in. So our famously attentive media can try to
stop them. To make them pause before they move. To make the Continent
work the way the Continent should — as a liberal, kind, balanced
fulcrum in a mad world that could soon have Trump on one side and
Putin on the other.
One of my favourite snaps of Gracie, my granddaughter:
One of my favourite snaps of Gracie, my granddaughter:
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