- It's a very ancient entity, once the very seat of absolute, divine right monarchs.
- It has its own government and rulers, who ignore the rest of the country in their own interests.
- It has its own language - Bankese - which none of us understand.
- It has its own culture, largely centred on eating, drinking and attending concerts.
- It has its own national dress - a suit and red braces(suspenders).
- It has its own national dance - the swagger.
- It contributes a disproportionate percentage of the total GDP.
- It subsidises lazy bastards elsewhere in the country, albeit in the North is this case.
- It is so self-centred and greedy that the rest of the country is fed up with it.
So, yes.
Independence for the City of London. Meanwhile, if you want one
perspective on the Catalan issue (from someone who lives there),
click here. Unless you are Charles Butler.
A few years
ago, a scientist called Alan Sokal, fed up with the nonsense being
spouted by egregious
deconstructionists and postmodernists, decided to compose a "pastiche
of left-wing cant, fawning references, grandiose quotations, and
outright nonsense, structured around the silliest quotations I
could find about mathematics and physics". He submitted it to
the journal Social Text. Which, despite it being absolute
tosh, printed it. You can read the article here and read more about the affair here.
I had a dim
memory that this sort of thing had also been done for the deconstructured English
language, when computer-generated nonsense had been accepted for
publication but can't find any evidence of this. But I did come
across this fascinating list of hoaxes and hoaxsters. Which includes
Uri Geller, to the possible surprise of some.
Just
following up what I wrote yesterday re ADIF and its response to the
Santiago train crash. . . Referring to its (inescapable) decision to
improve its safety systems, the company added: "These [new]
signs will boost safety but the system is already safe." This
reminded me of the waiver stamped on the airwaybill of the dog I
brought back from Iran - "British Airways accepts no liability
for death caused by mortality." Or vice versa.
Spain is
getting €100m from the European Investment Bank (a loan?) to
"co-finance projects in areas such as services; telecoms; health
and education; energy; water; sewage and solid waste; industry; urban
infrastructure; and transport." The best aspect of this bonanza
is that €13.3m is to go on telecoms here in Galicia. Is it too much
to hope that some of this will finance a new exchange in my barrio
so that we get the 6 mega internet we pay for but never get anywhere
near? I fear not.
Intriguing
to read that, once Spain increases it to 16, the only place in Europe
where the age of consent will still 13 is the Vatican State. But are
there any females in the Vatican? Or does this provision also apply
to males? Implicitly if not explicitly.
Finally . .
. And talking of investment in our barrio, this is what it
looks like outside my front gate right now, as new gas pipes are
being laid.
So, more dust
and round-the-clock noise. This is at the initiative of the
Presidenta of our community. I'd say a lot more about this if she
wasn't my next-door neighbour, the lovely Ester.
Footnote: My internet speed right now is just 4% of what I'm charged for. In what other industry could you get away with this atrocious level of service?
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