The president of
Santander Bank died suddenly today, at 79. From the Spanish media
reaction, you'd have thought it was God. Or at least his son. See
here for a more cynical view of his achievements. Need I say that one
of his children will succeed him, even though it's a public company.
Presumably he left instructions for the passing of the baton.
So, whither
Scotland? Anybody's guess, I guess. I've long thought that the Scots
would have more sense than to leave the UK but it now looks
increasingly likely that most of them have fallen for Salmond's
pollyanna tosh and his stupid anti-London rhetoric. The worst
outcome, I suspect, is that the vote will be narrowly in favour of
Scotland staying in the Union. For a long time, the English attitude
- based on a belief break-up wouldn't happen - has been: Let the
subsidised, whinging buggers go if they really want to. But if
only a small majority vote to stay, this will surely change to: Let's
get rid of the ungrateful, money-sucking, whinging bastards.
Especially now they're going to get even more devolution and even
more of our money. So, any outcome is rife with more problems
than anyone can think of, without immediate solutions of any sort,
let alone easy ones. So all-in-all, a disaster. For which, of course,
Conservative and Labour parties will blame each other. Unless they
can agree to all blame Tony Blair, who started it all off. Without
giving much thought to it, it was said at the time. I suppose the
only good news is that Britain doesn't have either a written
Constitution or a Constitutional Court. So, some common sense might
be possible during the fraught negotiations to come.
One thing's for
sure - Not many in England will be sympathetic to any requests for
financial assistance for Scotland - e. g. to shore up its banks - if
Scotland were to go and then later realise it wasn't all plain
sailing. Worse, that they'd made a mistake, selling their heritage
for a mass of potage.
But back to daily
life in Spain - "Three soldiers, one Civil Guard officer and a
policeman have been arrested in connection with a highly
sophisticated cocaine and hash smuggling ring busted on Tuesday in
different parts of mainland Spain."
And one of
Spain's most colourful crooks - Carlos Fabra - will not have to go to
jail, says a judge, pending resolution of the question of a pardon
from the government. Who can be surprised?
Finally . . . You
might be tempted to think that the adjective 'cool' - meaning,
clever, admirable, etc. - is of recent origin. Actually, it was
already in use in the 14th century, when Chaucer wrote:
Thow thynkist
in thyn wit that is ful cole You think in your wit that is full
cool
That he nys
but a verray propre fole That he is nowt but a very proper fool
Or
maybe this is an urban legend.
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