There's
an election in the UK next year. As ever, one of the key issues will
be the (overstretched) national health service (NHS). And, as usual,
the main parties will posture and outright lie on what they've done
and will do in respect of this paste jewel in Britain's crown. The
key element will be one which hardly enters political discourse in
other western European countries - how much involvement will be there
be of private healthcare companies? Here in Spain, as in Germany,
France, etc,. this is simply taken for granted and isn't seen as
contentious. Back in the UK, the Labour Party regards itself as
having sole proprietary rights to the world's first national health
service and, with a weak leader, sees allegations of imminent Tory
privatisation of the NHS as its trump electoral card. Truth, of
course, is the first casualty of this quinquennial war of nonsense.
In which the most laughable claim is that the NHS is still ´the envy
of the world'. If they only knew. But, of course, they do. And they
realise it would be political death to say otherwise. What a farce.
In which the most amusing line is always - "When we get in,
we'll completely reform the NHS and throw even more money at it than
the other lot." I say 'amusing' but I mean 'depressing'.
A
minute after writing that, I came across this article on the NHS by
Janet Daley on the NHS monster. For only those with a keen interest
in it.
Corruption:
Reader Las Revenants has answered my question about other corrupt developed
countries. Japan, it seems, may be even worse. Which I didn't know.
The
new house below me has now been under construction for two and a half
years. But nothing has happened there for at least 6 months.
Yesterday I saw someone taking stuff from the site and naturally
suspected theft. But I checked the name on his van and found it to be an
engineering consultancy in town. So I guess they're trying to recoup
their losses. The owners may or may not be worried by the Galician
government's recent introduction of a fine of up to €25,000 for
those who leave their houses unfinished. Of which there are an awful
lot in the region, helping to account for the national reputation of
feismo, or 'ugliness', I mentioned the other say.
A conversation
with my cleaning lady tonight:
How
much do I owe you, Teresa?
Nothing.
You gave me 2 weeks' money last week and I owe you 2 euros.
Very
honest of you, Teresa.
Well,
we're not taking about thousands, are we? It's hardly worth being
dishonest for 2 euros.
Just a question of degree, then.
Finally
. . . Walking home today, I saw this Hyundai ad at the start of the
bridge.
I
don't know whether it's brilliant or daft. As Pensando en 5 means
'Thinking of 5', I guess it's a play on cinco, or 'five'. So,
Cinking becomes 'Thinking', as the C is pronounced Th. Except it
isn't in parts of Spain and all of South America, where it's an S. So
Cinking is 'Sinking' there. But I'm sure it makes sense to some ad agency.
No comments:
Post a Comment