Podemos is the
left-of-centre political party which rose out of the Indignados movement of a couple
of years ago. I attended - briefly - one of their rallies in Madrid
last week. Their politics may be a tad too far to the left for me,
but I like their colour. Not a lot of men, though:-
Outside Madrid, as you
drive to or from the north west, there's a vast cross up in the
hills. Below this are a basilica and an abbey. All of these are
monuments to Franco's victory and his slaughter of Republican
fighters, supporters and prisoners-cum-slave-workers. They shouldn't be there but they
are. Worse, it's unlikely they'll disappear in the foreseeable
future, thanks to Spain's decision to forget the Civil War. Here's
The Economist on this.
One of the latest
victims of the continuing(?) recession here has been the large gym in
the small industrial estate by the gypsy encampment down the hill.
I'm guessing membership plummeted after the January surge. I did once
get details of prices, but never joined.
Which reminds me . . .
One of the promises of the ruling council in my barrio is to finally drive a road from the stump at a roundabout
on the main road out of Pontevedra. This will let the resort-bound
traffic bypass the bottleneck down by the bridge. But it will go
straight through said gypsy encampment and its illegal homes. Two
birds with one stone? Either way, sparks will surely fly.
So, did you know that,
apart from all the ones you do know, all the following were born on
Merseyside?:-
- Daniel Craig
- Patricia Routledge (Hyacinth Bucket)
- Rex Harrison
- Glenda Jackson
- George Melly
- Simon Rattle
- Anne Robinson
- Leonard Rossiter ('Rigsby in Rising Damp')
- Adrian Boult
Finally . . . I loved this recollection of a Times columnist: It reminded me of the award made by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire to the Countess of Salisbury following the signing of the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. She was awarded the Turkish Order of Chastity (Third Class).
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