Dawn

Dawn

Monday, June 27, 2016

Ponters Pensées: 27.6.16

The Spanish Repeat General Elections: Well, as I expected, the far-left Podemos ploy of uniting with the communist party has backfired and the right-wing PP party has emerged stronger from these, though still with isufficient seats to form a government without a coalition partner or two. Meanwhile, some commentators are blaming the Brexit for forcing some voters to choose the devil they knew, rather than risk things with untried parties of the Left - despite all the corruption in which the PP party is dripping. Well, why not? Brexit's being held responsible for everything bad right now, including global warming. But, anyway, there'll be more weeks, even months, of uncertainty here now. Not that the last 6 months of it has done us much harm.

Texting in Spanish: Young(ish) Spaniards use a bewildering series of obbreviations for this. Then they make spelling errors, such as using B instead of a V, because they're pronounced the same. And then there are folk, such as my neighbour, the lovely Ester, who doesn't bother to correct her mistakes. It can be very confusing.

Rumanian Crooks: Lying down in the square opposite the Santiago cathedral entrance on Friday, I was approached by 2 of the 3 women there defrauding happy pilgrims by claiming to be collecting for the national association for the deaf and dumb. All of this within 100 metres of the central police station. Then on Saturday I was approached by the same women while sitting on a café terrace. I made it clear I knew they were criminals and asked the café staff to call the police. who never turned up, of course. Your guess is as good as mine as to why not.

The Brexit: The UK media line is that there's no plan for going forward. Well, there is, of course, and it's called The Flexcit. Here's the exasperated author of it - Richard North - on this subject: Sky News's Faisal Islam "reveals" that Vote Leave doesn't have an exit plan. The apparent absence of any such plan is adding to the uncertainty but, in terms of the media narrative, this is undoubtedly deliberate. Faisal knows full well of the existence of Flexcit. Yet he – and even journalists who have previously mentioned it - are studiously ignoring its existence. There is a certain wilful stubbornness about this, which defies rational expectation. Even MPs and others, anxious to block the ascendency of Mr Johnson, and who are thus determined to produce their own plans, are ignoring the material in front of them, preferring to reinvent the wheel, mostly in any shape but round. We thus see all around us the beginnings of the debate that we should have been having before the referendum, but at so basic a level that issues we were discussing four or five years ago are now only just being aired.

The EU: Can there be anyone more arrogant and stupid in Brussels than the president, Mr Juncker? He just doesn't seem to get it and continues to treat the British people like ignorant, uppity kids. And to do nothing about immoral/criminal banking back home Luxemburg.  A classic tehnocrat, of the sort we've all come to hate. And presumably now very worrried about his job and his gold-plated pension.

Finally . . . . Rail Travel in Spain: If you're over 60, you can get a discount card from the national operator, RENFE. This is called La Tarjeta Dorada. In English, The Gold Card. Or, rather, this is what it should be. But RENFE apparently use an 11 year old with a dictionary for their English translations. He or she has given them The Sea Bream Card. You can guess why.


Camino Note: Interesting to see that the Spanish Post Office (Correos) is taking bags forward to your next stop for only €3 each. At least on the English Way. This compares with €10 to 16 we were paying on the Coastal Way 2 weeks ago.


Having struggled for years with very old, small contenadores, we at my end of our street have now been given not one but two sets of big new ones, 50 metres apart. There must have been an election imminent . . .



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