Dawn

Dawn

Friday, April 16, 2010

You might not know that the volcano currently causing travel chaos in much of Europe is called Eyjafjallajökull. Which says it all really. I think.

Here in Britain the big news is that the almost unknown leader of the small Liberal party wiped the floor with the leaders of the two large parties in the first of three pre-election TV debates. Such is the depth of the antipathy towards politicians in the UK, the sad fact is the majority of viewers appear to have been impressed by nothing more than a ‘plague on both houses’ stance which one commentator rightly dismissed as a “pious, sanctimonious, oleaginous, not-me-guv display of cynical self-righteousness.” Which reminds me of the old saying that no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the public. But these are undoubtedly interesting times. And amusing too. For one commentator – inevitably in the left-of-centre Guardian – disagreed with 99.99% of other viewers in concluding that Gordon’s Brown’s wooden performance had won the day for him. That’s loyalty for you.

At the European level, events around the EU support for Greece continue to dumbfound, leaving the future even more difficult to predict. The off-the-wall suggestion of a couple of weeks ago that the denouement might even be Germany leaving the currency union appears to have gained some traction, raising the question of what on earth this would mean for the EU super-state project. Click here and here for recent articles of relevance. They must be rather worried in Madrid.

Meanwhile, the good news for Britain is that the devaluation not available to Greece, Portugal, Spain, etc. has now begun to work its inevitable magic. And the pound has begun to rise in sympathy. Though it fell back again a little at the prospect of a hung parliament now that the Liberal party – thanks to the debate fiasco – have some wind in their sails.

If you click on the label Corruption over on the right – or, better still, use the search facility for this blog – you’ll find I’ve written on this subject many times over the years. And that I’ve occasionally been taken to task for overemphasising its place in Spanish society. Well, now comes another fine article from Qorreo which covers all the bases and asks all the right questions. It starts with the puzzled comment - Political corruption is a vice commonly associated with developing countries. Dictatorships, banana republics and failed states are usually in its grip. But Spain is none of those things. And it ends with the the challenging statement - But the country does clearly have a major problem, one that its express-speed modernisation has failed to tackle adequately. The structure of the Spanish state, a massive housing boom, the remnants of a pre-democratic mindset and a lack of rigour in the media have all allowed corruption to flourish. However, ordinary Spaniards will also have to look at themselves as they wonder how they can stop their country from resembling Berlusconi’s Italy. A large portion of the Spanish economy operates on the black market, reflecting a dangerous tolerance of corner-cutting. Writer and broadcaster Josep Ramoneda has warned that “the totalitarianism of indifference” threatens to govern the country. Its citizens can at least make sure that does not happen. You can read it all here.

Finally . . . . This, I’m sure you’ll agree, is an odd headline - Body of rare beaked whale washes up in Galicia. But not quite as odd as the one I thought I’d read - Body of rare naked whale washes up in Galicia.

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