Dawn

Dawn

Thursday, August 04, 2011

The Spanish king has done something you'd never catch Liz doing in the UK; he's entered the political ring and called on the leading two parties to come together for the sake of the country. Sadly, four months ahead of general elections, there's nil chance of this happening. Especially as the Opposition leader, Sr Rajoy, has seen his lead over the PSOE party grow significantly despite him saying nothing and doing even less. At which he's always excelled.

As for said future of Spain, this is looking less and less certain. See here for the most pessimistic view yet, which is that Italy's default is a racing certainty and Spain's a probability. Either of these is seen as triggering the end of the euro, at least in its current form. And see here for the view that the European leaders are, as ever, behind the ball. One would be forgiven for thinking that, in this atmosphere of looming death, they'd be able to forfeit their bloody holidays and get together again. But no. Though Sr Zapatero did come back from his for a day or two, to give the impression he was dealing with this week's crisis. Could anything be more indicative of the European approach?

Finally, here's a third party view of Goldman's view. Enough there for any masochist.

If you didn't fancy any of that, here's a succinct picture of the situation:- “The eurozone has entered an upside down, Through the Looking-Glass type of world in which Italy and Spain are being forced to borrow at 6% to lend to the existing bailout recipients of Greece, Ireland and Portugal at 3.5%. It’s mad. To rescue countries such as Italy and Spain, the size of the European bailout fund would have to be raised to 3-4 trillion euros, which would be a degree of shared fiscal responsibility quite unacceptable to the national parliaments of the single currency’s more solvent members. . . . Public debt in these countries is on an unsustainable trajectory, making eventual default all but inevitable.”

Anyway, my old friend John sent me this copy of a letter to the FT, which I can't fault in any way at all.


But there is good news - The execrable Piers Morgan may have to go before a parliamentary committee in the UK, to answer questions about illegal phone-tapping by the equally egregious Daily Mail. Which I disgust myself with every day when I stay with my mother.

Conversation of the day. A certain honesty. Sin pelos en la lengua.
- How much is the water?
- One little euro [Un euriño]
[I give her a 2 euro coin and then put a tip of 10 cents on the counter]
[Giving me my change in a stack of 10 and 20 cent pieces] - Oh, I didn't realise you had a 10 cents piece. Give me back those coins and I'll give you a single euro.
OK. Thanks.

It may be raining today but we've had very little of the stuff in three months. The result is that my wonderful bougainvillea is prematurely blown and the tree in my front garden is denuded of leaves. I believe this is a copper beech but here's one of the leaves so that one of you can kindly set me straight, if not.


The other result is that my fig and pexegueiro trees are heaving with fruit like I've never seen before. Plus the single lemon, of course. Interesting to note that the pexeigo fruit came originally from Persia and is called pérsico in Spanish.

Which reminds me . . . The albariño harvest is going to be another record this year and, of course, the Xunta is vainly trying to regulate both quantities and the price of grapes. As the unions have pointed out, the net result will only be an explosion in the black market. And more of the bottles I bought in a grocery yesterday with no Tax-Paid sticker on them. Madness.

Finally . . . More talk of granite. Winters here are pretty wet and granite can get unduly weathered in as little as a year Demanding a spring clean. Or, in the case of my front wall, a summer clean. And here's a couple of fotos showing the effect of a jet-spraying session on my wall and the pavement/sidewalk.


And one of my message to Toni, next to his car.


Finally, finally . . . My friend Rick in New Orleans has sent me this article on how the mayor of Vilnius is addressing the problem of rich people there parking inconsiderately there. Will we ever see it here? Well, we will if I become mayor of Pontevedra. Or even Poio.

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