Well,
Britain has not been a good place for republicans and Scots
nationalists over the last 4 or 5 days. Simply put, there's been a
tsunami of affection for the Queen, on the occasion of her Diamond
Jubilee, or 60 years on the throne. There've been some truly
spectacular events, allowing - indeed, encouraging - the Brits to
revel in their Britishness. Helped by weather which veered from
mid-summer to mid-winter and back again. The only negative note was
struck, would you believe, by the illustrious (and normally
sure-footed) BBC, whose coverage of Sunday's Thames Flotilla of
around a thousand vessels was universally slammed for its inane,
dumbed-down, celeb-oriented nature. No complaints, though, about its
coverage of last night's star-studded concert in front (and on top)
of Buckingham Palace. Nor today's event which saw the Queen et al
travelling from the lunch venue to Buck House in open-topped
carriages. Which reminds me - Having been a loyal admirer of the
lovely Letizia for several years, I'm now thinking hard about raising
the delightful Kate to the no. 1 position. Which will probably dismay
both of them.
I've
not really been following the eurozone crisis over the past few days
but it does seem that, at one pole, some folk believe that progress
has been made in the direction of direct financing of the Spanish
banks. Whereas, at the other end, some folk believe no progress at
all has been made, nor is likely to be made. Here's our friend Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writing from the latter perspective:- No,
Germany has not agreed to a "banking union". It
has not agreed to mutualise the costs of bank bail-outs, knowing
perfectly well that this means 'Eurobonds lite' and the start of a
slippery slope towards debt pooling. It has not cleared the way for
use of the EU rescue machinery (EFSF and ESM) for direct
recapitalisation of banks – which is what Spain wants to avoid
having to bear the contingent liabilities of its crumbling lenders on
sovereign shoulders. Germany has not moved one inch towards fiscal
union of any kind. It may do so (I make no prediction). It has not
done so yet. Europe faces exactly the same problem it has had since
the start of the crisis. There is no breakthrough on the Spanish
banking crisis. Quite why the Madrid and Milan bourses have been
rallying is beyond me. Germany
has agreed to explore extra supervisory powers for a European banking
authority, in the "medium-term" once umpteen other
conditions have been fulfilled. This has no relevance to today's
crisis. Rather too much has been made of calls by Finance Minister
Wolfgang Schauble for a "real fiscal union", long-standing
rhetoric. What he means is Fiskalunion, chiefly a punishment and
discipline union. The language was in any case intended to play down
the likelihood: Bevor wir uns über ein gemeinsames
Schuldenmanagement unterhalten, brauchen wir eine richtige
Fiskalunion. Before we can talk about joint debt management, we must
have a real fiscal union. Be careful. Almost everything Angela Merkel
is talking about already exists. She has dressed up an old
arrangement as if it were new. The European Commission knows this
perfectly well. Everybody is pretending there was a ground-breaking
deal this week to maintain appearances. This is the usual EU smoke
and mirrors.
As
it happens, I listened to a BBC podcast this afternoon in which
several Germans spoke of the German attitude to work and debt.
Significantly, it turns out debt and guilt are the same
word in German. I was also taken by the account of a BBC reporter
seeking a credit card in Berlin, on the basis of an excellent record
with his account, Yes, of course, he could have a credit card. And,
Yes, of course the bank would arrange for the entire account to be
settled at the end of each month. Indeed, that was the only option he
had as credit wasn't allowed on his credit card.
Wine:
Guess which wine is most commonly chosen from the list. Yes, the
second-cheapest. Knowing this, restaurant owners have been known to
make sure this wine has a really good margin for them. So maybe the
third-cheapest is the one to go for. Unless, of course, you can
afford something better.
Still
on wine . . . While I was pondering last night whether a glass of
Semillon-Chardonnay really complemented my mother's bacon, eggs and
(cold) beans, it struck me that I've yet to read of someone called
Semillon. Which, on balance, has to be a good thing, I believe.
And
finally on wine . . . Here's another white grape that's cultivated in
several parts of Spain,
including Galicia. I shall have to chase down some examples:- Verdejo
is harvested at evening in Rueda, central Spain, to maintain the
aromas and make a light, zesty wine with flavours of peach and melon.
Verdejo is usually blended with Sauvignon Blanc or Viura, another
Spanish grape. Verdejo is also grown in Galicia where it is called
Verdello and in Portugal and Australia, where it is identified as
Verdelho. All variations are appealing and are worth explori
Finally
. . . Can any reader tell me what the following says. Following up a
link to my blog, I saw that my picture and my name had been used to
make a comment to a Japanese site. And I'd really like to know what I
said. I'd also like to know how they got my picture but I guess that
was pretty easy.
テキサンズ、新戦力獲得でRBウォードを放出へ 2012年06月05日(火)
17:08
コメントを追加...
コメントしています…
No comments:
Post a Comment