I've
been wondering what a suitable name would be for the smokers who temporarily exit
a pub or bar in two's and three's – Fag
Flight
might be a nice short one, if Americans didn't understand something else by
Fag.
So, what about Drag
Out?
One
one of our evenings out in Ferrol, I was confused by the question
“Which church are we going to now?”. It seems this is common
parlance for bars, in Ferrol at least. Where, by the way, there are
some excellent churches.
The
head of the Spanish Tax Office has made the despairing comment:
“There aren't enough tax inspectors relative to the amount of fraud
that there is out there.” Perhaps he's just trying to get his
budget increased. Or at least stop it being reduced.
Relatedly,
I was also wondering today about who have been the winners and losers of
the somewhat crazy 12 years I've lived through here in Spain. Here's
a first stab at a list, which I will update as more entries occur to
me. Or if readers send in their suggestions:-
WINNERS
The
banks who took public funds to compensate for their ruinous lending
practices.
Bankers
who kept their jobs and their salaries and bonuses.
Bankers
who retired after awarding themselves huge pension increases.
Notaries
who creamed it during the years of the property boom simply by virtue
of being
government employees with a monopoly on all transaction
contracts.
Property
developers who got out in time.
Private
investors who timed things right.
Crooked
civil servants who re-designated land in return for a backhander.
Crooked
politicians who diverted public funds to their bank accounts.
Crooked
member(s) of the royal family who did the same.
People
with no financial knowledge whatsoever who were appointed to, say,
the Audit
Committee of a bank and signed everything put in front of
them.
LOSERS
All
those ejected from homes for which loans should never have been
granted.
Everyone
who is now unemployed – all 26% of the population.
All
those who've had their salaries frozen.
All
those who've had their benefits reduced.
Everyone
(all of us) paying more direct and indirect taxes.
The
hundreds of thousands of businesses that have gone under.
All
those whose life is now blighted by ugly building carcases which may
now never be
finished.
And
last but decidedly not least:-
The
Zapatero government, which got kicked out last year. Justifiably.
Was
it only, what, five years ago that Zapatero was telling us we had
nothing to worry about as Spanish banks were not like American banks
and, more, were the strongest in Europe? Still, his grasp on reality was always tenuous.
Just
reverting to what seems to be the harsh, if not scandalous, treatment
of people who've defaulted on their mortgage payments, someone has
said this week – I think a judge – that banks have now become one
vast collection agency. Or was it the courts?
Anyway,
my friend Peter has improved the fotos I posted last night and here
they are again:-
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