A couple of interesting Spanish headlines this
week:-
The Catalan drive for independence is going
somewhere and nowhere. Now that we have the finality of the
parliamentary veto of November's referendum and a much-belated
indication from President Rajoy that talks on constitutional change
can begin, we might just see a sensible dialogue between Madrid and
Barcelona. Otherwise, it looks like Rajoy (or some crazy general)
sending troops onto the streets of the Catalan capital to prevent the
citizens from getting to the polling booths. The leader of the
opposition PSOE party has called for " a transparent, two-sided,
participative and legal" conversation on how to reform Spain's
federal constitution. Which one would have thought was the minimum.
But passions - central and regional - run high here.
Talking
of Spanish mayors . . . To the astonishment of all, the mayor of the
village of Reíllo has just re-named one street Generalisimo,
one of Franco's honorifics. He is, of course, from the
right-of-centre PP party. Everyone else is outraged and the street
will inevitably return to its previous name when the PP loses power
in the village. Only in Spain?
Human
Rights Watch tells us
that Saudi Arabia has introduced a series of new laws which define
atheists as terrorists. Western government really should follow
Canada's lead and condemn and oppose such laws. But, then, there's
the oil . . .
Talking
of laws . . . I've finally seen a British driver parked on yellow
lines with the car's warning lights flashing. But it was a taxi
driver, waiting for his fare. Not someone who'd gone for a 15-30m
coffee. Which reminds me . . . Here's El
País in English on
the case of Esperanza Aguirre, who last week fled the scene of a
parking offence, knocking over a police motor-bike as she went. "Just
an everyday Madrid scenario" she insists. And you thought Maria
Miller was arrogant!
Finally
. . . For my sins, I've been divorced twice - once after a long
marriage and once after a short one. So I was amused by the line of a
British comedian with a similar background - to the effect that he
wouldn't be marrying again; he'd just find a woman he hated and buy
her a house.
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