I was saying that nationalists of all
colours tend to vilify anyone who dares cross them, Right on cue, the
Scots Nats have poured vitriol on a senior member of Nato (by
happenstance a Scot) for warning that the break-up of the UK would go
down well with, say, Russia. For his sins, he was described as crass,
offensive and insulting. But, as they say, there's none so insulted
as those who are looking to be insulted.
Still on British politics . . . Maria Miller - the
English government minister who got her expense claims wrong - has
finally resigned. Of course, given the storm of criticism of her in
the media and the growing risk she'd damage Conservative prospects at
the next elections, it may well be that David Cameron finally shoved
the problematic and reluctant Maria onto her waiting sword. But,
anyway, as I said the other day, the consequences of her peccadillos
will astonish her political colleagues on the gravy trains of, say,
Brussels and Madrid. That said, Mrs Miller leaves the parliament
comforted by the huge capital gain she (legally) made on the sale of
her 'second property' in London. Though the tax man is reported to be
wanting to have a word with her about this. And he may not be as
lenient as he was when she was in the government.
As for Spanish/Catalan nationalists, there was a
big vote in the Madrid parliament yesterday over whether the Catalans
could proceed with their proposed referendum on independence
next November. Guess what the outcome was. See here for details.
No huge shock to read that nearly half of all
Spanish couples fell out over the distribution of household tasks
last year. But it was a bit more surprising, for us Anglos at least,
to read that tensions also arose over relations within the family.
The Spanish don't like to wash their dirty linen in public so family
fights always come as something of a surprise. Strangely, the closer
you get to Spanish families the more you hear of these.
Spain's poorest region - Estremadura - has hit on
a new wheeze to increase tourist revenue - It's putting homosexuals even higher in its priority than the Chinese. The mayor
of Badajoz has stressed that his city "has always been a
tolerant place” and that he wants Estremadura to be the destination
of choice for gays, lesbians, transexuals and bisexuals from across
the continent. These, he believes, are discerning, trendy,
adventurous and, most importantly, rich. A sceptical David Jackson
has commented - "What the devil he thinks they’re going to do
when they get there is beyond me – Estremadura is vast, hot and
empty, with the occasional herd of pigs." That said, my daughter
and I had a very pleasant trip there 2 years ago and we're not even
gay. As far as I know.
Finally . . . you can't be considered a true
speaker of Spanish until you're familiar with a fair proportion of
its vast range of insults. So here's a list of 221 of them. And a few
more in the Comments.
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