Dawn

Dawn

Friday, May 09, 2014

New driving laws; New walking laws; World Cup nonsense; & The EU elections.


Ten years ago, driving laws and their implementation in Spain were rather more relaxed than they are these days. During the same period, deaths on the road have been halved - a more than commendable achievement. That said, it's still hard to say whether rules introduced since then are entirely based on considerations of safety, rather than revenue. A new slew of rules came into force today and, as previously, they seem to be a mix of the sensible (even belated) and the draconian, leading one to believe that revenue was rather more to the fore this time. For details, see here, here and here. Don't say you weren't warned, especially about the nil tolerance in respect of speed limits. As I've said before, it's effectively impossible to stay within them - no matter how hard you try - so one can confidently predict a rise in income from this source

You'll see that one of the new rules relates to pedestrians and their state of sobriety. My prediction is that jay-walking will be made an offence in the next 5 years and that things will increasingly become like Switzerland. Where I was once stopped from crossing against a red pedestrian light even though there was nothing coming in either direction for at least 500m. Spain will have ceased to be Spain. At least on the roads and pavements.

Relatedly . . . Four years ago, the Guardia Civil challenged the introduction of remuneration based on the number of traffic offences booked. Yesterday Madrid's High Court finally found in their favour. But whether this means we can rely on the Guardia´s Trafico police to implement the new laws laxly, I rather doubt. Even the one that gives them the right to book you via your number plate without stopping you. I've had this one already, of course. When it was possibly illegal.

Despite winning its last 3 major tournaments, the Spanish football team follows Brazil, Argentina and Germany in the World Cup ratings. Some will be infuriated by this and some amused. Time will tell. Not all of the former will live in Spain.

Finally . . . Here's Lenox Napier on the upcoming EU elections. BTW - It seems the reason 64% may turn out to vote in this month's elections is that there's still a widespread positive attitude towards the EU in Spain. Which is not really surprising, given the funds ('solidarity') thrown this way. That said, I'd be astonished if the support was anywhere near its historical peak. Talking about attitudes . . . Our Spy in Congress (Espía en el Congreso) reports that recent CIS data on public attitudes has been manipulated by the government to hide the degree of antipathy towards both the government and the opposition. No surprise there, then.

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