After treating the king's abdication with
insufficient reverence, several Spanish journalists have found
themselves on the street. The co-founder of Spain’s El Mundo parted
company with the paper after committing the unpardonable sin of
referring to the king’s relationship with German aristocrat Corinna zu
Sayn-Wittgenstein. And over at Jueves, a satirical magazine, 4 members
of staff left after the pulling of their front-page cartoon of the
king handing over a filthy crown with a clothes peg on his nose. Good
job he wasn't giving it to Mohammed.
Talking (almost) about a possible Third Republic .
. . What would you say if I asked you to nominate the largest
political party on the eve of the destruction of the Second Republic
in 1936? Most people seem to opt for the Falange, which was in fact
tiny. The answer is - the Anarchists. Who continued to be, well,
anarchistic after the war had broken out. Unhelpfully refusing to join the
government or to have officers for their troops, for example. The
group of 50 left wing parties calling for a referendum naturally has anarchists
in its ranks (the CGT) but their influence is well below that of the
socialists these days. And possible even below that of the communists
One reads, on the one hand, that the Spanish
economy is finally doing OK but, on the other, that the government is
raiding the pension funds so as to buy government debt - raising the
fear that Spain will need to seek a bailout in 2015. But what does it
matter as 2016 is an election year and President Rajoy has said his
government will lower personal and corporate taxes next year and will
resist EU pressure to raise sales taxes. We will see.
Nearly everyone in Spain feels the country's
politicians make insufficient effort to learn English and, worse, are
ashamed when they hear them trying to speak it. My guess is that most of them are
of the generation - perhaps the last one - to learn French as a
second language. Though not for Sr Rajoy, who first had to learn
Spanish ('Castellano'), then Gallego (Galician) and then French.
But this was good for him, as scientists tell us
that speaking one or more foreign languages slows down the ageing process
in the brain, whether you do this as a child or an adult. The oldest
learner of French I ever knew was a certain Mr Warren, who was 86 and
who lived next door to me during my teaching year in the Seychelles.
Unfortunately, he did this out loud, driving me to distraction.
Talking of languages . . . Another verse from the
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam:-
Come, fill the cup and in the fire of spring
Your winter garment of repentance fling.
The bird of time has but a little way
To fly and Lo! the bird is on the wing.
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