There's nothing like a good newsworthy story to
move the focus from failed politicians and corrupt businessmen. So we
can expect the royal abdication to hog the front pages for a while
yet. Given the abysmally popularity of the king, allied with his poor
health, it was only a matter of time before he'd give way to his son
and the lovely Letizia. But will they make a happy family? Those who
like to think they're in the know on these things have been saying
for some time they were heading for a divorce. This seems less likely now,
whatever the state of the marriage. But, anyway, I guess Letizia will
be the first queen to have been a TV newsreader, to have had plastic
surgery, to be suspected of being anorexic and to have a picture of
herself painted as a bare-breasted young woman. I wonder how much
that's going for now.
Something more of a surprise was the resignation
of the Constitutional Court judge who was arrested on Sunday morning,
riding his motorbike while 4 times over the alcohol limit. One should
stress that this is so low here in Spain it means he had the
equivalent of less than 2 pints of beer in him. Still, it was a
naughty - and silly - thing for a judge to do.
Over the last 10 years, death on Spain's roads
have halved - a tremendous achievement by anyone's standards. But in
the first 5 months of this year, they've been 4 times what they where
last year. The police have attributed this to the increasing use of
hash and to the fact that the average age of a car has increased in
the last 2 years from 10 to 12 years. Presumably because of economic
pressures created by Le Crisis.
From time to time I mention just how noisy Spain
is. Particularly if you live anywhere where nocturnal festivities are
common. There are laws against this but they're honoured far more in
the breach than in the observance, almost certainly for commercial
reasons. A case in point is the Madrid barrio of La Latina. This has
become the place to have your stag or hen parties and the locals are not at all happy about this.
I see that the number of child abuse offences
committed by the execrable Jimmy Savile has now risen to an astonishing 500. But I'm
confused by the allegation he abused a 2 year old. How is this
known? If there was a witness, why was nothing done about it?
Finally . . . Those who read yesterday's pidgin
English will have seen the lovely alternative for 'meanwhile' -
Meanwilly.
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