Dawn

Dawn

Monday, June 02, 2014

That abdication; That resignation; Road deaths; Noisy; & Pidgin meanwhile.


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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