A
decade or two ago, I read of a European survey of attitudes towards
businesspersons of other countries. There was no real uniformity around
which country had the best people to deal with but there certainly
was unanimity on the worst. France. I thought of this yesterday when
I read that only 1 out of 27 EU members didn't want the UK (in
whatever shape) to remain a member. Guess which. L'exception
française, I guess.
Talking
about the EU . . . President Junker has announced his new
Commissioners, essentially the "better than ever"
government of the burgeoning superstate. Needless to say, none of
them is known and even fewer have been elected to their powerful
positions. Essentially they're gravy-train riders, bent on increasing
the size of the locomotive and all its carriages. Not to mention
salaries and pensions you and I can only dream of. After all the
lawyers, they should be second on the scaffold. Or guillotine, if you
want to make an exception for the French individual who has the
Economy portfolio. Why not? Look how well France is doing right now.
And
talking of France and the EU . . . I see that Paris is again making a mockery of the EU limit budget deficit of 3%. And refusing to take
stock of Brussels' edict that they lower it. As Groucho Marx might
have said of the EU - "Who'd join a union that would have
France as a member?"
With
only a couple of minutes reflection, I can think of 16 places in Pontevedra city where parking has been reduced in the last 14 years. The latest
is Reina Victoria street, where the town hall insisted a few weeks
ago that changes there would cost only 3 parking places. This
assurance seems to have lacked: ' . . . on one side of the street and about
6 on the other'. "What is truth?" said Pilot, and departed
smiling.
There's
scarcely a road in Galicia's Rías Baixas which isn't
designated a Ruta de Vino. Or 'Wine Route'. And now we have a
proliferating Camino de Santiago, or 'Way of St James'. It's
all about tourist cash, of course, and there's nowt wrong with that.
But I was amused to see you can now leave Pontevedra in one of two
directions as you head for Santiago on the Portuguese Route, up from
Oporto or Lisbon. The first is the old one, which goes up through
Caldas de Reis and Padrón and the second is the new "Spiritual
Variant", which passes through previously-deprived places such
as Meis, Cambados, Ribadumia and Vilanova de Arousa. My suspicion is
that most Galicians would think these places already do OK from the
occasional importation of Columbian produce, for distribution
throughout Europe. Especially the last one.
Talking
of the Camino . . . Passing the city's pilgrims' hostel today, I
thought I'd take a look at it. And pretty clean and impressive it was
too, if you don't mind sleeping in the same room as 40-60 others. One
confusing thing was that the large plaque outside giving historical
details of the Camino was entirely in Gallego, whereas none of the
notices inside were; they were in 6 other languages. Maybe the Xunta paid for the plaque..
Finally
. . . In
July this year, the Spanish traffic police lowered the permissible
margin above the official speed limits. The objective was to ensure
they reached their annual fines target of close to €350m. They just
forgot to tell the public. Which would certainly increase their
chances of success. But, anyway, what I really want to say is that
this relentless campaign against drivers contrasts markedly with the
lack of one against those cyclists who ride on pavements or on roads
without lights. Or ride the wrong way down one-way streets. I can
only assume it's because cyclists have less money and/or would be a
hassle to prosecute.
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