Politicians in the UK
continue to make statements that bear little relation to the truth.
The leader of the Labour party promises to rescue the NHS, neglecting
to say that the Conservative government ploughed even more money into
it than the last Labour administration did. The Conservative
Chancellor refers to said NHS as 'brilliant', while knowing damn well
it's far from this, especially if you need chronic care. Is the
electorate as stupid as they clearly think it is? I fear so.
Political phrases which make me
want to reach for the vomit bucket are 'working people' (Labour) and
'hard-working families' (both Labour and Conservative). Over in the
USA, Hillary Clinton's equivalent phrase is 'everyday Americans'. All
of these, of course, are code for social groups to which the
politicians have never belonged.
The Spanish tax office
has announced it'll be allocating far more of its resources this year
to major offenders such as corrupt businessmen and politicians.
Logically, of course, they should be devoting 98% of their resources
to these and only 2% to the small fry.
Talking of tax . . .
The deputy leader of the British Labour party responded to a question
on her leader's alleged tax avoidance by insisting he hadn't indulged
in tax evasion, a completely different thing. So, yes, they must
believe we're all stupid.
As everyone in the
world knows, the curse of modern Britain is alcohol in general and
binge-drinking among the young in particular. And it seems to be
catching on in both Spain and, would you believe, France as well. One
of our more successful exports, then.
Here in Pontevedra, I
was welcomed back with gusto in my favourite tapas bar yesterday, where
the chef kindly gave me a dish of chopped ginger with her
(magnificent) tortilla. Possibly making me the first person to eat this dish like this. Of course, within a few minutes I was
approached by 2 of the city's most regular beggars. Though 50% of
them realised that it wasn't worth giving me her spiel.
If you missed the
glorious sight of the Liverpool women on Aintree's Ladies' Day, you
can catch them here. Some of them are apparently sober.
Finally . . . I'm off
to Lisbon for a week today, driving down with my Dutch friend Peter,
of Santiago. We'll be following in the footsteps of George Borrow,
along with other members of the GB Society. Peter is a world expert
on this gentleman (El Jorgito) and his adventures in Spain (and Portugal) in the
1830s. Click here for and here for more on this subject.
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