The UK election; Corruption; & Meigas Fóra.

The UK Election:

So, as with the Scottish referendum, the pollsters got it wrong and I called it right. Perhaps I should go into business as a clairvoyant. If you'll forgive me, here's what I said last week: For what it's worth, my own prediction is that the Conservatives will benefit from a last-minute surge and get just enough seats to allow them to keep out an SNP-propped-up Labour Party. 

The biggest losers of the night were the poor LibDems. My guess is that the triumphalism of the SNP drove voters into the Conservative camp to ensure the Scots were deprived of undue power over the rest of the UK.

I've felt for a while that the SNP was overreaching itself and riding for a fall. As someone has just said on the TV - They may well have enjoyed a wipeout of Labour in Scotland but, without Labour installed in Westminster, the SNP will have no power there. But I'm still betting on negotiations over federalism during the next 5 years. Especially as the Scots can't afford to run themselves.

Best news of the night . . . The egregious George Galloway was ousted from his latest seat. Second best news of the night . . . the George Brown attack dog, Ed Balls, lost his seat and so won't be a candidate to replace Ed Miliband as Labour leader. But his wife - Yvette Cooper - certainly will be. Poor Ed won't even remain the Shadow Chancellor, never mind the Chancellor he expected to become only 24 hours ago. Can you imagine the lunch he and Yvette will have today?

And now for a subject that never arose during the UK elections . . . . It looks like Spain's going to be clobbered for €19m in fines for allowing phoney numbers to reach Brussels from Valencia, a hive of the  corruption that besmirches Spain. Valencia and Madrid are, of course, each saying the other should pay it. Which reminds me . . .

The Corruption Cavalcade

1. A former treasurer of the PP party has filed documents with the court alleging it was ex President Aznar who set up the system for channelling black cash from companies to the party way back in 1992. Who'd have thought it?

2. An ex-President of Andalucia (another hive) has been told by a judge versed in tact and diplomacy: "Your account does not tally with the facts". One wonders what he meant by this abstruse statement.

Finally . . . . Here's a foto of the owners and staff of my favourite lunchtime haunt - the Meigas Fóra tapas bar/restaurant, just off the city's main square.

The chef, Marta, offers an unusual range of tapas for (conservative) Pontevedra and I may yet persuade her to put ginger in some of them. Or at least make a ginger cake, instead of the ubiquitous Santiago (almond) cake. The reviews on Trip Advisor et al are very good. Here's their Facebook page and here's Trip Advisor's(rating of 5/5). What they don't quite say is that the waiters (Mikele and Rojelio) are the best in town. Though they're not as pretty as waitresses elsewhere.