Making my way to my
car on the boat yesterday morning, I passed a group of Spanish
truck-drivers in the restaurant. Their loud cursing and swearing was
well up to Spanish standards. Half an hour later, I found I was
prevented from putting air in my tyres by a camper van and trailer
blocking access to the pump at the petrol station. The vehicles had a
British registration number but the drivers turned out to be Spanish.
Good to be back where the most important person in your life is you.
But I confess I had
to wait until this morning to witness my first example of what we
might call cavalier driving – a guy who passed me within a
few metres of an autovia exit and then swerved in front of me to take
it when I was going straight on.
Spain's
President Rajoy has responded to a question in parliament on
corruption
by insisting it's a mistake to exaggerate this since ‘we are a
great nation’. So, that's alright then. You
voters can afford it seems
to be the message. Down at the regional government level, Murcia's
president has been accused of misuse of power and will go before an
investigating beak in March. As for the municipal level, here's a
timely list of Spain's most corrupt mayors from The
Olive Press. Nice to see that women get a look in. Well, one woman at least. It's hard to disagree with reader Maria's view that Spain is a kleptocracy.
But, then, some would argue it was ever thus for at least 300 years and that democracy changed
nothing.
Spain's
macro economy
indicators might be great right now but the country is forecast to
drop out of the top 25 economies within the relatively near future.
See El País on this here, in English.
On
a more positive note, here's an article on a trip taking in 101
Incredibles places in Spain. It's a mere
6,532
km long. Astonishingly, Pontevedra doesn't make it to the list but
nearby Combarro does.
The
last article by the stupendous British writer A A Gill was on his
medical treatment and the UK's
National Health Service (the NHS).
Rather more eloquently than I've ever been able to put it, he writes:
It
seems unlikely, uncharacteristic, so un-“us” to have settled on
sickness and bed rest as the
votive altar and cornerstone of national politics.
But there it is: at every election, the NHS is the thermometer and
the crutch of governments. It represents everything we think is best
about us. Everyone standing for whatever political persuasion has to
lay a sterilised hand on an A&E revolving door and swear that the
collective cradle-to-crematorium health service will be cherished on
their watch. We tell lies about it. We say it’s the envy of the
world. It isn’t. We say there’s nothing else like it. There is.
We say it’s the best in the West. It’s not. We think it’s the
cheapest. It isn’t. Either that or we think it’s the most
expensive — it’s not that, either. You will live longer in France
and Germany, get treated faster and more comfortably in Scandinavia,
and everything costs more in America.
Gill goes on to say that this sacrosanct service has one
of the worst outcomes for cancer treatment in Europe.
Everyone knows this, of course. Or at least everyone in politics. But
no one seems capable and/or brave enough to do anything but tinker
with the basic, outdated model. I hope I don't end my days relying on
it.
Trump:
Nothing today! Which should please at least on reader . . .
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