Dawn

Dawn

Friday, October 27, 2017

Thoughts from Galicia: 27.10.17

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
- Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain

If you've arrived here because of an interest in Galicia or Pontevedra, see my web page here.

Life in Spain

  • Cataluña1: While we wait on events, I'm reminded of two teenage would-be pugilists each saying to the other: “No, you hit me first and then we'll fight.”
  • Cataluña 2: Meanwhile, the Catalan president has announced another non-event. The man has painted himself not into just one corner but into several. Squeezed by his fanatical secessionist coalition partners on his (far) left and the equally fanatical Spanish PP government on his (far) right, he's announced that he won't, after all, be calling for early regional elections. Not because this would provoke Madrid even further but because his fragile coalition of unnatural bedfellows would then rancorously fall apart. Not terribly good at seeing the future, Sr Puigdemont.
  • Cataluña 3: As for the Spanish government, it appears to be preparing to roll back Catalan autonomy, it says here. And it's urging Cataluña's civil servants to cooperate with officials sent from Madrid. Fat chance. Today is said to be the day action will be taken by Madrid if the Catalans don't come to heel. Which they won't, of course.
  • Spain and Gibraltar: In a statement worthy of the Jesuits, the Spanish Foreign Minister has announced that this issue most definitely won't ever be a barrier to the completion of Brexit. Just as long as the UK recognises, firstly, that Spain is not going to give in - 'not in the slightest' - in its demand for shared sovereignty, and that, secondly, Spain will 'use its powers of persuasion' to convince both Britain and the Rock to accept its 'offer' of joint sovereignty. As with Cataluña, Madrid's negotiating position is that amicable talks can take place on details just as long as its preconditions are accepted in totality. There must be something in the Castilian genes. Apart from the absence of a word for 'compromise' in Castilian Spanish.
A proud nation which doesn't easily admit to being wrong. Someone talking about Spain? No, the said Foreign Affairs Minister talking about the UK.

Europe's Banks: The European Commission made a lot of bank executives very happy this Tuesday by abandoning its multi-year pledge to break-up too-big-to-fail lenders. Despite the huge risk they still pose to Europe’s rickety financial system, big European banks like Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, ING, and Santander can breathe a large sigh of relief this week in the knowledge that they will not have to split their retail units from their riskier investment banking arms. According to the Commission, this is no longer necessary since the main rationale behind ring-fencing core banking services from investment banking divisions — i.e. to make Europe’s financial system less disaster prone — has “already been addressed by other regulatory measures in the banking sector.” That’s right: Europe’s banking system is already safe, stable and secure…

Finally . . . Here's something from an American 'pilgrim' who appears to have done the camino de Santiago backwards and mostly in a car. He's one of the modern breed of peregrinos who can afford boutique hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants. As I've said, Santiago de Compostela has changed a lot in 20 years. En passant, presumably an Irish Catholic, the writer accepts without question that in 1300 in a village church “the eucharistic host miraculously changed to flesh and the wine to blood.” Oy ve!

Today's Cartoon:-


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