Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain
Spain- Is Spain really The New Italy, as least politically?
- The Local: What you need to know about this week's scorching heatwave in parts of Spain. Which is not so vicious here in Galicia, much to the relief of all the Spaniards who wend their way here in July and August. Say the experts, such a trip won't be beneficial in 20 years' time, when we'll have the current climate of Madrid. Which will have that of Morocco. Madrileños and Andalucians will have to go to, say, Brighton for their 'cool' annual vacations.
- Mrs May leaves her job today. One that she'd wanted since childhood. The same is true of her successor, Mr Johnson. As this isn't impressive as the prime qualification for the position of prime minister, the signs are not good.
- Near term, I doubt Boris will be pleased that Fart sees him as a British version of himself. It will apparently come as a surprise to Fart that he's singularly unpopular in the UK. 'They' really don't 'love' him 'over there'.
- If you've heard or seen an interview outside the Houses of Parliament during the last few years, you'll be familiar with the voice of this guy. He's still shouting 'Stop Boris!' this morning, so perhaps it's time for him to move on. Though his shout of 'Stop Brexit' still has currency, I guess.
- In contrast to the USA, there's not a lot of enthusiasm among European politicians for Mr J. See the article below.
- I've been compiling a list of Fart's stock phrases. Here's what I've got so far. Additions very welcome:-
- He's a loser: Said of 'wonderful persons' who've been let go or who have resigned.
- I hardly know him: Said of malefactors he's known for decades.
- I never liked him: Ditto. Said of malefactors he's 'partied' with.
- Many people say . . . : The introduction to a massive lie which he knows is untrue.
- I don't know but people tell me . . : Ditto
- Believe me . . : Ditto
- I'm a very stable genius: Perhaps the untruest statement in the history of mankind.
- We have to/are going to do something about that: Said of any activity which he doesn't like.
- The biggest, best, most wonderful, amazing. . . : Said of anything/everything he does or claims responsibility for, even if it happened years ago.
- That I can tell you . . . : Used to reinforce a lie or half-truth.
- Bad news - i. e. criticism of me - is not free speech: Speaks for itself.
- They love me here/there . . : A contender for the biggest untruth in the history of mankind.
- It's fake news: Well, I don't really need to explain this one.
Here's someone else's article on this subject of Fart's Favourite Frases.
- Geoffrey Epstein: The plot thickens . . . The editor's note at the end of the article is quite trenchant.
- Word of the Day: Verbena
- As you do, I've been reading the sayings of William Penn, the man who gave his name to Pennsylvania, and I've come up against the 'long S', the one that looks like an F. Wikipedia tells me this (German) letter fell out of printed use at the end of the 18th century but is still found in handwritten letters of the 19th century. And that: The long S (ſ) is an archaic form of the lower case letter s. It replaced a single S, or the first in a double S, at the beginning or in the middle of a word (e.g. "ſinfulneſs" for "sinfulness" and "ſucceſsful" for "successful"), and in ligature form (e.g. "Tiſſick" for "Tissick"). More interestingly are the humorous uses of the long S. . . . ſays Wiki: In a Flanders and Swann monologue the word Greensleeves is pronounced as Greenfleeves and the word song as fong. In a Stan Freberg skit, "The Declaration of Independence, or, A Man Can't Be Too Careful What He Signs These Days", the character Benjamin Franklin mispronounces the phrase "pursuit of happiness", as "purfuit of happinefs". And, best of all: In an episode of The Vicar of Dibley the dim character Alice, attempting to use an old Bible that uses the long S, reads to the congregation "... and He shall be thy f- ffuu" before being rescued by the minister Geraldine with an emphatic "succour"!
- My cycling into town in the last few days has brought me into contact with the bike path alongside the river Lérez. This is very much a Spanish bike path and not, say, a German or Dutch bike path. This means that pedestrians walk on them and not on the parallel path for non-cyclists. And cyclists - sometime perforce - will use the pedestrian path. Yesterday, I even had to ride round a couple who were actually walking over the big white sign of a bicycle. After almost 20 years, I still don't understand the Spanish attitude to rules, apart from the obvious fact that they consciously disobey 'minor' rules they regard as a personal inconvenience. In this case, though, this can't apply. Either their radar is so bad they don't notice there's a dedicated track - painted a different colour - or they just don't care that there is. And that they are inconveniencing cyclists. Who, unlike their German and Dutch counterparts, don't shout angrily at trespassers. Perhaps things would change if they did.
ARTICLE
Boris Johnson is the British version of me, says President Trump: Boer Deng, David Charter, Washington | Bruno Waterfield, Brussels | Tom Parfitt | Steven Swinford
THE USA
President Trump has offered Boris Johnson his highest possible praise by declaring that the new prime minister is the British version of himself. “We have a really good man who’s going to be the prime minister of the UK now, Boris Johnson. Good man, he’s tough and he’s smart. They’re saying Britain Trump. They call him Britain Trump,” the president told an audience of young Republicans at an event in Washington. “People are saying that’s a good thing. They like me over there, that’s what they wanted. That’s what they need. He’ll get it done. Boris is good. He’s going to do a good job.”
He went on to praise Nigel Farage, who was attending the event in Washington. “I’ll tell you what, he got 32% of the vote from nowhere, over in UK….thank you Nigel,” Mr Trump said. “I know he’s going to work well with Boris, they’re going to do some tremendous things.”
Mr Farage met Mr Trump yesterday morning at the Turning Point USA event and told The Times afterwards: “He [Mr Trump] thinks a Johnson-Farage alliance would be unstoppable and would deliver Brexit. He sees it very clearly. It would need Boris to be incredibly brave. He would have to call a general election and accept that a significant number of his own MPs would leave the party. I have said my levels of trust in Boris and the Conservative Party are very low, but if he really means it and is absolutely determined to deliver a clean break Brexit then of course I’d talk to him.”
Mr Trump wasted no time in congratulating Mr Johnson on winning the leadership contest as world leaders joined in to toast Britain’s new prime minister. “Congratulations to Boris Johnson on becoming the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He will be great!” he tweeted.
Commentators noted that the leaders of the US and Britain had much in common. Mr Johnson’s father, Stanley, quipped: “They’ve got the same kind of hairstyle, I suppose. I think they will get on”.
In June, Mr Trump made clear that he would welcome Mr Johnson’s victory, calling the former foreign secretary someone “I’ve liked… for a long time”, even as he criticised Theresa May. The two men spoke by phone when Mr Trump stayed in London on his state visit.
John Hannah of the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, a think tank, said: “The relationship with Theresa May was always very frosty, very cool. The president obviously likes Johnson so I think things can only go on an upward trajectory here.”
Mr Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, also congratulated Mr Johnson in a tweet, though her message accidentally referred to him as the “next prime minister of the United Kingston”.
George Holding, a Republican congressman and chairman of the Congressional UK caucus, said: “I am excited to congratulate Boris Johnson on becoming the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. I look forward to working with the Johnson Government to strengthen the Special Relationship that has bound our two nations for generations.”
THE EU
What’s going on in Great Britain? asks Stern in Germany, while Der Spiegel sees Boris Johnson as Alfred E Neuman, cover boy of the American humour magazine Mad.
President Macron, who has described Mr Johnson and other campaigners for Brexit as liars, said he would telephone him after the new prime minister takes office tomorrow. “I want very much to work with him as quickly as possible and not just on European subjects and the continuation of negotiations linked to Brexit, but also on international issues on which we coordinate closely with Britain and Germany like the situation in Iran,” Mr Macron said. He praised the “courage and dignity” of Mrs May and, in a veiled warning to Mr Johnson, said she had served British interests and the Brexit vote but “never blocked the functioning of the EU”.
Speaking alongside the French leader in Paris, Ursula von der Leyen, the newly appointed president of the European Commission who will take office on the same day Britain is due to leave the EU, stressed the scale of difficulty over Brexit in the months ahead. “I’m looking forward to having a good working relationship with him. There are many difficult issues we will tackle together. We have challenging times ahead of us,” she said. “It is important to build up a strong working relationship because we have a duty to deliver something which is good for the people in Europe and the UK.
Reflecting widespread hostility to Mr Johnson, Vytenis Andriukaitis, the EU’s health commissioner, accused him of being a “virtuoso” of “cheap promises, simplified visions, blatantly incorrect statements”. The Lithuanian, who was born in a Soviet gulag, compared the Conservative leader to Boris Yeltsin, the first president of post-Communist Russia, whose rhetoric and empty promise, such as introducing a market economy in 500 days, have been blamed for the rise of Vladimir Putin. “A different Boris, of course, but there was something in the way of doing politics that was similar: many unrealistic promises, ignoring economic rationales and rational decisions,” he wrote on a commission blog. “These decisions led to a new autocratic constitution and finally paved the way to Vladimir Putin… Hopefully, it will not be the case for Boris Johnson.”
Michel Barnier, the EU’s lead Brexit negotiator, said: “We look forward to working constructively with prime minister Boris Johnson when he takes office, to facilitate the ratification of the withdrawal agreement and achieve an orderly Brexit. We are ready also to rework the agreed declaration on a new partnership in line with European Council guidelines.”
Frans Timmermans, Jean-Claude Juncker’s deputy at the commission, who has previously described Mr Johnson as “borderline racist”, said that while the EU would work with the “colourful” leader there was no question of negotiating a new Brexit deal. “The world’s politics is rife with colourful people these days and if you can’t deal with them there is not much you can do,” he said.
RUSSIA
In Moscow, Alexei Pushkov, an influential pro-Kremlin senator, said that Boris Johnson becoming prime minister signalled an imminent exit for Britain from the EU. “Under Johnson, the break up with the EU is inevitable,” he said. “At the same time, there will be increased internal instability in Britain, where about 50 per cent of people are against Brexit. In foreign policy, not much will change.” Leonid Slutsky, head of the international affairs committee in Russia’s lower house of parliament, said that Mr Johnson’s appeal was in his eccentricity. “They are fed up with stuffed-shirts, they need a scatty guy who rides a bicycle and talks like it is, having his own tough and far from tolerant position on Brexit.”
No comments:
Post a Comment