Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain
Spanish Politics- The Spanish PM has called for a new chapter in Cataluña. Fat chance. Because . . .
- Until a government takes power in Madrid with a comfortable electoral majority, no sober attempt is likely to be made by the current Socialist government, or anyone else, to take on the 'independentistas' where they ought to be easy to beat: on the political battlefield. For the foreseeable future, but with unforeseeable consequences, the youths of Barcelona will still be lighting the matches and the adults in Madrid will still be providing the fuel.
- Talking of fire and smoke . . . In her latest blog post, reader María points to the dissonance between the very harsh sentences handed down to the Catalan 'rebels' and the leniency normal for corrupt Spanish politicians. It can't help.
- En passant . . . El Español reports that 41% of Spaniards (non-Catalans?) think the sentences are too low. Which gives an indication of the size of the problem.
- The slurry of Halloween tat currently infesting the supermarket shelves is testament to an irrepressible human trait - to seize any opportunity, however tenuous, for a celebration. This is actually a comment about UK culture but, if the writer really thinks things are taken to extremes there, she should live a while in Spain. Where absolutely anything and everything is seen as an excuse for fun. Preferably at someone else's expense. It's the main reason I live there, and not, say, in cheaper next-door Portugal.
- Why I'm applying for Irish, not the (more logical) Spanish, nationality. This sentence rather says it all: A whopping 77% of those who've applied in the last 3 years admit they have no news as to the state of their application and when or even if it will be granted.
- Here's a report on all that rain I've been hearing about from friends and neighbours. And the damage they've done. The rains, not my friends and neighbours . . .
- And here's one on all the retail closures I've mentioned in the last few years. But I suspect none of our many (money laundering?) jewellers have gone out of business. Or ever will.
- Richard North today: The reality needs restating; The Withdrawal Agreement is just that – it gets us out of the EU. The long-term relationship will be determined by the talks yet to come, and there is where the real battle lies. With the warring parties exhausting themselves (and the public) with the current "shenanigans", one wonders whether there will be any energy left to fight that more important battle.
- See the article below for what might well be the people's view.
- An attorney for Donald Trump and Trump for President sent a letter to the CNN President threatening to sue the network for what it contends are “biased reporting practices.” It’s unclear what bit of civil law they think is being violated by the network in a case they must know they can’t possibly win
- President Trump Is in the Private Hospitality Business, and Business Is Booming in D.C. The G7 at Doral is off, but there are lots of other conflicts of interest already booked at his properties. President Trump never did build that wall he promised. You know, the one between his administration and his business.
- Funnily enough, it's hardly rained where I've been for 3 weeks now - a fraction south of Manchester, the (alleged) precipitation capital of the UK. And the sun is shining on my grandson's 2nd birthday today. Not that he seems to care.
Quantum physics is a cinch compared to this incomprehensible farce: Judith Woods, Daily Telegraph
Dear God please make it stop. I'm not sure about the Prime Minister but I fear we will all be dead in a ditch if this purgatorial anguish goes on much longer.
I like to think of myself as reasonably well informed about current affairs but hand on heart I have no idea what happened on super Saturday. None.
Like the rest of the nation I settled down in front of BBC News as a preternaturally patient Huw Edwards explained over and over again the implications of the Letwin Amendment and how it might impact on the Mr Benn Act and it all kept whizzing straight over the top of my head.
When Letwin was passed (like port, to the Left) I still sat there, stupidly waiting for the vote on the Brexit deal. I was aware that something unexpected happened but I didn't fully grasp that it meant nothing expected would happen.
Some stentorian voice announced that the meaningful vote had been voided of meaning. Even that nonsensical observation made more sense than what actually occurred, which is to say, nothing. Not a damn thing.
Instead we find ourselves Junckering down in No Man’s Land for yet another phoney war between monstrous egos and elected representatives and other elected representatives and one million marching in the street demanding a People's Vote amid a blizzard of metaphors.
The PM likened reaching an agreement with the EU to summiting Everest. Right now it feels as if we are all queueing up in the Death Zone tied to each other, tied to Europe. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.
Starved of the oxygen of common sense, the body politic is starting to perish, minute by minute, cell by cell.
Nobody has even noticed that the first casualty, democracy, has long since given up the ghost and hurtled down the mountainside to certain oblivion.
We've spent three years blindly trusting politicians to deliver the result of the referendum. I fully admit that I am a passionate Remainer. Or at least was a passionate Remainer. I'm now a passionless, disillusioned husk of a voter who just wants to get this thing – anything – over the line.
Was it only last week that Europe’s intractable to leaders were glad handing “greased piglet” Boris and glibly congratulating one another on a triumph of statecraft? The pound immediately leapt for joy and heading for its best six-day run against the dollar since 1985. Even hatchet-faced Dominic Cummings managed to crack a smile.
But wrangling with Europe over customs and tariffs was a doddle in comparison to persuading the House of Commons to carry out the settled will of the people. The worst aspect is that it's also bloody impenetrable, no offence Huw.
I am entirely au fait with the reasonable if inhumane concept of Schrödinger's cat. I understand enough about quantum physics to know it is silly and impossible.
But Lord help me, I haven't got so much as a toehold on what is afoot in this wretched Parliament, brought to its knees by the endless squabbling, wilful obscurantism and petty betrayals.
No wonder then that the electorate are strung out, angry and exhausted by the endless machinations that are exacerbating deep uncertainty, fostering rancour and causing us to haemorrhage faith in the system and those who run it.
Will Brexit be done and dusted by Hallowe’en? I fear it won’t even be over by Christmas. Truthfully, retrenching in a ditch never sounded so appealing.
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