What next!

Rampant corruption in this country has reached a high point with the hustling away to prison of the ex-treasurer of the ruling PP party.  Señor Barcenas is one of the most famous people in Spain at the moment as his face is on the television every single evening of the week.  He has been accused of being the author of some damningly revealing handwritten accounts which show that the members of the government have been paid vast sums of money for various trifling items like suits all paid for by commercial organizations which have benefited enormously from raking in cash from public works awarded by the government.

Barcenas has been found to be couriering eye-watering large sums of black money from Switzerland (!) to Spain in favour of PP – the totally discredited ruling party.  His explanations have been treated with contempt and he has been caught out by a judge in his explanation about millions of euros that happened to be lying around.  The tissue of lies that he told resulted in his being sent straight to prison – but not before he had let it be known that he had made a video which is lodged with a Notario (see previous blogs about the vacuity of these particular money grubbing shits) to be played in the event of his death in prison.

I have to admit that I laughed out loud when I heard this latest piece of melodramatic rubbish.  However, the mere existence of this “bomba atomica” indicates as clearly as if he had stated it that the corruption within PP is widespread from top to bottom and that the powerful in the party can be destroyed by the revelations that he could make.  It can get no more farcical.  Except this is Spain, and anything is possible.

I have to reiterate that had the series of scandals hit the governing party of any northern European country it would have had to resign.  It would have been hounded out of office by newspapers, radio, television and public disgust.  But here, the members of the government, however shockingly inept and mendacious, stay and hope that everything will go away. 

The philosophy is that everyone is doing it so why shouldn’t I, and why are you making a fuss!  It is deeply shocking and, more than that it is positively shaming to have to listen to the blatant lies of our so-called leaders.  They are despicable.

Lunch with Irene, who was dismayed by the news from Cardiff and asked me to convey whatever sentiment I thought most appropriate to the main parties involved.  It is early days, and one can only hope for the best and a positive outcome from a very negative set of circumstances.

The weather has been good.  Ish.  A sort of casual haziness that just stopped it being glorious.  The swim was refreshing.  Which is not good at this time of year!  And it’s supposed to be positively cloudy tomorrow, though I tend to rely on my firm belief in the concept of the microclimate to keep me warm.

On the OU front we have now been given the groups in which we will be working and I can foresee some problems but I am determined to be positive and hope for the best!

Tomorrow I must do some “revision” as I have been looking at the sample examination paper that we have been given and it requires a lot more quite specific information and does not lend itself to the quantity of intellectual “busking” that I was able to do in the last one!

My chosen technique of consolidating the notes that I have made is to use Excel as a way of keeping key terms together with some brief explanation if necessary and then using the important concept to form a “word cloud” which is a useful aide memoire and is a clear indication to me to flag up gaps in specific knowledge.  Well, it worked in the last exam and I intend to use it in this one, but I need to get the notes consolidated before too much of the course has gone to make it far too daunting a task! 

Preparation is all. 

I hope.