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Sunday, October 11, 2015

So much bitterness! So little time!

There has been a response from the powers that be about the theft of my money and phone while I was using the local swimming pool that I used to go to before our local pool became an indoor one. And if that is not a clumsy sentence, then I am no stylist!

What that response will actually mean in the fullness of time, I know not, but they did ask for the price of the old phone and the cost of replacing it. There was even vague talk of some sort of municipal insurance cover. Which is encouraging. I am not, however, holding my breath.

My replacement Yotaphone has travelled from Russia originally, then to Slovenia and on to Germany via Austria. And there it stays, mocking the assurances from the company that it would be with me in 1 day or 2. I was sceptical when I read it, so I am not unduly worried about its non appearance.

Just as I was not worried about the non/delivery of my OU books by Correos. It is not the first time that they have lost my educational material, so I was more than prepared to lurch into action to counter the malign indifference of the Spanish Postal Service, and the OU, bless them, did manage to get the books and other material to me in time. You never know, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that a parcel arrived out of the blue in March with the books that should have been with me in September!

I am still learning the ways of the Satellite and incidentally relearning the use of right and left clicks with the mouse. There are things that go up in Mac that go down in the PC and not everything is where it 'should' be. But time will take care of that. I hope.

Meanwhile no news about The Book or The Watch or anything else of real retail interest.

In Spain, the latest news via a poll about the two largest political parties, PP (the ruling oligarchy of kleptomaniacs) and PSOE (a so-called socialist party with corruption issues as deep and worrying as PP – see above) puts them neck and neck. Neck and neck!

PP has had a build up to the election campaign which has been almost comic in its awfulness. Virtually every treasurer of PP who is still capable of drawing breath has been accused of corruption. The last treasurer has been to prison momentarily (if you're are PP or rich or a singer or banker you do not stay in prison for long) because of the wholesale distribution of sobres (envelopes) stuffed with 'black' money (i.e. illegal) to anyone who was anyone in PP. A whole swathe of the political class have been impugned; and the commercial class; and the banking class; and the union class – anyone with power and influence has been bought and sold. And they all get away with it.

One daily programme has a 'Corruption of the Day' spot to keep up with the accusations! The congregation of one notorious wedding of a daughter of the past president (unfortunately with no resemblance to the Red Wedding of Game of Thrones) seems to have been composed almost entirely of the ethical dregs of Spanish society. It is amusing, in a bitter sweet way, to watch film of that grotesque parade of autocratic contempt and note how many of the faces are also known to the police as miscreants – and many more who should be!

Evidence of the corruption of our politics washes from our TV screens in a never ending wave and EVERYBODY (including the scum who deny it) knows that the guilty are those who 'govern' us. The evidence is overwhelming and conclusive, but PP has a parliamentary majority and, by god, they use it.

An example of that was when PP 'lost' the recent local elections in many of their strongholds where corruption under their astonishing rule had reached totalitarian dimensions. Apart from frantically shredding anything which might be incriminating and prove to be useful to the new incoming administrations their out-and-out shock at being dislodged from their traditional cash cows prompted them to extreme proposals.

One (just one) of their most astonishing proposals was to re-write the meaning of majority. In some of their previous serfdoms they were still the largest single party after the elections, but they lacked the all important overall majority which allowed them to do what they liked. So, their (really quite clever) solution was to propose a new law which stated that if the largest single party's vote was something like 40% they should be allowed to form the government, even if the other parties could unite behind a single candidate for mayor. They began to play around with percentages and the frustrated PP grandee who fully expected to be elected major of Madrid began to talk about democracy! Always a bad sign when a member of PP uses the 'D' word – it usually shows desperation and panic, because any thinking person bursts into uncontrollable laughter when they see anyone from PP talking about a concept in which they obviously have no belief whatsoever!

If you are British and reading this, you have no idea whatsoever about how blatant the corruption is and in what low esteem politicians and bankers are held. Whatever you think about Cameron and his Cronies (and I think very, very little of them) they are paragons of ethical virtue compared to the rubbish that clings on to power in this country. And, as far as I can see, has a very real chance of retaining power after the next general election if the disgraced PP party can link up with the C's (a right-wing party with a young leader whose lust for power is refreshingly obvious) then they could form the next Spanish government. And I will wholeheartedly in favour of Catalan independence.

Just to give Catalans something to think about. Monday is National Show Our Military Might Day when there is a military parade with the salute taken by the tall person who calls himself the king – a person who was put on the throne by the undignified collusion of PP and PSOE with no reference to the people of Spain whatsoever. This unsavoury parade is usually in Madrid, but this year it is taking place in Barcelona.

Perhaps this is the time to mention that some PP defence minister actually raised the possibility of military force to keep the Catalans in line if they took the Independence thing too far. And now we have a vast military parade. This is not going to turn out well. Mark my words. Though the public face of the parade will be photogenic enough with invited guests and invited populations to give the 'right' image for the watching viewers. It will be interesting to see how this 'event' is televised on Spanish television and then compare it with how it is treated on Catalan television.

It is at times like this I regret not having a Republican flag to fly from our window. I am obviously asking in the wrong shops!

Meanwhile I follow the non-progress of my phone as it continues to stay in Germany. Perhaps, now that I think about it, they are trying to find a vehicle which has actually passed legitimate exhaust emission tests before bringing it into Spain!

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