I may not live in
Britain these days, but I do hope that the vile Conservative
government has not taken a leaf out of the viler PP government in
Spain and refused free medical treatment to their citizens working
abroad who have returned for the Christmas holidays to see their
families in Spain.
I am sure if the
mean-minded and pettily vicious IDS had anything to do with it then
he will have lost no opportunity to urge David Cameron (assuming DC
has managed to drag himself and half the Cabinet away from the
Christmas Festivities provided by his friend the vile Rupert Murdock
- though I have to admit that mere derogatory adjectives fail to
capture the true rotten flavour of that octogenarian 'American' –
to persecute (you still with me on this epic sentence?) those in a
less fortunate situation than his affluent self!
How has Cameron's
attendance at the court of one of the most unpleasant media oligarchs
in the world today, especially after Murdock's recent court cases and
evidence to parliamentary committees, gone down with the British
public? Has he been taken to task for openly consorting with such an
unsavoury character? Has he been asked why he thinks he can treat
the public (who have been misled, lied to and ripped off by this ogre
of the airways) with such cavalier contempt that he can ignore the
disgust that we feel to see him (even him) in such low company? It
is truly amazing what an overall majority can do for your view of the
poor bloody infantry that actually put votes in the ballot boxes, as
opposed to the rich and unscrupulous who couldn't give a shit about
us, but have plenty of money to put into party coffers.
I relish a story
told to me by the late Dave Phillips who related the experience of a
hapless Conservative candidate canvassing in a Labour stronghold in
Wales. He knocked on a door and told the man who answered that he
represented the Conservative Party. The man looked at him and asked
him to wait for a moment while he fetched his son. He reappeared
with his son and then spat at the Conservative and said to his son,
“That's how you treat all Conservatives!”
Now, as a
wishy-washy liberal, I cannot possibly condone spitting, not only is
it a form of violence, but it is also unhygienic! But, god knows, I
do understand the vehemence of the response to the generality of
Conservatives (with some honourable exceptions who escape my mind for
the moment) especially during times of crisis and real human need
when it is all too easy to illustrate the complacent attitude of
those in power in the Conservative Party (in whatever country) and
with money, with those outside who have little or none.
The political
situation within Catalonia is just as complicated as that in Spain.
The present President did not have a majority in the election to
retain his majority and so will have to pact with another party if he
is to be re-elected. The problem is although Mas (the President) is
plausible, he is also an old school politician whose past includes
his being very, very close to an ex-President who is now being
prosecuted for fraud and deception. The sort of fraud and deception
that the political parties at the time knew about, indeed there is
even a piece of film where one politician warns him that his 3%
'commission' that he took would come back to haunt him. Now it has
(and the rest of his mafia-like family too) and Mas must have known
about it and said nothing. At this stage in the development of
Catalonia to have a president who is likely to be charged with
something in the near future is not something which we need to be
landed with. A left wing party has stated that they would oppose his
establishment as president and they have held strong up till now and
resolutely refused to back him. The result of this is we in
Catalonia do not have a president, in the same way that Spain is
without one too.
CUP (the party
which opposes Mas) has had a convention today in which some 3,000
members of the party have voted three times on whether to support
Mas. The first two votes were 'No', and the third was an exact tie!
It all sounds fishy to me, but there you are! We are living in more
than interesting times!
Tomorrow the old
President of Spain (who remains in office until a successor is
elected) is having talks with C's and Podemos. It will be
interesting to see what comes out of that and what the leaders of
both parties have to say at the end of their meetings with Bromo. We
can months of meetings and suggestions before the limit runs out and
we have to have another election. I still do not trust either of the
main political parties, PP and PSOE, not to sink their differences
and unit to preserve their status as the 'power' in Spain in a
desperate attempt to keep alive the phantom that bipartisan politics
is still a possibility. They are both corrupt and have a lot to lose
if their stranglehold on the country is weakened and from their
shameless activity in the past they show quite clearly that they are
prepared to do anything they possibly can to keep their parasitic
suckers deep in the public purse. Anything is possible.
Meanwhile, I might
chance a swim tomorrow if my coughing gets less, even if it doesn't
it might be a good idea. The only horror is that the kids are going
to be swarming around and, even more horrifically until the 11th
of January! Now that I am no longer in school, I can't wait for the
kids to return and get off the streets and out of the shops and into
a secure environment where they do not interfere with normal human
life!
And I've finished a
draft of my latest poem, Standing on thin ice, which can be read (and
commented on) at
Any comments will get a reply!
