Although
still bitter about the fact that 52% of those who bothered to vote decided that
Brexit was a sensible solution to the perceived problems of a massively wealthy
country with a privileged relationship with the largest trading partnership in
the world – I can at least see that a distant professional political class
linked to obvious disparity in the distribution of wealth and the completely
unscrupulous campaign of a group of post-truth ruthlessly selfish, self-seeking
political opportunists might offer some sort of explanation for what appears
(still) to be a collective decision to shoot whatever feet were available to
view.
If I hear another person say
something to the effect that, “Things are not as bad as those who said we would
really suffer when we left the EU are they?” just once again. I will scream.
May I point out that we have not
actually left the EU? We are still full
members of that organization, though we now appear not to go to certain
meetings, allowing the French and Germans to decide whatever is best for their
own interests. We have not left. That is years in the future. A future completely and utterly unsafe in the
conspiratorial hands of an unelected Prime Minister of a Party that . . .
well, you can see the way that this rant is going. And the point I want to make is not about the
UK but my adopted country of Spain.
The Conservatives, you will not be
surprised to learn, is not my party of choice.
I have veered in my life between utter contempt for the Conservative
Party (it was a real effort for me to give the title of such a beggared
organization capital letters) to downright loathing.
At the moment I tend more to the
latter than the former. It is difficult
to feel anything remotely positive about an unelected Prime Minister who
presents her choice of Foreign Secretary as anything than a joke in poor taste
and, further, who expects to be taken seriously when she suddenly pulls the
emaciated and ossified corpse of the rabbit of the reintroduction of grammar
schools from the cesspit of unthinking Tory appeasement. And that is enough of a mixed metaphor to be
going on with.
Just a reminder about the subject of
this diatribe – which is Spain.
However, just before we get to that
country, I would like to make a link between this ‘policy’ suggestion of the
re-introduction of grammar schools and the Anglican Church. As an Anglican Atheist myself, I feel a
certain nostalgic concern for the doings of the Church and I am always
fascinated by Religion. There are
important concerns that religion attempts to wrestle with and believers and
non-believers can gain from studying the way that the Church has struggled with
some of the major philosophical and social questions since its
institution. It has thought long and
hard and Church thinkers have contributed to the intellectual development of
our civilization. It is therefore all
the more frustrating that sizeable sections of the modern church find
challenges like social and political inequality too difficult to cope with and
so turn to ‘easy’ questions to which there appear to be equally ‘easy’ answers.
If you find that church leaders are
attempting to find ways to challenge the vested interests of the status quo,
the easiest way to unsettle their socialist tendencies is to raise the twin
concerns which are guaranteed to act in the same way as the chorus of sheep in
Animal Farm who chanted, “Four legs good; two legs bad!” as soon as any other
animal challenged the authority of the pigs.
The two key areas whose discussion will swamp anything else are, of
course, the questions of Abortion and the ‘question’ of homosexuality.
If you want another example of one
stupid thing swamping discussion from my experience as a teacher, then it would
be an item on a staff meeting agenda discussing school uniform and the pupils’ wearing
of jewellery.
The amount of time that I have
listened to discussions about the size, positioning, composition and cost of
various items of clothing and earrings to be worn by school children make
medieval scholastic discussions about how many angels can dance on the head of
a pin look like casual throw-away lines!
So, the point that I am making is,
the unelected May is raising the ghost of a lost policy with the concept of new
grammar schools. If she fails (and she
should because there is no educational expert who thinks that they work for all
children) then she can point to the fact that she did her best but the
establishment (sic) did her down. If she
succeeds then she will make the middle class grunts in the shires happy as they
will assume that their privileged darlings will obviously get to the grammar
schools and the lesser breeds without the law (who don’t vote Conservative
anyway) will get the Sec Mods that they deserve!
I can’t wait to see the Jesuitical
logic that will have to be used to show that naïf little Candide’s tutor was
right all along and they will be the best possible schools in this best of all
possible educational worlds.
I assume that all of Trump’s
speeches are being video recorded for cabinet ministers to learn from. After all, the fact that the rambling
gibberish that he spouts has nothing to do with education doesn’t make any
difference as he finds it difficult to focus on anything at all, apart from
spouting twisted childhood memories of the nursery rhyme about Dumpty Dumpty –
and it all seems to go down well with a certain section of the Republican
Party. And how different are the
American and British Conservatives anyway?
It’s just the Brits don’t have guns.
Yet.
Anyway, Spain.
We have just had the results from
the election in Galicia and the PP (the Spanish Conservative Party) has won an
overall majority. Again.
If you do not live in Spain that may
mean little. If you do live in Spain it
is incredible.
PP has had the sort of
catastrophically bad publicity for months and months and months that would be
amusing if it were not all too real.
Every treasurer of the party, since it was founded, has been charged
with criminal mismanagement. Corruption
has become synonymous with the name of the party and day after day companies,
politicians, businessmen, party workers, anyone in fact who has had any contact
with this toxic brand have been accused.
The scale, of what can only be called theft, is astonishing and scalps
have been claimed by courageous media types who bring the latest misdemeanours
to light.
The epic mismanagement of public
funds in Valencia has degenerated into pure farce with the senator for Valencia
being accused by the High Court and then resigning from PP who put her there so
that the acting president (PP) can claim it is nothing to do with him because
she is no longer in the party! In an
ironic touch which is poignant to the point of insult: the ‘senadora’ actually
gets paid more now that she is not in a party and has extra funds allocated so
that she can manage alone outside the framework of an established organization! The idea of resignation for the misdemeanours
of her dictatorial and grasping reign in Valencia does not of course enter her
head and, with a brazen audacity that takes the breath away she continues to
flaunt her apparent disinterest in the chaos that she has caused.
It is difficult to give a true
impression of just how overwhelming the stench of corruption is in this
country. Any one of the tens of major
scandals that have rocked this country would have settled the hash of any
government in the UK trying to brave it out.
But in Spain, few of the true criminals are actually in prison.
Spain has a whole section of society
that is above ordinary justice: thousands of people who cannot be tried in the
same way as ordinary citizens. The UK
has no one who is above the law in this way.
German has no one who is above the law in this way.
Spain may point to the fact that the
sister of the present King was actually arraigned in court for corruption and
was cross-examined. And as part of her
evidence she said, “I don’t know” hundreds of times. I think in a British court she would have
been charged with contempt. And we are
still waiting for a judgement. I am not
holding my breath that she will spend the time in prison that one of the
prosecutors has demanded. Her husband
was arraigned with her, charged with exploiting the royal name and overcharging
by misappropriating public funds (guess where!) etc etc.
In spite of the torrent of adverse
publicity, Galicia has voted in a majority PP government in its autonomous
region! It makes one weep. In spite of the massive amount of evidence
that points to institutional systemic corruption, they vote for more of the
same.
It is, sometimes, difficult to
maintain an optimistic approach. But not
impossible.
There are solutions to the present
situation. The parties of the left could find some sort of way to work
together to stop what would be a total disaster – the continuation of the
‘government’ of PP. They must find a
way.
In a very real sense, the future of
a united Spain depends on it.
My
third week out of hospital and my first walks outside the house and my first
trips to the local shops in the car!
