It's not been as cold
this winter in Culebrón as it usually is. Outside, as so often, it's lovely. Blue skies and reasonable temperatures - usually a
pullover versus jacket sort of choice. Hardly ever a raincoat. Inside it can be perishing but not so much, so far, this winter. Because it wasn't so cold in the bathroom I use and because I don't
teach on Fridays I was dawdling a bit over the toothbrushing, hair
combing, wrinkle examining ritual this morning and so I heard more of
the tertulia, the round table discussion, on the morning radio news, than I often do.
Spanish politics is a
bit in limbo at the moment whilst the four big and biggish parties
circle around each other suggesting this and that deal to form a
Government after last month's indecisive General Election. So Rajoy
is still President but until things are sorted out most things are on
hold. Up in Cataluña there was a similar impasse for several months
about forming a new regional government until the old President
stepped aside in favour of a chap called Carles Puigdemont. I'm sure
that you know that there is a movement in Cataluña to become
independent of the rest of Spain. Rajoy has often being criticised
for not being willing enough to talk to the Catalans.
Anyway apparently some
Catalan radio station made a hoax call to the acting President
Mariano Rajoy. They got through too and somebody pretending to be the Catalan Premier had a chat with Mariano. It
seemed like a perfectly reasonable conversation to me. A comfortable conversation. Rajoy said he was
happy to talk, that his diary was pretty clear at the moment given
the situation, he reminded "Carles" that they had met
during the opening of a new rail line etc. When the call was revealed
to be a hoax he was still pleasant enough asking about the radio
station and the programme. He seemed far from concerned about it. I approved. I'm not a big Rajoy fan but he came across well in my opinion.
Interesting enough
little story but pretty run of the mill. I onced phoned Willie
Whitelaw as Home Secretary and got through so it didn't seem that odd
to me. When I said to Willie that I was surprised to be able to talk to him directly he was very forthright in his reply. "Why do you think I have a phone on my desk if it
isn't to talk to people?" he asked. But the pundit on the radio
was going on about how the staff close to Rajoy should have screened
the call, what a terrible lapse it was, how heads should roll and why people should be resigning.
I was indignant. This
country has been and probably is riddled with corruption. Low level
corruption is everywhere and it's often not seen for what it is. I
suggested on a Guardia Civil website that they should maybe not use
be using official vehicles for collecting food for charity and they
simply couldn't understand why I thought there was any problem. Lots
of top politicians, big names, have sidestepped accusations
that seemed well founded to me without problems. But, for some reason a professional
natterer thinks that somebody should resign for a harmless prank that
actually made Rajoy seem just a little bit more human.
