Manuel Chaves wins again

[Beachcomber]

Clearly a number of people on this Forum are not in tune with the Spanish people

They are certainly in tune with the Spanish people in my area where the PP vote was considerably increased and Málaga generally where the ten available seats are now evenly split between PP and PSOE whereas in 2004 it was 6 to 4 in the latter's favour.

To save endless arguments about all this the full results, together with comparisons with 2004, can be found here:

http://www.soitu.es/elecciones/2008/generales/

[Cassandra]

Just as well Almeria didn't get it's wish to become independent of Andalucia.

Local press said that all of Andalucia except Almeria voted PSOE but looking at Beachcomber's link that's only partially true. Although the PP got nearly 51% with PSOE getting only just over 41% they still get 3 seats each as none of the other parties got enough votes for a seat. All they would be able to do would be sit around a table and talk, no real change there then

[gavilan]

Beachcomber: if the PP had won what would you have liked to see them do?

[Grouser]

Well, I would never have thought of him!

I don't know that this was a political statement, more a judgement of his countrymen. His politics seemed to be fairly neutral and bland.

I have been through several of the books on my shelf and found two references to the fact that in the 1930's Dali's fellow surrealists were seriously concerned about Dali's obsession/sympathy with Hitler. Further to this when in New York in the 1940's he made no secret of his admiration for Franco. If you google Dali Biography you will see what I mean. That is not what I would call neutral and bland.

[Beachcomber]

Beachcomber: if the PP had won what would you have liked to see them do?

Boost the economy, control inflation, reverse the trend towards unemployment, reduce taxes, increase pensions and spending on healthcare, control illegal immigration, re-establish good relations with the rest of Europe and the USA and take steps to reiterate family values.

Grouser, I expect that anyone who searches the internet for long enough could find something to support their point of view.

[Alan-LaCala]

So sorry Bongtrees for being silly. I must have got it wrong when I said that the PSOE got more votes than anyone else.

I must learn to count.
I must learn to count.

I don't object to you having different views to mine, but do me the favour of respecting the fact that millions of spanish voted for the PSOE.

Alan

[Beachcomber]

As they did for the PP with less than a million difference in the popular vote out of a total vote count of over twenty five and a half million. Enough to put the socialists into office (with a little help from their friends) but hardly a resounding endorsement.

One can manipulate the statistics for his/her own ends but he/she cannot avoid the facts.

[ICCSL]

It has always been my view that only people who can state at least five policies of the party they are voting for should be allowed to vote.

I remember that my parents voted labour because their parents voted labour. They didn't however have an interest in the policies of the party or in fact know many, if any, of them.

Quite a lot of the elderly Spanish people where I live can't read. And as you say, Beachcomber it was hardly an overwhelming majority was it?

I wonder whether Alan La-Cala will be so blase in a year's time when constructiion, estate agency, building supplies companies, tourism and almost ever type of business you can name are in the toilet. And whether he will be able to cope with a possible civil war when thousands of Spanish owned properties are demolished.

[Bongtrees]

I wonder whether Alan La-Cala will be so blase in a year's time when constructiion, estate agency, building supplies companies, tourism and almost ever type of business you can name are in the toilet. And whether he will be able to cope with a possible civil war when thousands of Spanish owned properties are demolished.

and there was me worrying about the proposed new 25% tax on computers and CD´s etc to help support Z´s friends in the entertainment business

[bob]

Beachcomber wrote:
Grouser, I expect that anyone who searches the Internet for long enough could find something to support their point of view.

By the same token Beach, you could spend the rest of your life on the Internet and not find anything that defines Salvador Dali’s politics as bland and neutral.

Moving right along, gavilan wrote:
Beachcomber: if the PP had won what would you have liked to see them do?

And Beachcomber responded:
Boost the economy, control inflation, reverse the trend towards unemployment, reduce taxes, increase pensions and spending on healthcare (sic), control illegal immigration, re-establish good relations with the rest of Europe and the USA and take steps to reiterate family values.

My question is: ‘How’ do you propose this list be accomplished?

[Beachcomber]

That wasn't the question I was asked. It's up to the politicians to find a way of accomplishing it.

My opinion of Dalí is based on my own impressions formed over the years not on something I found on the internet. It's my opinion and I have no interest in trying to prove a point to anyone else.

[Grouser]

Beachcomber I found the information about Dali in books on my shelves as I stated in my post. One of the comments was in a book of Dali's work and the others in a general work on surrealism. I only mentioned the internet as a secondary source where one might care to look . Of course the authors of these two books could have just wanted to cast a slur on Dali's character but I cannot for the life of me think why.

[Beachcomber]

I suppose thoughts on any famous person, especially one like Dalí, are open to different interpretations.

I'm not an art lover and certainly not of his work but the quote, which I had heard before, came to light again as a throwaway remark by a character in 'Invierno en Madrid' which was translated from the original novel 'Winter in Madrid' by C J Samson.

Having read it I was left wondering how much Spain had really changed deep down since the 1940s. It also left me feeling very depressed.