Promises are like piecrusts

IN order to crawl out of recession Spain and Portugal introduced unloved austerity measures imposed by Brussels that hurt the most vulnerable of all.

So did Greece, whose new president Alexis Tsipras was elected on the strength of promises to reverse austerity.

The EU predictably called him to heel and Tsipras has now accused Spain and Portugal’s conservative governments of conspiring against him, fearful of the rising Left.

Of course they fear the Left but their lack of support stems from believing that if they did it by the book and at great cost, then Greece can too.

Neither Spain nor Portugal lied to join the single currency, neither frittered away the shoals of shimmering euros that flowed from Brussels and used them to live beyond their means.

That Greece did all this is not Tsipras’s responsibility. Making promises that Brussels and other EU partners will not allow him to keep is his fault and no-one else’s.

Getting it right

ANGEL GABILONDO, a former Education minister, is the PSOE’s candidate for the presidency of the Madrid autonomous region.

He substitutes Tomas Gomez, a regional politician more popular with his own coterie than the party. Neither was Gomez popular with the electorate, leading the socialists to their worst-ever beating in Madrid during the 2011 regional elections.

Gabilondo can certainly do no worse and possibly will do considerably better. He’s off to a good start with a call for politicians who care more about the population than internal party affairs, but how many will heed his words? Starting with his own party?

Six-day wonder

PUPILS who study Catholic Religion at school will be expected to evaluate ‘an understanding of the divine origin of the cosmos.’

The return to Creationism – which this amounts to – has been criticised by teachers and scientists amongst others, who claim that will conflict with other subjects. Not necessarily. Picture a syllabus devised by mildewy clerics and imparted by earnest proselytisers with pat answers.

Now picture theories posed by cool Stephen Hawking with his wheelchair and synthesised voice. Conflict? No contest!

By invitation only

FORMER president Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero increasingly does his own thing.

He caused feather-spitting fury by dining with Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias without warning the PSOE’s own leader, Pedro Sanchez.

Then the governing PP had a hissy fit because Zapatero travelled to Cuba and met its president, Raul Castro, who declined to receive Spain’s Foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Maragall last November. After Iglesias at Christmas and Castro in February, the PSOE awaits Zapatero’s Easter outing with trepidation.