No sun – no moon

THIS has nothing to do with ideology or voters’ political orientation.

If there is a November election because two groups of knowledgeable and – in some cases – experienced people cannot reach agreement over who will do what in a hypothetical government, the PSOE and Unidas-Podemos parties should prepare for a punishment vote.

Roughly 7.5 million people voted for the PSOE and about half that for Unidas Podemos last April.

Had they wanted a return to the mid-70’s they would have voted for the Partido Popular, for Ciudadanos and, heaven forfend, for Vox who would have opted for the same threesome they have created in Andalucia, Murcia and Madrid where none was the most-voted party.

This could happen nationally next November because the people the PSOE and Unidas-Podemos expect to vote for them will stay indoors instead.

PSOE analysts believe they would pick up far more than their current 123 seats in another election athough UP would plummet.

Therefore PSOE will wing it and win. Therefore nothing. 

Do you remember Thomas Hood’s poem that begins ‘No sun – no moon!’ and ends ‘November?’

To that should be add’“No votes!’

Upset tummies

IT’S the silly season again, although there’s not much silly about this summer of discontent in Spain or the UK.

But at least the Clinica Universidad de Navarra, run by the Catholic sect Opus Dei has done the honours with its announcement that promiscuity and homosexuality are responsible for gastroenteritis.

Makes you wonder what they think is responsible for the Norovirus that strikes down cruise passengers like flies. A stopover at Sodom and Gomorrah presumably.

Straight down the middle

ALBERT RIVERA’S dislike of Spain’s acting president Pedro Sanchez is increasingly personal, not political, as his refusal to meet him demonstrates.

It’s not easy to discern what Rivera hopes to achieve with an enmity that was magnified by Sanchez’s elevation to president when the PSOE was at its lowest ebb and Cs at its highest.

Rivera, but not his party, is listing to starboard when he could do far more harm to Sanchez and Pablo Casado’s PP by staying on course in the Centre.

He needs to attract the undecided who ultimately decide elections, but instead he’s sending them anywhere but Cs.

Virtue signalling

THERE is an outside chance that Isabel Maria Ayuso, who was finally invested regional president of the Madrid Community, could be investigated for links to the Punica corruption case.

Punica? Just another PP-generated corruption case temporarily overlooked by a public more interested in acquiring a national government.

They won’t be forgotten for long because the courts continue digging and the ghosts of cases past are ready to sidle out of the shadows and say ‘Run!’ to Pablo Casado.

Ciudadanos’ whose votes, together with Vox’s, put Ayuso where she is has begun to cover its back, saying that if she should be investigated she would have to resign.

It’s not likely to happen but it looks good and plays nicely to the gallery, especially those who rightly feel that Cs have sold out to Vox.