Will CLARO partner the Partido Popular in Orihuela?

When the political parties in the Orihuela Town Council were trying to sort out a governing council following the May 2011 local elections, I made the following comment on Facebook and Twitter:

“A PP led bipartite government with CLR/CLARO in Orihuela isn't what the CLARO party supporters wanted, but will get if the CLR agree it”

followed by this comment a few days later:

“CLARO sold out to the CLR for power! Will their coalition sell out to the PP for more power? Is what I'm asking a joke, - think about it!”.

At the time there were those residents of Orihuela Costa who thought that my comments were ludicrous, as is their right.

The result of the long drawn out discussions and bargaining was that a tripartite government of the PSOE, Los Verdes and CLR/CLARO political groups was agreed, not too amicably.

I read with great interest the following comments in the January 2012 C.L.A.R.O. Newsletter, especially the final paragraph in the extract:

“the continuing differences within the government between the CLR party, our partner in the May election, and C.L.A.R.O. These differences which, for reasons of their perceived political advantage, have led our CLR partners over the past 5 months to seek to divide the management of the coast and to reduce the responsibilities or competences of the C.L.A.R.O Councillor for the Coast. The differences culminated in November in CLR attempts to divide the C.L.A.R.O party prior to our Annual General Meeting and their unilateral exclusion or expulsion of C.L.A.R.O from the joint government group in the council CLR-CLARO. In the November AGM, C.L.A.R.O confirmed that despite its difficulties with CLR, we would continue to support the present government provided we got all means necessary, including finance and competences, to carry out our work on behalf of Orihuela Costa.

It was not surprising that in these circumstances, Monica Lorente, the leader of the Popular Party, the largest single party in the Orihuela Council, with 12 seats, one short of a majority, should have requested a meeting with the Councillor for the Coast, Bob Houliston. A meeting did take place in the Playa Flamenco office of the Town Hall on 28 December. The two leaders had a general conversation on questions of political interest in Orihuela and Orihuela Costa”.

Perhaps my comments in 2011 were not that far off of the possible future for the Orihuela Town Council. Is Bob Houliston, Leader of the CLARO party looking for more personal power by making a bipartite power partnership with the PP party in the Council? Will the current tripartite government survive? Will we see a new dynamic duo; Mon & Bob?

Edited  27th January 2012.
See follow-up article 'Ex PP Mayor says CLARO leader is an honourable man! - How time changes opinions when it suits!

Women report feeling pain more intensely than men, says study of electronic medical records

Women report more intense pain than men in virtually every disease category, according to researchers who mined a huge collection of electronic medical records to establish the broad gender difference to a high level of statistical significance.

Read more in ScienceDaily:Women report feeling pain more intensely than men, says study of electronic medical records

The Lincoln Lawyer

I have just finished reading 'The Lincoln Lawyer' written by Michael Connelly. Rather than explaining the plot of the book here, click on the title for the full synopsis from the author.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. It is a easy read; a gripping tale with unexpected diversions around the central court trial; that reached a suspense conclusion that brought the tale to a satisfactory end.

Trial of Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón is a 'blow to human rights', says Amnesty

Hugo Relva, Legal Adviser at Amnesty International, who is in Madrid to observe the trial of pioneering investigative Judge Baltasar Garzón , said: "It seems the search for truth, justice and reparation for past crimes,...committed during the civil war and Franco’s rule,....under international law in Spain is being held hostage to this trial based on outrageous charges".

Read more about the forthcoming trial here:AIUK : Spain: Trial of judge is a 'blow to human rights', says Amnesty and http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/spain-trial-judge-baltasar-garz-n-blow-human-rights-2012-01-20

The day I became an Executioner!

On the 40th anniversary of the execution, by firing squad, of Pedro Martínez Expósito, who had been judged guilty of the murder of two women, Vicente Torres describes, in an article in the El Pais newspaper, the day and his feelings when ordered to be a member of the military execution squad.


It is a moving article describing his feelings about his involuntary involvement and the action on the dreadful day. He says of the event "Did something change within us? Were we marked for life because of this? I suppose so; we certainly could not remain indifferent to it........I am neither ashamed nor proud of it, but I am hurt by it”.


He makes the further point of the event during Franco's dictatorship of Spain: "I was not about to help "do justice." If anything, I felt I was going to add yet one more injustice to the list. I have always considered Expósito's execution to be a crime, a public assassination that did not compensate for his crimes. I also thought the execution had a strong political component".


A very moving story about a barbaric act. One cannot ignore the fact that Pedro Martínez Expósito had ended the lives of two people and that justice had to be carried out for this crime. But vengeful and political based retribution is not justice. But that is what one saw from the Fascist, Roman Catholic Church supported, military government of Franco.


Vicente's thoughts can be read here:   The day I became an executioner · ELPAÍS.com in English

Cheapest Petrol & Diesel prices in Spain

Where is the cheapest fuel for your car in your area of Spain?

The link to the Webpage of the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Turism will give you the answer.

Click on it and try looking in your area. Ministerio de Industria, Energía y Turismo - Precios Carburantes

We Don't Want a Global Superpower EU, Mr President Schulz

God is not Great.

I have just finished reading Christopher Hitchens' book entitled 'God is not Great' (this link is to a chapter by chapter summary).

I have found it a very interesting but difficult book to read. Difficult in that the quality of writing highlighted my inadequacies in both English language and literature. This is a consequence of the failings of myself and the state secondary modern education schooling system at the time and not of the writer. There was a constant need for me to consult the dictionary to gain the full benefit of content. It is a good job that the Kindle for PC programme, via which I read the book, includes an easily accessed source of word clarification.

The reading of this book has not brought about a life changing belief but has added clarification to my long held rejection of the validity and belief in a religious faith. To use a quote of Christopher Hitchens when referring to himself and like thinkers, myself included, “Our belief is not a belief. Our principles are not a faith. We do not rely solely upon science and reason, because these are necessary rather than sufficient factors, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason.”

It is a book that has a meaningful message for both, those who don't believe in the unproven, and those who believe in the unbelievable, and unsubstantiated. It is worth the time and effort to read it. Perhaps more than once to fully comprehend the full thesis put forward by 'Hitch'.

I think now is the time for me to read his autobiography 'Hitch – 22'.

Cognitive skills and memory loss of the elderly.

There are two interesting recent articles on the ScienceDaily website in relation to the cognitive skills of, and causes of memory loss in, the elderly. I prefer the term 'more mature' as it doesn't make me feel so old.

The first entitled 'Elderly can be as fast as young in some brain tasks, study shows' highlights research that has found that both children and the elderly have slower response times when they have to make quick decisions in some settings. But the research suggests that much of that slower response is a conscious choice to emphasize accuracy over speed. In fact, healthy older people can be trained to respond faster in some decision-making tasks without hurting their accuracy -- meaning their cognitive skills in this area aren't so different from younger adults.

The second entitled 'New clues as to why some older people may be losing their memory'  refers to new research that  links 'silent strokes,' or small spots of dead brain cells, found in about one out of four older adults to memory loss in the elderly.

I've decided that if I am slower answering a question than would be expected it is because I will have made the conscious choice to emphasize accuracy over speed; or will it be that I've forgotten the question. What if I can't remember what I've decided?

Journey across the Millau Viaduct

Our return route from England to Spain through France on this trip was via the E11/A75 which took us over the impressive Millau Viaduct on the 28th December 2011.

This was not the first occasion that we have travelled over it, but because we were ahead of schedule we had time to stop and take some photographs of this piece of magnificent engineering.

We stopped at the 'Aire du Viaduc de Millau' situated on the north side of the viaduct and climbed the footpath to the viewpoint.

As an experiment we decided to take a video of our drive over the bridge not expecting it to work-out, but here it is.



Edit 06.01.2012: The Baluarte bridge on the Mazatlan-Durango highway in Northern Mexico, standing at 403 metres has now been confirmed as the world's highest cable-stayed bridge, surpassing the Millau Viaduct.