The song, not the singer

METROSCOPIA gave Pablo Iglesias, who heads the Podemos party, the lowest score amongst the country’s political leaders.

Calculated by subtracting the percentage of disapprovers from the percentage of supporters, this gave Iglesias a minus-40 score, overshadowing acting president Mariano Rajoy’s minus-37 and Pedro Sanchez’s minus-36. Ciudadanos’ leader Albert Rivera obtained a seven, the only positive score.

Rivera’s standing with his own voters shot up to 80, Rajoy’s to 77 while the PSOE’s ex-secretary general Pedro Sanchez who has since been shown the door drooped to a lowly 32. Even amongst his own, Iglesias only managed 51 although Podemos would nevertheless come second after the Partido Popular in a hypothetical third election. All of which suggests that where Podemos is concerned it is the song and not the singer that now attracts the punters.

Martyrs to the cause

OPPONENTS to the PSOE decision to abstain during Mariano Rajoy’s investiture parrot ex-secretary general Pedro Sanchez’s claim that this betrays campaign pledges.

Most PSOE voters – and that includes many card-carrying members – no longer give a flying fig about campaign pledges because the ‘no means no’ dictum would bring a third election and further humiliation at the polls. Embracing political martyrdom is forgivable but committing political suicide is a waste of time and votes.

The (partly) whole truth

AT the start of the Gurtel corruption trial its prime mover Francisco Correa said he would cooperate fully and tell all. 

But on the stand he skirted some names and dismissed others, letting Public Works minister Paco Alvarez Cascos, for instance, off the hook.  For reasons best known to himself those whom Correa cannot forgive – including former PP treasurer Luis Barcenas and Pozuelo mayor Jesus Sepulveda  – earned full frontals in the National High Court.

Correa’s evidence was compared to a controlled explosion and it was apparent that despite his promises he told only what he wanted to tell.