A HUMBLING EXPERIENCE

I AM, of course, writing this article before the event. Lisa Burgess decided some weeks ago that she wanted to organise a tribute to me for my first term as a Mijas councillor. I now understand why tributes often take place after someone is gone, as it carries with it a certain degree of discomfort.

Miguel de Cervantes, in one of his sonnets, wrote, ‘And mock me after I am gone.’ I do hope this is not a prediction for the May 28 elections. Having said this and admitted my uneasiness, Lisa compelled me to be there by coupling this tribute with a Burn’s Supper. Given that I haven’t had the opportunity to get the kilt out of mothballs for a while and to toast the Immortal Memory, how could I turn it down?

Of course, there will be a speech, and as I look at the long list of people who are attending, I already feel humbled at the prospect of being surrounded by so many friends and acquaintances. In my mind, I look around the tables and think of the people I have got to know: people who out of a sense of altruism and community have committed so much of their time and energy for the benefit of

Sally Underwood Political Animal

WELL it’s safe to say it hasn’t been a good week for the Conservatives.

Between Rishi’s fixed penalty notice for not wearing a seatbelt, Boris’s £800,000 loan controversy, and Zahawi’s seven­figure tax payback, the Tories are not currently having the best time of things.

Two of these controversies are now subject to reviews, while Rishi has accepted fault in the seatbelt incident.

While this certainly doesn’t look like a great time for politics, as one columnist recently pointed out these scandals are somewhat tame compared to some of the UK’s historic political controversies.

Let’s start with possibly the most shocking, the Thorpe Affair. It’s hard to contemplate now the idea that the leader of a major political party might end up being tried for murder, but in 1979 that’s exactly what happened in the case of Liberal Party leader, Jeremy Thorpe.

While he was eventually acquitted, the stain of being accused of attempting to have his former lover killed was ­ fairly understandably ­ enough to end his career.

others and I think here of the people and animals they help.

I have only been trying to do my job. After all, I do get paid by the people attending this tribute to work on their behalf. I would like to think that I put in a bit more than the minimum effort, but after 40 years of no foreigners on the Mijas Council, getting myself out there and available to people has been a de­