THE FIRM OUR VIEW

ner of situations, including mixed mar‐riages among elderly couples; giving the impression that this particular prac‐tice has been prevalent for many years, which is of course ridiculous , but not of course to the young, which is the inex‐perienced innocent population they are actually endeavouring to influence. Popular TV series show whole neigh‐bourhoods existing as mixed cultures enjoying similar lives together, giving a wide berth to the degradation and run down areas that exist in many of the big cities.

Actually, according to some of my col‐leagues, many intelligent non‐white members of society are actually irritated and angered by the whole hypothetical and abstract representations. Racism is on the rise all over the country, which is exactly what the brainwashing instiga‐tors desire. They will then have every ex‐cuse to form a coordinated army of riot police that will ultimately control all of its citizens. Welcome to 1984 in its entire horrific eventuality.

LeapyLee’sopinionsarehisownandarenotnecessarilyrepresentativeofthoseofthepublishers,advertisersorsponsors.

AT the time of the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Eliza‐beth II she was recognised as Head of State by a selection of countries, some of which were considered Dominions and others Colonies and during her reign there was a total of 32 independent countries.

In addition, there were several small Colonies such as Bermuda, Falkland Islands and Gibraltar who became known as Overseas Territories and they alongside Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man also recognised her position.

Over the years, as Independence took place a number of new countries declared themselves Republics and whilst re‐maining as part of the Commonwealth of Nations no longer acknowledged the Monarch as Head of State.

Now 70 years later, that figure has dropped to just 15 (in‐cluding the UK) plus the Overseas Territories and already it looks as if the next to go will be Belize, followed almost cer‐tainly by Jamaica, New Zealand and possibly Australia.

There is no doubt that the British Royal Family is no longer viewed as being above reproach, with family feuds, infidelity, marriage breakdowns, paper bags full of cash and more which means there is something of a divide between the young and old over the relevance of the ‘family firm’. What has become clear from the scenes leading up to the Coronation of King Charles III is that not just the British but many nations, both home and abroad do still have af‐fection for the pomp and circumstance of a well organised event and one can be pretty certain that the majority of even the most cynical would jump at the chance of having tea at Buckingham Palace.

David Worboys Thinking Aloud

LIFE in Spain is different from other Euro‐pean countries. Spain is very colourful with perennial flowers, sunny festivals and historic cities, but living here can re‐quire a lot of patience and a lot of adapt‐ing. Solving a problem or getting explana‐tions can be very slow, time consuming and fraught with complications. However, Spain is one of the world’s most devel‐oped countries.

The Spanish talk fast, drive fast and live fast, and yet institutions are terribly slow. In the time it takes to draw a sum of mon‐ey at a bank counter or send a registered letter in a Post Office, you could buy a house in England. So the queues build up. As there is not much sense of time, people here seem to spend a lot of their time waiting patiently ….

And we are waiting for a refund of €284. Over five years ago, our IBI (Coun‐cil Tax) was inadvertently paid twice. It took eight months for the Patronato to acknowledge this and to promise a re ‐fund. After 17 visits to the local office, the sum is still confirmed as owing to us and ‘on its way’, but our claim will prob‐ably be statute ‐ barred by now. Five