Wednesday, November 14, 2007

It Ain't What You Say, It's The Way That You Say It

Now for the news; two royal people have decided to stop living together. Virtually the only interesting aspect of the event is the euphemism used to describe the split. Royals in Spain do not separate, as normal couples do, instead they have a "temporary ending of their matrimonial cohabitation". Where will it all end? First we have a prince who marries a commoner who, in another beautiful euphemism, had already "conocido varón" . Now they start splitting up almost like normal people do!

Whether it will cost us more to have them living apart than together is of course a question which will never be answered, because in an interesting example of how weak democratic accountability can sometimes be the Spanish Parliament refuses to accept questions from its members on how much the ever expanding family costs the nation. However, it is rumoured that the male half of the couple in question has, and I choose my words with the utmost care here, some rather expensive habits. Meanwhile, many Spanish are starting to come to terms with a reality that they have refused to accept in the past, that their royal family behaves just like the British one. The coyness that surrounds the monarchy here even seems to affect those parts of the press that complain about it. So why not do something to change it? Perhaps they are worried about the royal temper?


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