Promises Are Cheap

The only thing in the news this week is the plethora of electoral pledges by parties across the political spectrum and all along the coast.

ALM Proposed Roman Aqueduct AmphitheatreTake the PP in Almuñécar, who promise that they will build an amphitheatre next to the Roman aqueduct in Torrecuevas, where they do the candle-lit piano concerts. See photo.

The Roman aqueduct, as you can imagine, is heavily protected — you can’t sneeze in the direction of this monument from 100 metres away, yet the present Mayor promises to build an amphitheatre attached to it? And where are the funds going to come from… Europe yet again?

Then there’s the PSOE in Almuñécar who are “thinking about” (note: the Mayor “promises”) a large park running alongside Río verde from the N-340 to the beach paseo.

From the photo it looks about the size of Central Park in New York. What green area are we talking about because there is already a park (Parque Río Verde) running alongside the river?

ALM Proposed Park where Lorries now parkThe area in their photo corresponds to the lorry park, which is much, much smaller than that vast, rolling expanse of grass and trees portrayed.

Is it too much to ask for politicians to stop taking the piss. I’m sorry, but I can’t think of another way to express “taking the piss” with the same equivalence.

In the meantime, Juan Carlos Benavides, is promising nothing but spending his electoral week knocking holes in the Mayor’s proposals, which is hardly difficult.

We know what Benny did when he was mayor, such as create the P-4, i.e., everything east of Avenida Don Juan Carlos. Some of the things that were built under his mayoralty haven’t actually fallen to bits, (a-la-Market & Aquarium) such as the football stadium, the medical centre, the San Cristobal, municipal pool and sports pavilion, to name some.

The Town Hall was in constant conflict with the Junta and just about everybody else and Benny was not somebody you wanted to get on the wrong side of – most dissent was whispered, warily, which is why every other political party do their damned best to keep him out. The general opinion on the Benny years was, “He’s done good things and he’s done bad things, but at least he has done something.”

It’s the same in Motril and the same in Salobreña; grandiose promises with no mention of how they are going to be funded.

There’s a line in the lyrics of one of the songs on Fleetwood Mac’s LP Rumours: “Player, they only love you when they’re playing.” Well, our politicians will only “love us” until Sunday night when the votes are in. After that, the real promises are made, between parties, when councillor seats are bartered and anti-natural pacts are sealed.

(News: Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

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