Madeira News Blog

Today’s photo – Many thanks to Pete … "On today’s (Thursday) blog the article on Cleaning reveals the Fontes de João Dinis. You said there is a well, are here two photos for you, 2nd well is working water coming out, The 1st again another well, but dry. I am not clear which one in the blog, so I thought I’d send you both photos".

Many thanks to Paul for this. It was covered yesterday, but with different articles I think :

4 marine protected areas on the extended continental shelves of the Azores as well as mainland Portugal. On the 24^th March the WWF in Funchal, Madeira “praised Portuguese authorities for announcing the establishment of four marine protected areas on the extended continental shelves of the Azores as well as mainland Portugal.” “The four sites – on the southern Mid Atlantic Ridge, Altair Seamount, Antialtair Seamount and Josephine Bank – together cover an area of 120,000 square km rich in vulnerable deepwater communities, including cold-water coral reefs, sponge fields, coral gardens, and deep sea bony fish, sharks and rays.”

OSPAR Convention. The announcement of marine protected area status was made at an international North Atlantic environmental commission (OSPAR Convention) meeting attended by UN fisheries and seabed agencies in Funchal, Madeira. It follows three of the four sites being declared being declared off limits because of the use of destructive bottom fishing gear just under a year ago.

Image : Map of the marine area and the 15 contracting parties of the OSPAR Commission for the protection of the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic.

Ground breaking progress on ocean governance. Stephan Lutter, International Marine Policy Officer with WWF Germany said it was ground breaking progress on ocean governance : “It comes at a time when the political and economic boundaries in our oceans are shifting. We would wish that all Coastal States who have submitted claims for an extended continental shelf beyond the limit of 200 nautical miles were taking their obligation to protect the marine wildlife out there as seriously as Portugal.” All four of the new marine protected areas will be unique in legal terms, with the coastal state in charge of protecting the natural resources of the seafloor, and international bodies to protect marine biological diversity in the corresponding High Seas waters.

“Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone”. This new legal arrangement opens up possibilities of improving protection to the first pilot marine protected area in international waters of the North Atlantic, the so-called “Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone” located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which was agreed by contracting parties to the OSPAR Convention on the in 2008.

Also from Paul :

No danger of Portugal being sucked into the same sort of debt whirlpool as Greece. "European Union president Herman Van Rompuy said on Friday (26^th March) there was no danger of Portugal being sucked into the same sort of debt whirlpool as Greece. "The problem is completely different for Portugal," Van Rompuy said when asked if he feared that Lisbon might be next to seek help dealing with a bulging annual deficit and national debt. "I really believe that the situations are not in the least comparable and that the markets realise that, and will realise that in the coming days," he added.

Photo : Herman Van Rompuy, ex-Belgian prime minister now EU President

"You can only compare what’s comparable," Van Rompuy added, also distinguishing between what had happened in Athens and fears over Spain’s high deficit.

Portugal’s decision to freeze public sector wages was "a step in the right direction”. European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet meanwhile said that Portugal’s decision to freeze public sector wages was "a step in the right direction." Link to full article

REMEMBERED TO PUT YOUR CLOCKS FORWARD ONE HOUR?

Many thanks to Elaine once again for yesterday’s top news stories :

DIÁRIO 27/03/2010

FRONT PAGE NEWS

Ancient bridges should stand.  Funchal Council want to keep the old pedestrian bridges wherever possible. Two that are repairable after storm damage are Cidrão (photo) and D. Manuel over the ribeira de Santa Luzia. Bridges that have to be demolished or partially rebuilt are: near the old headquarters of Nacional connecting rua do Tanoeiros and Rua da Alfândega; Til and Rua da Carne Azeda over the ribeiro do Livramento (behind the Jardim de Santa Luzia); over the ribeiras and ribeiros near the Mercado and Minas Gerais; in Laranjal (Estrada Comandante Camacho de Freitas), Fundoa, Quinta Falcão, Casabranca and the ponte do Livramento.

MADEIRA

Two thousand truckloads of inerts. Over two thousand lorry loads of aggregates have been dumped at a landfill at the mouth of the ribeira da Alforra in Câmara de Lobos. Thousands of cubic metres of material, mainly earth, have stained the sea front of this fishing town. This landfill is now closed. The mayor admits the brown stain in the sea has a bad visual impact but the urgency of the situation justifies using this option.

PSP accused of violence and torture. The family of a 46 year old man has made a complaint to the prosecutor against the Public Security Police for aggression and acts of torture committed by agents on that individual. According to the brother of the alleged victim, it started around 17.30 on Thursday when Rui Duarte Nunes, known as Dude, was approached by two police officers of the Rapid Intervention Brigade (BIR) in the area of Quinta Deão. The officers took his brother to an area close to the parish council building and began an unprovoked attack. They punched and handcuffed him and reinforcements came, witnessed by family members who live nearby. Rui Nunes was taken to the Regional Command of the PSP and when released at 20.30, he could hardly walk. He was taken by ambulance to hospital where he was treated until 2 am. Wounds were on his face, back, abdomen, behind his ears, feet and pepper spray had been thrown in his eyes. Rui Nunes attended court where the judge ordered him to go to the Forensic Medicine department for photographs to be taken. The PSP argue that he had attempted to assault them. His brother said that Rui is a drug abuser but neither violent or a criminal.

ECONOMY

Traders received 136.7 million Euros of aid. A month after the catastrophic events on February 20th, 800 traders have received 136.7 million Euros in compensation. 45 applications of less than 75,000 Euros, totalling 2.3 million Euros have been approved and another 130 are being processed by the banks for a total of 8.3 million Euros. In the final stage are 15 applications totalling 3 million Euros that are for more than 75,000 Euros each. The total so far is 5.4 million Euros of funds set up by the Governments of the Republic and Madeira granted to 180 traders, averaging 30,000 Euros each. Funchal Council has secured 350,000 Euros for 150 traders or 2,500 Euros each. Insurance firms have paid 123 million Euros for 683 claims, an average of 180,000 Euros. Firms with 40/60 employees can ask Social Security to pay 70% of wages and contributions for three months. Among the companies that have received bank aid to secure jobs, 32 are micro-sized, 12 small-sized and one medium-sized firm. They received 2.3 million Euros or 51,000 Euros each. Support has been given to 10 firms in the tourism sector, 8 in the service sector, 3 in the transport sector and 2 construction firms. The most support has been to firms in Funchal and other areas are Santa Cruz, Câmara de Lobos, Machico and Ponta do Sol. 40 other companies have benefited from 1.5 million Euros from credit lines to help with cash flow problems.

ANAM current debt is reduced to 206 million Euros. ANAM manages Madeira Airport and the results in 2009 are an improvement since the previous year due to better management. The passenger numbers fell 4.3% despite a fall of 6.5% through European airports. The main shortfall was a 20% decrease in passengers from the United Kingdom, made up by Easyjet passengers from Lisbon. The net income for 2009 fell from minus 10.3 million Euros in 2008 to minus 7.2 million Euros. ANAM paid 60 million Euros to the banks to reduce the debt by 25% and interest rates were lower. This left a debt at the end of 2009 at 206 million Euros.

Today’s news headlines from the front page of the Diário de Notícias :

Socialist Party of Madeira already assures support for Passos Coelho – Guilherme Silva was the delegate of Rangel [loser in the PSD elections], but accepts the victory of the new leader, from whom he expects solidarity. The party activists of PSD-Madeira backed a loser, with 86% of the vote going to Paulo Rangel. Madeira was the only region of Portugal that gave Rangel a majority. Silva said "we always count on each other on the day following the result of an internal party election … it is a saying that the PSD always had". He highlighted the "significant victory" of Pedro Passos Coelho and added that he believes that this is a "strong leadership, capable and consistent to provide opposition to the Socialist Party and José Sócrates". Hmmm … normally that sort of statement would come from the party leader for Madeira, but perhaps Uncle Bertie was just too busy to face the press!

Pharmacies flee from supplying syringes – Complaints accuse drug addicts of ruining the environment. Chemists say that they were obliged to refuse the exchange of syringe ‘kits’ in their shops in order to restore a ‘good environment’. Thefts, threats, injuries, altercations, and a bad atmosphere are the reasons given from withdrawing from the syringe exchange programme, with some shops in downtown Funchal having left the scheme a year ago. "It was a service that we offered for the State and society, but today we can not afford to lose customers because things are not easy," says Ana Mafalda Rodrigues, technical director of the Portuguese Pharmacy, located on Rua João Tavira. The movement of drug addicts in the establishment troubled customers who felt intimidated with the way they spoke and asked for assistance, without regard to who was ahead in the queue, she explains, adding that for such a decision to be taken the occurrence of "some thefts" was also taken into account.

Today’s main news headline : 409 companies leave Business Centre – It is a sharp fall in just one year, but the exit from the International Business Centre of Madeira was already happening since 2001. In 9 years, 3021 companies abandoned Madeira.

Geraldine Chaplin come to the Festival of Cinema. I had no idea who she was, but a quick peek at the article says that she is an actress of great renown, but also the daughter of Charlie Chaplin. However, there is another famous guest who I am well aware of, as he features in my DVD collection … Terry Jones, of Monty Python fame. The festival runs from the 10th to the 17th April, in Funchal of course, in the Teatro Municipal Baltazar Dias.

The main sport / football headline today : Benfica ‘tidies up’ Braga and the Premier League – The Benfica ‘nation’ can start to celebrate : yesterday, Luisão scored the victory goal before Braga and will have ‘swept away’ the issue of the title for this season. There are still six games left this season, and with a gap of 6 points between league leaders Benfica and second placed Braga, it’s a bit too early to be celebrating methinks, although I don’t have much doubt that the Diário’s assumption is correct. 6 weeks of noisy gloating Benfiquistas to put up with until the season end, and then even more after … I think I might go into a Spring hibernation. It’s been a long long time since Benfica have has a successful season, and I don’t actually begrudge them that, it’s just that obnoxious manager Jorge Jesus that I can’t stand. His behaviour cannot be described as anything other than legalised yobbery and he sets a disgraceful example to football supporters. No wonder hooligan problems are hitting the Portugal headlines with increasing regularity.

If anyone else can oblige with the translation of any of the ‘blank’ or sparsely filled headlines, or other news stories, here is the link. All contributions much appreciated. 

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If you can, please contribute something Madeira related. A funny story or good or bad experience, a news item, or a story from a Madeira newspaper, a teaser, news of a bargain flight or item in a supermarket. Please help keep this blog going … without user contributions it won’t survive. Please don’t send in automatic translations (like Google translator) without checking them through and correcting them first, thanks.

You can email blog@madeira4u.com with any large contributions and other material.

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Please use the comments here for general chit-chat, or feel free to ask any questions … someone usually has an answer.

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Today’s photo – Many thanks to Pete … "I told you the ball was too big".

Only the one carnival photo received at ‘going to print’ , so back to normal today.

Tess asked me to plug her Madeira carnival coverage on her blog A YEAR IN MADEIRA. Happy to oblige, and well worth a visit with a ‘first hand’ write up of Saturday night’s cortejo, complete with photos.

Many thanks to Elaine (out East) for this web snippet :

Demographics of Madeira. This fotopedia site has photos and information about the island. Combines Wikipedia articles and photos from flickr. Also projects for Portugal and other countries.

Tobi recommends : "This is a great site, shame there are only 2 places on the south coast covered but I hope they add more". VISIT MADEIRA

Paul asks : Could trams be a solution to traffic congestion in Funchal?

What it could be like … some video clips of the trams in Lisbon including what’s like a rollercoaster ride: Lisbon tram 28. Stay with the film to where the streets get really narrow and there’s a car parked where 2 tracks pass! VIDEO

Tram Clip from the Wim Wenders film too: Lisbon Story 1994: VIDEO

This one is from Tom … did you know Cristiano Ronaldo likes blondes OVER 18s ONLY

Nacional only managed a home draw 1 – 1 yesterday against Rio Ave. Braga hosted Marítimo and won 2 – 1,  keeping the home side just four points adrift of league leaders Benfica, with a game in hand. Both our Madeira football teams are now on equal points (25), and both in reach of a European placing.

Many thanks to Elaine once again for yesterday’s top news stories & some web links :

Diário now has a slide show of 32 photos of the Carnival Parade. PHOTO LINK

They certainly had the right Carnival theme this year for the weather. Diário has an 11 minute video. I suppose YouTube will have videos soon. VIDEO LINK

This theatrical piece, God’s Garden, was mentioned in January 30th blog. A critic’s review in yesterday’s Independent newspaper. 

God’s Garden, Linbury Studio, London. Breathing Irregular, Gate, London. Don’t tell the bride – there are oats to sow in paradise. Lush: that’s the word for Madeira. The plant life, the landscape, the fado singing, even the local Portuguese dialect – all aspire to the luxuriant softness of its cosseting climate. The choreographer Arthur Pita has family there, and in God’s Garden, a striking 75-minute touring piece of dance theatre and live music, transmits the distinctive colour of island life, including its darker shades. In outline it’s the prodigal son story, a tug-of-war twixt home – all be it a poor, peasant one – and the lure of elsewhere. In a sunny courtyard (design by Jean-Marc Puissant) three generations of one family eat, drink, squabble, even sleep, when the wine and late-night fado render them senseless … Independent newspaper

DIÁRIO DE NOTÍCIAS 14/02/2010

FRONT PAGE NEWS

‘Ponta do Pargo Resort’ opens in April 2012. (Drawing of the main building of the hotel complex). The new luxury hotel complex, Ponta do Pargo Resort, seeks a rating of five stars and is due to be completed in April 2012. This is when the new golf course will open in the area, which is to be built by the Society for the Development of West Point. An initiative of the British company, Morgan Forbes – Developing Investments, the new resort-hotel will have 68 accommodation units, some suites with an area of 80 square metres. It will be located in one of the best areas surrounding the new golf course and is so far the only hotel unit planned for the site. The project has been submitted for planning permission. The project has been designed by the Madeiran firm, MSB Arquitectos, for minimal impact on the site and to overlook the sea and golf course. The budget is 12 million Euros and will be supported by sales of units in the international market. The project has been reported in the British press and there are already 20 customers interested. The sales of portions of properties adjacent to golf courses is a widespread practice in Southern Europe and Northern America. The construction could begin later this year. Meanwhile, the project is being marketed in England and there are negotiations with a prestigious international real estate promotion and sales company in Madeira, aimed at attracting the more wealthy client. Morgan Forbes is bringing the press to Madeira, British and Swedish journalists and TV stations, to promote the resort to golf lovers. The director of the investment company, Michael Nascimento, has parents in Porto da Cruz and is a Londoner, and owns a chain of food and drink outlets around Canary Wharf. He admires Madeira and has some investments here but this is his biggest project on the island.

Hospital is at the limit. Disruptions in the supply of medicines, lack of beds, old and outdated facilities, not enough money and a climate of conflict between health professionals and administration, the Central Hospital in Funchal is on the edge. A new hospital is desperately needed but the relationship with Lisbon does not help. Marmeleiros is even worse, the hospital should have been closed years ago and the wards are cold, poorly insulated with mould growing on some walls. The President of the Union for Nurses wants it to become a home for the elderly when the new hospital is built. Medicines sometimes run out due to a lack of money and late payment to suppliers. There are also difficulties in paying suppliers of other requirements. There are also pressures from the ageing population, the economic crisis making private consultations less affordable and a poor network of primary care. The number of complaints to the management from doctors has increased from an average of five per year over the last ten years to 110 last year. The clinical director insists the unions’ complaints about the quality of health care provided are nonsense and that Madeira has good services in terms of quality and safety. The new hospital plans were drawn up in 1992 and finally submitted in 2004 to the Regional Government. Land for it in Santa Rita is still being expropriated. The same plan recommends the closure of Marmeleiros.

MADEIRA

São Roque do Faial Carnival Parade. Casa do Povo de São Roque do Faial is holding a Carnival Parade next Tuesday, February 16, at 18.00. The parade will be through the centre of the parish as it has been for the last four years. From the Casa do Povo, along Rua da Igreja, across the new bridge to the restaurant Sanroque and back to the Casa do Povo. Activities will continue in the evening in the Casa do Povo. This initiative is to maintain the tradition.

Works in Cabo Girão close road. Access to Quinta Grande closed for three months. Upgrading of the viewpoint and access, which includes widening of the road.

JORNAL DA MADEIRA

Sonhos and malassadas sweeten the Carnival. The Carnival is celebrated three days before Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at Easter. The traditional foods at this time of year are the sonhos and malassadas (deep fried doughnuts), The recipes can have either pumpkin or sweet potato added to improve the taste and lightness, and they are served drizzled with regional cane syrup. Malassadas are made from dough made from flour, water and baker’s yeast then eggs added. Pumpkin puree can be added. Spoonfuls of the mixture are deep fried. Some people use baking powder but this gives a more compact texture. Historically, Carnival time started on the Dia dos Reis, 6 January, and each Sunday was celebrated with large meals, thus known as Domingos Gordos. Each parish has its specific feijoadas de Carnaval (bean stew), the best being made in the north of Portugal, especially transmontanas where they use the regional smoked meats. In Beira Litoral, a feijoada with pig’s ears and turnip is accompanied by white rice. Recipes for traditional Madeiran food and drink on the following website, in Portuguese only. MADEIRA RECIPES

Today’s news headlines from the front page of the Diário de Notícias :

A very thin newspaper today. I reckon after a late night covering the carnival in Funchal on Saturday, the boss must have given the reporters the day off yesterday.

Abortion law reduces paternity tests – Besides the analysis of illnesses, of cytogenetics, and the tests for paternity, The Genetics Laboratory wants to move on to forensic [criminal] work. Due to the effects of the abortion law introduced in 2008, the need for paternity testing has reduced, and the laboratory in the University of Madeira is looking at new business in new areas, and is almost saturated with work. 

Today’s main news headline :  Finland is going to send five weekly charter flights – Good news for tourism : the operators guarantee to the hotels of Madeira 10 thousand tourists until May. The predictions of various Finnish tour operators that offer the Madeira option are for an increase of sales to our island, and the consolidation of an increase in capacity over the next few months. Although it is unlikely that the levels of Finnish tourism achieved in 2008 will be achieved this year, the indications are positive. A big fat welcome to our Finnish friends … lovely people.

Jardim already lost the ‘home game’ with Passos Coelho – In the previous election, Coelho won in Funchal, against the instructions of Jardim. This story, over a squabble between between these two PSD politicians, has been running for a few days since the National Council of the Social democrat Party convened  to discuss the selection of a new party leader. Jardim has a serious problem with Coelho [as well as most of Portugal] whose attitude he did not like over the amendments to the Regional Finance Law.

Change of [bus] routes leaves Horários empty.

This one is ‘off’ the front page, but I read it anyway : Mobile phones should be unblocked without charging. DECO, the consumer defence organisation, and the competition authorities are recommending the prohibiting of charging for unblocking mobile phones [tied to single operators], once the contract, called here the loyalty period, has expired. And if it doesn’t happen then then courts should force the operators to refund the unblocking fees. "There is not any reason, technical or legal, for the operators of mobile phones to continue keeping the phones blocked after the loyalty period has expired, the period in which the customer is tied into a contract", said a DECO spokesman. Fees charged for unblocking range from €50 to €116, and a study shows that only around 30% of customers currently have unlocked phones.

The main sport / football headline today : Irregular launch in the origin of the victory of Braga – Madeira lost in the stadium of the 2nd placed team, following a glaring error by the referees assistant, Pedro Proença. At the Choupana [Funchal], Nacional drew with Rio Ave continuing without a win in the premier league in 2010.

If anyone else can oblige with the translation of any of the ‘blank’ or sparsely filled headlines, or other news stories, here is the link. All contributions much appreciated. 

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If you can, please contribute something Madeira related. A funny story or good or bad experience, a news item, or a story from a Madeira newspaper, a photo or video, a teaser, news of a bargain flight or item in a supermarket. Please help keep this blog going … without user contributions it won’t survive. Please don’t send in automatic translations (like Google translator) without checking them through and correcting them first, thanks.

You can email blog@madeira4u.com with any large contributions and photos / videos.

—————————————————————————————————————————————–

Please use the comments here for general chit-chat, or feel free to ask any questions … someone usually has an answer.

(more…)

(13th September). ‘With Fish Market, Without Pier – Lack of services is the main shortcoming of Madalena do Mar. Residents of the Neighbourhood of Fishermen say they are forgotten, and ask for beach facilities to be provided and complain about the the lack of a pier´. The Diário’s featured parish this week. The tranquillity, coupled with the good weather, are the major attractions of Madalena do Mar. The village is very popular in summer for its beach, but loses movement in the Winter. Who lives there complains about the lack of services. Public transport, post office, ATM cashpoint, pharmacy, and a supermarket are some of the shortcomings identified by the population. Fishermen say they have a fish market, but complain that there is no pier, that had been promised, or beach support facilities.

‘Plagiarism On The Loose In The University Of Madeira – Copying text from the internet and presenting it as ones own is common practice’. It happens in all the courses. Teachers admit that the phenomenon has grown in recent years because of the internet, and welcome the decision of the UMa Dean to install anti-plagiarism software. That enthusiasm is not shared by the students representative, Luis Eduardo Nicolau, who says this is "a very delicate matter". The fight against plagiarism, as is happening in UMa, is just one of the functions of the Office of Student Aid, a new body that will mediate in the relationships between students and teachers. This Office will receive from now on all academic work, ensuring that deadlines are met. The work must be submitted in electronic format, so it can then be checked for authenticity, using the new anti-plagiarism software. If the work ‘passes’ the originality test then it goes to the teacher or lecturer who set the assignment for marking, but if it fails the test it’s another story.

The football headline is back today : ‘Four Games Without Winning – Nacional lost yesterday in Vila do Conde. The team attacked a lot, but couldn’t score. Today, after the sermon, the big game in Barreiros’. Nacional lost 2 – 0 at Rio Ave, leaving them with just two point out of a possible 12. Marítimo play Braga today. Yesterday’s game was also today’s main front page photo.

Hot off the press : Marítimo 1 Braga 2, leaving Braga top of the league with a 100% record. 

‘PSP called to restore order in Nogueira – A fight between neighbours, joined by dozens of people, yesterday forced the intervention of the police in the neighbourhood of Nogueira’. One neighbour complained to another about the noise from a party that went late into the night, but the complaint was not well received, and resulted in a slanging match. The lady complainant returned home, but the noisy neighbours followed and kicked her front door in, only to see her husband there armed with a baseball bat. At least one person was taken to hospital during the dispute, which probably woke up much of the neighbourhood. Some interesting readers comments with this article, including "It seems like one of those parts of Iraq, always in an uproar!"

On our roads last week, 49 accidents were reported, resulting in 20 injuries, 5 of which were serious. 28 drivers were detained for driving with excess alcohol. A case of a 19 year old man caught twice driving stolen cars, and without a driving licence, was mentioned on the blog a couple of weeks ago. He has since been caught twice more driving stolen cars. He went to court yesterday morning, and was released again, perplexing the 7 drink drivers forced to appear that same morning, and who were judged and convicted for their misdemeanours.

‘Aedes Aegypti Mosquito May Be Developing – The Institute of Health Administration returns to the land to see if the larvae have proliferated’. IASAÚDE is to undertake a new field study of the insect at the end of this month based on suspicions that the mosquito is again actively breeding. A spokesman for IASAÚDE said he is concerned that the high humidity levels have been helping provide good conditions for the mosquito.

Car Inspections went up in price yesterday as a result of an annual review. An extra 27 cêntimos for light vehicles (cars), and 41c. for heavier vehicles. Getting your car inspected will now cost €22.91 plus 14% VAT / IVA.

UPDATES (Politics) :

Today’s main news headline : ‘Let’s get the Job Done! – On the return of Jardim from his holiday, the Madeira government approved 43 resolutions in two hours’. The workload included 17 special contracts and eight land expropriations. It may not be a record, but it must be coming close. The governing council, led by president Jardim, sat on the 4th of this month and renamed Funchal Central Hospital and the Botanical Gardens, decided an award for a politician in Tabua, made a number of agreements with different sporting organisations, and approved a number of payments to banks. They even reviewed an updated report about how much tourists spend on Madeira. When the documents arrive for the consideration of the government, all the analysis work is already done. All that remains then is the political decision, which is done by resolution. The government refuses access to the minutes of meetings to journalists. No wonder we get so many white elephants on Madeira, if they are taking an average of less than 3 minutes to consider each resolution.

The big debate was on TV last night, between the two main party leaders for this month’s election for the assembly of the Republic. I sat through the whole 70 minutes, and I have to say that José Sócrates, leader of the socialist party, and Manuela Ferreira Leite, leader of the social democrats, were remarkably well composed and polite throughout. The debate started off with Madeira and president Jardim mentioned several times, on the issue of ‘stifling democracy’, Jardim’s false candidature for the Assembly of the Republic (he gets elected, but never attends), and also about the ‘offshore’ financial benefits of our island.  She is a decent very clever lady, but no match for golden boy Sócrates when it comes to stage presence, and he was so much better prepared, with a small stack of essential documents to hand, to prove his points. I have no real preference about who wins the elections this month, aside from continuity issues, but I wouldn’t be surprised as a result of last nights debate if the vote swings to the left a little, but there again how many sad people stay in on a Saturday night a Saturday night to watch a political debate.

‘Election Campaign Begins Officially Today And Finishes On The 25th’. The campaign for the Assembly of the Republic is now officially underway, even though political parties and candidates have been in pre-campaign several weeks already. Madeira has six places available, and at present they are shared equally between the PSD-M socialists and the PS socialists.