I’d better confess; I’m already on holiday in Italy. Commitments in Canada in August meant we needed to do our annual ‘olive inspection’ earlier than usual. (This is just an excuse, I’ve had a house and olive grove here near Lucca for 15 years and come at least 4-5 times a year ; it’s one of my favourite places to be). It seems like a million miles from Westminster. I shall be back after recess for the important report stages of the Bills I’ve been following. Life in Italy is still very good although the recession is biting hard; many local restaurants are depressingly empty, there are less shoppers in town, the American tourists haven’t arrived this year. Unemployment figures, drawn up by Italy’s National Institute of Statistics Istat, show that the rate jumped to 7.1 per cent in Q4 of 2008. Looking at the different geographical areas, in the poorer south the unemployment rate is at 12.3 per cent, in Northern Italy it’s 4.3 per cent and in Central Italy 6.3 per cent. It shows up in the pessimism of young graduates. A friend’s son, who last year completed a PhD in Philosophy, has gone back to work for his father, an upholsterer, after many months fruitless searching for anything suitable, his girlfriend, also a graduate helps out at home with little prospect of a proper job. The Italian Senate has been considering new legislation to increase the age at which a pension can be paid, gradually increasing the age by two years over the next 15 years; there’s a suggestion that there will be a 3 month delay in everyone getting their first pension cheque after retirement. Needless to say there is opposition to this and the suggestion that the demographic statistics have been misinterpreted.
The newspapers (you have to be careful which ones you read to avoid the Berlusconi empire owned ones), seem more preoccupied with the impact of Berlusconi’s antics on the reputation of Italy abroad than on his personal behaviour itself. In fact here in Tuscany it’s hard to find anyone who admits to voting for him; truth is an awful lot did.
Italian politics really does fascinate me, so your insight is much appreciated! Enjoy your break
Oh how the other half do live !
Enjoy your break – I still Wales has everything that Italy has got, and is a lot closer…*
* – Well, obviously excluding Rome, Naples, Giorgio Armani, venice and Silvio Berlusconi. Oh, and the olives. But with climate change, who would bet against that ?
Paul, I am also fascinated by such a different political system. I’ll keep blogging from here over the next couple of weeks.
Fabulous! I’m so sorry you’re having to miss your St Peter’s though. Ah well.
I’m more than a tad fed up with this pensions stuff in Blighty, being of a certain age myself, thus it is interesting to hear similar news from elsewhere.
What do your Italian friends make of this political blogging lark? I can’t believe they don’t think you are a bit bonkers to give up your holiday time!
PS Don’t worry about your new moat, honestly it looks the biz.
Bedd Gelert: For one thing they speak Italian here which as far as I am concerned is a lot easier than Welsh. Then there’s il sole, la cucina toscana, warm swimming pools and Puccini.
“..there’s il sole, la cucina toscana, warm swimming pools and Puccini”
All at the same time 🙂
P.S. the picture looks like a small corner of an English cottage garden is having a holiday in Italy as well!