Robin Hood politics

Historically and on the whole, left-wing governments worldwide are famous, or infamous, for hiking taxes at the first opportunity. Sadly, none of these parties appear to learn from history  - more often than not it ends in tears.

With the general election looming, the ruling Partido Popular, punished at the May local elections for its criminal record, is still ahead in the polls, even it if may need to pact with another party to run away with a majority, and it has begun cutting taxes, something all voters like, whichever side of the political divide they may lie.

Hiking them as we near 20-D may not endear the left-wing opposition to the voters, but we shall see.

The Balearic government has also contradicted itself. It earned rounds of applause across the house when it called for a united front and vowed to take on Madrid to secure all the outstanding public financing the region is owed and secure better funding for the future. That appears to have become a slow process and, while it argues with Madrid, it has turned on its own people, or rather the wealthiest ones resident in the Balearics, to plug the financial gap in order to raise the much needed cash to help fund its social welfare projects. Tears may be welling up already.