How Ano Korakiana voted last Sunday

Key: ΣΥΡΙΖΑ=Coalition of the Radical Left, ΝΔ=New Democracy, ΠΑΣΟΚ=Panhellenic Socialist Movement (now in coalition with ΝΔ to form a government), Ανεξάρτητοι Έλληνες=Independent Greeks, ΚΚΕ=Communist Party of Greece, Δημοκρατική Αριστερά=Democratic Left (now in coalition with ΝΔ), Λαϊκός Σύνδεσμος-Χρυσή Αυγή=Golden Dawn, Δημιουργία, Ξανά!=Recreate Greece, Οικολόγοι Πράσινοι=Ecologists Greens, Λαϊκός Ορθόδοξος Συναγερμός ΛΑΟΣ=Popular Orthodox Rally, Κόμμα Πειρατών Ελλάδας=Pirate Party of Greece, Κίνημα δεν πληρώνω=I am not paying Movement,  Ένωση Κεντρώων=Union Centrist, Αντικαπιταλιστική Αριστερή Συνεργασία για την Ανατροπή, ΑΝΤ.ΑΡ.ΣΥ.Α.=Front of the Greek Anto-Capitalist Left, Κοινωνία Πολιτική Παράταξη συνεχιστών του Καποδίστρια=Political Party of the Successors of Kapodistria

(Voting in Ano Korakiana for the general election on 6 May is recorded here in actual numbers as well as in the right hand column above - %s only)
The new Hellenic government is maintained by the conditional involvement with New Democracy of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), the Independent Greeks and the Democratic Left (DIMAR) - all avoiding a level of involvement with the dominant ND that might compromise their future with the electorate. There are only ND MPs from the coalition partners in the new government. The smaller parties have nominated unelected academics with expertise in the area of their brief. There is, as far as I can see, just one woman - Olga Kefalogianni. She holds the Tourism brief. The list that follows is from a page in the superlative Athens News. It gives links to nearly all the names of the people appointed to Samaras' new Cabinet.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras (ND)

Administrative Reform and E-Governance Minister Antonis Manitakis (technocrat, prof of constitutional law)

Deputy Manousos Voloudakis (ND)

Defence Minister Panos Panagiotopoulos (ND)

Alternative Panagiotis Karampelas

Deputy Dimitris Elefsiniotis

Development, Competitiveness, Infrastructure, Transport and Networks Minister Kostis Hatzidakis (ND)

Alternate Stavros Kaloyiannis (ND)

Deputy Thanasis Skordas (ND)

Deputy Notis Mitarakis (ND)

Education, Religious Affairs, Culture and Sports Minister Konstantinos Arvanitopoulos (ND)

Alternate Kostas Tzavaras (ND)

Deputy Yiannis Ioannidis 

Deputy Theodoros Papatheodorou (technocrat, uni rector)

Environment, Energy & Climate Change Minister Evangelos Livieratos (technocrat, prof of geodesy and cartography)

Alternate Stavros Kalafatis (technocrat, prof)

Deputy Asimakis Papageorgiou 

Finance Minister Vasilis Rapanos (technocrat, banker - arrested during the Junta) resigned through ill health (25 Jun), replaced by Yannis Stournaras (26 Jun'12)

Alternate Christos Staikouras (ND)

Deputy George Mavraganis

Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos (ND)

Deputy Dimitris Kourkoulas (technocrat, European Commission official)

Health Minister Andreas Lykourentzos (ND)

Alternate Marios Salmas (ND)

Deputy Fotini Skopouli 

Interior Minister Evripidis Stylianidis (ND)

Deputy Haralambos Athanassiou (ND)

Justice, Transparency and Human Rights Minister Antonis Roupakiotis (technocrat, lawyer)

Deputy Konstantinos Karagkounis (ND)

Labour, Social Security and Welfare Minister Yiannis Vroutsis (ND)

Deputy Nikos Nikolopoulos (ND)(resigned 9/7/12)

Macedonia-Thrace Minister Theodoros Karaoglou (ND)

Public Order and Citizen Protection Minister Nikos Dendias (ND)

Rural Development and Food Minister Athanasios Tsaftaris (technocrat, prof of genetics and plant breeding)

Alternate Maximos Harakopoulos (ND)

Shipping and Island Policy Minister Kostis Moussouroulis (ND) 

Deputy George A Vernicos (technocrat, entrepreneur and social activist)(resigned 26/6/12)

Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni (ND)

State Minister Dimitris Stamatis (ND)

Government spokesperson Simos Kedikoglou (ND)

Parliamentary speaker Vangelis Meimarakis (ND)

****** ******

Bridge on the Farnack

In the Highlands. I’m wary about sharing Scotland – my Scotland – even with relatives. The lush landscape to the variegated detail of trees, grass, moss, gorse, broom, exquisite lichen, rocks and running water are quite in the charge of my subjectivity, with sensations of place created in my heart by the presence of my mother, without whom this landscape that I've visited every year for forty years to stay for several weeks; which I dream from other places, which lodges in my daily imaginings, has really neither joy, nor love, nor light without her. My sister feels the same. "Mum makes this place for us"

Four generations at Brin

To my slightly vexed delight Brin Croft was full – with my 18 months younger sister, Bay, her second child Susie and her daughter, Sydney, so we have a confluence of life-lines and in my monochromed snap - family detail.

(Email sent later) Dear Susie...my unposed snap of 4 generations? It could really be 5 - because the pictures on the left on the wall near your head include one of Bar (my mum’s mum) as a girl, and my grandpa Henry as a toddler, when the Victorian habit was to put very young boys in a dress. It’s only the rifle over his shoulder sends a reminder. I can see the likeness between you and Angus’ mother in the oil painting by Sir James Guthrie (above my mum’s head).  And I like it that Bay’s profile is close to the watercolour of her leaning on the sitting room wall, painted by a Swiss magazine illustrator when Bay was about 9 or 10. The newspaper headline ensures knowing the date of the picture, and when I look at it I see other small details that speak of the time and the place, like the latest re-issue of the King James Bible on top of the thin bookcase aand Sydney’s toy by your grandma’s feet.  Anything else? XX Simon

S. I love that it's not a posed photo - its a snapshot of our day- mum feeding Sydney, Sydney more interested in playing, I'm probably looking for wet wipes, and grandma watching it all happen! Probably could have taken almost exactly the same photo the day before or the day after at the same time! The joys of having young children and routines! ;)  Sent from my iPhone

As well as relatives here, comes the virtual presence of Susie's Dave, working from home in London but in regular exchange with Susie and Sydney via skype on tablet phones, while broadcasts to the house come via the conventional TV, my laptop and two iPads. The house is full of alternative versions. I am, by my own estimate, the old fellow among women. I sense territoriality in myself. I moved to a bed in the log cabin...

My bed in the log cabin

...Bay and Susie and her daughter share the bathroom and loo; we use the kitchen, Mum's carer's space. Sharon's actions there, always efficient, become slightly emphatic.

How we spread in age; mum 95 on her iPad, Sydney 2 on hers. I'm well fed, looked after, pampered, loved. This should be my mother’s domain. Always was, but her age has required occasional regency, negotiated by her relatives in consultation with Sharon, her kind and competent comptroller. The dogs observe - non-combatants. Anyone who heads out in to the country for a walk is their leader. On Wednesday my sister was throwing sticks for the terriers from Nairn beach; mid-summer and almost empty; cold sea in the broadening firth, with a little snow on Ben Wyvis, the Cromarty coast stretching away north-east into haze and, over the horizon, Duncansby Head and the north.

I'm beginning to be noticed by Sydney. She's shy and I must loom over her large and strange 'Uncle Simon'. Susie took this picture which reminded me of a sepia photograph of my mother with her Dad just after World War 1 in which he'd fought.

2012 ~ Nairn

1919 ~ Isle of Wight