Madeleine McCann Press coverage - Was it a Saviour or a Damnation?

[Alice Purjorick]

I don't think it is an irrelevant statement.

Bearing in mind that the revolution was a bloodless one not a great upheaval which overturned the structures of the regime.

The old instruments of governance did not vanish overnight ... but the evolution of the revolution continues.

Well you would say that wouldn't you. If I said the Euler-Bernoulli theory was relevant to beams you would say it isn't.
40 years is hardly overnight unless one is Rip van Winkle of course, even then it would be two nights for him.

[Alfred R Jones]

I take it from that comment you have never made such an assertion so you are content that 40 years on after the dictatorship ended it is of no relevance, except perhaps in a historical sense, in modern Portuguese society that Portugal was once a dictatorship. Much in the same that Germany's society changed in the similar time span from 1946 to 1986. So when posters hark back to Portugal being only 40 years out of a dictatorship it is probably an irrelevant statement.

I refer you back to my earlier comment on this thread.  Do you think all countries progress at precisely the same rate or something?  Portugal may have made significant democratic progress but may still have a way to go to have achieved the level of progress made by Germany in a similar timeframe.  And no, don't bother to ask for evidence, it's simply my opinion and in the words of the late great Sweepyface, I'm entitled to it.

[Alice Purjorick]

I refer you back to my earlier comment on this thread.  Do you think all countries progress at precisely the same rate or something?  Portugal may have made significant democratic progress but may still have a way to go to have achieved the level of progress made by Germany in a similar timeframe.  And no, don't bother to ask for evidence, it's simply my opinion and in the words of the late great Sweepyface, I'm entitled to it.

My opinion is that the rate of change would be variable, however I find it improbable that a country which threw off the mantle of dictatorship in favour of democracy would retain many if any vestiges of totalitarianism more than a generation later.
But then of course the secret policeman is always the secret policeman so whilst I find it improbable I would not believe it impossible for some of the young rotten apples from the old regime to be in the judicial barrel of the new. But 30 to 40 years on the old guard would be long gone.

[Eleanor]

My opinion is that the rate of change would be variable, however I find it improbable that a country which threw off the mantle of dictatorship in favour of democracy would retain many if any vestiges of totalitarianism more than a generation later.
But then of course the secret policeman is always the secret policeman so whilst I find it improbable I would not believe it impossible for some of the young rotten apples from the old regime to be in the judicial barrel of the new. But 30 to 40 years on the old guard would be long gone.

Not quite long gone.  Amaral was a product of The Fascist State.  And this particular Fascist State wasn't annihilated.  They just reinvented themselves.

[Alice Purjorick]

Press this button here and that motor over there will fire up!

[Alice Purjorick]

Not quite long gone.  Amaral was a product of The Fascist State.  And this particular Fascist State wasn't annihilated.  They just reinvented themselves.

Dr Amaral was 16 at the time of the revolution.

[Alfred R Jones]

My opinion is that the rate of change would be variable, however I find it improbable that a country which threw off the mantle of dictatorship in favour of democracy would retain many if any vestiges of totalitarianism more than a generation later.
But then of course the secret policeman is always the secret policeman so whilst I find it improbable I would not believe it impossible for some of the young rotten apples from the old regime to be in the judicial barrel of the new. But 30 to 40 years on the old guard would be long gone.

Have you been to Russia?

[DCI]

Dr Amaral was 16 at the time of the revolution.

Do you mean, The 1974 carnation revolution?

[Alice Purjorick]

Have you been to Russia?

Yes and?

[Alfred R Jones]

Yes and?

Recently?

[Alice Purjorick]

Recently?

1981 & 2000.

[Alice Purjorick]

Do you mean, The 1974 carnation revolution?

Well I don't mean the 1910 revolution so I figure I must mean The Carnation Revolution unless there was another one in the 1970s while I wasn't paying attention. That is always plausible in this manor.

[DCI]

Well I don't mean the 1910 revolution so I figure I must mean The Carnation Revolution unless there was another one in the 1970s while I wasn't paying attention. That is always plausible in this manor.

No need for sarcasm. By the way he was 15.

[Alfred R Jones]

1981 & 2000.

Not recently then, so you wouldn't know how much progress they've made in a generation between a totalitarian state and a democratic one then?

[Alice Purjorick]

No need for sarcasm. By the way he was 15.

So a callow youth when democracy was introduced?