Final Word from Thursday, July 21, 2011
Imagine the exchanges this week when Vice Chair Karolína Peake of VV joined herextended family for a vacation in the U.S., where her husband grew up. Peake's incrediblejourney from housewife to vice PM of an EU country in just a few years iseven hard for yes-we-can Americans to fathom. At the same time, it would be difficultfor many Americans to comprehend how someone suspected of conspiracy tocommit public-procurement fraud (as revealed by MFD) could waltz into such a highposition. Peake denies the allegations and told Deník that no one can point to a singlerigged tender at a ministry run by VV. She has a point, actually. For all the talkabout VV's designs on this or that ministry for commercial gain, there is preciouslittle proof. It might even be time to consider, as Jaroslav Plesl suggested on CzechTV, that VV's days in Parliament are not as numbered as most people have assumed.
Glossary of difficult words
VV's peaks and troughs - a triple word play: "peak" is the pointed top of a mountain and also sounds the same as "Peake"; "peaks and troughs" is an expression meaning the high points and low points of an activity; a "trough" is long, narrow container for animals to eat or drink from but is also used in the political sense to refer to a source of income;
to fathom - to understand, comprehend;
to waltz into something - to acquire something, such as a position, casually and without great effort;
to have designs on something - to aim to obtain something desired, typically in a secret and dishonest way.