Personally, I have never really thought about politics in a serious way; I actually look upon it and politicking in general as a bit of a joke and light entertainment when world affairs seem a little too overbearing. Politics, and this is my personal view of course, gives us lessons on life: that we should never take things too seriously, even if it does concern the state.

It is this very theme that William Shakespeare mastered. That of entertainment and the importance it has in expressing and shaping one’s attitudes. He also played upon the premise that life, no matter how serious it can seem, always has a lighter side to it. We only have to watch the news featuring politicians shuffling and scuffling for power to see that what Shakespeare did, and what some politicians unwittingly succeed in achieving, is to entertain us.

I have come to the conclusion that politics, especially Catalan politics, with the Estatut debacle fresh in the mind, resemble Shakespeare’s great plays of love, comedy, drama, greed, jealousy and ambition. And that most of the politicians in Spain - or the world for that matter - could quite easily be Macbeth, Prince Hal, or Falstaff.

Just take a look at this line from Macbeth and put it in the context of the Estatut debate of a few weeks ago: "When shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain? When the hurlyburly 's done, When the battle 's lost and won". Macbeth Quote (Act I, Scene I).

If we hold up the magnifying glass to two Catalan politicians in particular, brothers and fellow Socialists Pasqual Maragall and Ernest Maragall, their relationship could be looked upon not unlike that of Richard and Clarence in Richard III. Ernest, seen by some as a party apparatchik, currently holds the post of Government Secretary within the Generalitat de Catalunya. But because the seeds of ambition have been planted, we may see what happens between Richard and Clarence in Richard III come into fruition.

Richard (Ernest), plots to have his brother Clarence (Pasqual), who stands before him in our imaginary line of succession, conducted to the Tower of London (La Sagrada Família), as a suspected assassin; having bribed a soothsayer (the CiU’s nationalist leader Artur Mas), to confuse the suspicious king. It’s a pretty left-field idea but well, with local politics in mind, I may just be right.

Like entertainment, politics is, in many ways, market driven. Take for example some three years ago after Operación Triunfo finished one of its lengthy competitions. The politicians found that they too wanted to be a part of the action. The Partido Popular’s Alejandro Ballestero said: “This programme defends the same values as our party”. The success of one of the victors, Rosa Lopez, the daughter of a car park attendant, however, was hailed as “a win for the working classes” by councillors from the communist-led United Left party in her home city of Granada. The CiU’s Jordi Pujol added his two cents worth claiming that the contestants - all of whom came from other regions - were bright examples of the Catalan work ethic.

When politicians meet for cabinet it resembles theatre. They have their own stage, lighting, even microphones and they put on a persona every time they step up onto the podium, or whenever they enter parliament for that matter. It’s all a parody to Shakespeare’s theatre where the court and its players provide us with pure distraction whilst alluding to real issues.

I actually wonder what they are like at home, when the costumes are off and they relax. It is said that Zapatero enjoys trout fishing and football (Barça is his favourite team apparently, and I’m pretty sure that we’ll soon see a “no al Barça” campaign start up sooner or later, headed by you know who).

It’s all a great façade. It’s false, it’s fake and it’s damned funny. It’s all in Shakespeare’s great plays where all of the characters, apart from the court jester of course, either end up dying from dagger wounds (political back stabbing), talking nonsense whilst seeing spots of tippex in front of their eyes, repeating “no comment” over and over again, blotting out what it is they didn’t mean to say or walking around lost in the foggy heaths of retirement.

If we take a closer look at the parallels between Shakespeare’s comedies and politics we find quite a few similarities. The plot is very important in Shakespeare’s comedies. It is often convoluted, twisting and confusing and very hard to follow. That may ring bells for some when we think of following just what they say and well, quite frankly I’m rather confused about what they do all day. Shakespeare’s characters are often introduced and then discarded, never to be seen again. There seems to be a parallel there, does there not? Politicians do come and go. Character’s names are often clues to their personalities or roles within the plays, such as Bottom (Midsummer nights dream), or Malvolio (Twelfth night). Let’s see now, Señor Rajoy aka drop your toys? And then there is the common taunt used against Zapatero. “¡A tus zapatos!”, which is a Spanish expression meaning “get on with it”.

Maybe Rajoy will end up being like Prince Hal in King Henry IV where he undergoes a transformation from relative anonymity into the very King himself. I can just imagine Rajoy, with a slight lisp, soliloquizing the famous lines in a dark corner of cabinet: "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown". Henry IV Part II Quote (Act III, Scene I).

In King Henry IV the Prince is first introduced as a young “truant to chivalry” and as a person who keeps bad company with the likes of Falstaff (in this case, played out by several politicians belonging to the Partido Popular). But after his first soliloquy, he realizes that he must change his ways so that he can eventually succeed King Henry (Zapatero). In his speech Hal makes it clear that his companions are like “contagious clouds” and that he will throw them off when the time is ripe, and so he does, finally becoming the King.

So maybe, just maybe, that is the sub-plot just waiting to come up for air in this pseudo-Shakespeare script we call politics.