Much ado about the same damn thing: Gibraltar vs corruption

Gibraltar is in the news again. News? The dispute over the waters in the bay go back to the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the fishing dispute goes back to who knows when; the environmental argument goes back about a year when cement blocks began to be thrown into the waters when only the environmentalists complained, but have only now been thrown into the political ring; the threat of border closure was a reality for a number of years, but the threat of a toll is fairly new (remember the last Mayor of La Línea?).>>>

Whatever happened to the new La Línea Hospital?

Demo in April
(Banner reads: Where's the
hospital money gone?)

LA LÍNEA  The new hospital was supposed to be operational towards the end of 2012 but building work came to a stop over a year ago. There was a massive demonstration on April 25 this year. It would seem that a facility created to take care of the health of well over 100,000 residents of Jimena, Castellar, San Roque and La Línea, in the main but in fact covering the Eastern end of the Campo de Gibraltar, has become a pawn in the increasingly shameful game of ping-pong between the two main parties, PP and PSOE. It was the former that got things started during the notorious mayorship of one Alejandro Sánchez García (the same one who wanted to establish a toll at the Gibraltar frontier), who took over from his predecessor when the latter was removed by the courts. Sánchez was turfed out at local elections in 2011 by a victory of the PSOE, with Gemma Araujo as Mayor. In the playground atmosphere of local (and national) politics*, the hospital was kicked into touch, no doubt because it had been a PP project to start with.>>>

A rant about one of the many reasons Spain is in the mess it's in

Arturo Pérez-Reverte
(Photo: publico.es)

SPAIN Every now and then Arturo Pérez-Reverte (about whom a lot here), has a rant. One of the writer, journalist, member of the Academy of Letters, novelist, columnist and polemicist's most famous was about the state of the nation's education, which, alas, we never got round to translating. Thing is, his rants very often, maybe always, say the things most people want to say - and sometimes in the kind of language they want to say things in. Below is a translation/interpretation of an open letter to Mariano Rajoy, President of the Government (i.e. Prime Minister) that does not have his (or Rajoy's) approval but because the subject matter could very well be one of the principal reasons Spain is in the mess it's in, we feel he wouldn't mind.>>>

What's wrong with an ID card for the UK?

OPINION (by Alberto Bullrich) It doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone that the problems about who should pay for what in the UK's NHS could in large part be solved with an identification document, not to mention a good proportion of the crime rate, court costs and an account of all immigrants. Yes, a national ID would cost several billion, but how much would it save in the future?>>>

Barack Obama: four more years

We refrained from any comment on Barack Obama's election yesterday because we didn't want to influence the polls in any way (Ed.: there's a tongue in a cheek here somewhere) but today we can, and will, say: Yes you can if they'll let you. (Also we liked this photo of the victory celebrations.)

What, me worry? Yes, says government polling company

MADRID According to the latest report from the CIS (Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas) in their September 'barometer' reading, the three things that worry Spaniards the most are, in the following order: unemployment, the financial crisis, and politicians. The survey also shows that confidence in and regard for the governing PP party is declining swiftly since the elections of November 20 last year, whereas the PSOE is gaining very few points. Concern about the crisis and the resulting cutbacks is understandable, but that politicians and politics in general is a deep worry among the citizenry is what one pundit calls a 'catastrophe for democracy'.COMING SOON: SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION>>>

A truism

Is the sun setting on Spain as a brand?

Is Spain getting fenced in by crisis?

Excellent article with good perspective

SPAIN (El País/Amanda Mars) If you look it up in the archives, the expression marca España, or Spanish brand, appeared in this newspaper for the first time in 1985, in a column written from the United States by writer, journalist and economist Vicente Verdú. In it, he predicted that the country would soon be in vogue. "Spain is an entire world ready to be sold," he wrote. The Catalans were promoting their cavas abroad, and La Rioja wines and Lladro figurines were establishing a presence in international markets. Nancy Reagan was photographed dancing flamenco on an official visit to Madrid. "Everything counts in defining a brand, but it's also crucial to break away from the old stereotypes of Easter week and Hemingway to offer something new and surprising," said Verdú. [We couldn't have said it better ourselves. Read on!]>>>

Spain: not transparent enough

V-P Sáenz de Santamaría
(Photo: guardian.co.uk)

SPAIN This country has never had a 'transparency law' (in parts, closely akin to Britain's Freedom of Information laws), which goes some way to explain the difficulties a curious, investigative press has in obtaining up-to-date information on just about anything, ranging from information of the stolen babies scandal to updated information on parliamentary committees. This government is planning (can't say 'hoping') to change that. However, several holes have appeared in the draft of the proposed Transparency and Good Government Law, which was released last week. It lists a series of exceptions to what can and cannot be released to the public - which might be expected in matters of national security but in little else. The door is left wide open to a myriad of interpretations with items such as this: Public administrations are not obliged to facilitate information on "economic and commercial interests" nor on "economic and monetary policy" if it could lead to harm being caused in these areas, as El País says.>>>

Spain won't talk about sovereignty; no change there, then

Gibraltarian sentiment

GIBRALTAR (By Alberto Bullrich) The electoral tables have turned in Gibraltar as well as Spain, both places changing the colour of their respective governments. The winners on the Rock, the GSLP/Lib Alliance, are well known to their opposition of any talks on the sovereignty of their homeland. And after the elections in Spain, the winners there (PP) announced that they foresaw an end to the Tripartite Forum because it had never agreed with Gibraltar's participation at the same level as Spain and Gibraltar. The PP, however, say that it would be useful to carry on with the direct London/Madrid (i.e. minus Gibraltar) talks  that were (so rudely?) interrupted in 2002 by losing the elections that brought the PSOE  to power.>>>