Province under yellow storm warning for heavy rain

Forecast for Algeciras
from our Weather Widget
(on the sidebar)

CÁDIZ The province is one of 17 in the whole country under a yellow storm alert because of the probability of heavy rain and thunderstorms, according to AEMET (State Weather Agency). The other provinces are: Almería, Córdoba, Granada, Jaén, Málaga, Sevilla, Teruel, Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Toledo, Alicante, Valencia, Murcia, Ibiza and Formentera. Our own AccuWeather link for Algeciras is quite clear about it. It turns out that temperatures are not expected to drop much as a result of any storms. For those who are visiting the area: you should know that our summer storms can reach tropical dimensions, with heavy, unexpected downpours. Golfers should NOT stay on the course, either. Storm alerts are graded yellow (low), orange (medium) and red (high).

Is former Jimena Mayor a close advisor to Fabian Picardo?

José Carracao
(Photo: europasur.es)

GIBRALTAR According to El Confidencial Digital (EDC), Former Jimena Mayor José Carracao has admitted that he is advising his fellow Socialist Fabian Picardo, Chief Minister of Gibraltar, and has been  for some time. Still according to  EDC, among Carracao's functions is advice about, and as an intermediary with, businesses in Andalucía and the political structure of Melilla and Ceuta, Carracao's home province (and where his son heads the PSOE party). However, a source very close to Picardo told us last night that this is not so, that there is no official appointment, although Carracao and the Chief Minister 'talk often'.>>>

Brinkley calls for boycott of Spanish wine

Screenshot of Mail Online
(click to enlarge if you must)

LONDON If the Mail says so, it must be true - or so it would have us believe. But in fact the matter is reported even in well-considered sources in the Spanish media, including El Confidencial Digital (ECD): Brinkley's the fashionable chain of restaurants is boycotting this country's wines because of the Gibraltar thing. The owner of the chain, John Brinkley has decided that he wants to make a point of how ridiculous Mariano Rajoy's government is acting.>>>

You can complain about the border queues, officially

Form in Spanish

GIBRALTAR The Government of Gibraltar has made available a complaints form about the border queues, which is now available online. There is no need to fill in the form by hand or take it to the airport - just do it online at http://www.gibraltar.gov.gi/onlineforms/, This, though, applies to the complaint form in English. There are downloadable forms in Spanish and French, which may have to follow the previous procedure (the press release is not clear on this, and we can find no online facility for them, either.

Official Spanish fisheries charts avoid disputed Gibraltar waters

GIBRALTAR If anything comes close to making clear that this whole thing about Gibraltar is nothing more than a political smoke scree, today's article by Brian Reyes in The Gibraltar Chronicle certainly does. Titled 'Spanish fisheries chart steers clear of British Waters', the first paragraph says: 'A screen shot of the Junta de Andalucia website showing Spanish designated shellfish fisheries near Gibraltar in red and green. None of them overlap into British Gibraltar territorial waters. The artificial reef at the heart of the current dispute with Spain is outside the nearest fishery, known in Spanish as a ‘caladero’. Under Spanish law, commercial fishing can only be conducted in such areas.' Read on.

BBC misinforms about Gibraltar queues

Click to enlarge

GIBRALTAR This photograph, by the AFP agency (Agence France Press), appeared on the BBCNews (Europe) online page on August 14. Taken, we understand, from the top of the Asur Hotel Campo de Gibraltar, on Avenida Príncipe de Asturias, it purports to show the long line of cars headed for the border. But the long queue shown here includes -and should not- parked cars and a queue that does not cross the frontier (the drop-off queue). While the picture does show a long queue, this can be normal on a busy working day, or on a Spanish holiday. You will also notice the following: 'To ignorant BBC headline writers: GIBRALTAR IS NOT AN ISLAND, it is a peninsula.' This is because we have seen and heard it referred to as an island all too often by the BBC, which should know better. (By the way, the Rock is not so much in the headlines lately, is it? Have the 'inspections' come down at all?)

Spain wants to 'harden' sanctions against bunkering in the bay; Minister's connections with the practice

Bunkering in the bay

GIBRALTAR Bunkering, the supply of fuel to ships at sea, is one of Gibraltar's most lucrative marine services. A couple of days ago, the Spanish Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, Miguel Arias Cañete, announced that Spain was looking into creating sanctions against the practice under present tensions about fishing and territorial waters and warships headed for the Rock. An article dated February 2, 2012, in Europa Sur, said that 32.3% of all bunkering carried out for Spanish ports in 2011 happened in the Bay of Algeciras (a.k.a. Bay of Gibraltar). More recently, it was announced that several Spanish companies had bid for bunkering services through the Algeciras Port Authority - that is, not via Gibraltar, but offering the same services. One of these companies>>>

Why does Spain's National Anthem have no words?

Spain's National Anthem

SPAIN By definition, an anthem needs words, but Spain's is the only one in the world that doesn't. All too often, the wrong anthem is played at official functions abroad because the subject is confusing. For example, at the Davis Cup matches in Australia earlier this year, they played the Republican anthem - which was banished by Franco in 1937. More recently, the Vice-President of the Junta de Andalucía, Diego Valderas, was received in Palestine by an anthem with lyrics by José María Pemán, which was used -but never officially approved- during the Franco era (Valderas belongs to the Communist Party, a part of Izquierda Unida, or United Left, historically very much opposed to Franco in his time). It was the same music we hear today, but included the regime-approved words. This music is>>>

Pre-tax petrol prices in Spain are among highest in EU

SPAIN Deregulation and a lack of competition are the main causes of high fuel prices in Spain, according to a recent study by the European Commission. Only Denmark and Malta have higher pre-tax prices for petrol, and Spain is eighth among the EU's 28 for diesel fuel. Consumer organizations have for years been asking for a governmentally-established maximum such as was in force until the late 1990s, when the market was opened up under the excuse that this would bring in more competition. A spurious argument, it turned out, and a problem that no government has wanted to deal with - a situation of which the oil companies have been very quick to take advantage.>>>

Pre-tax petrol prices in Spain are among highest in EU

SPAIN Deregulation and a lack of competition are the main causes of high fuel prices in Spain, according to a recent study by the European Commission. Only Denmark and Malta have higher pre-tax prices for petrol, and Spain is eighth among the EU's 28 for diesel fuel prices. Prices at the pump, though, which include taxes (boy, do they include taxes!), has Spain at about the middle of the price range, which means that the oil companies are making more profit than might be reasonable (we are preparing an item on petrol price-fixing in Spain). Consumer organizations have for years been asking for a governmentally-established maximum such as was in force until the late 1990s, when the market was opened up under the excuse that this would bring in more competition. A spurious argument, it turned out, and a problem that no government has wanted to deal with - a situation of which the oil companies have been very quick to take advantage.>>>

Spain becomes richer by 5.4%

SPAIN The headline needs clarification: the number of millionaires in Spain has grown by 5.4%, according to the latest report from RBC Wealth Management Report, created and published in conjunction with Capgemini, in its 17th edition. In 2012 there were 144,600 Spanish citizens owning assets of at least €0.74 million, not including their primary residence or consumables. That's 5.4% more than in 2011. Globally, the number of individuals with large assets increased by 10% in 2012, which amounts to the record amount of €34.5 billion, after a drop of 1.7% the year before.>>>

Frontier queues: UK ministerial complaint to Spanish Foreign Ministry

East Side, Saturday

GIBRALTAR / UK Foreign Secretary William Hague called his Spanish counterpart José Manuel García Margallo to raise his concern about the border queue over the weekend, which on Saturday reached up to six hours on one of the hottest days of the year. Word has it in Gibraltar that the delays are related to an artificial reef created to prevent fishing in disputed territorial waters surrounding the Rock. This morning, Monday, there were no unusual delays in the queue entering Gibraltar, according to eyewitness reports and the RGP on Twitter

(See also: Gibraltar Chronicle; Express; ITV; GibBook.com; BBC; YouTube (phone interview with CM Fabian Picardo)

Are school holidays too long in Andalucía? Part 2 of 2

Drop-out rates
(click to enlarge)

In Part 1, we concluded that the answer to the headline question is 'no, not really'. Here are more reasons why. And lots more conclusions...

Median length in Spain, too

Andalucía is also in the middle of the average for other regions of Spain, thanks largely to having brought forward the start of the new school year by five days back in September 2008. There was a lot of criticism about this measure from teachers' unions (which in our opinion hold much too much power of decision in almost all educational matters).>>>

So you think you can cheat the breathalyser...

SPAIN A series of myths exist in Spain (and elsewhere) that certain methods or actions can trick a breathalyser into reducing the alcohol level showing on a breathalyser at a roadside test. Among these are drinking black coffee or even sucking on a coffee grain. There are more, but we should start with a statistic. Spain's National Institute of Toxicology revealed in a recent survey that 35% of drivers killed in road accidents last year, showed positive on post-mortem blood/alcohol tests. All the same, there are a number of urban myths that supposedly bely the truth of science. So, a study titled published recently by Fesvial (Fundación Española para la Seguridad Vial) and Línea Directa, the insurance company, reveals that some 8 million drivers (about 30% of total license holders) really do believe that there are tricks that cheat roadside breath tests. Among the more 'popular' are>>>

Train derails in Santiago de Compostela, at least 77 dead, 150 injured

This Reuters/CNN footage is from about 8 hours ago, details are still sketchy but the number of dead has risen to 77, according to Reuters, and is expected to increase as rescue work continues.

Petrol and diesel prices up by almost 2% in a week

Fuel prices in Gibraltar remain lower
SPAIN As usual, the summer holidays bring with it an increase in prices at the pump. Petrol is up to €1.45/litre, and diesel, €1.36, according to the EC's Oil Bulletin. This has been so since the beginning of July - yes, the beginning of the holidays in Spain (and many other countries in Europe), when some 80 million vehicles are expected to begin their annual peregrination, plus a larger influx of tourists is expected. Fuel prices have gone up by 2.3% since July 1, and by 3.4% for the same week last year, despite the fact that Brent oil prices are showing signs of stabilisation. Prices in the rest of Europe>>>

BBC: Spain party corruption claims

SPAIN The latest corruption storm swirls around Mariano Rajoy, Spain's Prime Minister - one derived from another scandal, the Gürtel Case. The BBC has produced an excellent Q&A piece that carries the under-headline as follows, and goes a long way towards explaining the latest state of this fast moving story: "Allegations of illegal party funding are swirling around Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. The opposition Socialist Party has called for him to resign and there is pressure for him to give a full explanation." Please read the rest of the article here. (You might also like to click on any of the items on 'Spain is in a mess. Here's why', over on the sidebar)

Are school holidays too long in Andalucía? Part 1

Studies say the number of class days does not influence academic achievement

ANDALUCÍA (uncovered while preparing 2013/2014 School Calendar) The answer to the headline question is 'not really'. An answer qualified by the fact that our regional holidays are about average in European terms. The difference, though, is that not every other country have them for such a long, concentrated period. Schools in Andalucía are on holiday for eleven and a half weeks, starting on June 21 for Infants and Primary, and ending on September 10. A study by a teachers' organization, Ancaba, says that>>>

Spain, one of the OECD's most expensive countries - for broadband

SPAIN We sort of knew this, didn't we? Spain is third in the OECD's ranking of charges for broadband service, next to Norway and Chile. Third out of the organization's 34 countries, according to its Communications Outlook 2013, which reports data for 2012. The ranking applies to the most common speeds: 2.5 megabits per second and 6GB capacity, for which Spain charges $52 (€39.8) in terms of purchasing power parity. At the other end of the ranking are Estonia ($19.23, €17.47), Slovakia ($16.83, €12.91) and Korea ($16.35, €12.53). Spain goes down the list as speeds and capacities increase, though this could be as the result of a lack of availability of the higher speeds and capacities other than in main cities. As for mobile broadband with a 2GB capacity, Spain is at the very top with charges amounting to $34.45 (€26.43), ahead of the USA ($33.61, €25.78), Japan ($33.20, €25.46). This compared to Finland's charges ($7.11, €5.45), Luxembourg's ($8.48, €6.50) and Estonia's ($9.04, €6.93). Operating companies make excuses>>>

Electricity to go up by 3.2% in August

SPAIN The weekly Council of Ministers last Friday approved a number of changes to the electricity supply industry. Most significant for the consumer is a price rise of 3.2% in August (no firm dat specified but we can assume it will be on the first day). This increase is aimed at sharing out the cost of what is known as the 'tariff deficit' and defined as the cost of electricity compared to what we pay for it. This amounts to some €26 billion, and the measure is aimed at cutting that by €4.5 billion, of which €900m is to be paid by the consumers, another €900m by the state, and the remaining €2.7m by renewable energy companies, which have suffered the most under the changes.>>>