Un buen dia lo tiene cualquiera

A series on contemporary European cinema.

3) Un buen dia lo tiene cualquiera
(Spain, 2007)

The Noughties went down in history as the golden age of Spanish cinema.

From internationally acclaimed horrors like REC and The Orphanage to amazing dramas like Volver or Julia's Eyes, Spain spawned one gem after the other.

Outside Spanish-speaking countries, however, most releases remain best-kept secrets and the excellent black comedy Un buen dia lo tiene cualquiera (rough equivalent "Everyone's gotta have a good day") is a case in point.

Based on genius social observation, Santiago Lorenzo's satire is a take on the plight of today's thirtysomethings and the extent people may go to escape incertitude and general skintness.

With his dot-com company gone bust, Arturo has lost literally everything. His only hope lays in a local-authority project that offers young people and students a place as live-in carers for frail and ill OAPs. And while Arturo may be a bit long in the tooth to qualify, with the help of a couple of kickbacks and dodgy documents, he manages to land a room at Onofre's, a pensioner known to social workers and nurses as charming, quiet and docile.

No doubt things seem to be looking up. In order to keep his rent-free status, all Arturo has to do is administer the old man his medication and keep him some company.

Little does he know, however, that behind the poor OAP there's a rabid Mr Hyde setting out to make Arturo's life a mysery.

Manipulative and vindictive, Onofre is a true force to be reckoned with. The result is an escalating war between the two featuring a series of comical moments that will both baffle and entertain the viewer until the end.

Catalan elections: trouble for Spain's left?

With Catalonia going to the polls, the outcome is widely expected to cause Spain's socialist government yet another headache.

Spain has been one of the biggest casualties of the economic crisis. With unemployment at a staggering 20 per cent and no tangible signs of a steady recovery, not many are ready to bet on Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist government - the last bastion of leftist administration amongst Europe's "big five" - to last until the end of its mandate in 2012.

And given the increasingly tense relationship between Madrid's central government and Catalonia, the situation is likely to be further complicated by the region's elections taking place next week.

For the past seven years, Spain's most influential autonomous region has been governed by a left-wing coalition known as Tripartit, an alliance between the Catalan Socialists (PSC), the Greens and radical separatist party Esquerra Republicana.

Their two consecutive election victories in 2003 and 2006, ensured that a progressive answer to the never-ending debate surrounding Catalan identity could finally be found. Or, if anything, that the issue could be at least temporarily held off.

Similar to Scotland, politics in Catalonia is centred around national identity. No matter the subject, the issue of the region's relationship with the rest of Spain will pop up within seconds.

And while Catalans are broadly split into Espanyolistas and Catalanistas, the latter camp is also divided into those advocating more autonomy and federalism (though still within "the Spanish State") and those calling for outright independence.

Amongst Catalan politicians, however, few would be ready to openly advocate separatism.

Artur Mas, leader of centre-right and pro-business Catalanist party Convergència i Unió (expected to storm to victory after today's vote), has turned ambiguity on the subject into an art, never spelling out exactly whether he supports independence or not.

Nor has he specified what level of autonomy and devolution of power would be enough to satisfy his party's particular brand of nationalism. He said he would vote 'yes' in a vote over independence, but he's also stated that - if in power - his party would not call for a referendum.

As for the Socialists, seven years of juggling between their radical Catalanist allies and their natural vocation as a Spanish party has clearly taken its toll.

They thought they'd cut it when their carefully drafted Estatut (Catalan Statute of Autonomy) was approved by popular vote in a 2006 referendum, but last summer's decision by Madrid's Constitutional Court to annul a number of articles relating to language, justice and fiscal policy pushed anti-Spanish suspicion to new heights. This, in a region where posters circulate that caricature "the Spanish State" into an incompetent array of sinister-looking generals, judges, taxmen, bullfighters and priests.

Many interpreted the Estatut fiasco as evidence that the Socialists' policy of promoting an España Plural can only lead to a blind alley.

Which is why opinion polls indicate a total collapse for the PSC. From their peak of 31 per cent in 2003, the Catalan Socialists are now expected to just about hit 20%, leaving a reinvigorated Convergència i Unió running for power on a Cameronite programme of severe cuts in local government, inheritance tax cuts for the rich and financial incentives to private healthcare.

As for the radical catalanists of Esquerra Republicana, with their "uncompromising" image shattered by seven years in power and a new party to their left set up by former FC Barcelona chairman Joan Laporta, they're expected to net 7 per cent only - half of all the votes they managed in 2006.

This may all sound like a nightmare for the Spanish left, but there are at least three reason not to feel too pessimistic.

For starters, analysts believe that the right are not benefitting from drop in consensus for left-wing parties. At just over 50 per cent, turnout is expected to be lower than in the past, suggesting that progressive voters are simply staying at home.

Secondly, it's a fact that many people who vote for catalanist parties at local or regional elections tend to support PSOE at national level. It happened in 2004 and again in 2008 - such is the dislike for the rabidly anti-catalan Partido Popular, that many Catalans are happy to still cast their ballot for the only party that will prevent the Spanish right from winning at national level.

Which bring us to the final point. In spite of a crisis of epic proportions and a government crumbling before their eyes, support for the Partido Popular in Catalonia remains low. The most recent polls give the PP at 10,3%, even lower than the measly 10,8% they managed four years ago.

True, Catalonia has never been their stronghold. But if they really want to return to power in Madrid, they'll have to do better than that.

The Pope in Spain: spreading poison

Few heads of State have ever managed to visit a country and slag off their hosts at the same time. Ratzinger just did it.

What is it with this Pope? Bad manners? A twisted propensity for poisoned confrontation? A rabid desire to interfere in a sovereign state's internal affairs even when it's against the most basic diplomatic protocol? Or is his a simple case of sheer ignorance?

How else can anyone begin to comprehend the poisonous comments as those spurted out by Pope Benedict XVI on his current official visit to Spain?

As he consacrated Barcelona's Sagrada Familia and paid tribute to the shrine of Santiago de Compostela, Pope Benedict lashed out at Spanish society and its Socialist-led Government, slamming the country's "strong and aggressive secularism" and its "form of anti-clericalism akin to that last seen in the 1930s". The latter was a clear nod to the Civil War and the days when Republican troops killed thousands of priests and pillaged churches in rage at the clergy's backing of Franco's military coup d'etat.

An interesting way, that was, to show gratitude to a country which just forked out €13,333 per minute (each minute!) - in the middle of its biggest economic crisis in decades - so that his trip could take place without a glitch.

And yet, whoever briefed Ratzinger forgot that few countries are as generous as Spain when it comes down to the Church's privileges.

Since Franco's death took away that appalling brand of national catholicism so dear to the Vatican's hierarchy, 21-st century Spain has not amended a single one of the Church's prerogatives. Amongst them, huge fiscal incentives and direct state-funding of the Catholic church. So much for Ratzinger's talk of aggressive secularism and parallels with the Civil War, each year the Spanish State subsidises Catholic activities to the tune of 6 million Euros.

But Benedict XVI went further. The former Hitler Youth member charged against Spain's recent easing of restrictions on abortion (note that legislation in Spain is still way more restrictive then anywhere in northern Europe) and took a swipe at the country's liberal policy on same-sex marriage, legalised by the Socialist Party (PSOE) soon after they office in 2004.

"Spain needs to be re-evangelised", were Joseph Ratzinger's exact words.

"The Church supports natural order when it comes to the family as an institution", the Pope added in Barcelona, calling for governments to introduce "economic measures" to incentivise what he dubbed "the natural family", so that "the woman can find her complete fulfilment at home (does he mean in the kitchen?) as well as at work". Incidentally, in the midst of his verbal diarrohea, the 84-year-old white-clad bloke did not say a single word about the enormous paedo scandal that has been marring the Catholic Church the world over.

Pope Ratzinger can blame modern times as much as he wants. If Spain's rapid de-christianisation is bugging him so much, he should lay the blame on the Vatican's incapacity to grasp humanity and do soul searching rather than spreading poison and prejudice.

Bullfighting ban: a hollow victory

Amidst the fanfare of reports and headlines, international observers forgot to report that yesterday's Catalan "ban" on bullfighting means very little in terms of animal welfare.

Yesterday's decision by the Catalan Parliament to ban bullfighting in the Spanish autonomous region was met with glee and satisfaction around the world.

For people like those behind this blog, the Catalan ban on the corrida can only be saluted. Torture and death inflicted on an innocent animal for no reason other than "tradition" and "entertainment" are nothing but an aberration - especially in the 21st century.

Many hope (and others fear) that the ban in Catalonia may rub off on the whole of Spain, finally bringing bullfighting to an end.

And yet, a point that the excited headlines failed to pick up is the dark shadow that hangs over the ban on the so-called fiesta taurina. A ban that, it turns out, is an astonishingly hollow victory.

This is why.

Opponents of the ban (stemming mainly, but not exclusively, from the Spanish right) regularly point out that, barring a few genuine animal rights activists, the law is backed by the Catalan nationalist parties (Convergencia i Unió and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya) purely as a means to stoking anti-Spanish sentiments. In other words, it has little to do with the welfare of animals and all with playing up the difference between Spain and Catalonia.

Until today, I put this approach down to the pig-headedness and spitefulness of Spain's conservative Partido Popular (which - if you're new to Spanish politics - are way to the right of the Conservatives in the UK).

Then I discovered that in certain parts of Catalonia there is indeed another "traditional" fiesta which is even crueller and more monstrous than the old corrida. The Catalans call it correbous and, in many of their towns, it's considered a major celebration.

Look away if you can't stand cruelty to animals.

Because the correbous consist of setting a bull's horns ablaze in front of thousands of onlookers and a merry background of fireworks and firecrackers. The bull is hemmed in within the perimeter of the town's main square as all access passages are fenced off, which is how the torture (or "game", according to the same Catalans who frown upon bullfighting) unravels. The result is an agonising animal running around terrified - sometimes even for hours on end.

Now, courtesy of the Catalan nationalist parties, the law that yesterday put a ban on bullfighting did not include the correbous. Not only that. The same catalanists who backed the anti-bullfighting campaign were very vocal in defending the right to set bulls' horns on fire. Convergencia i Unió even tabled a Parliamentary motion which would officially "safeguard" the correbous in the name of "collective interest"!

Their justification? Staggering though it may sound, they too cling on to "tradition". Which is to say, the same lame argument that supporters of bullfighting bring forward each time the morality of their beloved corrida is questioned. "Without bulls there's no party and without party there's no people": that's how a Catalan nationalist MP publicly defended the correbous a few months ago.

Perhaps, simply, the word "hypocrisy" does not translate amongst the people of Convergencia i Unió and other Catalan separatists.

When you consider the hideous double standards, it becomes apparent that bullfighting was banned purely as a hated symbol of "Hispanity".

Because in the warped mindset of Catalan nationalism, animal cruelty is bad if it comes from the other side of the backyard, but not if it's of 'their own' variety.

Remembering 11 March 2004

In memory: Atocha station, Madrid.

11 March 2004, morning rush hour. Al-Qaeda's murderous instincts are unleashed against four commuter trains in the Spanish capital, killing 191 people and injuring over 1,800. Those ten explosions will result in the most horrific terrorist attack in the history of Spain. Today marks its sixth anniversary.

Bullfighting: the beginning of the end

Catalunia votes to ban one of the most barbaric 'events' in Europe.

It looks like the UK press just twigged it, but two weeks ago the Catalan Parliament voted to begin the legislative process that will totally ban bullfighting from the autonomous Spanish region.

With 67 votes in favour (including the separatist Catalan left, the Greens and most socialists), against 59 (the conservative Partido Popular and some socialists), the Catalan parliament endorsed "Prou", a recent petition calling for the traditional Spanish 'corrida de toros' to be outlawed - on the basis that "a subsidized, legal and public event wherein animals are tortured and killed is unacceptable in the 21st century".

One of the most shameful aspects of Spanish politics is the fact that, in 2008 alone, 600m Euros of public money were granted in support of the bullfighting industry.

Though opinion polls suggest that bullfighting is frowned upon by over 72% of the Spanish population, Catalunia is the region where opposition to the 'event' is overwhelming.

This spurred extra controversy from Spanish nationalists accusing the Catalans of closing in on bullfighting as another means to the end of separatism. And yet in the last twenty years hundreds of town councils across the whole of Spain and the Canary Islands have declared themselves 'bullfighting-free zones'.

Those supporting bullfighting generally cling on to:

1- Some unspecified notion of "tradition", a point that glosses over the endless list of obnoxious activities that have been upheld throughout history in the name of tradition, from public flagellations and corporal punishment through patriarchal social orders or arranged marriages.

2- The fact that a huge number of animals are killed anyway by the meat industry, as if two wrongs automatically made a right.

3- The myth that before the 'fight', bulls are well-fed and especially farmed. Which means that if Jewish prisoners during WWII had been fed haute cuisine and hosted in quality hotels instead of concentration camps, the Nazi gas chambers would have earned legitimacy.

Supporters also generally ignore the fact that a bull is never killed in one go, and it can take ages until its body is weakened and finally stabbed through the heart.

Traditionally, the event was presented to the public as a contest between the brave matador, who boldly risks life and limb to tackle a mad and ferocious beast.

The reality is somewhat different. Bulls, who are not aggressive animals, are kept in dark rooms and deprived of water and food for days in the run-up to the massacre. The idea is to stress them out and make them 'angrier'. Just before they're released in front of the toreador, they are attacked by men on horseback called picadores, whose task is to stab the animal with lances in order to render him less dangerous for the battle. In the process, it is not uncommon for the horses to end up severely injured by the pain-crazed bull.

In fact, what spectators see is not a normal, healthy bull, but a weakened, half-blinded and mentally destroyed version, whose chances of harming his tormentors is virtually nil.

It honours Catalunia that the country is moving away from such a bloody, barbaric, cruel and useless ritual. Unlike some glaze-eyed opponents suggest, the ban is not an act of "socialism" and "state interference", it's an act of humanity and progress instead.

It's evidence that we are finally moving away from a medieval society where, say, it was normal for prisoners to have their body torn apart, presumed witches to be burnt at the stake and men to routinely batter women in order to re-assert their masculinity.

Spain leads electric car revolution

An example of factual action against CO2 emissions comes from Madrid.

The Guardian reports today that disused phone boxes are being earmarked as "recharging points" for electric cars in some of Spain's biggest cities.

I decided to find out more about it and, by the look of it, it really appears the Spaniards are going to lead the way.

In a stark contrast with the tiptoing around paraded by other governments worldwide, next month Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero will unveil the Pacto por la Energía, so far the biggest electric vehicle production stimulus programme. According to the Spanish Government, if all of the country's cars were electric, oil bills would see savings of up to €11,000m a year and the country's oil dependency down twenty per cent.

According to El Pais, the mayor of Madrid, Alberto Gallardón, has announced that -as of 1 Jan 2010- electric cars will enjoy free parking across the city. "The electric car is the future", he said, "[it is] a revolution. One of the most momentous changes ever in urban mobility".

The joint scheme between local authorities and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism will include financial incentives to all private companies contracted out by town halls who decide to switch to electric cars (for instance buses or road-cleaning vehicles).

The problem is trying to convince private citizens. Which is why, El Mundo reports, the government is announcing a combination of tax incentives, cash subsidies of up to 20% of retail cost, as well as the installation of 546 charging points countrywide.

Critics have slammed the project as "overambitious". According to a group called Ecologistas en Accion (Environmentalists in Action), the plan "does not stand scientific scrutiny" as manufacturing electric cars will result in "brutal energetic costs", as each new vehicle produced is the equivalent of running a car for 60,000 kilometres.

Both CO2 emissions and noise, however, maybe in for a rough time.

Brits and accident rates on the Balearics

Why is it that British tourists are so unlucky?

Newspapers are reporting that a 44-year-old plumber from England was involved in a brawl and beaten to death while on holiday in Magaluf, on the south-west coast of Mallorca (more details here).

Aside from the fact that each story should be considered on its own merit, it would be deeply wrong to speculate on a tragedy we know nothing about. What invites some reflection, however, is how some people chose to read the events. For instance on -hear, hear- the Daily Mail.

Some comments were so idiotic that even a number of Mail readers felt the need to highlight how beastly British tourists (especially on the Balearics) behave while holidaying abroad.

Amongst the commenters, 'Mowdiwarp' from Huddersfield writes: "Spanish say they hate the British but by heck they like our money! Wouldn't dream of going back to that God-forsaken country ever again and am quite willing to let the cheap booze and terrible food sellers find alternative ways to earn a living!", while someone called 'nonpc' opnionates: "Isn't the EU wonderful? We are all pals together. I never liked Spain".

Then there's those who complain of a surge of "Brit-bashing" abroad, while others suggest we all "scatch (sic) Magaluf from next years holiday list". Finally, my favourite, 'Derek MacDonald' from Saigon, Vietnam, wonders: "Is this the same Spain that refuses to fight terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan?". Quality.

So let's have a quick look at this alleged 'Brit-bashing'. But, as we do so, let's not even consider that entire regions and islands have been completely ravaged in order to allow millions of 18-30 Brits to play Club Reps on the streets of Ibiza et al. Let's ignore the impact that turning peaceful villages into giant hedonistic dancefloors (remember the old advert "danceathon, drinkathon, bronzathon, partyathon"?) may have had on the locals.

Let's overlook the tons of vomit and piddle exported each year on to the alleyways of the Mediterranean. Let's not reflect on the fact that the word "Ibiza" is no longer a place to visit but has become like a warmer annex to Ministry of Sound. Let's not even consider what would happen if the opposite had been inflicted by "foreigners" upon British cities.

What we'll do, we'll just look at some facts. For instance, the fact that, like noted by Spanish blogger Antoni, it really looks like "the anglosajones have a special inclination for the risks associated with gravity law". In a piece called Siniestralidad turistica ("Tourist accident rate"), Antoni pieces together the staggering amount of Brit-involving accidents on the Balearics, to the point that you wonder if the insurance premiums for Brits abroad hasn't hit sky high already.

An unbelievable amount, and a wholly British exclusive, seems to be associated with falling from their holiday balcony while pissed (see here for an example).

However, there are many other accident types and the clockwork regularity with which they make the news each summer is just breathtaking. There's the British tourists who get done for dealing; those gang raping their fellow tourist; those who overdose after partying; those who stab people in nightclubs; and those who get into more fights, assaults, brawls.

The frequency is unbelievable, as is the lack of variety in the nationalities involved.

So, perhaps keeping things into perspective may be a good idea, and rather than blaming the Spaniards' exit from Iraq for some spoilt British kids not being able to control their liver, knob and repressed selves, some people could do with an honest analysis of why Britain, each summer, is capable of exporting so much barbaric dross.

Bilbao and the Basque Country

One of the most special places I've ever visited.

Last month I had the lucky chance to visit the Basque Country for the first time and, as it turned out to be one the most beautiful areas I've ever seen, I thought it may be a good idea to write something about it. Though it's almost impossible to condense such a wonderfully complicated place, I'll try and keep it short and sweet.

First off. Nestled between a circle of incredibly green hills, Bilbao is an architect and urban planner's paradise. People will tell you about the massive changes the city underwent in the last twenty years: from being Spain's industrial capital, Bilbao managed to regenerate itself without losing its unique character. The succession of bridges, structures and new buildings that were added since the 1980s sit fantastically well alongside the city's heritage, which includes the elegant 19th century avenues, alleyways and squares, the picturesque Casco Viejo (old town) and the huge Nervion river.

Bilbao is also home to some incredible infrastructures. Different areas (and neighbouring towns) are all interlinked through a state-of-the-art network of metro (designed by Sir Norman Foster), trams and overground trains.

I often read that the city of Newcastle has a habit of branding itself as "the Bilbao of the North-East" or "England's Bilbao". The expressions 'wishful thinking' and 'punching above one's weight' spring to mind...

When you first arrive, you'll be blown away by the language. Although all signs are bilingual and everyone speaks Spanish (or Castellano, as it's known locally), Euskara is everywhere and it looks and sounds like absolutely nothing else, as it's apparently the oldest out of all the European languages that are still around.

A simple glance at the buildings, old and new, reveals that Bilbao (and the Basque Country as a whole) has little in common with Spain. If you've ever been to Andalusia, Madrid or even Catalunya, they have as much in common with Euskadi as Greece has with England. The succession of Art Nouveau buildings is incredible, but if anything there is more a touch of France and Belgium than there is of the Mediterranean.

The food is a chapter in itself. Basque cuisine is renowned around the world and their typical pintxos will allow you to sample bits and pieces without feeling guilty in the event you're not keen. A pintxo, in fact, is none other than a cheap miniature dish in the guise of a slice of bread elegantly topped with whichever food available (the variety is always immense) . Each pintxo is a work of art in itself, as the amount of food (sometimes quite elaborate too) balanced on the bread often defies gravity.

The number of small pintxo bars available is unbelievable. They're literally everywhere, and practically each of them is incredibly pokey, old and picturesque. One gets the impression that the locals are not that much into sit down meals, especially at dinnertime. The amount of people propping up the bar with a pintxo in one hand and a beer or cider (another local speciality) in the other is quite telling.

The downside for the visitor is related to issues of hygiene. If you hail from the Land of Trading Standards, you'll get your heckles up at the sight of a dozen men puffing smoke rings directly into the above mentioned pintxos that are waiting to be dished up from the bar counter.

It is worth mentioning that, as a whole, Spain is possibly the last EU country immune to any smoking ban and, Bilbao in particular is a smoker's paradise. But fags aside, most pintxos bars will strike you as staggeringly dirty, the floor literally filthy with used up tissues, crumbs, leftovers and fag butts (see photo). And no, floor sweeping is not contemplated until closing time.

I guess it's part of the intrigue and, as they say, "when in Rome" and so forth, but you'll have to forget everything you've ever been told about food standards and hygiene rules, otherwise you won't ever try a single local delicacy. And, by the way, I'm still alive and I didn't feel ill afterwards.

Also striking is the separatist issue. Alas, some people have only ever heard of the Basque Country in relation to ETA's bombs and their quest for an independent Euskadi. Although it's quite clear that the majority of Basques do not wish independence, I was blown away by how vocal popular support for ETA is. The old town is literally plastered with pro-ETA posters, banners and graffiti, in a way I guess only certain areas of pro-republican Northern Ireland may compare.

Whereas I expected ETA to be a totally isolated group of nutters, it is quite clear there's a pool of sympathisers out there and they're quite cocky too. One night, as I was about to doze off in the hotel, I even heard a group of lads in the streets chanting what I could only presume were pro-ETA slogans. To give you an idea of the issue, while I was in Bilbao, one local paper was discussing the local government's motion to fine all shops and businesses that currently display ETA-related iconography.

Onto less contentious issues, los bilbainos are very fond of their football team, Athletic Bilbao (simply known as 'El Athleti'). I went on a pilgrimage to their local ground, the San Mamés, one of the oldest in Europe (1913) and affectionately known as La Catedral. The sad news is that it's about to be knocked down and rebuilt next door. Athletic Bilbao rely on Basque players only - absolutely unique in this day and age of multibillion football.

The city's port is a sight to behold as well. You simply need to catch the metro and get off at Portugalete, a pretty old medieval borough sporting a groundbreaking 19th century transporter bridge suspended from a frame - a gem in Victorian iron architecture. Every five minutes, it ferries pedestrians and cars alike to the other end of the estuary. Absolutely stunning.

Finally, the world famous Guggenheim Museum which some people claim put Bilbao on the map, a bit like Oxford with Inspector Morse. A word of advice. Unless you're really into that kind of thing, DON'T GO. You can admire the excellent external structure from the outside, but think twice before you fork out €13 to gaze at massive empty spaces and the artiest, most pretentious, most useless contemporary crap you'll ever come across in your life. If you do go, expect to read about words like 'decontextualised' a lot.

These are details, however. Bilbao is simply stunning, with a succession of incredible-looking buildings (which, most amazingly, to the locals are probably quite ordinary!) that are a pleasure to gaze at. If you have extra days available, neighbouring San Sebastian (or Donostia in the local language) is only an hour away. If you go by coach, you'll have a chance to admire the idyllic scenery, a succession of forests and beautiful mountains. Once you're there, you'll gather that San Sebastian is no ordinary place, to the extent that it makes most cities look ugly by comparison.

As I'm crap at writing conclusions, I will only add that the distinct lack of the so-called "Ibiza crowd" is another definite plus point.

Die Linke: a left-wing success story

The amazing triumph of Germany's left wing party casts some doubt on Angela Merkel's chances of re-election.

A succession of articles and editorials have been penned to analyse why the European left may have failed so far to cash in on the financial crisis. With the partial exception of Spain, left-of-centre parties have taken one drubbing after the other in Britain, France and Italy.

To the surprise of many, centre-right and far-right parties were more successful in intercepting voters' anxieties through a combination of faux-pious approach to big business and finance and distraction techniques centred around real and imaginary threats to social values, national identities and tradition.

In the meantime, the moment the economic tide turned, having spent a decade or two doing somersaults to reassure Big Business took a devastating toll on the moderate left. In Britain, France and Italy, for instance, an increasing number of voters identify the centre-left as weak, useless and incapable to empathise with struggling families and workers alike.

Last Sunday though, something new happened. In the three German länders (federal states) that held local elections, Die Linke (a left-wing coalition founded less than five years ago) netted an unprecedented victory. In Saarland, they went from 2,3% in 2004 to the current 21,3%, an increase of 19 points, while scoring 23.6% in Saxony and an even more impressive 27% in Thuringia, in some cases even outpolling the centre-left Social Democrats.

While pre-ballot opinion polls did anticipate a positive night for Die Linke, such an emphatic triumph turned up totally unexpected. Wooed by the charisma of left-wing maverick Oskar Lafontaine, millions of Germans decided to listen to "a party with attitude", one that tells it like it is on redistribution, big business and the most brutal side effects of unfettered capitalism.

Whereas the last ten years have witnessed in turn the rise of green politics, neo-conservatism, and the xenophobic far-right, this is the first time in ages an openly socialist party notched up such a clear victory.

Whether the reason is the banks returning to the old bingeing habits like nothing happened, stagnant salaries, or the continuing rise of dole queues, it will be interesting to see if Die Linke's feat is the start of a left-wing revival across Europe.

CCTV on the police

After being caught lying one too many times, the police in Britain cannot be trusted.

Marina Hyde in today's Guardian calls for "inverse surveillance" of the police as the only means of holding them accountable. As allegations of brutality at the G20 demo continue to pile up, even the most "serially deferential" are now waking up to the fact that "1,000 death in police custody in the previous 30 years, without a single conviction" isn't really the track record a democratic country would want to boast.

The British public, from your average Daily Mail reader to the fiercest Guardianista, like to routinely boast that the UK has never fallen pray to the horrors of fascism.

We may, however, want to watch out for complacency. Because the British state may not be a fascist one, but the complete unaccountability of our men in uniform, caught telling porky pies one too many times, is starting to look more like 1970s' Argentina than any self-congratulatory idea of 'Cradle of Democracy'.

Like former Met Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick writes in today's Independent, "the Tomlinson case and those of Jean Charles de Menezes and Mark Saunders, raise the spectre that the bad old days of British policing may be returning, of 'canteen culture', the use of excessive force and of a police service that appears to be unaccountable – the officer concerned in the case of Mr Tomlinson apparently being allowed to cover his face and numerals".

And perhaps we could do with taking a leaf out of Catalonia (Spain) where, since hidden CCTVs were installed in all police stations in 2007, people's reports of beatings and mistreatment while in police custody have gone down by 42%.

Xenophobia and Remembrance Day

You'd think there's no connection between Remembrance Day and immigration. Not so, according to the Daily Express

For those not sure about Remembrance Day and what it represents, a look at Leo Mckinstry’s piece ("Today, in a nation that has lost its history, the white cliffs have no such resonance") in the Daily Express will just put you off altogether. He makes a dazzling connection between the fact that soldiers sacrificed their lives during WWII and the fact that, since then, Britain has become host to generations of immigrants. Of course, Mckinstry omits to say that people also emigrated to France, Germany, Belgium and many other countries, but perhaps if he did he wouldn’t be writing for the Express.

He wonders why "the union flag is seen as an offensive symbol of xenophobia”. As he rejects that foreign-sounding word, xenophobia, he writes that "our once green and pleasant land" is now "surrounded by foreigners with whom [the Britons have] no sense of mutual belonging or trust" and live in "cities turned into modern Babels full of discordant tongues and wailing mosques". “The very idea of British citizenship”, he adds, “has been rendered meaningless by the twin malign forces of the EU and mass immigration".

However, the Express columnist may be cheered up by an e-mail we've received from a Spanish reader called Gustavo who shows genuine empathy about living in a country "that has lost its history", "swallowed up by mass development" and invaded by “foreigners”.

"Dear Mr Mckinstry,

Please excuse my English but I am a Spanish citizen. I read your article in the Express and I understand exactly where you're coming from. First let me say, like yourself, I am not a xenophobe. However, we too are losing our history. Like many from his generation, my grandfather sacrificed his life during the Spanish Civil war. But if he was alive now I don't know if he'd cheer or weep. All over the country, from Costa Brava to Costa Dorada, through to Costa Blanca and Andalusia, we have been invaded by at least 800,000 (and still counting) Britons. Apparently, they have programmes on their national TV that promote the idea of snatching our property and even building from scratch on Spanish land. That may explain why they arrive in droves, even in winter, and many decide to stay. And I worry if they are bringing disease, because at all hours you can spot them being sick in our once proud and quaint towns.

Our police officers don’t know where to begin because, when they don't get jiggy in the street, those invaders often become very rowdy, fight and smash bottles on each other's head. Like you said in your article, those immigrants have no sense of belonging to our land. None of them bothers to pick up the language apart from the word "cerveza". You mention your "wailing mosques" and I know what you mean cos we have entire towns where clubs full of Brits whack some sort of incessant beat until the early hours of the morning. My grandfather would have mistaken it for an air raid siren.

Even our politicians are gradually becoming foreign. We have local councils where British people are being elected and entire towns where Brits make up the greatest majority of the population. Like you mentioned in your excellent piece, areas that used to be unspoilt and natural are now prey to "mass development". Oblivious to our heritage, many of those Brits do not care if their villas are built in compliance with the law and there have been increasing cases of bribes and corruption. Even though in some parts of Spain we have serious water shortages, those Brits insist on building one swimming pool after the other. Many residents don’t even bother to register with the local council but they peruse our facilities (such as our own NHS) nonetheless. Therefore, you can imagine: local authorities are allocated funding according to the number of people registered, and find it very difficult to cope with the extra burden. Thanks to those foreigners, our public services, to quote one of the expressions you use, are “left in tatters".

The other day I was walking down the promenade in Lloret del Mar and there was a girl handing out nightclub leaflets. I reached out for one but she said "No, not you. You're Spanish". Is this what my granddad sacrificed his life for? The idea itself of Spain is being "rendered meaningless" by all this. Our towns are "losing their souls". Where once my grandfather would have seen a tapas bar, there are now English pubs or Fish& chips shops and McDonald's. What are we going to do, Mr Mckinstry?

Yours sincerely,

Gustavo Lopez Orta"

Wish you were here

The soaring number of Brits arrested abroad

Mid-August. For many, holiday time. Today Sky News reports Foreign Office figures about the soaring number of Britons arrested while on holiday abroad. Over 2,000 Brits were arrested in 2006-07, in Spain alone, mainly for getting pissed and acting like twats.

The emergence of low-fare flights allowed hordes of subhuman scum - those who wouldn’t otherwise dream of leaving their neighbourhood in order to 'stay local' - to suddenly be scattered across Europe, with certain Greek, Spanish and Portuguese resorts being the most popular destinations. The concept is quite simple: you just cut and paste your English town centre's street-vomiting and brawling across to the warm shores of Rhodes, Benidorm or the Algarve.

On several occasions we wrote of many Brits' subconscious post-colonial attitude. Indeed, to some of them, foreign soil is fair game and acts of bravado take an even more extreme dimension. Otherwise they wouldn’t be 'avin a laff, would they? The Polish city of Krakow became one of the first cities where the local authorities decided that they'd had enough of the Britons' pre-nuptial machismo and started to ban stag parties from bars and clubs across the city. "You see them groping girls, dancing nude, smashing up chairs and vomiting", were some of the complaints from local residents.

The same phenomenon had occurred in Dublin in the late 90s, when hordes of Brits ready to party round the clock started to flood the Irish capital on a weekly basis. The mess only abated when local authorities, tired to mop up the debris left by the fun-loving Brits decided to enforce a ban on single-sex parties in pubs and clubs in the city's district of Temple Bar. It was estimated that the thousands of British men were putting off other tourists, costing the local trade £57 million each year.

More often than not though, the bit of fun turns into horror. According to the Foreign Office, consulates are constantly bombarded by requests for help following stag or hen nights gone wrong. Half of the requests for assistance involve lost or stolen money, a third involved illness or injury and a quarter concerned arrests mainly for being drunk and disorderly. Overall consulate figures show that 3,900 Britons die abroad each year, 4,200 are taken into hospital and 6,000 are detained in foreign prison, at least in part the consequence of drunken and yobbish tourism.

In The Guardian, Andrew Anthony summed it up wryly:

"Nowadays, in the streets of capitals across mainland Europe, you can find young Britons emptying both their bladders and stomachs. They say that the youth of today lack beliefs, but these are men and women who are fully committed to the cause of alcoholic annihilation. They will simply not rest until they have relinquished all control of their motor skills".

Post-colonial TV

Can you imagine Cornwall hosting 760,000 Greeks, all speaking their own language and not picking up a single word of English? And a national TV programme promoting that.

Does British TV reflect British society? Judging by programmes like BBC Two's Living In The Sun, presented by Nadia Sawalha, then the answer is yes. That is, if you agree that British society will never be able to shed their post-colonial attitude. No, don't just utter 'fuck off'. Think about it.

Don't we live in the era of "we're-being-swamped" and "they-all-want-to-cum'ere"?
So how would you feel if there was a daily programme on, say, Greek national television actively promoting hundreds of thousands of Greeks setting up shop and snatching land, property, businesses in Britain? Those hundreds of thousands would then peruse local public services and demand bilingual schools. There would be a national outcry, no question.

But this is what Brits are doing in Spain, and Living In The Sun is direct proof. Entire areas are already the almost complete monopoly of English-speaking people. Of course, it's perfectly allowed, and the advent of the European Union has made it a lot easier, but I'm sure you'll appreciate that the same would not be tolerated in Britain. Can you imagine Cornwall hosting 760.000 Greeks, all speaking their own language and not picking up a single word of English? The irony is that many expats leave home because "England is just not English anymore". Only last year, an all-expat party ran in the local elections near Alicante demanding bilingual schools.

And that's the most amazing thing about Living In The Sun. There isn't even the slightest focus on issues of integration and the most they show about Spanish culture is the usual all-English sangria-based yipee-gals-wow party and, of course, the sun. It's just about how those Brits will get on with their properties and how they add a swanky swimming pool to their recently purchased Spanish home. The area may have serious water-shortage issues, but those Brits have to have their swimming pool. It is their god-given right.

Of course you would answer that "at least us Brits are law-abiding". Not always. The Spanish authorities have complained that many of the Brits' houses are built illegaly and with little or no respect for the environment. Also, reports abound of British residents who, true to their customs, angered the locals with loutish drunken behaviour. These are dubbed the "por favores" because that's all the Spanish they bother to speak. After all, when they colonised India, how many Brits bothered to pick up the local language?

On top of Euro 2008

After a curse that lasted 44 years, Spain beat Germany 1-0 in the final and claimed the 2008 European Championship. People got (understandably) overexcited. (footage by Johhny T)

Lorry drivers, empty shelves and a vicious strike

Is there such a thing as a right-wing strike?

September 2000. Lorry drivers are on strike against rising fuel prices. Britain's at a standstill. The scenes on TV are evocative of 28 Days Later: panic buying, mental queues at petrol stations, empty supermarket shelves and anxious old ladies moaning that their local Tesco is running out of supplies. I remember seeing my old university teacher, a staunch leftie Hullite by the name of Shaddy. "Militancy is back, Shaddy", I went, "surely it cannot be a bad thing? These people are taking a stand against the government". I must have sounded like such a naïve prick.

Shaddy shook his head. "Nooo", he said. "You know how I feel about New Lerh-bah, but this time they're doing the right thing not giving up to the strikers". I was taken aback. "What they're doing is seriously reactionary", he continued, explaining why bringing the country to a standstill in the name of lower tax for their own exclusive benefit was wrong. "It's not the Government they should go for", he added, "instead it's the speculators, the big oil companies, they control the lion's share of the oil price and make zillions out of it".

Eight years later, and I can finally see what Shaddy meant. Those eerie scenes are back. Hauliers are on strike across Europe. They've just kicked off in England again and last week, in Spain, they were at the helm of one of the most vicious blockades in history. "La huelga", that's how the Spaniards call it, ground the country to a halt. It brought empty supermarket shelves, mile-long motorway queues and - above all- one dead, dozens injured and hundreds of damaged lorries and trucks. A group of lorries that were not on the picket line were set alight, leaving the driver with 25% of his body severely burnt.

How is that right-wing? The right to strike is sacrosanct, and it goes without saying that if hauliers have resorted to such extreme measures, they must feel pretty desperate indeed. But there are two aspects that should make us feel instinctively unsympathetic to their cause.
One, the way they went about it. The notion that "if I can't eat, then nor will you be able to" is simply vile. You cannot stop a nation from functioning. By all means, go on strike, make your employers feel the pressure, but you shouldn’t directly and intently punish innocent people, let alone the whole country. The Spanish blockade was incredibly aggressive. Those who didn't stop straightaway at picket lines were attacked, their load chucked out and their tyres slashed. The entire nation was literally brought to a standstill. With roads jammed up, hospitals or old people's homes started running out of supplies. Bear in mind lorry drivers are not the only ones who are feeling the pinch with prices -fuel in particular- going up. And until the situation goes back to normal, the short term effect is more expensive grocery items. The hauliers' action affected the most vulnerable people twice over. Can you imagine if each and every category struggling to make ends meet started doing that?

Which begs the second point. The lorry drivers' industrial action was selfish, instinctively anti-society and totally devoid of logic. We all look after number one, but they really took the piss. This vague "blame-the-Government" exercise carries dangerous consequences. Asking the Government to lower their taxes, and impose "minimum tariffs" just for them shows how lopsided their view is. Fuel taxes may not be pleasant, but are essential, both for environmental and redistributive purposes. In any case, especially in the wake of fuel prices shooting up, V.A.T. on fuel is only responsible for a tiny percentage of the price. None of those hauliers, none of them, denounced those who are truly responsible for the current hike: oil companies and oil speculators. How about a boycott of the oil companies who refuse to lower prices? They're the ones rubbing their hands with joy as we all - equally- share the burden of the cost of living going up.


******
With Euro 2008 under way, has anyone noticed the name of the Bern stadium? Wankdorf, it's called.

Here's to four more years of Zapatero

How refreshing to see a Prime Minister willing -for once- to channel money into welfare rather than wars, Millennium Dome, or billion-worth bailouts for banks and private firms (for British readers, Virgin Rail and Northern Rock may ring a bell).

Spain is going to be under Socialist rule for another four years. Last night's PSOE victory proved that the 21st century blend of ugly conservatism, bigotry and politics of fear that is stalking Europe can be defeated. Most importantly, it can be so without stealing the conservatives' clothes. Josè Luis Zapatero sent the Partido Popular packing without mimicking their policies, nicking their language or genuflecting to big business. The Socialists' four years in office carried none of that Blairite whiff of neo-Toryism which was essentially a priestly "I understand your concerns" tagged in front of "lady's-not-for-turning" sort of policies - and that was Blair's conscience ticked off.

Zapatero's government did exactly what it said on the tin. Firstly, he kept his word about Iraq as he pulled Spanish troops out as soon as he got in. Second, he acknowledged that labour casualisation is the noughties' version of the black plague. Fancy that in England, where the unions are still trying to get into Gordon Brown's head that the rise of casual labour carries a whole range of social side effects. For the PSOE, moderate and cautious policies don't necessarily mean pandering to whatever the zealots of contratos basuras (literally 'rubbish contracts') prescribe. For the first time, there's a government aware of today's 18-30 generation's financial plight. Hundreds of thousands of "call-centre-kids", in their twenties and thirties, pocketing crumbs and with no other choice than to hold onto their mother's apron. The ley de ayuda al alquiler (a sort of rent subsidy) was brought in to redress the drama of a new generation worse off than their parents' for the first time in history. Similarly, the dependency law (ley de dependencia) was designed to guarantee residential and nursing care to every old person in need.

Zapatero didn't flinch in the face of the PP's hysterical hissy fits about "wasting money" on solidarity. How refreshing, to see a Prime Minister willing -for once- to channel money into welfare rather than military adventures, opus magna a-la Millennium Dome, or multimillion bailouts for banks and private firms (to British readers, Northern Rock or Virgin Rail may ring a bell). How refreshing to have a non-Conservative government that doesn't huff and puff day in and day out against benefit claimants. Just look at the state of those New Labour fellas in the UK. All muscles when it's about giving dole-claimants the proverbial kick up the arse but as docile as the new boy at school when it comes down to the scandal of the non-doms tax-free status.

Given that it could have been Mariano Rajoy (the Iberic William Hague), here's to another four years of Zapatero.