Lavengro in Spain

The stupidity of class warfare

While Gordon Brown stupidly plays with the fire of class warfare (as Thatcher did before him) I live in a country that has experienced real class warfare in living memory. No-one wants to return to it. The extraordinary concessions that were made by both sides to agree the 1978 constitution are proof of that.

In 1898 Spain lost the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico all in one year and the blow to its self-esteem caused by the loss of empire still rankled decades later. Society was divided into hermetic factions that were separated by a huge social gulf that could not be crossed, and while colonial conflicts were unpopular they strengthened the position of the military against weak parliamentary institutions. People hankered for strong leadership that would restore their former glory and power, and the role of religion in society was a matter of great controversy. Does that sound familiar? It should do.

But to come back to Gordon Brown, this is not his first foray into class warfare. In 2000, when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, he abused his office to intervene personally on behalf of Laura Spence, a sixth-former from Newcastle who had been turned down by Oxford, claiming that her rejection was a result of class and regional prejudice. Brown’s claim was refuted on practically every point, not least because the university had received 22 applications for five places and, because of A-level grade inflation, all of them had identically high grades. The university had lost its main pre-application selection tool and had to rely entirely on interview. A further point is that because of the very high cost of medical courses, human and veterinary medicine are the only two subjects for which the government sets unchangeable limits for places at each university. Oxford had no discretion and could only have admitted her by rejecting someone that it had already accepted. Brown seemed to be ignorant of this fact, as of much else in the affair, including the views of the teenager whom he was using in his attempt to foment class war in the UK:

“I never doubted Oxford's decision … I was a bit upset when I came out of the interview because I knew I hadn't done as well as I thought I could have.” Other candidates who performed better at the interview were more deserving of a place, she said, and admitted she could have prepared more thoroughly.

Catalonia, Spain and the Estatut

… two great empires of Lilliput and Blefuscu. Which two mighty powers have, as I was going to tell you, been engaged in a most obstinate war for six-and-thirty moons past. It began upon the following occasion. It is allowed on all hands, that the primitive way of breaking eggs, before we eat them, was upon the larger end; but his present majesty's grandfather, while he was a boy, going to eat an egg, and breaking it according to the ancient practice, happened to cut one of his fingers. Whereupon the emperor his father published an edict, commanding all his subjects, upon great penalties, to break the smaller end of their eggs. The people so highly resented this law, that our histories tell us, there have been six rebellions raised on that account; wherein one emperor lost his life, and another his crown. These civil commotions were constantly fomented by the monarchs of Blefuscu; and when they were quelled, the exiles always fled for refuge to that empire. It is computed that eleven thousand persons have at several times suffered death, rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end. Many hundred large volumes have been published upon this controversy: but the books of the Big-endians have been long forbidden, and the whole party rendered incapable by law of holding employments. During the course of these troubles, the emperors of Blefusca did frequently expostulate by their ambassadors, accusing us of making a schism in religion, by offending against a fundamental doctrine of our great prophet Lustrog, in the fifty-fourth chapter of the Blundecral (which is their Alcoran). This, however, is thought to be a mere strain upon the text; for the words are these: 'that all true believers break their eggs at the convenient end.

Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels

So the really important question for Cataloonya is whether the airport should be painted with broad red and yellow stripes or narrow red and yellow stripes.

The canard quacks again

According to the BBC:

Sir Jeremy Greenstock was centre stage in UK-led efforts to negotiate a second UN resolution in early 2003, seen by many countries as necessary directly authorise military action. The move was vetoed by France and Russia, leading critics to claim the subsequent invasion was illegal.

The move was not vetoed. There was no need to veto it because the UK and USA came nowhere near achieving the majority that would have allowed it to be passed. They needed nine out of the 15 Security Council votes and, if memory serves, they only got Spain and one African country to support them. To say that it was vetoed gives the impression that France and Russia prevented something that would otherwise have been approved. That was not the case. The claims that the invasion of Iraq was illegal are based on the failure of the would-be invaders to get a majority; but they failed because there was no majority to be had, or anything near it, not because approval by a potential majority was vetoed by one or two countries.

President Jacques Chirac explained this very clearly in an interview on French television at the time. Here is an extract:

THE PRESIDENT – I’m telling you what I feel. I firmly believe, this evening, that there isn’t a majority of nine votes in favour of that resolution including an ultimatum and thus giving the international green light to war.

Q. – In other words, France wouldn’t need to use her veto?

THE PRESIDENT – In this scenario, that’s exactly right. In this scenario, France will, of course, take a stand. There will be nations who will vote “no”, including France. Some will abstain. But, in any case, there won’t, in this scenario, be a majority. So there won’t be a veto problem.

This quotation is taken from Brian Barder’s Ephems web site, where he has posted a large collection of information relevant to the invasion of Iraq. Notice that Chirac talks of ‘this evening’ and ‘this scenario’. He says nothing about how France would vote, or whether or not it might use its veto, in any future situation.

The Church in Spain

The Catholic Church is still influential in Spain; of that there is no doubt. But the announcement the other day that of 23,286 parishes only 10,615 have full-time priests, and that the average age of a priest in Spain is 63, must raise questions about how things will develop here. An average parish population of about 2,000 souls suggests that some are very small indeed, probably in declining rural areas, but even so there is a big problem.

Hangman

ERC is the Catalan separatist party, the Left Republicans. Its youth wing JERC has posted this charming and subtle picture of King Juan Carlos on its web site as one of the seven possible options for its Christmas card. El joc del penjat is the Catalan for the children's game called Hangman in English.

 

Why do left-wing atheist Republicans have Christmas cards – best not ask.

That awful moment when you realise that you have made a very big mistake

Last night 950 Spanish Guardia Civil and police arrested 34 members of Segi, ETA’s youth wing; one other was arrested in France. This young man is one of them. He will very possibly spend a good few years in jail. Perhaps he now wishes that he had chosen to do something else with his life.

The police also found bomb-making equipment, internal ETA documents, cash and notes on possible targets for killing.

BBC report

BBC and terrorism

I have mentioned more than once (here for example) that the BBC is reluctant to call ETA killers terrorists, so it is with interest that I see this from the BBC. Perhaps it’s a mistake. After all, the headline calls him a separatist, the BBC’s usual term for ETA murderers, and this description is repeated later in the article (see screenshot).

'No threat' to Basque separatist

A convicted Basque terrorist is trying to "blackmail" a Belfast court by warning he faces near-certain death if returned to Spain, it has been claimed.

Curiously, De Juana Chaos is the man on whose behalf the BBC posted an ETA propaganda poster.

The Guardian and Spanish practices

Giles Tremlett reports in the Guardian on the education policy of the government of Extremadura:

The region's socialist government has launched a €14,000 (£12,600) campaign aimed at teaching young people how best to set about "sexual self-exploration and the discovery of self-pleasure" – or to put it less delicately: masturbation.

It’s a wonderful story – so who cares a jot that it’s untrue? 

Graeme of South of Watford has the full story.

Land of freedom

The Guardian:

The government's controversial regime of using virtual house arrest against terror suspects has suffered a fresh blow with a decision by the home secretary, Alan Johnson, to revoke a second control order rather than disclose the "secret" evidence in the case.

Johnson has written to the lawyers of a former imam to the Iraqi community in Britain …  telling them that he made the decision after considering the impact of a law lords ruling in June that he was obliged to disclose the detail of the allegations against him … There are now 14 remaining control orders in force and the lawyers involved are expected to challenge the home secretary to disclose the "secret" evidence involved in each of them on a case-by-case basis over the next few months.

 

The Spanish Constitution:

Section 17
1. Every person has the right to freedom and security. No one may be deprived of his or her freedom except in accordance with the provisions of this section and in the cases and in the manner provided for by the law.

2. Preventive arrest may last no longer than the time strictly necessary in order to carry out the investigations aimed at establishing the events; in any case the person arrested must be set free or handed over to the judicial authorities within a maximum period of seventy two hours.

3. Every person arrested must be informed immediately, and in a way understandable to him or her, of his or her rights and of the grounds for his or her arrest, and may not be compelled to make a statement. The arrested person shall be guaranteed the assistance of a lawyer during police and judicial proceedings, under the terms to be laid down by the law.

4. An habeas corpus procedure shall be provided for by law in order to ensure the immediate handing over to the judicial authorities of any person illegally arrested. Likewise, the maximum period of provisional imprisonment shall be determined by law.

My emphasis in both cases.

Green Spain

Spain is known as a desert where the rain never falls on the plain and where unemployment is massive.

There is a certain amount of truth in that. The meseta is dry, though the coastal areas are not. Employment is high at present, but in a country that relies so heavily on tourism employment always has a strongly seasonal element. Tourist arrivals have been down 8% this summer and the property bubble has famously burst, leaving the building industry and the property market in chaos.

So what is Spain doing? Apart from planting lots of trees, we find an answer in The Washington Post (free subscription barrier):

… Green jobs have become a mantra for many governments, including that of the United States. But few nations are better positioned -- or motivated -- to fuse [sic] the fight against recession and global warming than Spain. The country is already a leader in renewable fuels through $30 billion in public support and has been cited by the Obama administration as a model for the creation of a green economy. Spain generates about 24.5 percent of its electricity through renewable sources, compared with about 7 percent in the United States.

But with unemployment at 18.5 percent, the government here is preparing to take a dramatic next step. Through a combination of new laws and public and private investment, officials estimate that they can generate a million green jobs over the next decade…

Spain's ambitious effort is being closely watched by the Obama administration and other governments forming their own green-job plans…

Somehow I doubt whether Her Majesty’s Government is among those that think they have anything to learn from Spain.

The 11 megawatt PS10 solar power tower [near Seville] produces electricity from the sun using 624 large movable mirrors called heliostats. (Wikipedia)