The best picture of the year so far. Donald Trump looks like he's collecting his prize at the Miss Universe contest, which he owns.
thebadrash.com is off to Primavera Sound this weekend, meaning I probably won't be updating much. Rock steady.
Yesterday afternoon, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya mayoral candidate, Jordi Portabella, pulled out of talks to convene a tripartite city government in Barcelona. His move has shocked PSC officials and, apparently, even his own party leadership.
As El Periódico points out, ERC lost 43,000 votes in the recent local elections. This disaster called for one of two moves from Portabella; his immediate resignation or some sort of major strategy change. Evidently, he considers himself above resignation.
It's evident that while outwardly backing Portabella, the ERC leadership don't agree with this tactic. To put ERC back in to opposition after a period of shared government is not part of party strategy… but with some voters dissatisfied with the modern party (they've done much to drop their nasty, racist image of previous decades) voting for PxC and other more extremist groups, Esquerra has lost its way. Portabella's move will likely precipitate a major internal crisis for the party.
This guy is my ultimate hero. He briefly replaces Father Jack, who's sent off to 'Jurassic Park' after he catches the hairy hands disease. Father Stack is thoroughly obnoxious and does stuff like waking people up at 3 am by playing incredibly loud jungle while simultaneously drilling holes in the wall.
Example quote:
Father Stack: I want to listen to some music.
Ted : Oh, that's fine, you go ahead there.
Father Stack: I wasn't asking for permission.
Video after the jump…
The PSC (Socialists) have held on to Barcelona. They also look to have taken Cerdanyola, against my prediction (although both they and the Green/United Left increased their standing by two councillors). In Cerdanyola, CiU and ERC lost seats. In Catalonia, they remain in positions 2 and 3 respectively.
The Socialists also took Tarragona, to confirm themselves as the number one party in each of the Catalan capitals.
Across Spain, the PSOE look to have won more votes than the PP the PP gained more votes than the PSOE, but the margin wasn't huge. The PP increased their standing in Madrid and Valencia. They seem, however, to have lost their majorities in Navarra and the Baleares.
The political parties wrap up their local election campaigns this evening, ahead of Sunday's vote and tomorrow's 'day of reflection' (aka 'day of peace'). Here in Cerdanyola, I don't see much sign that the Green Left coalition will lose the council. Given the growth and gentrification of the place over the last few years, it's not surprising that pretty much every party (but particularly CiU) are desperate to get their hands on power here.
The award for saddest campaign goes to the PP who are offering such an odd mixture of vague promises, they almost succeed in making one feel sorry for them. The PP are seriously unpopular in this working and lower-middle class town… the gentrification I mentioned before will only assist CiU. The PP's main policy seems to be appealing to old people to vote for them… nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but also not a sign of a party with any lasting appeal.
The biggest story here is probably the implosion of the 'Ciutadans-Partit de los Ciudadanos' – which is a sort of PP front group only with nice graphics. Two of the founders of the local party were sacked recently after they complained that 'maverick' party leader, Albert Rivera, imposed a party list on the group, going against the party's internal democratic rules. Big surprise! The C's have been tearing themselves apart over this sort of thing across Catalonia and it looks that they'll turn out to be nothing more than a little flash in the pan. The town is now covered with pamphlets from the sacked members decrying Ciutadans' "Corrupt List". Perhaps the extra publicity will earn them a few more votes.
Frankly, I'm not surprised at all. The C's have never really had any policy to speak of, beyond not supporting Catalan nationalism. Really, if you're against that, you could vote PP or PSC.
Consol Pla, CiU candidate, is apparently 'Very nice – and not really a CiU person'. She allegedly refused to allow party big-wigs to come to Cerdanyola, as she was worried they'd ruin her campaign. Probably good thinking. While Artur Mas may be a bit of a heartthrob among the aging female shopkeeper sector, he's a bit of a disaster when he opens is mouth.
As I said before, I expect Antoni Morral, the incumbent, to win. He's presided over a very successful time for the town and if that doesn't win you votes, I don't know what does. Of course, there's always a chance that the PSC will sneak back in… but I guess we'll have to wait until Sunday night before we know for sure.
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Gemma and I are spending the weekend in Tarragona. On Saturday, we're eating at El Fortà de la Reina, a wonderful restaurant in a stunning location, where we had our wedding reception. It's under threat of closure because it's too close to the coast. Hopefully, it wont be the last time we go.
This is awful. Yet another example of the destructive power of religion, especially when it's mixed with ethnic nationalism and brutal chauvinism.
Click to view (warning: this is very shocking stuff)
Incidentally, exactly whose 'honour' is saved by this sort of behaviour. I was brought up to believe in acting honourably towards women… but that never meant murdering them with rocks. I'm also not sure how a woman can do anything to 'dishonour' a kinship group which would murder her with rocks for no reason.
Could a supporter of 'honour killings' please explain this?
Two stories over the last couple of days have brought 'Orwellian' policing tactics in the UK into sharper focus. On Monday, Ian Readhead, Hampshire's deputy chief constable, warned that the inexorable spread of CCTV cameras into even rural areas risks turning Britain into an 'Orwellian' society. He focused on small towns like Stockbridge, where the town council recently spent €15000 on security camera systems, despite not having much of a problem with crime. Readhead also criticised the storing of DNA and fingerprint data indefinitely, asking whether it's right that someone who's picked up by the police for a minor offence at age fifteen, will still have his data on computer fifteen years later.
Sounds to me like he's onto something. Britain, with more than 4 million security cameras, has more CCTV per person than any other country in the world. Why is it being installed, anyway? Is it more to do with peace of mind for the paranoid than it is fighting crime?
The other story comes from Merseyside, where police have just launched their new drone spy helicopter, covered with cameras, designed to "monitor criminals and anti-social behaviour". According to Simon Byrne, Merseyside's assistant chief constable:
Our drone will be used primarily to support our antisocial behaviour taskforce, Axis, in gathering all-important evidence to put offenders before the court
You've got to love a police operation with the name 'Axis'. I wish they could have called it 'Hydra' or 'Thought Police' – but obviously those projects are yet to come.
I reckon that the key element here is cost. The police now operate on a target system which encourages them to make as many arrests as possible. This makes sense, until we consider that it is invariably cheaper to arrest someone for a minor offence than it is to investigate and arrest someone for a more serious offence. The aim of the drone is not so much increased security as cheaper policing… and it's New Labour we have to blame for this sort of development.
A few months ago I set up a new website, in a forum format, which I hoped would act as a sort of chat centre for English speaking expats in Barcelona. Within days, I could see that it was a failure… but I left it online until today. The fact that it didn't take off isn't that surprising, considering various factors:
1. I couldn't put much time into it because home time shouldn't be work time (my real job is on a website)
2. There were technical problems with the site which I never satisfactorily solved
3. I failed to promote talkBCN in any real way. Other people did and I'm very grateful to them.
Sorry to those who helped me out. talkBCN may well be back in the future, but I accept that it was something that I wasn't willing to put enough effort into.
As my boss said the other day, "Shit happens".
SHOCK EXCLUSIVE: Gordon Brown is now officially Prime Minister Elect (or rather, In Waiting), after the left wing or Labour failed to nominate any candidates to challenge him.
Brown will probably be a pretty good PM. He's fiercely intelligent, tough, sensible and policy oriented. Having him in office should help Labour swing back out of the apathy they've been suffering from for two years while they've waited for this change to happen. He's not as good as having a socialist in power, but he's a hundred times better than a Cameron or a Campbell, neither of whom seem to have an ounce of conviction. Though there are rumours that Dave could have been convicted for an ounce… but that's a separate issue.
Those who criticise Brown for being a 'dour Scot' are just repeating the same stupid myth that people used to say about John Smith: it's a dismissive claim which has its roots in a mixture of 'personality politics' and jingoism.
Those who complain that Brown hasn't been elected to the job, have a point. However, they also have amnesia as anybody who voted Labour in the last election was 100% aware that Blair would step down during this Parliament.
After more than a year of Conservative non-policy announcements, I'm seriously optimistic for Labour again.
To follow my post about expats getting involved in Spanish elections, here's a list of Spain's political parties. The list is borrowed, with permission, from Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources page on the Keele University website. The two main Spanish parties are the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and the Popular Party (PP). In Catalonia, other major parties are Convergence and Union (CiU) (a collection of various socially-conservative political groups, each separately represented below), Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), and Greens/United Left/European Alternative (ICV-EUiA).
Curiously, Progreso Y Orden isn't on the list. Which suggests that there are other mentalist-fringe groups around. Are there any other omissions? Which is your favourite? Click the link below to see the list. Continue reading
The BBC's got a story on how some expats living in Spain are getting involved in Spanish municipal elections. All EU citizens are eligible to vote – or stand – in council elections. I mentioned last week that I'll be voting for the Green/United Left (aka the communists) as they've done a lot to improve both the look and the feel of Cerdanyola.
Much further south (the traditional home of the British expat), people haven't got so much to be grateful for. Successive administrations from the PP, the PSOE and other parties have been criticised for large-scale corruption, especially in their dealings with land and building permissions.
So some Spaniards and ex-pats have united in a party called 'Progreso y Orden' (Progress and Order). The party's platform is to do away with those problems that ruin life in la Vega Baja of Alicante. Problems like corrupt politicians, excessive land speculation, 'delinquency', drug use and… immigration! Unusual as it may seem, non-Spaniards are involved with a Spanish party which is opposed to immigration. As you might have guessed, I smelled a rat. A big fat racist rat.
So I had a look at Progress and Order's homepage (web geek's observation: probably the worst designed website in existence: I had to use Firefox's 'Page info' dialogue to navigate the site!) (Updated: here's the link to their homepage!). When I eventually managed to find the Spanish language 'About us' page, I found out a lot about the founder of Order and Progress. He's called Fernando Gadea. He's an ex Guardia Civil (not that there's anything wrong with that), an 'intelligence expert', an expert in 'electronic security systems', a former Spanish legionnaire and a former municipal official. He spends quite a lot of time talking about himself (even more than I do in my 'About' section), and seems to be your typical ex-military, ex-Guardia, private detective sort of nice chap.
Unfortunately, he forgot to mention one thing on his new party's site which might be of interest to residents of San Fulgenio, as well as the BBC journalists who missed this little tidbit. When he was a 'concejal' (town councillor), he was there as a listed member of España 2000. Those of you who haven't heard of España 2000 can check out its Wikipedia entry which is both accurate and amusing. Other Nazis in Spain consider them to be something of a joke. A splinter-group of theirs is apparently based in Catalonia, and puts up stickers in Cerdanyola which call for the repatriation of 'non-Spaniards' (which we can assume doesn't include wealthy Brits or Germans: the photos all seem to be of Muslims).
So there you go… not exactly surprising that a party called Order and Progress is a bit dodgy. The BBC should probably have done some better research for their story, as it would have been interesting to read a 'Brits and Germans in far-right Spain pact' headline, but never mind. It's also worth noting that not all Brits in Spain are voting for the local equivalent of the BNP. While many expats see fit to spew invective about the 'Asians' back home, there are plenty of us who didn't leave home because we were sick of seeing brown faces everywhere.
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As has been reported on other blogs, British involvement in Spanish politics doesn't stop at San Fulgencio. Bernie Ecclestone, short-arsed owner of the Formula One franchise, has just announced that there'll be a new Grand Prix in Valencia ciutat. But only if the electorate remember to vote PP in the regional elections, as the local party boss is a chum. What a revolting little episode. I'm boycotting it. But good luck, Lewis, anyway!
The Guardian has completely redesigned its site, going for a more open, 1000px look. It's quite good but I expect they'll be improving it over the next few weeks.
Update: as has been pointed out, while the Guardian site is being completely redesigned, today just saw the launch of the latest phase of this work. I think it looks really good… but lots of commenters at the news blog don't like it. Then again, the Guardian could announce €1 million for every reader, no strings attached, and most of the comments would be slagging them off. And yet, they keep coming back… a recipe for success, clearly.
Biggest story: Tony Blair will announce he's stepping down tomorrow at noon as Labour party leader. Cue 7-8 weeks of leadership-non-competition, followed by election by Labour MPs of the new PM, Gordon Brown. Blair should be remembered as: not a bad PM but not a good man either. He's done some good for the country but a lot of harm to British politics.
Catalonia: Generalitat delegate in Madrid sacked for saying ex-Pres Maragall is "physically and psychologically unwell". This is because Maragall basically admitted that the new Estatut is toothless and that the whole enterprise was a bit of a waste of time, if it didn't happen at the same time as Spanish Constitutional amendments. ERC claim he's now agreeing with them… and possibly he is, but they always say stuff like that.
USA: Romney, a candidate for the Republican party nomination said that he couldn't think of anything he dislikes about America. Fair enough… it's a tough question, I guess, for a man applying for the job of leading a nation. Maybe he doesn't like the 'bigotry' people who are suggesting that a Mormon might not be the best candidate for US President? If you ask me, anyone who believes in any kind of hocus pocus makes a bad candidate… but the people will have their way.
Oh yeah, while I'm here: the least surprising result of the year looks confirmed. The nasty Sarkozy is the new French President. There was never much competition: Royal would have made an awful President too.
For those of you who haven't had the good luck to visit Cerdanyola del Vallès, it's a town of around 60,000 and forms a part of Barcelona's 'metropolitan zone'. I don't talk about it that much because not much happens here.
Cerdanyola's had a complete face lift over the last three or four years. The town hall has put a lot of effort into re-vamping the town centre and reestablishing the 'zona Sant Ramon' (where we live) as the natural heart of the town. A byproduct of this work is that property prices have shot up. Not unusual, you may think, given that we're talking about Spain (and especially Barcelona province), where prices are always on the rise. But Cerdanyola's turned out be quite the good investment.
And all this time, one party's been in power at the Ajuntament. Although the planning for today's Cerdanyola happened under Cristina Real's PSC mayorship, it's the current ICV-EUiA administration which has managed and overseen the development work. It might sound odd to be thanking the Communists for personal gain (or perhaps not, depending how you look at it!), but that's what I'm going to do when I vote in this year's council elections.
Incidentally, thebadrash.com has been quiet for a while because of my work. I hope that I'll be able to put some more time into the site.