One of Spain's greatest and oldest cultural traditions is in danger of dying out completely because of EU legislation. The European laws, designed to protect citizens' 'liberty' were introduced without a moment's thought about the impact they'd have on this crucial feature of Spanish culture. I am, of course, talking about Spain's true Fiesta Nacional.
Ever since the 1st century BCE, Spaniards have enjoyed the spectacle of gladiators locked in combat, fighting until one (or ideally all) of them dies a heroic death. Indeed, recent evidence proves that a Spaniard was himself the very bravest of Rome's gladiators - he killed a nasty emperor and temporarily saved the empire from something.
But all this is now under threat - because of a bunch of killjoy lawmakers obsessed by destroying Spanish culture. EU legislators introduced so called 'human rights legislation' many years ago, but it is these laws that might now be used to stop us from enjoying one of the great cultural pursuits this country has to offer. And the sad thing is that this could all be prevented if the do-gooders understood that live gladiator fights aren't really about men killing each other for the enjoyment of a crowd of baying monsters. You see, gladiator fighting is about so much more than that.
For those who haven't yet had a chance to enjoy the spectacle of a gladiator fight, I'm going to explain a little of what makes it so special. First of all, there's the amphitheatre it's held in: these grand stadia have their roots in Roman architecture and are designed so that wherever a viewer sits, they can see the action. Amphitheatres used to litter Spanish cities like discarded sunflower seed shells, but now only a few remain. It's worth remembering that Barcelona had loads of the places, while Madrid (which didn't exist when the Romans occupied Spain) had none. Why that's worth remembering, I'm not sure... but remember it, OK?
Next up is the sense of ceremony that surrounds the whole event. The gladiators are held in a sort of pen just before they're released into the arena, and when they appear in their beautiful costumes, you can almost believe you're watching ballet rather than deadly combat. Actually, I'm not sure about that: ballet exists as a way of interpreting violence, passion and the human experience by way of dance. Gladiatorial combat interprets violence by way of goading men to murder each other. But it's still quite full of movement, I suppose.
The deaths, while certainly not the focus of gladiatorial combat, are really cool! Some of the best gladiators can make a rival's suffering defence last for up to an hour, drawing the process of killing their opponent (which is not the main focus of the fight at all) into what seems like a true fight between equals. Of course, the truth is that the professional gladiators always win because their competitors, dumb and useless beasts that they are, are often drugged, underfed and tortured prior to the main event. Well, you wouldn't want the star to die, would you?! Anyway, the death isn't even the most important bit.
The most important bit is... everything. Of course, everything is geared in a way that it climaxes in the death... but that doesn't mean it's just about killing. You can buy an ice cream from the little man who sells them... and if he stands in the way of a good killing, just tell him to get the fuck out of the way. Because the death, while not the most important bit, is a moment so wholly Spanish - so ancient and lovely - that you really shouldn't miss it. Yes, the death is not the most important part of the gladiator fight. It's the killing.
Oh and, before you bring it up, no we really don't see the killing as cruel. I mean, most of these guys are losers and criminals anyway. Sure, they're doomed to die terrified but imagine how they'd feel if they caught lung cancer from second hand smoke. That'd be a much worse way to go... so you see, they're really the lucky ones.
Can we really afford to lose this ancient, lovely and cool spectacle? To me, it seems self-evident that gladiatorial combat is above silly modern notions like 'humanity' or 'law'. Clearly, amendments should be made to this legislation to ensure that future generations can enjoy the killing with their own eyes? As has been pointed out, these fights exist: it's up to the opponents of gladiators killing each other to prove why it's suddenly wrong.
So, dear reader, I call on you to join with me in defence of this noble pursuit. Together, we can preserve barbarity in these perplexing times.
This new poll is borne from a post I read today at Jeremy Holland's From Barcelona blog. But it's also, I must admit, something I've probably grumbled about before.
Among the people writing about Catalonia in English, there seems to be little consensus as to what we call the place. I always use the English form 'Catalonia', Jeremy uses the Catalan 'Catalunya', Graeme at South of Watford uses the Spanish 'Cataluña'... doubtless someone out there (Trevor?) uses the archaic 'Cathalunya'.
My reasons for using the English form are fairly simple: firstly, consistency. In my guise as a sort-of-managing-editor, I spend plenty of time making sure that everyone writing for our website writes as consistently as possible. That is, we have a house style which should always be applied. So we write in American English, generally try to avoid jargon - sometimes a difficult task when writing about technology, and use the same naming conventions when referring to organisations, places or people. The idea of consistency in such writing is that a reader should never have to trouble themselves as to why we're suddenly using a different word to describe something. I use 'Catalonia', 'Spain' and 'Seville' because I'm attempting to maintain some sense of consistency in the way I write (though a quick search shows that I have used 'Sevilla' a few times!). I feel that the majority of news organisations and works of reference would agree with me when I say that as a rule, toponyms ought to be written in the same language as the rest of the article.
The second reason I prefer the English form of the name is that when I'm writing in English, I'll use an English word wherever possible. This has nothing to do with any kind of linguistic conservatism: though my 'trade' involves the constant use of English, I'm the first to proclaim that one of its great strengths is the lack of an Academy that protects it from foreign influence. I do, however, broadly agree with George Orwell's Six Rules for clear political writing. As far as I'm concerned, 'Catalonia' is a perfectly decent English word that has been in use for hundreds of years and, like 'Spain' does the job admirably well. So why opt for the Catalan version? To me, it sounds like an affectation, particularly when this exception - this break in consistency - is applied only to 'Catalunya', and not to 'Spain'.
Jeremy makes a couple of points when explaining why he prefers the Catalan form. He's right to say that using 'Catalunya' hardly makes a piece of writing harder to understand. Pretty much anyone reading either of our blogs would be perfectly comfortable with the Catalan toponym. He also talks about the fluidity of English and its willingness to absorb words from other languages and cultures - something I mentioned above. But he does rather cloud the issue I thought we were talking about: whether there's a correct way to name the place in English. He also introduces something of a red herring: street names and people's names. To me, calling Joan, 'John' is incorrect... and calling the Plaça de Catalunya 'Catalonia Square' just aren't the same thing as calling Catalunya, Catalonia.
But I may be wrong. Jeremy has promised that he'll change and start using the English form if that's what most Catalans say they prefer. I'm not going to change the naming conventions I use, no matter what you say. But I am interested in hearing what you think. So the question is: when writing in English, what's the correct way to refer to the place? Catalonia, Catalunya, Cataluña, or something else entirely? As always, vote early & often to the right >>>
This weekend, 700,000 people in Catalonia are eligible to vote in the region's first ever referendum on independence from Spain.
Or at least, that's how the BBC has it. Tomorrow will be interesting because the turnout will give everyone an idea of how far CUP, ERC and even CiU can run with independence as a vote winner. But Barcelona and the more 'Spanish' suburbs (like Cerdanyola) aren't taking part. As I've pointed out elsewhere: we all know that if it were up to Vic, Catalonia would have declared independence years ago.
I'll be watching tomorrow's results with some interest. But I'd rather they had a proper vote, and we could all be done with it.
So in a month, Christmas will already be gone and New Year's Eve will be looming over us. Tonight we have El Clásico, it's getting dark early and it's pretty cool outside. In other words, today's the perfect day for my spicy Mediterranean lamb stew: a warming, filling classic that's perfect for late autumn. I'm no Keith Floyd but I'd bet anyone who,likes lamb and spicy stuff would love this. It's a bit of a mishmash of different bits and bobs. It's probably not as good as a proper caldereta Manchega (a dish so good, it seems to be banned from restaurants), but paired with a bit of mash or even half a baguette, it's a spicy-yet-rural heart warmer.
What you need for the recipe:
500g lamb neck (this recipe is perfect for the stronger-tasting lamb we normally get here in Spain. Bulkier, milder Devon or Welsh lamb is delicious but better for roasting, in my opinion)
1 onion
1 large red pepper
Some white wine (1/2 a bottle - I used cheap 2005 Raimat Chardonnay)
The best golden-coloured olive oil you can afford (I use Veá extra virgin olive oil from Lleida. It's utterly exquisite.)
400g cooked chickpeas (in a jar, normally)
2 cans of chopped tomatoes
2 small red chili peppers
Salt, pepper and bay leaves
About 2 hours
How to make it:
Chop up the meat, onion, pepper and chilli. Heat a generous portion of delicious golden olive oil in a decent, heavy-based saucepan or casserole and throw the lamb into it. Seal the lamb and then take it out of the pan with one of those spoons with holes in. Put it in a bowl so you don't lose precious juices.
You may need to add a drop more of your terrifyingly expensive oil here. That's fine: never be afraid of using a bit more oil. Now throw the onion in, fry it then after a few minutes chuck the pepper and chili in too. Fry them all together for a few minutes. Season them a bit too. Then put the lamb (and any juices) back, adding two bay leaves and a splash of Worcestershire sauce. Stir it up.
Next, pour in about 1/3 to 1/2 of a bottle of white wine. Keep the heat high. Reduce the wine for about 15 minutes or so. Pour yourself and your partner/friends a glass at the same time: you must use wine you'd be able to drink normally, so here's your chance to prove that you're not cheating.
Now you add the canned chopped tomatoes (you could use fresh: I do for bolognese but Can Rot-Xardá brand tomatoes are v. good - just stay away from supermarket own-brand crap). Give it all a good stir, cook on a high heat for about 5 min and then reduce heat, cover and simmer for approx 1 hour. Stir it from time to time if you like.
After 1 hour, add the drained (but not washed) chickpeas. Cook for another hour (you could reduce this to 30 min without losing too much quality).
Serve with aforementioned mashed potatoes, parsnips, peas, baguette, rice or whatever you have lying around that needs finishing. A decent red wine will accompany it well. Força Barça!
This poll was inspired by a brief conversation I had with a couple of other expats over at another website. The discussion started as a debate about January 6th being made a 'new public holiday' - which made little sense to me as Magic Kings' day already was a holiday.
A generally held view seems to be that the last thing Spain needs is more public holidays, but I couldn't quite establish whether the people who were espousing this POV were themselves employed in Spain, or whether they simply wanted to be able to go shopping whenever they wanted and sod the workers.
So what do you think? Do you work in Spain? How does your company treat you? Has Spain caught up with the UK in terms of worker exploitation modern labour practices? Is Spain a good place to work? As usual, you can select one answer from the list on the right >>> but it's your comments that I'm most interested in.
Franco's Little Helper* over at Kalebeul has an amusingly perverse analysis of how the two major political parties in Spain account for most of the local corruption investigations here. The great thing about proposing a new statistical analysis is that feeling of deciding the size of the goal. And where it will be placed.
*I'm sure Trevor won't mind me calling him that, given that he's an avowed supporter of the ultra-nationalist UPyD.
I'll be honest: except for Marxist theories about capital and exploitation, I generally eschew any discussion that covers banking and that huge, murky industry known as 'finance'. This is a weakness on my part, I'm sure: a true socialist should be well versed in the movements of capital and cash. And much as I hold the FT to have some of the best reporting about Spain that you'll find in the British press, I find it difficult to understand what its market journalists are writing about.
So it was with some dread and awe that I read this blog post concerning the state of Spain's two largest banks, Santander and BBVA.
Apparently, it's pretty obvious that these two large banks are hiding massive liabilities which, if suddenly exposed, could cause the Spanish economy to collapse. Ignore the bullshit on that blog about 'racial pressures' and you still have a coherent case that decries the secrecy behind the apparent miracle of Spain's two massive banking success stories. And it makes sense: how could it be that these banks could be 100% safe when their American and British counterparts have received billions of Euros in bailouts?
I therefore invite finance-minded readers of this blog to tell me just how precarious our situation here really is. Are we fucked? And if so, to what degree?
I've been off work for a few days due to a wicked cold, which has left me thinking that probably the last thing I need to do is spend more time in front of my computer. But all the same, there are a couple of stories developing in Spain which deserve something of a recap.
Firstly, Gürtel. This case of corruption in the Valencian PP has moved on quite a lot since the courts ruled that it was unlawful to 'archive' the case. The PP itself has moved from dogged support for anyone and everyone connected with the party to a few pre-emptive and yet also belated amputations. Top of the list is Ricardo Costa, general secretary of the Valencian PP. President of the Comunitat Valenciana Fracisco Camps seems to have had his hand forced by PP head office and has announced that Costa will be out in a few days, all the while noting that he trusts and backs him implicitly. This is the first major head to roll in the PP but it likely won't be the last. Esperanza Aguirre, president of the Comunidad de Madrid has also forced the exclusion of three regional PP names, Alberto López Viejo, Alfonso Bosch Tejedor and Benjamín Martín Vasco - all linked with the Gürtel case.
Aguirre, suave political operator that she is, seems to be using this corruption case to make another push for control of the party. It remains to be seen how successful she is in this enterprise... but the idea of her leading the national party is slowly becoming a terrifyingly real possibility.
I wouldn't want to incur the wrath of Trevor by failing to mention the Palau de la Música Catalana case, here in Barcelona. This story, though nowhere near as politically damaging as the Gürtel case, is still serious enough to warrant a proper full-length blog post some time in the future. Essentially, the PMC case is a classic story of misuse of public funds (aka 'stealing a shit load of cash'). Boss of the Orfeó Catalan, Felix Millet, has more-or-less admitted that more than €3m of Palau funds went missing under his stewardship. He seems to have spent the money on himself (and his business partner Jordi Montull). It seems that among other things, the pair used some of the money to buy a building which they then sold on at a €1.5m profit.
The larger crime in the PMC case is that the bill for refurbishing the Palau a few years back was a massive €22m, even though it actually cost less than half that. So Millet seems to be willing to admit the 'smaller' crime in the hope that everyone will just forget about the other €13m that he nicked. Sadly, this could just happen: this case should have been in the courts years ago but for some reason only seems to have made it there now.
The political sides of this story are twofold: firstly, Millet is a big player in Barcelona's political-cultural axis. The position of head of the Orfeó/Palau is extremely prestigious and Millet also served on the board of FC Barcelona and was a recipient of the Generalitat's St Jordi cross. All that, and he seems to have donated about €500,000 to the Fundació Trías Fargas, a politico-cultural organisation which is effectively a part of the CDC, which itself is a constituent party in CiU.
The second controversy (and arguably by far the more important one) is that the courts in Barcelona received notice of presumed corruption, lots of €500 notes and various irregularities in the Palau, five years ago. It seems that they've done very little to prosecute the case since then, until now. Why? I suppose that would be the corruption.
It's the biggest political scandal in Spain for years. Numerous activists, officials, elected representatives and friends of the Partido Popular appear to be linked to a corruption case known as Gürtel. Centred on the PP in the Comunitat Valenciana, the case involves TV station managers, tailors, mayors and even the Valencian president, Francisco Camps. The accused are alleged to have taken and/or paid bribes in order to obtain public contracts for friendly companies. The most famous accusation is that Camps received €5,000 worth of suits as a gift, paid for by the company Orange Market, which ended up receiving various works contracts from the Valencian government. For background and also a lot more detail on the case, see South of Watford where Graeme has written plenty of posts about it.
Today's Público carries the story that PP leader Mariano Rajoy yesterday claimed that "Since 2004, no PP militante [activist/party member] has been convicted... and there are several, later let off by the government, from the PSOE who were charged". He was being questioned about the allegations that just won't go away. What Público finds unusual about Rajoy's rigorous defence of his party's integrity is his less than rigorous memory of the last five years. The newspaper points out that he's forgetting a minimum of 41 names - 41 PP activists who have been convicted of corruption or connected crimes. Now, I'm not very good with names either, so I understand his difficulty. I guess he'll thank Público later for jogging his memory.
Denial has been a mainstay of the PP's defence over the last few months. There's nothing unusual about that. Few political parties, faced with a devastating series of accusations, would react differently. Though it saddens me, this seems to have become one of the primary functions of a political party (though I shouldn't think it's a recent a development as all that). The second defence the PP has employed - and it's one that seems to be growing in popularity within the party - is that of political persecution. The PP has been quietly hinting from the rooftops that the Socialist government might be pursuing these corruption allegations for purely political reasons.
And it was in this spirit that PP publicity officer Esteban González Pons yesterday claimed that PP officials - even senior 'big beasts' like Rajoy and Aguirre - feel that they're "being spied on", that they have to "speak in codes on the phone" and that they "are certain" that there is a "black hand" which is politically influencing the courts and the police. It's an old trick, of course: if you can't win court cases fairly (and let's face it, unless one of the judges is a mate, they don't seem to be doing too well), you claim that the court is illegitimate. The PP are going a little further and seem to be saying that the entire justice system in Spain is illegitimate: González added this heart-rending appeal: "We've lived through a year during which the PP has been treated in a way that no other party has been treated since the Transition*. The government has persecuted us and has used the police and the courts to discredit our officials".
I guess that means that pretty much anything any PP militante does is OK. Because in a country where the courts are controlled politically, there can be no justice, and no crime, right?
____
*There was no 'Dictatorship' only 40 blank years and then a 'Transition'. Please amend your history books in accordance with this new decree.
Some people in Spain take their olives very seriously indeed. Like this chap from Gijón who received a dish of olives as a tapa to accompany the drink he'd ordered.
Upon trying the olives, he apparently 'went mental', complained about the olives, insulted the bar owner and proceeded to cause €500 worth of damage to the joint, throwing tables and chairs at passing vehicles, and smashing glasses and bottles.
Perfectly reasonable behaviour, you might well think. And I'd agree. What sort of disgraceful behaviour would make you totally flip out?
This post is related to my last, partly because it deals with my unpopular suggestions for dealing with common problems and partly because it involves mosquitoes ('the devil's moths' as I call them*).
Last night, with an indoors temperature of 30º and level of humidity that a fan would not shift, only direct, we elected to put the air conditioning on all night. It was a simple enough decision. Gemma turned to me and said "I think we should put the a..." but by then, I'd already closed all the windows and found the remote control for our air-con unit. We continued to watch Star Trek: First Contact with the pleasant, and pleasantly guilty, feeling of cool air caressing our youthful skins. (Well, Gemma has a youthful skin; despite being YEARS younger than her, mine has developed the reddish hue and blood-vesseled texture of a Plymouthian living in Spain**).
We slept right through the night with barely a stir, except for when it got too cold. One of the many advantages of sleeping with the air conditioning on is the fact that it's cooler when you want to sleep. Another advantage is that while you have the windows closed, all but the most ingenious mosquitoes are barred from entry to your boudoir. A disadvantage is that any cigarette smoke from the sitting room that wasn't expelled before the airlock was sealed becomes your 'smoke buddy' for the night (though this probably helps some people maintain a minimal nicotine blood level and for that reason it should probably be counted as another advantage). There are no other real disadvantages... unless everyone does the same. Because that would cause massive amounts of carbon to be released into the atmosphere, by way of electricity generation.
So I ask you, people of Barcelona, Toulouse, Marrakesh, Los Angeles, Singapore, Perth (Australia, obviously) and Mumbai: tonight, switch your air conditioning off. I won't, because I need it. But if you took some time to think about the future of the planet, you would.
__
* I refer to moths as 'the devil's butterflies' and mosquitoes as 'the devil's moths'.
** I was born in Freedom Fields
*** Obviously the title could have been "Dr. Coldlove, or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the aircon" but I decided against it
As mentioned in comments on my last post, there are reports today of numerous discrepancies in vote counting across Spain. Many of these incidents involve relatively small numbers of votes. But taken together, there are enough examples to plausibly suggest a widespread campaign against parties of the left, and those supporting independence for some of the 'autonomous regions' in Spain.
The story is being widely reported in the Catalan and Basque pro-independence media but has had few mentions in the mainstream Spanish press. The main party apparently affected by these discrepancies is Iniciativa Internacionalista (II-SP), which the Spanish government failed to have banned shortly before the elections. Zapatero's government accused II-SP of being a front organisation for ETA but failed to present evidence supporting this claim to the courts. II-SP received a vote of support from Arnaldo Otegi, spokesman for the outlawed Basque party Batasuna days before the elections. PP leader, Mariano Rajoy named them "the ETA list", while UPyD leader Rosa Díez declared that II-SP "is ETA". Apparently taking the lead from the USA's former right-wing government, neither party leader deigned to share their evidence with the voters they were appealing to.
The allegations fall into three groups: (a) the general feeling that the huge increase in blank and spoiled votes coincides a little too smoothly with II-SP and other parties faring more poorly than expected; (b) specific examples of localities reporting examples of discrepancies between town-hall and Spanish Ministry of Interior official figures; and (c) inexplicable displays of support for far-right parties in areas where they have never previously shown any support (normally at the expense of another party which did worse than expected).
It's too late for me to scurry around collecting examples of the three groups now, but the comments pages of this Avui story list several (at least one of which, the Vilafranca del Penedès one, seems to have been 'corrected', though by which side, I can't tell). Rab is sure that the way that these discrepancies affect specific parties suggests a fraud. I'll wait and see what appears tomorrow before I make the same judgement.
UPDATE
OK this is getting silly.
María Teresa Fernández de la Vega (Spanish VP)'s constituency recorded no votes for the PSOE
Europe of the Peoples-Greens have denounced irregularities
II-SP officials removed from recounts
Numerous towns appear to have returned erroneous numbers, major Spanish press outlets stay silent
For coverage of Spain as a whole, take a look at Graeme's posts here and here.
The results in Catalonia were a mixture of 'more of the same' and a disappointingly low turn out. The PSOE-PSC won again, albeit with a share of the vote that dropped from 42% to 35%. CiU were next, their share increasing 5 points to 22%. In fact, CiU were the only major party to see their actual number of votes rise in a worryingly low turnout of 37%. The PP gained a 1 point increase in their share of the vote, while ERC came fourth with a small drop in their share.
Interestingly, there were 72,681 spoiled or blank votes, which taken together constitute the 6th biggest constituency in the election, after IU-ICV who got 6% of the total vote. I'm told by a friend that there were also 6 times as many of these spoiled or blank votes than there were in the last EU parliament election.
Among the newer parties running this year, Iniciativa Internacionalista gained more votes than Rosa Diez's UPyD - but both failed to get 1% of the vote here. Veritas and Esquerra Anticapitalista received 0.36% and 0.26% respectively.
The older style fascist parties look to have made some gains but their numbers are still so low that it's hard to be too worried. The Falange Española de las JONS nearly tripled their number of votes... to a total of 1,575. The Falange Auténtica and Democracia Nacional also increased their number of votes, but the total number of people voting for far-right parties in Catalonia (no, I'm not including the PP), remains very low.
Table of results:
Full table available at El País.
Next Sunday, schools and other public buildings across Spain will open their doors as polling stations for the elections for the European Parliament. I always quite enjoy these days, mainly because I'm only allowed to vote in EU and local elections, despite the fact that I've lived here for seven years now. Anyway, I've spent some time thinking about who I'm going to vote for and I just can't make up my mind.
The first problem is the parties. I've talked before about how many political parties compete here for power, with some relatively small parties (like ERC in Catalonia) occasionally achieving power at a regional and even national level. The EU elections are made even more fun by the fact that they have whole new parties which all look very familiar but which are formally aligned to groupings in Brussels. With the major parties, this isn't too complicated: the PSOE/PSC (social-democratic) becomes the European Socialist Party and the PP (right-wing) becomes the European People's Party.
In Catalonia, CiU (Catalan Christian democratic) affiliate with the European Liberal Democrat and Refrom Party and ERC (Left-wing Catalan nationalist) form part of the European Free Alliance grouping. ICV-EUiA (Catalan green communist) splits into its two constituent parties, with ICV forming part of the European Greens party and EUiA affiliating with the Party of the European Left. Ciudadanos (Spanish nationalist) forms part of the Libertas group (which includes the French party Hunting, Fishing Nature, Tradition), while UPyD (Centrist Spanish nationalist) has no EU affiliation - though I believe that they are contending. There are various other small parties taking part (like II-SP, for example) but I can't find a complete list of all parties running candidates in Catalonia. You can find a detailed examination of several of the groupings' positions on particular topics here (in Spanish).
Here's my breakdown of why I don't want to vote for any of the larger parties:
PSOE-PSC - in government in Spain and Catalonia; I don't like the way this party operates, though I'd obviously choose them over the PP. Installing that oaf Montilla as president of the Generalitat and giving extra money to the Church are two good examples of the sort of judgements they will make when politicking.
PP - no one in their right mind would ever consider voting for this bunch of half-wits. Their disgraceful behaviour in power and in 'opposition', now culminaing in multiple high-level corruption cases and their perverse insistence on blocking attempts to provide decent funerals to the thousands left in mass graves by Franco's thugs.
CiU - too conservative for my liking, their pact with the PP happened years ago but still stinks. They also have this really grating sense of their own right to power (ok, most politicans do but CiU's are just too slimy).
ERC - I know more about this party's lack of management capabilities than I can safely write about. They had an opportunity to modernise or stay on the gravy train recently; they chose gravy.
ICV - Saura's abysmal handling of security in Catalonia (lots of Mossos to thump students, not so many to catch thieves) leaves me cold. Even if he is a generous lover.
EUiA - don't trust the communists. They pacted with the PP in Cerdanyola. I mean, can you imagine?
C's - not a chance. Same goes for UPyD and any other tinfoil groups out there.
So where does that leave me? Is there a decent Troskyite anti-bullfighting pro-referendum Priorat wine party?
...or apparently he did, anyway.
Yes, it seems that Spain's fascist dictator lost a testicle when he was injured during a battle in 1916. Which was, curiously, the same year that Hitler is alleged to have lost one of his.
Could it be that the loss of a testicle in 1916 made an under-skilled military man predestined to become a vile monster?
Perhaps they should dig him out of his slave-built mausoleum in the Valle de los Caídos to check. They could knock that awful place down while they're at it.
...a blog by Tom Clarke in Barcelona, Catalonia, covering politics, culture and society