There’s been a bit of a dialogue recently in the Comments section about the flak that Ferrovial is getting in the UK around the management of Heathrow and other airports by its subsidiary BAA. Some Spanish readers have taken great exception to this on the grounds that, well, Ferrovial is Spanish and all the critics are, well, British. And so arrogant, chauvinistic, imperialistic, etc. One reader took the view that, in the capitalist world, a company is free to fleece its customers to its heart’s content unless it’s acting illegally. At first, I assumed he was the CEO of Telefonica but then realised the reference to staying within legal bounds made this unlikely. Anyway, Ferrovial is owned by Rafael del Pino, who is what the Spanish call a King of Brick and, thus, one of the world’s richest men. According to this report in, of course, a British paper, he has a managerial style which might explain a thing or two - When Sir Nigel Rudd, the incoming BAA chairman, gets back from his holiday, he may face a sterner test than he thinks in trying to inject some sanity into the beleaguered airports operator. His biggest challenge will be to deal with the influence that the patriarchal Rafael del Pino has over the company. Apparently del Pino's reach is so all-pervasive that his senior Spanish executives answer their mobile phones to him at any time, even when they are in the middle of speaking at high-level management meetings. And each time they see the head honcho's number appear on their phones, they involuntarily jump to their feet and talk to him standing to attention. Challenging that level of thought control could make tackling the appalling chaos at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted look like child's play. Truth to tell, del Pino’s autocratic managerial style is not that uncommon in Spain and I expect something very similar goes on in, say, Santander/Abbey, which is owned by Emilio Botín and run by his daughter. And I guess the style is just as effective in getting your own way in Anglo Saxon economies, if possibly less productive in the longer run. Especially when you get bigger.

And now for something even more controversial . . . today sees the inauguration of 23 of Galicia’s ‘galescolas’, or public nursery schools in which the kids will only be spoken to and taught in Gallego. The right-of-centre El Mundo is up in arms about these and went to town on them in an editorial in yesterday’s edition entitled ‘The Delirium of the ‘Galescolas’. Here’s what it said:-
Tomorrow sees the start of the ‘galescolas’, the new net of public nursery schools set up by the socialist and nationalist parties. Their oddness will not be confined to matters linguistic but will also extend – though this seems wrong for children 0 to 3 – to matters ideological. On 18 August, the [nationalist] VP of the Galician government confirmed that children will leave these new centres knowing both the words and the tune of the Galician national anthem, since ‘It is a language which stirs awareness of Galicia as a nation’. However, in fact the verses of the anthem call for resistance to the ‘invader’ and says those who don’t understand Gallego are ‘cruel’ or ‘stupid’. This objective displays the delirium of the Galician Nationalist Party and its aim of indoctrinating children in hatred of the Spanish when they hardly know how to walk. Although the socialist party reacted only tepidly and played down this notion, up to now no nationalist has retracted it and it is they who control the centres. With or without the anthem, the plan for the ‘galescolas’ is emblematic of the sort of linguistic immersion, inspired by that of Catalunia and the Basque Country, which has always been wanted by the Galician Nationalist Party and is now being put in place by the socialists. Last July, these parties passed a linguistic law which established that in primary and secondary schools a minimum of 50% of classes must be in Gallego – though no maximum was stated – and that it will be compulsory to teach the core subjects in the regional language, leaving only the ‘soft’ subjects – Gym, Art and Music – to be taught in Spanish. The paradox will be that, in contrast to the Basque Country, there won’t be 3 models to chose from; so this system of linguistic immersion will be obligatory for all pupils. Clearly, the plan doesn’t correspond with the reality of linguistic bilinguism in Galicia or with the electoral program of the socialist party. As a result, there has been a reaction among citizens which has seen, in less than a month and a half, the collection of 20,438 signatures in defence of the right to chose.

I would like to give the left-of-centre El Pais’s view on this development but it didn’t mention it yesterday. Even though it has a Galicia supplement every day. Perhaps today.

On to lighter matters . . . It was impressive to see that, by midday Sunday, a miracle of municipal management had relieved the old quarter of the immense amount of rubbish generated not only by the Medieval Fair of Friday and Saturday but also by the traditional botellón booze-binge of these two nights. However, I was saddened to read there had indeed been a serious flame-related accident during the festivities. However, this wasn’t the result of the fire-breathing dragon getting too close to the crowd; it happened at 4.30 Sunday morning when one of a group of drinkers thought it would be a good idea to chuck his glass of liquor on a flaming bowl of aguadiente. I guess it was the equivalent of a barbeque flameback.

Spain’s major newspapers have embarked on an English Language War. El Pais goes with material from the BBC, whereas El Mundo opts for a course given by a British-looking Texan called Professor Vaughan. I assume that, in the latter case, the first lesson will centre [or center] on explaining that the good professor’s name is not pronounced ba-oo-khan.

Finally, here’s a surprise, The Taxpayers’ Alliance in the UK says the government there is raising billions of pounds more in green taxes than it needs to remove the UK's carbon footprint. Who’d have thought it? I blame it on global warming.