Spanish Economic
Growth and Jobs: While President Rajoy naturally bangs on about a
2015 growth rate of more than 3%, the rest of Spain wonders when the benefit of this will trickle down to them. The unemployment rate is still
staggeringly high, at more than 22%, and - as I've pointed out in the
case of Pontevedra - the retail scene remains devastated. House sales
are on the increase but the hundreds of thousands(even millions) of empty
places around the country are now regarded as unsellable in
perpetuity. Hard luck for the banks, which own most of them. As one
commentator puts it: Millions of Spaniards are scraping by on
benefits, family handouts or working cash-in-hand as they wait for
the apparent economic rebound to create the million jobs the
government has promised for 2014-2015. Experts say these jobs are
being created but that many of them only last a few days. One
in every two eligible workers under the age of 25 is out of work.
Some are even saying Spain will
be back in recession next year. Gloomy times, then, despite the
superficially healthy state of Spanish society. The paseo must go on.
Catalan independence
plans: Don Quijones is not too impressed by the threats of the
Spanish financial community about the risks posed by this. Writing
from Barcelona, he provides this rationale for his scepticism and for
his overview that: These latest pronouncements from the masters of
Spain’s financial universe – like just about every new escalation
in Cataluña’s tit-for-tat conflict with Madrid – are all bluff.
But, as any two-bit poker player knows, bluffs can backfire. They can
quickly get out of control and can even have the opposite of their
desired effect. When all bets, he says, would be off.
The UK/EU
Relationship: Dr Richard North - a eurosceptic if ever there was
one - is a frustrated man. He's immensely knowledgeable on this issue
and is tired of reading that what he's told his blog readers months
or even years ago is suddenly being treated as 'news' in the UK
media. The latest example is that Cameron won't be able to agree any
sort of deal with Brussels before the 2017 deadline for a UK
referendum on staying or leaving. I sympathise for the man. Dr North,
I mean. Not David Cameron. He's made his bed and must now lie on it.
With the emphasis on lie, of course.
The Evening News:
There's a ding-dong taking place in the UK because the BBC plans to
put their News program out at the same time - 10pm - as the other
main channel, ITV. This situation would bemuse the Spanish. As far as
I can tell, there are 5 or 6 stations there all offering up to an
hour of news at 9pm. Meaning 5 or 6 very glamorous women, of course.
So, it's not all bad news
Finally . . .
Just before I left Spain for my UK jolly, I realised I'd once again
left my Panama hat somewhere. I may have done this in one of my
regular bars but, if not, I do hope it's not significant that all my
Spanish friends laughed when they saw I'd written my name and phone
number inside the thing. As did someone in the Prado years ago when I
asked if they had a lost-property office.
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