Starting off positively . . . There's excellent news about Spain's Iberian lynx population. Read it here.
But rapidly changing tack . . . Don Quijones tells us here that the infamous Spanish banking 'community' is still trying to cheat customers out of the money owed to them. With considerable help from the Spanish government, it hardly needs saying. Some of those vast illegal bribes that end up in party coffers and personal pockets must surely come from this large and 'successful' sector of the economy.
A propos . . . . British politicians are demanding that UK banks don't re-initiate charging for the use of ATMs (cajas). I can't see this sort of opposition ever appearing in Spain, where this restoration took place some time ago, without notice of any sort to anyone. Adding millions overnight to the bottom line of the banks' P&L accounts. That's the Spanish way, where companies clearly see themselves as having few obligations to their customers and where - as I've said recently - consumer protection is still relatively weak against the self-serving politico-commercial nexus.
All of which has reminded me of this citation from Lenox in last week's issue of Business Over Tapas:- "The Government would
veto any price reductions from the power companies, since the tax
income would fall”, says the Budget Secretary. “It’s
just incredible”, confirms the Vice-President of the
Fundación Renovables, “They penalise any kind of saving, direct or
indirect”.
To say the least,
opinions on Brexit differ, lying as the do on a spectrum from one
extreme to the other. Equally so in respect of Mrs May's speech of
last week. Here's The Guardian on the cold reception of the Spanish media and political world.
But – at the end of this post – Ambrose
Evans-Pritchard argues that realistic, common-sense attitudes are now being struck by Europe's business and political leaders. As he begins:- The Brexit drama has taken an unexpected twist. Britain's
strategy of full withdrawal from the single market and from the EU
institutions has been remarkably well-received. If this is true and if - to be blunt - the Germans are happy to go along with the
Brexit, who will care much about what El País or President Rajoy says?
Today's foto: Some rules to live by:-
Finally . . . My younger daughter is possibly not the best-organised person in the world but she does try very hard to be. Exiting the bathroom this morning, I noticed she had a day-today week-planner on the back of the door. Though it wasn't quite up-to-date. Her final entry - under the heading The Best Things of the Week - was the heart-warming Dad here! But this, of course, was a week ago. As they say . . . A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first steps . . .
BREXIT
Europe learns to like
'hard Brexit' and a good British ally: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
The Brexit drama has
taken an unexpected twist. Britain's strategy of full withdrawal from
the single market and from the EU institutions has been remarkably
well-received.
Contrary to fears in
some quarters in Britain, the pursuit of a 'clean and hard' Brexit
has if anything helped to clear the air, greeted with a degree of
relief by political and business leaders in Europe.
What has changed the
mood - apart from the passage of time - is the parallel pledge by
Britain's leaders to stand beside Europe as a close strategic and
military ally, playing its full part in upholding a rules-based
global architecture.
There were signs at the
World Economic Forum in Davos that the anger of recent months is
slowly draining away, replaced by an acknowledgement of Britain's
distinctive history and character. The imperative now is to limit the
damage for all sides and find a way to make the new arrangement work.
Not all divorces end in hostility.
Emma Marcegaglia, head
of the pan-EU federation BusinessEurope, said the no-nonsense nature
of Britain's decision may prove to be the best outcome even if it is
hard to accept on an emotional level.
"When I first saw
Theresa May's speech my reaction was very bad, and I thought this is
going to cause serious problems for British companies and for the
rest of us," she said. "But after
thinking about it I now feel that her position is very straight and
clear. In a certain sense it clarifies the situation. There could now
be a good free trade agreement, like the Canadian arrangement with
access for both sides and social protection," she told
the Telegraph. "It is all so sad.
We're going to miss the role of the UK in defending free trade and
competition. The British commissioner was always a crucial ally for
us in Brussels. But it is done now, and we just have to accept it,"
she said.
Belgium's ardently
pro-integrationist foreign minister, Alexander De Croo, said the die
has at last been cast and perhaps this is for the better. "At
least the British have made up their minds and we now have some
clarity. It was obviously not going to function if the UK had wanted
to stay in the single market but seek controls on free movement,"
he said. "People say we
want to punish Britain but that is not the case at all. I don't like
the result but it is what it is," he said, insisting that the
imperative now is to prevent a destructive rupture that would be in
nobody's interest. "If you live in a
street with neighbours, you want the next-door house to be
well-maintained. It is never good if the building is broken down and
in disrepair," he told the Telegraph.
For months the agreed
script parroted by EU ministers from across the 27 states was that
the UK must not be allowed to "cherry-pick" bits of EU
membership that it wants.
This EU holding
strategy was never coherent, given that Britain has deep military,
security, and cultural ties with Europe that go far beyond the single
market. It has now been overtaken by events. The new script - with
some discordant notes from Malta, Slovakia, and others with limited
experience of global statecraft - is that the EU has no intention of
retribution.
Italy's new premier
Paolo Gentiloni said Europe will approach the Brexit talks in a
spirit of "solidarity and friendship with the UK", while is
his Italian compatriot Mario Monti - Europe's elder statesman - said
the air had finally cleared over recent days. "We're getting
down to business without any residual acrimony. So much in common
remains," he said in Davos. Mr Monti argued in the
aftermath of the Brexit vote that it would be "collective
suicide" for the EU to let the UK get away with Europe 'a la
carte'. This concern has not entirely gone away, but is now fading.
The likelihood of "British contagion" has diminished.
French foreign
minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, insisted that "we don't want to
punish the UK. That is not the position of France." Whether or
not he means this, his government will soon be gone, probably
replaced by 'souverainiste' leaders with less purist views about the
EU Project.
Europeans listened with
some scepticism to Theresa May's speech in Davos: a 'recycled'
version of her Lancaster House talk two days earlier, was the verdict
of the Suddeutsche Zeitung. She assured them that
Brexit was not aimed at the break-up of Europe. "I want the EU
to continue to be strong and I want to continue to have a close and
strategic partnership with the EU. With the threats we face it’s
not the time for less co-operation.”
Some sniffed
insincerity. But these doubts are lessening as it emerges that Mrs
May really does intend to champion the cause of Nato and the
integrity EU itself in her forthcoming talks with US President Donald
Trump.
Suddenly the value of
Britain as a mid-Atlantic interlocutor has acquired some currency
again, and in the most surprising way. Her promise to champion the EU
cause from the outside is being seen in European capitals as the
first step in a new British-EU relationship that could conceivably be
better than at any time in recent years.
While Mrs May's speech
to the global elites won only polite thin-lipped applause, her pitch
for a free-trading Britain open to the world did succeed in shifting
the needle of perceptions. The Chinese media - heavily present in
Davos - wrote widely about her 'charm offensive', lavishing
praise on her defence of globalisation.
The American media has
been slower to grasp the point, in many cases misled by a reflexive
conflation of Brexit and the Trump phenomenon. Yet the penny is
slowly dropping. Chancellor Philip Hammond stressed in Davos that
there was "no anti-trade rhetoric, no anti-globalist rhetoric"
in the UK campaign. "One of the tenets of the Leave campaign was
more trade with the rest of the world. It was absolutely the opposite
of what happened in the US," he said.
Mr Hammond was
something of a hit in Davos, gamely taking part in two hard-hitting
seminars. He avoided the common error by WEF novices of posturing,
instead getting into the spirit of a soft-spoken intimacy that plays
better at this unique venue . His reassuring manner helped to dispel
lingering worries that Britain has been taken over by Poujadistes and
tribalist nutters.
Most striking was the
friendly tone from Germany, doubly so coming from the famously
irascible Wolfgang Schauble, the country's super-finance minister. He
has clearly found a soul-mate of sorts in the British Chancellor.
They are both serious men.
"Phil Hammond and
myself, we totally agree, we have to manage this decision by
the British people in the best way. The UK remains a very important
partner and we will do whatever we can," he said.
"We have to
minimize the damage for the United Kingdom and Europe. The German
government will work in the negotiations always in this direction, to
minimize any risk for both of us," he said.
Mr Schauble is scarcely
a man given to shallow romanticism. He is doggedly determined and
hard-headed. He warned that the coming talks with Britain will not be
a bed of roses.
What looks hopeful,
however, is that the worst poison of Anglo-European relations may at
last have been drawn.
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