Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain
Spain- I've said before that sometimes in Spain one feels one's in the 21st or 22nd century but, at others, in the 18th or 19th. As an example of the former, it's been announced this week that, henceforth, the tax office (La Hacienda) will only accept your annual declaration on line. Which, as I know full well, is not a terribly simple process. God help those who aren't computer or internet literate. As elsewhere, they'll be forced to pay for a gestor or asesor.
- Where, d'you think, is the highest point in mountainous Spain? Well, not - as it turns out - on the mainland, but in the Canary Islands.
- An impressive development from the university of Malaga.
- Below is the first article someone's view - shorn of all the sponsors' stuff - of the 20 secret places in Spain you should try to get to this year. I suspect I've been to more of them than the - desk bound? - writer.
- Nearer term, here's The Local on what's coming up in April.
- Some pertinent comments this morning:-
- The never-ending political saga that is Brexit continues, apparently in a world of its own.
- An absurd political farce.
- "Brexit fatigue": a condition in which you weep uncontrollably at the sight of members of the ERG; start twitching at the mention of meaningful votes; suffer hallucinations that you are being strangled slowly by one of Theresa May’s chunky necklaces while a waxen Michel Barnier recites the text of Article 50 like the last rites.
- Anything is better than limbo, millions cry: just finish this!
- In the end, our elected representatives will have to reach some sort of conclusion. That they agree on nothing was amply demonstrated by the failure to achieve a majority in any of the indicative votes. In most walks of life, that would imply finding a means to reach a compromise. And compromise there will need to be. We cannot have our cake and eat it. Decisions have consequences, and so does failure to decide. Pretending that there are no consequences won’t make them go away.
The EU
- The 2nd article below addresses the future of the Project. The writer questions - as I do - how Remainers see this. Why, he asks, do many people feel passionately that we must stay in an EU hellbent on total economic and political union. There are, he accepts [as I do], some reasonable economic arguments for remaining although, he avers, they don’t stand up to close analysis. But, interestingly, they aren’t these aren't the ones ardently espoused by most Remainers. Many of them seem to confuse European identity with current European political institutions. Liking European food, wine, culture, skiing and sunshine, they seem to subliminally assume that somehow these goodies are bound up with current European political institutions and that we would lose access to them if we left the EU. But of course we would continue to enjoy them, just as other non-EU countries do. Finally, the challenge is laid down: Would they please tell us what the basis is for believing that the EU is heading for a prosperous, never mind stable, future. I'd certainly like to hear the answers to that. There must be some.
- While May’s tireless efforts may have been aimed at protecting the Conservative party, they have produced a relentless two-and-a-half-year-long carnival of hubris, division and disloyalty, which seem unlikely to have endeared them to the electorate. And which will only intensify whenever the leadership race formally gets underway.
- A city of 2 tales. Which reminded me of how astonished I was last December to see the construction that had taken place and was still happening on the tram route into the centre from the outskirts.
- The (pretty terrifying) 3rd article below tells us that Banks’ neglect of online security has created a fraudsters’ paradise. And that: We, the customers, pick up the bill. If someone fraudulently withdraws your money over the counter at a branch, it is the bank’s problem. No matter if the fraudster has stolen your clothes or even your chequebook. No matter if he has perfected your signature. If it wasn’t you, the bank must make good your losses. On the internet, it is the other way round. If someone successfully impersonates you online, that’s your problem: you have not kept your credentials secure.
- Don’t fall for Mark Zuckerberg’s talk about regulation, we're advised. The Facebook founder makes the right noises on the need to police the internet but his version of privacy is skewed.
- In - of course - the USA, right wing extremist Rick Wiles promotes wild conspiracy theories such as that government “death squads” are carrying out mass shootings in order to implement gun control; that left-wing activists are on the verge of storming the White House and executing the First Family; that Christine Blasey Ford is a CIA mind-control operative; that God is using a “brown invasion” to push white people out of America; that Tom Brady’s wife is a witch; that cell phone companies are plotting to create the Mark of the Beast; and that, heading into the 2020 elections, Democrats will start to kill conservatives. Wiles owns a TV 'news' channel, to which Trump gave an interview after his latest Nuremburg-like rally. Of course he did. What president wouldn't?
- Word of the Day: Adormecer
- Odd Old Word: Japers: "An inferior class of minstrels, whose wit consisted of low obscenity, accompanied by ridiculous gestures". Have they gone away?
- I'm living in a zoo. I have mice in the kitchen, rats on the back lawn and a mole in the front lawn. I blame it on Brexit. And the boogy, of course.
- I'm writing a guide to Pontevedra city for 'pilgrims'. Anyone interested in getting a Beta copy - free! - should write to me at doncolin@gmail.com
THE ARTICLES
1. Secret Spain: 20 hidden gems to discover in 2019
Aranjuez: Rodrigo’s evocative Concierto de Aranjuez, one of the most beautiful pieces of music to come out of Spain, was inspired by the sights, sounds and smells of the lush gardens of the Palacio Real, commissioned by Philip II in the 16th century. Later construction was inspired by Versailles, with the gardens seen as an extension of the palace itself. Aranjuez is also known for its strawberries, and the Strawberry Train comprises antique carriages pulled by a steam locomotive, with staff in period dress handing out strawberries in season. It runs to and from Madrid on spring and autumn weekends.
Chinchón’s arcaded Plaza Mayor is one of Spain’s most timeless spots, ringed with medieval three-storey houses, the wooden balconies of which are still hired out to spectators for occasional bullfights in summer. Over the years countless writers and actors have fallen for this romantic town, and it is said that Orson Welles asked to have his ashes scattered here (his daughter Beatrice had other plans). It is, of course, possible that they were under the seductive spell of Chinchón’s other great attraction, the fearsome local anís (with a 74 per cent alcohol content), which has been made here since the 17th century.
León: Spanish Gastronomic Capital (capitalespanoladelagastronomia.es) for 2018, León may not be the most fashionable of cities but it is one of those places where people live very well indeed - and free tapas with drinks in the many bars certainly livens things up too. Around 200 miles north-west of Madrid, it is a key stop on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela and is packed with architectural and artistic riches, including the Gothic cathedral, the Romanesque Basílica de San Isidoro and Gaudí’s Casa de Botines.
Cuenca: Less than an hour by high-speed train from Madrid, but in the middle of nowhere, Cuenca, which has World Heritage status, is set on a dramatic limestone spur between the Júcar and Húecar rivers. One of its extraordinary medieval ‘Hanging Houses’, that spill over the top of the gorge, houses the astounding museum of abstract art (march.es/arte/cuenca), with works by Antonio Saura, Antoni Tàpies and Eduardo Chillida. It was founded in the 1960s by the artists Gustavo Torner and Fernando Zóbel with the idea that remote Cuenca was a place they were unlikely to be bothered by Franco and could just exhibit their work in peace.
Comillas: An Antoni Gaudí creation would seem reason enough to visit Comillas, yet El Capricho is among several magnificent buildings in this little town on Spain’s north coast. Teasingly hidden behind trees, El Capricho is one of Gaudí’s earlier works and distinguished by a minaret-style tower tiled in green and gold. Close by is the intricate Sobrellano Palace, completed by another Catalan architect three years after El Capricho; high on the hill is the giant and very grand Pontifical University from the same decade. Throw in a couple of film-set old squares and Comillas is well worth the 13-mile detour from medieval Santillana del Mar, which attracts far more visitors.
Carmona: Less than an hour by bus from Seville, Carmona rivals Andalucía’s capital in terms of history despite its diminutive size. A Roman necropolis, portals through mighty walls, baroque palaces, a convent and a Moorish fortress partly reborn as a Parador hotel make this ancient town a rewarding add-on to a Seville city break. You may feel déjà vu on seeing the town’s main tower; it’s a copy of Seville’s Giralda. Carmona crawls up to a ridge with expansive views of the surrounding plains, best viewed from the Parador’s drinks terrace. Come evening, wander the eerily silent cobbled alleys to find ultra-traditional tapas taverns heady with the aroma of hanging hams.
Extremadura: Dogged (or perhaps blessed) by poor transport links and an often inhospitable climate, Extremadura is Spain’s best-kept secret; a vast tract of meadows, vineyards, hills and oak forests, where prized Iberian black pigs roam freely. Its grand, honey-coloured towns, once home to Spain’s conquistadores, are filmset-perfect – indeed, the ancient cities of Cáceres and Trujillo are in huge demand from moviemakers who barely need tamper with the glorious medieval exteriors to create the backdrop of a bygone age. Mérida, the capital of the region, was once an important Roman city, and its Unesco-protected archaeological sites are among the world’s most impressive.
Benidorm’s hinterland: While value-package tourists slip on sandals to enjoy the beach of Europe’s biggest holiday resort, others are donning hiking boots a few miles inland. The 4,600ft (1,400m) Puig Campana (Bell Hill), six miles from the skyscrapers, is a magnet for walkers. It has a distinctive notch that is characteristic of the malformed peaks that rise above the empty, rocky valleys of this region. The less hardy can aim their rental car at El Castell de Guadalest, where a castle appears to grow out of the granite outcrops above this tiny village, or Les Fonts d’Algar, with wooden walkways providing a route along a series of waterfalls tumbling through lush foliage.
La Palma: On the hairpin-tortured drive from La Palma’s capital Santa Cruz to the near-8,000ft high rim of the immense Taburiente caldera, you’ll pass through a series of ecosystems. Between the tangled shrubs of the lower slopes and the barren wilderness at the top lies a thick band of beautiful canary pines, their arrow-straight trunks often poking above cotton-wool clouds. Stop to walk on the carpet of fallen needles, accompanied only by birdsong. The next day, skirt the other side of the volcano to the Llano del Jable viewpoint for a quiet different hike, stumbling across the other-wordly mass of broken lava spewed from a 1949 eruption.
Monte Perdido National Park: One of Europe’s most spectacular walks attracts surprisingly few British ramblers. The path through the Ordesa canyon, showpiece of the Monte Perdido National Park, follows a dazzling river between formidable 3,000ft walls, with a fantail waterfall providing a suitably dramatic end-point. Alternative balcony-style trails with awesome views beckon those with a head for heights. Its three sister canyons are even quieter. Añisclo is a wild slice through the mountains that narrows into a slot filled with cool green pools. Pineta begins among alpine meadows and rich forest before ascending to craggier ground. Smaller Escuaín is noted for its population of lammergeier vultures with 10ft wingspans.
Redes and Ponga Natural Parks: Northern Spain’s Picos de Europa rightly attract hikers and photographers but the splendid mountain scenery is not confined to the invisible limits of the national park. Just to the west are the adjacent natural parks of Redes and Ponga, where peaks soar 6,500ft (2,000m) above deep valleys choked with beech and oak forest. On the rare patches of flatter land, soft-eyed Asturian cows graze on alpine pastures. Lurking within the woods are brown bears, wolves and capercaillie. Otters frolic in the crystal streams. Look up, too – chamois climb the rocks while golden eagles and Egyptian vultures swirl their huge wingspans around the tops of crags in remarkable numbers.
Montes Universales: About halfway between Madrid and Valencia, but around 150 miles from either, this is the least-populated area in Spain. The mountain range does however attract hikers, birdwatchers, butterfly enthusiasts and mushroom hunters. The Tagus is just one of the rivers that has its source here, where waterfalls flow between the pine, oak and juniper trees. By far the best-known place is Albarracín, on a hilltop almost surrounded by the Gualalaviar river, which frequently tops the list of the prettiest villages in Spain thanks to its lanes lined with mansions in rose gold stone, not to mention the boutique hotels and abundance of cosy traditional bars and restaurants.
Babia: If someone in Spain says you are ‘in Babia’, they mean you are lost in thought, dreaming you are somewhere else, hiding away or just happy doing what you’re doing. Not many Spaniards, let alone foreign tourists, have actually been to this area of emerald meadows, snow-capped mountains and glacial lakes in the north-west of León province, which borders the Somiedo nature reserve in Asturias. Walkers, cyclists, climbers and people who don’t want to run into anyone they know keep the handful of tiny villages busy at weekends, staying in cottages and B&Bs.
Valles Pasiegos: The Pas, Pisueña and Miera valleys south of Santander in Cantabria make up the Valles Pasiegos, an area of lush green hills where farmers pick their crops with the traditional cuévano deep baskets on their backs and livestock are moved from lower to higher ground in summer. For centuries, the wet nurses for the Spanish royal family traditionally came from this area, as it was deemed to be the healthiest place in Spain. Nowadays, with easy access from Santander, visitors come to see cave art, fish for salmon and trout, plunge into hillside pools and scoff the excellent cheeses and cakes.
Cerdenya: Stretching along the eastern Pyrenees, straddling France and Spain, this Catalan region is an area of sprawling plains protected by the mountains. It looks a bit like Austria or Switzerland, but is not far from Girona and the Mediterranean. Many of the villages are linked by tracks so exploring on foot or by bike is easy – you could easily spend a week here. You can even follow a lesser-known stretch of the pilgrimage route to Santiago to Compostela, which crosses Cerdanya. The pretty hilltop town of Puigcerdà has been attracting tourists since the turn of the 20th century and is still a good place to stay.
Zahara de los Atunes: On the Costa de la Luz on the Atlantic coast of Andalucia, this is a proper little town with spectacular beaches attached. Although it is very popular with Spanish tourists in summer, late spring is perhaps the most interesting time to visit, when the bluefin tuna fishing season is underway and you can amuse yourself trawling around the many tapas bars trying the different cuts of the fish. With the attractive white towns of Tarifa and Vejer de la Frontera about half an hour away, and Cádiz and Jerez around an hour’s drive, Zahara suits people who aren’t keen on full-on resorts and like to sink into local life.
Camariñas: A fishing village, estuary and peninsula on the Costa da Morte in Galicia, Camariñas is a great area for experiencing the Galician way of life in summer, staying in small hotels or traditional fishermen’s houses. A string of splendid, unspoilt beaches are linked by paths, making this a popular area for walking. It all looks idyllic and peaceful in the sunshine, but this coast can be treacherous too. Follow the lighthouse and shipwreck routes to get an idea, visiting the English Cemetery right by the sea, which is the burial place of some of the sailors who lost their lives when the battleship HMS Serpent foundered on the rocks in 1890.
Arousa Island, Galicia: In the Ria de Arousa inlet in the Salnés area of the Rias Baixas, the small island is linked to the town of Vilanova de Arousa by a bridge, so is easily accessible. The southern part is a nature reserve, with white sand beaches flanked by dunes and dense pine forests. You can walk or cycle right around the island, or spend the day diving, snorkelling or fishing. Get out on a boat to see how oysters and mussels are grown on thick ropes dangling from wooden rafts and watch the skilled women known as mariscadoras harvest clams from the sand at low tide. Then devour huge platefuls with a nice bottle of Albariño of course.
Cabo de Gata-Níjar: Among Spain’s most remote beaches are those on the fringe of Europe’s only true desert on the south-east tip of the country. Ochre cliffs and sharp rocks define the landscapes of Cabo de Gata-Níjar National Park but it’s the sands that attract those willing to brave the bumpy access road – including the makers of Lawrence of Arabia and the Indiana Jones films. Playa de los Genoveses, near the village of San José, is the most accessible, but make a beeline for Playa de Mónsul, split by a fat volcanic rock. If the wind isn’t blowing, it offers great swimming in shallow seas. Explorers will discover several smaller coves hidden below the cliffs.
Cudillero: As cute as they come, the fishing village of Cudillero would look quite at home in Cornwall or on the Italian Riviera. Shutter-windowed dwellings, some painted in the same pastel colours as their owners’ fishing boats, step sharply down and around a natural amphitheatre to a diminutive harbour. Lining the little square closest to the glassy water are restaurants serving the day’s catch and cafés where waiters pour the crisp cider from local orchards. Work up an appetite by climbing through the alleyways to one of the secret viewpoints for views over the terracotta roofs. And when Cudillero falls asleep in the afternoon, jump in your car for a short ride to one of several outstanding sandy beaches.
2. The EU will move to full fiscal union, or disband. The UK must hold course: Roger Bootle, the Daily Telegraph
As debates have raged about Britain’s future relationship with the EU, little attention has been given to the nature of the entity that we would be leaving or remaining in, or to its future. Better late than never.
What we now call the European Union has never stood still. It emerged out of an innocent sounding agreement to establish the Coal and Steel Community in 1952. Five years later came the Treaty of Rome that established the European Economic Community (EEC). It represented a giant leap (forwards or backwards?). It clearly embodied the objective of reaching a full union of the member countries. The community has been growing like topsy ever since. The EEC became the European Community (EC) and then the European Union (EU). Membership expanded from the original six to the current 28 countries.
Initially, the members of the union enjoyed substantial economic success. In the early years, the EU may have helped, but only marginally. Growth was driven primarily by post-war reconstruction, the shift from agriculture to industry and the global boom.
Apparently unnoticed by the UK’s Europhile establishment both then and now, most countries in the industrialised world enjoyed rapid growth during this period. The outlier was not the EU but rather the UK, held back by self-imposed burdens that were not lifted until the radical Thatcher reforms of the Eighties. Interestingly, once shot of them, the UK started to outperform other EU members.
As time moved on, the EU’s plans became more and more grandiose. The Maastricht treaty, which laid the foundations for the euro, was signed in 1992. Since then, the EU’s relative economic performance has been poor. But the grandiose plans have trundled on.
So do you suppose that the EU will stay as it currently is? It cannot. Put to one side the question of the union’s future geographical expansion, although this is bound to happen. The position of the eurozone makes profound change inevitable. It still has no integrated fiscal and economic policy. The monetary union has fused together countries as different as Germany and Italy without forging the institutions necessary to keep the union together. It is a child’s fantasy of a union. That is precisely why the Bundesbank, Germany’s widely revered central bank, opposed it.
To resolve the contradiction at the heart of it, the European elites have believed that something would turn up – or down. Now it is decision time. Its members must now press on to full fiscal and political union or the union must break up. The euro is one recession away from an existential crisis.
So the UK cannot remain in the same EU that we currently belong to. If the eurozone holds together and presses on to full fiscal and political union, we would be under enormous pressure to join. This union would soon take control over taxes, pensions and heaven knows what else. If we were somehow allowed to remain outside the euro, we would find ourselves in a weak position, forced by the powerful euro bloc to toe the line on everything without having much of a say on anything.
If we stay in the EU and the euro splits, there would be severe financial dislocation, with heavy bills to be paid by all EU members, including us.
So, run it by me again: why do many people feel passionately that we must stay in? Of course there are some reasonable economic arguments for remaining although, in my view, they don’t stand up to close analysis. But, interestingly, they aren’t the ones ardently espoused by most Remainers. Many of them seem to confuse European identity with current European political institutions. Liking European food, wine, culture, skiing and sunshine – not to mention German cars – they seem to subliminally assume that somehow these goodies are bound up with current European political institutions and that we would lose access to them if we left the EU. But of course we would continue to enjoy them, just as other non-EU countries do. I have repeatedly stated that the EU is a zone of comparatively low growth and argued that this is related to the EU’s misguided policy obsessions, deriving from its essential nature. But still the Europhile establishment from Tony Blair downwards seems to presume that the EU is a stonking economic success. Perhaps arid economic statistics don’t cut any ice with them (they never did with Tony Blair).
In that case, perhaps they should reflect on the continent’s terrible demographic prospects? Or on why it is that, outside the UK, so few tech companies have started up in Europe? Or on why, outside the UK, there are no internationally ranked top universities in Europe? Interestingly, the highest-ranked continental university is Zurich which, of course, is in non-EU Switzerland.
Having reflected on these matters, would they please tell us what the basis is for believing that the EU is heading for a prosperous, never mind stable, future.
Of course, many Remainers are not so much confident about the EU’s future as worried about ours, as a small country cast adrift in a difficult world. Yet, although we are no longer large, we aren’t small and we wouldn’t be adrift. Put aside for a moment the UK’s connections and friends around the world and its global reach. Once we leave the EU and are seen to prosper, other countries are likely to follow. The future that beckons is not as some fringe country, isolated from its own continent.
Many people in Europe long to escape from the bureaucratic and undemocratic nightmare that is the EU. They want institutions that foster and protect free trade, co-operation and friendship, without the political mumbo jumbo. It would be our role to lead Europe to such a future. If only the UK Government can muster the gumption to deliver what the British people have voted for, Brexit can save, not just the UK, but the whole of Europe.
3. Banks have created a fraudsters’ paradise: Edward Lucas, the Times
Their neglect of online security has allowed technical trickery to steal life-ruining amounts
It may not comfort Anthony Loehnis, the retired Bank of England grandee who transferred tens of thousands of pounds to fraudsters, but he is not alone. Google and Facebook were recently defrauded of nearly £95 million in a similar scam, revealed during a trial in New York last week. The main difference between the scams is not the scale, but that the tech giants got their money back. The means were not disclosed, but presumably these multibillion-dollar customers exerted muscle that humbler clients lack.
Mr Loehnis, whose plight was revealed in this paper on Saturday, will probably end up like most victims: with nothing but regrets. Banks’ neglect of online security has created a fraudsters’ paradise. We, the customers, pick up the bill.
The fundamental problem is that the internet was not designed for security. One big weakness is identity assurance, ie knowing whom you are dealing with. Some countries do this better. Estonia, for example, has a digital ID system that lets everyone prove who they are and check who they are dealing with. It’s available to foreigners in what is called “e-residency”; I was the first to sign up.
But in most countries, technical trickery combined with our trusting nature creates life-ruining losses. People lose their savings, their homes, their businesses.
In the case of Mr Loehnis, 83, the fraudsters pretended to be technicians from BT trying to help him with computer security. He believed them. The hoax developed over a four-day period, with an elaborate plot line in which Mr Loehnis came to believe that he was helping the police catch fraudsters. Fraudsters were indeed at work — but he was helping them, not the other way round. Eventually the scammers gained online control of his bank account and looted it.
It is easy to blame the victim. We would not sign a blank cheque and hand it to a stranger standing on our doorstep, however plausible his story. Why do the same when it comes to electronic banking? If we were just a bit more sensible, none of this would happen. But that is to miss the point. The financial industry has developed its technology in a way that unfairly burdens the customers. If even brainy financial experts such as Mr Loehnis can be suckered, the problem is with the system, not the individual.
Impersonation in the real world is quite hard. Fitting out a building as a fake bank branch is cumbersome and risky. So is pretending to be a police officer. Online, mischief is easier. Most people secure their e-mail accounts with the electronic equivalent of toy padlocks. A criminal can easily break into your e-mail. Then he can tell his victim’s customers to pay invoices to a “new” (ie, his) bank account.
It is even easier to fake an e-mail or a website. Who will notice the difference between edwardlucas.com and edwardlucas.com, where the “a” in the second version is from the Cyrillic rather than the Latin alphabet? The two addresses look identical to the naked eye, but may lead to different destinations.
If someone fraudulently withdraws your money over the counter at a branch, it is the bank’s problem. No matter if the fraudster has stolen your clothes or even your chequebook. No matter if he has perfected your signature. If it wasn’t you, the bank must make good your losses. On the internet, it is the other way round. If someone successfully impersonates you online, that’s your problem: you have not kept your credentials secure.
As a result of this gimcrack system, bank customers lose about a billion pounds a year to scams. The money flows directly into the gangsterland economy. It finances other crimes, and what in other businesses would be called research and development — making the next generation of scams even more iniquitous. If that amount of money was being stolen from the banks in old-fashioned robberies, with coshes and stocking masks, our financial princelings would take the matter a great deal more seriously.
Yet bank fraud almost always involves bank transfer, via so-called “mule” accounts, which carry the stolen money from the victim to its final destination. Obtaining mule accounts, by renting them from legitimate customers or opening them from scratch, is the weakest link in the scammers’ business model. But banks and police are disgracefully slow in mule-hunting.
Banks could also be nimbler in spotting unusual activity. People rarely empty their accounts, or pay large sums to people they have never dealt with before, let alone both. Banks could pause such transfers until they have been properly verified. They could also offer big rewards to anyone providing information leading to the conviction of the scammers. That might encourage some of the smooth-talking fraudsters to consider switching sides. And they could spend more on security. Which? reported last year that fewer than half of Britain’s banks take even basic precautions to protect their customers’ security.
A new, temporary code of conduct will come into force, belatedly, on May 28, under which the most blameless victims will have a chance of getting their money back. Even getting the banks to go that far has required sustained pressure.
Banks are blithe about fraud for a simple reason: stopping it would cost money, whereas blather is cheap. My suggestion is a levy: say, £2 paid by each bank for every £1 its customers report lost to fraud. A couple of billion a year off their profits might help the pinstriped minds concentrate on skewering scammers.
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