Of the hard-luck stories, the result of the Darkly Floods Of May, more hard luck could not surely have been experienced than at the Drunken Duck. Good weather for them. Ducks, that is. Actually I'm not sure that floods are that great for ducks, especially if they are drunken or happen to be a bar. Russ, having been installed for the season, opens, has a good evening, and then ... then apparently finds himself up to his waist in water, various white goods of a commercial style similarly inundated. Things, one trusts, can only get better. And where and when did we once hear something along those lines? More below.
Elsewhere, rather grander edifices also suffered. Not, by the way, that the Drunken Duck isn't grand, but it does pail - sic - into less than grandeur alongside (were it in fact alongside, which it isn't) the Can Ramis building. Yep, the Alcúdia world of Lego was also affected by the Great Rains. Not even a budget of in excess of one million euros could prevent ingress, though one might have hoped the million plus might have made it a bit more water-tight. The inundation was not on the scale of the hilariously disastrous Great Palma Metro Flood soon after it opened, but inundation it still was - through the door and through the ceiling ... into the tourist office. There are now some rather attractive watermarks on the floor.
One of the more common English from Spanish expressions/words that is used locally is "perfect", as from "perfecto", a regular enough interjection in Spanish speech. In the case of the Darkly Floods Of May, perfect it most certainly wasn't, or indeed "perfick". And less than perfect is the situation with regard to potato farming. The floods have not helped what has been a difficult time for the potato growers of Sa Pobla who have been protesting against lack of government help. One imagines that they might be protesting some more; the export market, in particular, could be hit hard.
And so to the election. It will be small consolation to Nick Clegg that in Mallorca he had a large amount of support. Not necessarily from an exiled votership, but from the locals, as in Mallorcans. The "Diario" ran a poll, asking who readers would vote for were they able to vote.
I, being the acting returning officer for Alcúdia, Pollensa and all points Mallorca, hereby give notice that the total percentages for David Cameron are 21%, Gordon Brown 25% and Nick Clegg 54%, and that Nick Clegg has been duly elected as Prime Minister in exile in Mallorca.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Showing posts with label British election. Show all posts
Showing posts with label British election. Show all posts
Friday, May 07, 2010
Monday, May 03, 2010
The Silly Season: British election and the new tourism season
There was a long article in yesterday's "Diario" which was its introduction to the new season. I've linked it below. For many of you it will probably make no sense, but just a look at its length will indicate the significance of the start of the tourist season. Tourism is not only news in Mallorca, it is the inspiration for comment, letters, angst, anxiety, hopes. The prominence given to tourism in the local press is deserved. It is just a pity that it isn't necessarily mirrored at governmental level. However, in one municipality, Calvia, the mayor, Carlos Delgado, has assumed responsibility for tourism. Calvia, remember, is the home to Magaluf, Santa Ponsa and other resorts. After Palma, it is the single most important tourism town in Mallorca; it might be argued that is more important than Palma.
While Delgado has taken on the tourism brief in an act of politicking - stripping the British-born Kate Mentink of the duty, given her support of his rival in the recent election for leader of the island's Partido Popular (a contest that Delgado lost) - the grafting on of tourism to his mayoral role makes much sense. I have argued, on more than one occasion, that tourism should be firmly in the office of the regional government's president. Delgado may have done something along these lines in Calvia for the wrong reasons, but he is still right to have done so.
Turning to the "Diario" article, there is stuff here about the prospects for "new" markets, most significantly the Russian one. To this end, you may (or may not) be interested to learn that there is now a Russian bar/restaurant in Puerto Alcúdia. It might be a tad more sophisticated than a cult Russian restaurant I used to frequent years ago in Kensington: no alcohol licence so you brought your own, and when you asked the waiter what "red sauce" was, the reply would come: "it's red."
Also buried within the article is a reflection on the British election. See, British politics spreads its tentacles far and wide. There is some optimism for a recovery of both the German and Spanish tourism markets this season, while there is also hope that a change of government in the UK - from Brown to Cameron - will result in a strengthening of the British market on the back of a further strengthening of the pound. This hope might be misplaced, while a hung parliament, so we keep being told (by the Tories if no one else), could be detrimental in terms of markets, the pound more than anything.
It's hard to imagine there being much interest in the UK where an election run-off between Zapatero and Rajoy is concerned, but in Spain, British politics (and French and German) is followed keenly, and not only by some expatriates. It is curious to observe the election from a distance, but it is no less fascinating, even if it seems to matter less than it does to a disillusioned electorate in the UK. Oh, the memories of that glorious spring day of 1 May 1997 and the equally glorious 2 May when one had a skip in one's step despite the hangover. What a shame that we were sold such a pup.
I know what I'll be doing on Thursday night, hoping for a Portillo moment, a Goldsmith-Mellor moment, or something equally as delicious. Bye, bye, Gordy. Hello, Dave. Now, there's a good name for a comedy channel.
The "Diario" article:
http://www.diariodemallorca.es/mallorca/2010/05/02/queda-inaugurado-verano--recuperacion-dicen/566700.html
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
While Delgado has taken on the tourism brief in an act of politicking - stripping the British-born Kate Mentink of the duty, given her support of his rival in the recent election for leader of the island's Partido Popular (a contest that Delgado lost) - the grafting on of tourism to his mayoral role makes much sense. I have argued, on more than one occasion, that tourism should be firmly in the office of the regional government's president. Delgado may have done something along these lines in Calvia for the wrong reasons, but he is still right to have done so.
Turning to the "Diario" article, there is stuff here about the prospects for "new" markets, most significantly the Russian one. To this end, you may (or may not) be interested to learn that there is now a Russian bar/restaurant in Puerto Alcúdia. It might be a tad more sophisticated than a cult Russian restaurant I used to frequent years ago in Kensington: no alcohol licence so you brought your own, and when you asked the waiter what "red sauce" was, the reply would come: "it's red."
Also buried within the article is a reflection on the British election. See, British politics spreads its tentacles far and wide. There is some optimism for a recovery of both the German and Spanish tourism markets this season, while there is also hope that a change of government in the UK - from Brown to Cameron - will result in a strengthening of the British market on the back of a further strengthening of the pound. This hope might be misplaced, while a hung parliament, so we keep being told (by the Tories if no one else), could be detrimental in terms of markets, the pound more than anything.
It's hard to imagine there being much interest in the UK where an election run-off between Zapatero and Rajoy is concerned, but in Spain, British politics (and French and German) is followed keenly, and not only by some expatriates. It is curious to observe the election from a distance, but it is no less fascinating, even if it seems to matter less than it does to a disillusioned electorate in the UK. Oh, the memories of that glorious spring day of 1 May 1997 and the equally glorious 2 May when one had a skip in one's step despite the hangover. What a shame that we were sold such a pup.
I know what I'll be doing on Thursday night, hoping for a Portillo moment, a Goldsmith-Mellor moment, or something equally as delicious. Bye, bye, Gordy. Hello, Dave. Now, there's a good name for a comedy channel.
The "Diario" article:
http://www.diariodemallorca.es/mallorca/2010/05/02/queda-inaugurado-verano--recuperacion-dicen/566700.html
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
The Cleggies: The British election from Mallorca
If you live in Mallorca, do you care about the British election? You might be interested, but do you really care? You might actually exercise your vote, but why, If you don't live there, or go there only now and then? Do you care more about Zapatero and Rajoy? Because perhaps you should.
Nevertheless, it is entirely understandable that the election should generate interest and column inches in the local English media. Of course it is. It is something of the old country, something actually quite important of the old country. But, to varying degrees for individuals living in Mallorca, it is the old country, as in the former country. Not the current. Moreover, at a distance - of the miles (or kilometres) that divide Mallorca and the UK - can one really appreciate the issues of the election? Many will say they can, but many may be deluding themselves. Many will be acting on received wisdom, or lack of wisdom.
It is a curious phenomenon, that of commenting on an event that is intrinsically important - as a Briton - and yet one that one is not a part of. The heritage, the past, the growing-up; these all qualify such commenting. But somehow there is a disbarring through voluntary exile. Pity the political commentator who is an outside observer of his own country and its politics.
"The Bulletin" has been going fairly big on Nick Clegg. Many have been going big on Cleggy. The power of previously having been anonymous. There was a yes-no in the paper. Clegg as Prime Minister? As meaningful as an argument over a Saint Mick in an expat bar. And ... And oh dear. Let's get things right shall we. It was implied in this exchange that Clegg is following in a line of great Liberals, well one. Winston Churchill. Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear.
Churchill was a member of the Liberal Party for twenty years. He was a political opportunist who left the Conservatives and then rejoined them. What he was never was a Liberal Prime Minister. He was also described in the paper as Britain's greatest Prime Minister. Oh dear, oh dear. This was meant to further big up Cleggy. But it was plain wrong, and one might recall Churchill's own argument about being over 30 and having no brains if one is not a Conservative (not one, I should add, that I agree with).
Churchill's reputation is founded on his role as a war-time leader, but he was a poor Prime Minister in his peace-time government after 1951. He treated Eden as an idiot and thus undermined him (though he may have been right to have done so). He was ill for much of this time. He was too old. He was antagonistic towards the creation of nascent European integration.
Churchill rejoined the Conservatives in the mid-1920s, following his sojourn with the Liberals. Only in his advocacy of free trade could Churchill truly be said to have been a liberal in terms of political philosophy as it is broadly now understood. Otherwise ... . He loathed Gandhi. In this regard, he proved to be as antediluvian as Thatcher was in her disrespect of Mandela. He was highly pro-American, he would never - had he been alive today - have opposed Trident. In all these things, he was the antithesis of what we imagine Clegg to be. The comparison is absurd.
Why not go back further? Clegg is the new Gladstone. It might actually make greater sense, though Gladstone would probably in fact have been an old Labour politician today (as with his support of the dockers' strike). But any comparison with the past is a nonsense. If there is to be some exiled comment on the election, it might at least be accurate. Or maybe, if you do care, leave it to the likes of "The Sun", "The Mirror" or "The Guardian". They may all talk bollocks, but it will be bollocks in which you can trust. Sort of.
QUIZ -
Yesterday: Tears For Fears, "Head Over Heels", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMBbJ_l0Tb4. Today: not the "cleggies", but who - as in they who appeared in "Private Eye"?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Nevertheless, it is entirely understandable that the election should generate interest and column inches in the local English media. Of course it is. It is something of the old country, something actually quite important of the old country. But, to varying degrees for individuals living in Mallorca, it is the old country, as in the former country. Not the current. Moreover, at a distance - of the miles (or kilometres) that divide Mallorca and the UK - can one really appreciate the issues of the election? Many will say they can, but many may be deluding themselves. Many will be acting on received wisdom, or lack of wisdom.
It is a curious phenomenon, that of commenting on an event that is intrinsically important - as a Briton - and yet one that one is not a part of. The heritage, the past, the growing-up; these all qualify such commenting. But somehow there is a disbarring through voluntary exile. Pity the political commentator who is an outside observer of his own country and its politics.
"The Bulletin" has been going fairly big on Nick Clegg. Many have been going big on Cleggy. The power of previously having been anonymous. There was a yes-no in the paper. Clegg as Prime Minister? As meaningful as an argument over a Saint Mick in an expat bar. And ... And oh dear. Let's get things right shall we. It was implied in this exchange that Clegg is following in a line of great Liberals, well one. Winston Churchill. Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear.
Churchill was a member of the Liberal Party for twenty years. He was a political opportunist who left the Conservatives and then rejoined them. What he was never was a Liberal Prime Minister. He was also described in the paper as Britain's greatest Prime Minister. Oh dear, oh dear. This was meant to further big up Cleggy. But it was plain wrong, and one might recall Churchill's own argument about being over 30 and having no brains if one is not a Conservative (not one, I should add, that I agree with).
Churchill's reputation is founded on his role as a war-time leader, but he was a poor Prime Minister in his peace-time government after 1951. He treated Eden as an idiot and thus undermined him (though he may have been right to have done so). He was ill for much of this time. He was too old. He was antagonistic towards the creation of nascent European integration.
Churchill rejoined the Conservatives in the mid-1920s, following his sojourn with the Liberals. Only in his advocacy of free trade could Churchill truly be said to have been a liberal in terms of political philosophy as it is broadly now understood. Otherwise ... . He loathed Gandhi. In this regard, he proved to be as antediluvian as Thatcher was in her disrespect of Mandela. He was highly pro-American, he would never - had he been alive today - have opposed Trident. In all these things, he was the antithesis of what we imagine Clegg to be. The comparison is absurd.
Why not go back further? Clegg is the new Gladstone. It might actually make greater sense, though Gladstone would probably in fact have been an old Labour politician today (as with his support of the dockers' strike). But any comparison with the past is a nonsense. If there is to be some exiled comment on the election, it might at least be accurate. Or maybe, if you do care, leave it to the likes of "The Sun", "The Mirror" or "The Guardian". They may all talk bollocks, but it will be bollocks in which you can trust. Sort of.
QUIZ -
Yesterday: Tears For Fears, "Head Over Heels", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMBbJ_l0Tb4. Today: not the "cleggies", but who - as in they who appeared in "Private Eye"?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
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