Mallorca's Two Jags - Muro and the golf course

So much for confident statements. On 29 January I said that work on the golf course on the Son Bosc finca in Muro would start in two weeks. It hasn't. Maybe it will do so next week. Despite the payment of the tax to the town hall, which was seemingly the final obstacle overcome, there are now further twists. Oddly enough, neither of them seem to have to do with the environmental pressure group GOB. One twist comes from the socialist opposition at the town hall. It says that the developers have not, as they should have, submitted to the town hall the modified plan for the course, one that takes account of changes to the development in order to preserve aspects of the flora and fauna, notably the rare orchid that grows there. This runs counter to the assertion by the mayor that everything was in order to allow the works to proceed.

The second twist has to do with changes at regional government level. Although it was being said that the work would start within those two weeks (meaning that it should have started already), there is now a suggestion that a decision to proceed next week is somehow being rushed. This has to do with a possible change of heart at regional government level. And why might this be? Never more than a short pitch and then a putt away from controversy, step forward the Unió Mallorquina. Or rather, step backward. The decision by President Antich to make the UM, as it were, miss the cut and smack it out of the coalition with a driver had ramifications at the environment ministry, the authority that had to give its final blessing to the project and which did so despite the allegation that it ignored a negative report by its own officials. The ministry was, until the UM's dismissal, under the control of the UM and specifically Enviro Man, Miquel Grimalt. He was one of the ministers who lost his job as a consequence of the fracture within the coalition. The UM out of the way, Antich decided to merge the environment ministry with that for transport and planning, a ministry run by the PSM Mallorcan socialists (a member of the so-called Bloc) in the form of our old chum Biel Vicens, he who made the supposedly unsanctioned reclaim walk at the Ternelles finca in Pollensa and who was at loggerheads with Alcúdia's former mayor over the siting of the railway.

In combining the ministries, Vicens has assumed a position and a series of responsibilities not far removed from those that John Prescott once had as part of his "super-ministry". "Two Jags" Vicens we should maybe start calling him. Like Prezza once seemed all-powerful within New Labour, so Vicens has assumed significant power. He has said that he will look at ways of avoiding the golf course work going ahead and he is also on record as having voiced his objections to the course in the past; hence the apparent panic to get the bulldozers in smartish before he can stop them.

What this highlights is one of the faultlines of the coalition. The change in political colour at environment could mean the reversal of a previous decision, but this would not solely be because of competing environmental ideologies. It would also be a reflection of the battle between the PSM and the UM for the nationalist political soul of Mallorca, albeit one from opposite political positions on the left-right divide. Where the PSM sees something stamped with the UM name, it opposes - as with the Alcúdia train - and vice versa. Moreover, there is a possibility that work could indeed start at Son Bosc, only for Two Jags to wade in with an order telling them to down 'dozers.

Just when you thought they'd finally come to an agreement, something crops up. Son Bosc and its golf course is the story of Mallorcan politics. This way, that way, and maybe something will happen. Or maybe it won't.


A Little Extra Help - Or Not: The Halifax to close
Mallorcan banks vary in their service. Generally though they are good, and the personal contact to be had is something that has seemingly been forgotten in the UK. But some banks get a reputation for superior service, and one such is the Halifax in Puerto Pollensa. The branch will close on 17 March.

This was something I was aware of. What I hadn't been aware of, and I thank Kath for highlighting it, was the depth of feeling regarding the closure. Anger is just one response. Sorrow also as the staff offered "the most personal service in the north of the island". Add to this the fact that the nearest branch will, from middle March, be in Santa Ponsa. Having transferred to the Halifax only a month ago, one can appreciate that a customer - Kath - might be a little annoyed. Annoyed and also sad because of the loss of the "fantastic" help and "service second to none in the area". A little extra help. Clearly there was. Rather more than just a little extra. Think again, Halifax.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Breakfast At Tiffany's

One of the oldest of truths regarding footballers is that they always take their holidays in Mallorca. Not so long ago, Frank Lampard was seen in the VIP lounge at Magaluf's BCM; Graham Le Saux, albeit he has retired, is a not infrequent visitor to the island's west coast; Brian Clough had a holiday home in Cala Bona, and Mallorca features in the film about him, "Damned United". Well, it used to be the case that, the season finished, the airlines would be filled with footballers heading for the fleshpots and beaches of Mallorca. Until, that is, they started to earn huge amounts of money and new resorts sprang up in which they could spend those vast amounts - Dubai, for reasons best known to them, for instance. If the Premier League is nowadays more likely to decamp to foreign playing-fields further away, Mallorca is still the stuff of Leagues One and Two. And so indeed it was yesterday at Puerto Alcúdia's Foxes Arms. For there was Tranmere Rovers central defender Ben Chorley, one time of Arsenal and Wimbledon. The "other" Liverpool club just missed out on the play-offs, so time to head for the sun and also to partake of the full English breakfast. Away from the gaze of Ronnie Moore and the Rovers dieticians and nutritionists, Ben was happily tucking into bacon, sausage and a fried egg. Those were the days, before pasta for breakfast, when Cloughie would send his sides out full of a steak and chips lunch and a whisky, and John Robertson would have double helpings. But they are still here, up to a point. Bear in mind, though, that when Chorley pitches up as Leicester City's new strong man at the heart of the defence, it was probably all due to a chance breakfast and thereafter the direct line to Nigel Pearson.


In the environmental pressure groups league, local agitators GOB remain something of a Blackburn Rovers compared with the Champions League-spot top four of Greenpeace. GOB may aspire to playing in the Nou Camp, but they have to settle for a Monday evening away date with Stoke. Greenpeace can court the Hiddinks and Ancelottis of the enviro lobbying world, while Blackburn make do with a Bill Oddie-style Sam Allardyce. And so it is that, when Greenpeace make a pronouncement, the world is inclined to take a bit more notice - possibly. Greenpeace offer a regular assessment of the island's environmental blackspots. It's a sort of footballers of the year award without the footballers and only aimed at the turkeys of the Premiership. Step forward, therefore, the Son Bosc finca and its damn golf course. Yep, it's still there on the roll call, and perhaps rather more controversially is a list of four municipalities grouped under what is termed "corrupción urbanistica", one of which is ... Pollensa.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Dave and Ansil Collins, "Double Barrel" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAujhAFx8wU). Today's title - well, Tiffany's may not be Foxes, but sounds like a footballer's wife, so it'll do. But ... who did the song?

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