Nothing Has Been Proved - Unió Mallorquina's disgrace

"Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realise that it bears a very close resemblance to the first." - Ronald Reagan.


The police have arrested another member of the Unió Mallorquina, the former leader Miquel Flaquer. There are that many former leaders of recent vintage that is hard to keep track. Two of them are now detained, one other makes appearances before courts and keeps her counsel, as befits the former leader of the Council of Mallorca.

Perhaps we should remind ourselves as to the roll-call that is the rogues' gallery of the UM, lining up for a police mug-shot either now or possibly in the future: Maria Antonia Munar, speaker of parliament and ex-leader of the party; Miquel Nadal, former tourism minister and ex-leader of the party; Miquel Flaquer, ex-leader of the party; Miquel Grimalt, now ex-environment minister; Antoni Oliver, ex-director general of the Inestur tourism institute and now also an ex-director general of environmental quality; Joan Sastre, relieved of his position as head of tourism promotion. To this little lot can be added those now without a job as a consequence of the dismissal of the UM from the coalition - the minister for sport, the minister for tourism, other leading figures at Inestur and at Ibatur, the tourism promotion wing of government. And there are quite a few more.

Look at those above and a pattern emerges; well more than one. A number of Micks who've been nicked or who may be, and a number of politicians centred on one ministry - tourism. The easy assumption, and one that the police and prosecutors are making or for which they have hard evidence, is that there was something distinctly rotten in the state of the tourism ministry of the sub-state that is the Balearics. The tourism ministry, the domain, the bailiwick of the UM. The conspiracy theorists are now hard at work. Tourism equals UM equals irritant party equals something that needs obliterating. It may make sense to those of a conspiratorial inclination, but it doesn't make sense. You wouldn't conspire against a ministry that happens to oversee the most important industry on the islands, just because it's under the control of an annoying, third-force party, would you? No. It makes no sense. Forget it.

I say forget it, but then ... . It is true that a party like the UM does rather muddy the waters where the major parties are concerned. It may not itself be a major party but it is not insignificant. Clearly not, given the current furore. Moreover, it is a party that is well-represented at mayoral level across the island. It is also a party that represents nationalist interests. Nationalist versus national. UM versus the PSOE and the PP. This is how some are depicting this latest scandal. The wilder and plain bonkers conspiracy theorists may want to dress this all up as some collusion against the UM, but one can - legitimately I believe - wonder as to the corruption accusations levelled at senior UM members. It's like match-fixing in football. It can't really work unless the whole team, or several players, are in agreement. Are we really to believe that so many have been engaged in a collusion of their own? It would seem we have to, because this is what is entailed. If so, then this - the UM - is a party that cannot be trusted and that deserves to be blasted into the far reaches of the political universe. But then, that is what some might want.

Another conclusion is that elements within the party appear to have been acting like some sort of self-interested masonic lodge. Funny handshakes and looking after their own. While politicians of other parties are clearly not immune to the temptations afforded by Mallorcan and Balearic politics, the UM, one could argue, is more tight-knit, more indicative of the ties within the islands' society, more prone to looking after its own and to touting its services in return for feathering its nest with ill-gotten, misappropriated gains. Reagan may have had a point. There again, nothing has yet been proved. And there is that nagging feeling that ... .


QUIZ
Today's title - "Nothing Has Been Proved". Surely had this before, given Mallorca's politics, but it's a cracker - and is?

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

De-Sastre - Corruption at the tourism institute

The corruption scandal that has engulfed the Inestur tourism institute threatens to swallow more than just a few named politicians; it could take with it the Unió Mallorquina (UM) party and indeed the regional government. Following the arrests of the director general of Inestur and of Joan Sastre, the head of tourism promotion in the government, the police have now detained our old friend Miquel Nadal - ex-tourism minister - in connection with the Inestur action, known as Operation Vulture (Operación Voltor). The vultures are circling, spying the carrion that is the UM and the government.

President Antich has been backed into a corner not of his making. He may have been criticised for not doing so before, but now he has sacked all the UM ministers in his government, while the heads of the Council of Mallorca and Palma town hall have done likewise where UM councillors are concerned. One of these - Nadal, forced to quit as minister because of the Son Oms corruption case - had the temerity to stay on as a Palma councillor. He isn't any longer. The UM has been left utterly humiliated and discredited. Many of its leading lights are either under arrest or under suspicion. How it can continue as a viable party must be open to some doubt - certainly in the short term.

Antich intends to continue to govern, but in minority, with only the left-wing Bloc as a coalition ally. The UM has been booted out. Whether Antich can limp on is also open to some question, but he wants to avoid what may become inevitable - an early election.

There are innumerable practical issues that face Antich, only one of them being his ability to govern. Foremost is what the hell he can do with the tourism ministry. At a time when all hands are needed to man the pumps of the islands' tourism promotion, he is left with no head of tourism promotion (Sastre) and no minister for tourism. Spare a thought for poor old Miquel Ferrer. No sooner had he got his feet under the desk at the ministry, than he's been told to pack up his stuff and clear off. And he's meant to be one of the good guys. Another minister, Enviro Man Grimalt, implicated in a previous and ongoing case, has also been shown the door.

The president is due to announce a reduction in ministries. He has got a whole mess on his plate and a whole mess of things he needs to do, but now - surely - he will grab the tourism brief himself. What he, and the rump government, cannot afford is to allow even more uncertainty where the industry is concerned.

Antich is now getting a kicking. Though his own party, the PSOE, is not caught up in the scandals, it is the ruling the party, and Antich - so it is argued - should have acted earlier to oust the UM. Perhaps so, but he had his majority to consider. What he has attempted to do is to continue with the status quo of the coalition, whilst at the same time being undemined by the rotten status of his key coalition partners. There will doubtless be calls for an election, but where ultimately does that get anyone if the problem is less one of politics but more one of a thoroughly nasty streak of greed, power, nepotism and favours that runs through the Mallorcan culture? It is Mallorcan society that stands accused as much as its political system. Inestur, Son Oms, these have been spectacular scandals even by the corrupt-ridden standards (sic) of Mallorcan life, but who is to say they won't be repeated? It's not as if they are new. What is, is the sheer scale.

The tourism industry outside of Mallorca is said to be concerned. Concerned? You bet it is. Or should be. Aghast, perplexed, horrified. Only some days ago at the Fitur exhibition in Madrid, tour operators and others would have been glad-handing Joan Sastre. They have every right to wonder what the hell is going on. The comings and goings at the tourism ministry and the extraordinary nature of the scandals and of the people involved are farcical. Or they would be were they not so tragic. For this reason, as much as for practical purposes, Antich should take over. He may have lost credibility with some, but who on earth else is there to represent the islands at such a crucial time for the local tourism industry?

The UM's latest leader, Josep Melià, is blaming Antich for breaking the pact and for acting unilaterally. What other choice did he have? It is the UM that has brought the situation about, or at least several of its leading members have. But there will still be hints that this is all somehow a conspiracy, one aimed at blasting the UM into political oblivion. It doesn't seem to need any help in this, yet there is one thing that occurs, and it is this. When Nadal was forced to quit as tourism minister, there were various possible successors, one of them was Sastre. A UM representative, a member of the government, the holder of a position in the tourism ministry, he had, it seemed, all the right credentials to take over from Nadal, given that the UM held the ministry as part of the coalition agreement. Instead, Ferrer was appointed, for no better reason than he had been mayor of a town that is an important tourist resort. Yet, he had never operated at the level he was then propelled into. Sastre on the other hand had and was doing so. Why, therefore, was Sastre overlooked? Did someone know something?

* Note on the title: De-Sastre. The word for disaster in Spanish is "desastre".


QUIZ
Yesterday: "Close To The Front", Amy Winehouse, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oPslmsH7hA.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

I Love All The Bickering - Muro's former mayor

An era of political bickering has come to an end. So says "The Diario" in a comment related to the case of the former mayor of Muro, Miquel Ramis, who has been disqualified from public office for a period of ten years. The bickering refers to years of squabbles between Ramis and the most recently retired mayor, Jaume Perelló, while the basis for the disqualification surrounds a charge of "prevaricación" levelled at Ramis in respect of - you might have guessed it - planning and construction infraction. The "prevaricación" is a common charge in Spain. It means basically what the word does in English - a transgression through concealment. There are other public figures who have been accused thus, such as Joan Mesquida, now the national government secretary of state for tourism, but formerly the director-general of the Guardia in the Balearics.

Without boring you with the details of the case against Ramis, it boiled down to the involvement of a construction company that was owned by a partner of Ramis's in the Alcúdia Suite hotel apartments in Playa de Muro. Ramis is the president of Grupotel, of which the Alcúdia Suite is a part. The political dimension was the rivalry between the Unió Mallorquina party, of which Perelló was a member, and the Convergència Democràtica Murera (CDM), a local Muro off-shoot of the Partido Popular, and a party founded by ... Miquel Ramis. Perelló was involved with the charges against Ramis, "crossing swords" with Ramis in tribunals investigating planning infractions. The "prevarication" actually occurred in 2006, when Ramis was mayor, even if the origins of the case went back to 1997.

The current mayor of Muro, Martí Fornés, said after the disqualification was announced that it was a "pity that a small stain" should have blotted the reputation of "a great mayor in many ways". Ramis may indeed have been a great mayor in many ways, but one might recall that Fornés had the full backing of Ramis in assuming the mayoral position - from Perelló - and that Fornés was once finance director of Grupotel. One might believe that a ten-year disqualification is excessive if the case against Ramis revolved around something that was merely indicative of a small stain.

The bickering was more than just a case of lobbing accusations and political spats. It was fomented against a background of personal fiefdoms, of who - if you like - runs, or ran, the town. It was good, old-fashioned local politics at its best, or worst if you prefer. But this still rumbles on in the sense that not everyone in Muro is necessarily enamoured of the golf development, prime movers behind which are Grupotel. A curiosity, as "The Diario" points out, is that Muro is currently governed by a coalition of the CDM, the UM and the Partido Popular, leader of which is Nofre Plomer, another Muro grandee and an old ally of Ramis. Maybe they have been able to put the old bickering to one side, but you wouldn't necessarily bank on it.


Real Mallorca heading for administration
Poor old Real Mallorca. It just gets worse. The club's interim president has taken the first step towards placing the club into administration. A period of three months will now follow a declaration of the club's insolvency before a judge, a period during which the management will seek some accord with its various creditors. If this is unsuccessful, there will be a month's prolongation, at the end of which administration would be the result. The timing of the declaration before the judge is not without significance. The four months would take the process up to the end of the football season. The club may yet avoid relegation on account of its parlous financial position, and relegation would be massively unjust for a team that has performed surprisingly well given the off-field crisis.
The club's president has, meantime, been in discussion with the regional government's president. One outcome of this is that the government may take over as club sponsors. "The Bulletin" referred to this the other day, though it said the "Mallorca government". There is no such thing; it is either the Balearic regional government or the Council of Mallorca. Either way, if any government is going to start piling in with some cash for the club, then it could well be asked what the hell it's playing at. Why should government intervene with a club that has been so mis-managed and which is so poorly supported? It is not a club for the majority of Mallorcans, or anything like it. Nor is it somehow emblematic, in a way that a Barcelona is. The government might perceive some involvement with a new "strategic plan" as a way of garnering electoral support from supporters, but their numbers are hardly great. And one, inevitably, comes back to the question as to why no serious buyer has emerged over the past couple of years. It's because it's not really worth anything, despite the remarkable efforts of the team and the coach Manzano who is almost certain to leave at the end of the season, come what may.

Make the most of it, any football fans in Mallorca. What is left of this season might be your last chance.


Inestur corruption case - arrests
A director general in the current regional government, Antoni Oliver, has been dismissed from the government and arrested by police investigating the allegations of corruption surrounding Inestur. He was previously the managing director of the tourism institute. The director general of tourism promotion at the government, Joan Sastre, has also been detained, as have two businesspeople in Pollensa - owners of Viajes Pollença Balear. Oliver and Sastre are members of which party? Yep, the Unió Mallorquina. Here we go again.

QUIZ
Yesterday: Jon Secada, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yfu9egNOdA. Today's title: "I love all the bickering" comes from someone hugely soulful with big hair.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Just Another Day - tourism scene and corruption

Here's a potentially useful addition to the coverage in "The Bulletin" - a regular thing on tourism. You might wonder why there hasn't been such a column before. If you haven't wondered, I most certainly have. Amidst the pages of questionable relevance and of British and international politics, there are few that actually deal with issues of direct relevance to Mallorca. Tourism is not exactly irrelevant. But now there is a column, of sorts. It is in the form of an interview with the paper's tame tour operator chappie, the guy from the Co-Op-Monarch-Cosmos group. The first one is not uninteresting, albeit that it says much that is fairly obvious or known.

The same chap was recently reported in the paper as saying that bookings to Mallorca were down by some 15%. At the time (25 January: I'm Anti, Fly Me), I questioned whether this would continue to prove to be the case, and continue to prove it has not - the current fall is around half that figure, while - in all likelihood - there will ultimately prove to be no fall and possibly even a slight increase. It isn't really tourist industry rocket science to suggest that there will be later bookings that contribute to a reasonable, if not spectacular, tourism season. The Turkish situation is an interesting aspect that will play a part in this. There is under-supply in Turkey and, just as importantly, prices have gone up there. I read on a forum someone saying that prices were "outrageous"; that person was looking for a villa in Mallorca as an alternative. Something that may have escaped many of the doom-mongers is the enduring strength of the Mallorca brand and product, despite the tourism authorities' best attempts at trying to undermine it or to not promote it adequately. One thing the tour operators know is that they can get that supply, which they cannot necessarily obtain elsewhere.

To have a regular feature is a good enough idea; to give some facts is a good enough idea. To have an industry insider supplying the information is also a good enough idea, but it is only one insider and one who represents a specific company. Inevitably, there might be a bit of a "take" on matters that are - how should one say it - skewed towards that company. But don't let me get too critical. It is a useful addition, but even more so would be a real feature or column, one that takes the insider information and forms a discussion, one that might be - dare I say it - rather more journalistic. Heaven knows, there is enough cracking off in the island's tourism industry to fill a paper, let alone just one page. And, slightly tangential but still within the industry orbit, comes the oh-no-not-more-of-it moment. Corruption. This time it is Inestur. Which is? The Balearics institute for tourism strategy, an institute within the ambit of the regional government's ministry of tourism. An investigation is now under way into this institute. The facts are not yet clear, nor is it clear if any alleged corruption refers to the current ministry administration - under the Unió Mallorquina party - or the previous one of the Partido Popular. It hardly seems to matter any longer. Just another day in Mallorca. Another day, another corruption allegation. And this time, tourism's in the front line. Regular feature. Yep. The daily scandal feature.


QUIZ
Yesterday: "Riders On The Storm", The Doors, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKbPUzhWeeI. Today's title: could be a few, but this one - Cuban-American - had a gold seller with "Just Another Day".


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Riders On The Strom - Cyclists return

And so things start to come to life. Unlike the first swallows of summer, the first cuckoos of late winter and the phoney early spring emerge in their cocoons, strapped and wrapped in lycra and clip-clopping across the floors of the supermarkets, sports drinks in hand and then barking to each other along the roads of the north. The cyclists are a-gathering once more, the Tour of Mallorca is not far off, but mostly these two-wheelers are the German and Swiss fanatics, keen-eyed, skin-face-taut, wind-and-weather-beaten like yachties, visions of facial health contrasted with the pasty, winter visages, the frumpy fizzogs of the locals. By the pointed thing roundabout, the boundary between the town and Playa de Muro, Alcúdia town hall has erected a special welcome poster of the cycling world in motion. Welcome, "willkommen", and then as they make the return trip, leave the municipality and enter Muro, the cyclists are sent off with a hope that they will be seen soon - till soon, "bis bald" in German. Piss off, baldy, might the odd, unsympathetic driver cry, and don't come back any time soon. On their two wheels, the much- and oft-cursed riders on the "Strom" ** are the current that sparks the early season, ignites activity among the first-mover bars and restaurants. Restaurant Boy will be "abierto" 9 February, opening its plastic-sheeted terrace to the Max-Hürzeler-ites of a nearby Playa de Muro Iberostar, moistening the Weizenbier glasses, flaming the grill under marinaded lumps of fleshy protein. Elsewhere, non-cycling-route bars are making their preparations; new shelving for the kitchen, sprucing up tables and chairs. The hibernation, the long sleep of post-October is a passing slumber of inertia and survival. Hope springs, or rather, late-winters eternal. Despite the mood of pessimism that depresses the long sleep period, optimism - muted maybe - begins to course through veins woken by some activity, any activity that is the pre-season.

It's starting again.


Note: for those of you not up to speed with the German, "Strom" means electricity or current.


QUIZ
And riders on the strom should be ...?

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Losing Their Religion - religious study in Mallorca

Good news for Mallorcan agnostics. Religious education is less popular than it was. The Balearics have fewer students taking religion than any other autonomous region in Spain. And for religion, read Catholicism. There is a vast discrepancy between private and public educational institutions and between primary, secondary and the higher level of the Baccalaureate, but the trend for religious education is downwards. Less than 15% of those in public secondary schools undertake such study.

There are various reasons being advanced as to this growing irreligiousness among the youth of Mallorca and the islands, such as other courses and a growing cosmopolitan population, but the findings of the ministry of education seem indisputable - religion, Catholicism, is in retreat, at secondary school anyway.

Is this so surprising? Why the Balearics might be less religious than elsewhere is curious, but the islands are subject to the same dynamics as elsewhere in Spain, these dynamics - for the young - being what you might expect: youth culture, normal adolescent rebellion, and the like. The findings might be good news for agnostics, but they don't necessarily mean that religion and Catholicism are in a freefall of disinterest. However, there are other dynamics, not least of which are political. Spain, and the Balearics, have been kicked into greater secularism on the back of social reforms, those that have caused outrage among the conservative, Catholic right - itself a natural target of rejection for the young. These reforms - liberalised abortion, gay rights, easier divorce, assisted suicide (possibly) - sit unwell with that conservativism, but they are in tune with a modern societal impulse propelled by the Zapatero administration which has, some say, been hell-bent on a collision course with the Church.

While attitudes of the young may well continue into adulthood, there is - perhaps - one factor that endures and which favours an essential religiosity, and that it is the family. Religious studies may be in decline, but the traditions that surround families' rites of passage - from baptism through the communion to marriage - do not necessarily show signs of being undermined. Nor does the power of the family, despite the liberality of gay marriage or termination.

Nevertheless, it is undeniable that strong criticism is reserved for the Church, especially among younger Mallorcans, those into adulthood. It is seen as an obstacle and even anachronistic. It has also, thanks to the publicity surrounding the law of historic memory and the rejection of all things Franco, been exposed - for many - as a reactionary force, supporting nationalism and authoritarianism during the Civil War and its aftermath.

For outside observers, such as myself, one from an irreligious background, the trappings of some local religion seem bizarre, such as the zeal of aspirants to the role of Santa Margalida's Beata, young-ish girls lining up for a public, fiesta statement of modern-day sainthood and devil rejection. It's easy to see such a tradition as oddly quaint, but tradition does still pervade - up to a point. The fiesta, and its religious basis, has undergone a transformation. There is a debate in Palma regarding the San Sebastià fiesta - whether it should actually be held in summer, rather than winter, and also whether it has gone too far in the direction of being some youth-fest of rock bands and DJs. For the Mallorcan young, many of them, fiesta is not a religious celebration, but an opportunity to get off their face and to dance to the pagan of the turntable and mix. Ironic, but the religious justification of the fiesta in its current-day party guise may have actually done as much, if not more, than Spanish politics to have diminished religious studies and religion - period.


QUIZ
Yesterday: Goldfrapp, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEV7IhRw8Ck.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Happiness - Mallorca tourism promotion

How to win tourists and influence people. Smiling, happy people having fun. It starts at the top of the tourism trade and filters down, reminiscent of days when there was so much more of a personal touch, barbecues on beaches and even the local Guardia coming along and joining in. So recalls ... . So recalls someone who needs to win tourists and influence people. Smiling, happy person. There, on the front page of yesterday's "Bulletin". A sullen Frank Langella as Nixon? No, this is the head of the Mallorca tourist board. Smiling, happy person, winning tourists and influencing people. Why oh why use a photo of someone who looks so terminally hacked off?

Pedro Iriondo, president of the Balearics travel agents association and founder of the agency Viajes Kontiki in 1974, became head of the tourism board at the end of last year. He has been a member of the board's ruling committee for several years and had been its vice-president since 2005. Here he was, granting an interview, which unfortunately says little that we don't already know: why don't the shops open in Palma on a Sunday; the competition that is Turkey and Egypt; the reliance upon tourism in Mallorca; the need to exploit golf and other niches, such as nautical tourism; and the need to work closely with tour operators. I'm sure that Sr. Iriondo has some fine ideas, but the interview was thoroughly depressing; a re-hash of what we know to be the case and a distinct sense of the impotent. Take all-inclusives. He doesn't approve, but accepts that there has been a market change. What we already know, and what we already know cannot be put back into the bottle. What we already know, that it is the tour operators who hold the whip-hand.

Iriondo has taken over from Alvaro Middelmann as president of what is known as the Fomento del Turismo. While referred to as the Mallorca Tourist Board, it is a private, non-governmental body. The promotion of Mallorca and the Balearics, via the government, is handled by the tourism institute IBATUR. The board is thus, as it says on its website, "a forum where everyone in tourism on the island can come and debate important issues, policies and decide on a future tourism strategy". It continues by referring to the need for "forward thinking, consensual solutions for our future", and by "our" one takes this to mean the island's whole tourism industry. The Fomento can lay claim to being the oldest tourist board in Europe. It is, therefore, a body of some not inconsiderable significance and influence. But in its, if you like, mission statement, one comes back to an issue regarding who or which bodies actually drive "future tourism strategy". Is it the government or the private sector? And if it is the latter, then which parts of it?

At the conclusion of the interview, Iriondo says that "we've go to sort out our prices, provide better quality and revive the personal touch". Fine. But where does the impulse come from to do so and how can these things be done? In the interview, he refers to the fact that it is difficult to provide good product at low cost, unlike some competitor countries, to the fact that the personal touch has been lost because of the expansion in size of hotels, and to the know-how of Mallorca's hotel groups - several of which can be credited with having high quality, yet which are also, through the export of know-how and their own international ambitions, contributing to the development of competitor destinations. Take a look, for instance, at the Iberostar site and its five-star Bellis complex in Turkey. But to come back to where that impulse might come from, it is worth taking account of the composition of the tourism board's ruling body - three major hotel chains as well as the association of hotel chains, the associations for yacht clubs, golf courses and restaurants, a bank, a car-hire firm ... one could go on. If that lot can't sort something out, then who can.

Mallorca, and the Balearics, have experienced difficult times in the past, and the Fomento has acted in the past to revive the island's tourism at times of recession. So it has something of a track record, but Sr. Iriondo believes that the current recession is "different" to previous ones, impacting hard on employment and the tourism industry as a whole and highlighting the economic reliance on tourism. He sees the need for more and more promotion, yet the promotional budget - the government's - has been reduced.

It all, I'm afraid, does add to that rather depressing image. Forward thinking, consensual strategies. Indeed. But rather than an appraisal of what we know, it might be nice to learn what we don't - those strategies in other words, and who exactly is going to implement them.


"The Bulletin" also reported on the launch of ABC Menorca (Association of British Companies Menorca). This really does look like something potentially quite impressive and of significance, certainly given the array of organisations and individuals who were present at the launch. Despite the scepticism referred to the other day, this body does seem, within terms of its British-market remit, to have broad support from other business groups and indeed at governmental level. It is a very different beast to the association that sprang out of Calvia at the end of 2008. But it has one important similarity, in that it is evidence of people taking an interest, becoming involved and looking to do their best for businesses. It should be applauded, and if it crosses into Mallorca, then it could also prove to be a force for good.


QUIZ
Yesterday: For example, Pentangle, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFGRnUzfOEI. Today's title: "Happiness". Brilliant, a blog favourite band, some say duo. Oh, and it's not Ken Dodd.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Will The Circle Be Unbroken? - Unemployment in the Balearics

The psychological barrier has been breached, but the regional government would like to suggest that it has not been. The national statistics office would beg to differ. According to it, unemployment in the Balearics has not only crossed the 100,000 Rubicon, it has embarked on the invasion and is scaling the ramparts. Ok, this is an over-statement; it's not as if a point of no return has been arrived at, but it sure as hell must feel like it to those in the dole queues. The statistics office maintains that the number out of work stands at 112,000, one in ten - approximately - of the islands' population. Or to put it another way, at just under 20%, one in five of the registered working population, and that figure doesn't take account of the self-employed who are also feeling the pinch.

The government reckons that unemployment has peaked. It may have, for the time being, though an improvement in figures is unlikely to show up for some while, until seasonal employment kicks in. Even that, however, disguises the true picture, and that is the lack of employment opportunities which summer work only helps to obscure. Recession has exacerbated the situation, clearly it has, but it has also exposed the fault lines of the local economy - ones that should have been obvious to anyone, even politicians, seduced by the boom times but apparently incapable of counteracting seasonality.

The national government, meanwhile, is flailing around, desperate to find any measure that might reduce its massive budget deficit and to assure the markets that the Spanish economy is not the same basket case as Greece's; oh how the temporarily mighty have fallen. One ploy is to raise the pension age to 67. Fine, assuming there's any work for the 65 year-olds to continue with. Another is to increase indirect taxation. For an island - Mallorca - and a nation for which tax avoidance is a past-time, this is insane. It might, questionably, mollify the markets, but it will do nothing for employment creation.

Mr. Bean is cutting an ever more awkward figure. When elected for his second term in 2008, Sr. Zapatero had promised full employment. There wasn't a hope in hell's chance of that, especially not as the crisis began to consume everything in its path. And even were there "full employment", what would it look like? A few months work as a waiter and then back to the off-season dole queues, paid for by the burdensome levels of social security that are a brake on much employment creation. Were there to be an election now, chances are that the PSOE would be obliterated, bringing into office - by default - the singularly uninspiring figure of the PP's climate-change-denying Mariano Rajoy. You might remember him; he's the one with a relative who holds a position in a university who doesn't reckon much to the climate-change argument, and so Mariano used that as the basis for his own argument. That's about as good as it gets.

But also meanwhile, Sr. Zapatero can at least walk the European stage during Spain's EU presidency term. The central government's science and innovation minister has announced, as part of the programme for the presidency, that research and development and innovation should be at the heart of European recovery. Good for her. Ah yes, innovation, technology, research and development. Now, wasn't there something about all that two or three years back? Not from Madrid, but from the regional government. Whatever happened, do you suppose? Could it be that funding just had to be diverted to bolstering the rust-bowl industries - construction and hotels during time of crisis? Industries that are at the heart of Mallorca's seasonality. And so it goes around, and around, and around, the circle remaining unbroken.

QUIZ
Yesterday: A-ha, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAhY2tV5wlc. Today's title: take your pick as to the circle.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.


Index for January 2010

Airport management by local government - 25 January 2010
Association of British Companies Menorca - 28 January 2010
Capdepera alternative tourism - 6 January 2010
Ciudadanos Europeos - 17 January 2010
Constructors unpaid by town halls - 26 January 2010
England versus Mallorca in winter - 4 January 2010
English standards in Mallorca - 23 January 2010
Environmental care, lack of - 15 January 2010
Fiestas - 14 January 2010, 15 January 2010, 16 January 2010, 19 January 2010, 22 January 2010
Francesc Antich - 13 January 2010, 25 January 2010
GOB - 30 January 2010
Hiper car rental in administration - 29 January 2010
IVA increase and tourism - 21 January 2010
Jardín restaurant, Alcúdia - 5 January 2010
Miquel Capllonch - 10 January 2010
Miquel Ferrer's tourism boldness - 22 January 2010
Miquel Llompart, new mayor of Alcúdia - 9 January 2010, 18 January 2010
Muro golf course - 29 January 2010, 30 January 2010
Pi de Ternelles accident - 19 January 2010
Pollensa street cleaning - 29 January 2010
Real Mallorca - 5 January 2010, 15 January 2010
Sant Antoni - 14 January 2010, 15 January 2010, 16 January 2010, 19 January 2010
Sant Sebastià in Pollensa - 22 January 2010
Santa Margalida town hall - 8 January 2010
Smoking law, new - 5 January 2010, 20 January 2010, 21 January 2010, 22 January 2010
Thomas Cook advertising - 12 January 2010
Three Kings - 7 January 2010
Tourism a priority - 25 January 2010
Town hall information provision - 16 January 2010, 18 January 2010
Town hall spends - 11 January 2010, 26 January 2010
Unemployment in the Balearics - 31 January 2010
Unió Mallorquina new leader - 5 January 2010, 27 January 2010
Webcams and surveillance - 24 January 2010
World Cup song - 19 January 2010
Zapatero and the price of coffee - 21 January 2010

Cry Wolf - Muro's golf course

As sure as night follows day, so GOB objects to the Muro golf course. As sure as yesterday I referred to the payment of the tax being the final obstacle overcome in starting work on the course, so it could have been anticipated that the pressure group would exert some pressure to create a new obstacle. GOB is going back to an agreement in 2001 that effectively grouped the site of the course, the Son Bosc finca, with neighbouring Albufera as a protected area of environmental value, an agreement that was broken by the government of Jaume Matas in 2003. In retracing steps, yet again, GOB is levelling responsibility at President Antich (who was president in 2001) for not having "lifted a finger" to stop the work now going ahead.

Where or when does all this stop? The arguments have been going on for that long that GOB can indeed bring up something nine years old. Look back at maps for Playa de Muro of several years vintage or more, and you are likely to see "Golf" represented; it was there because it had been anticipated, years ago. It is fair enough that developments are no longer just bulldozed into being with disregard to opposing views or to environmental issues, but the bulldozers are soon going to be rumbling over Son Bosc, and there is little that GOB can do about it, short of gaining some sort of injunction. Its main political allies appear to be the Mallorcan socialists (PSM) who are trying to make things tough for the environment ministry (which has given the go-ahead) and which is headed by the Unió Mallorquina. Always the UM, seen as the devils of current scandals and the great devils of more and more golf. The PSM wants the ministry to act "urgently" in preventing the work. It won't.

It is in the nature of pressure groups which defend nature to object to just about anything, and GOB is no different. It does much that is good, but it creates its own problems by its constant wolf-crying, as does the enviro lobby as a whole which does itself no favours by coming up with ideas that are just plain bonkers, such as giving the coast road between Alcúdia and Puerto Pollensa back to beach and nature. In truth, the biggest environmental battles have probably been lost, just go and look at Can Picafort's frontline where once there were dunes and forest which served as natural safeguards against sea encroachment. GOB fights the good fight, and its fights can sometimes be justified, but, as ever with single-issue groups with loud voices, how representative is it of the democratic process? It has been said that GOB should front up and join the established political process.

The Muro golf course may be of questionable value in terms of whether it is actually needed, but the environmental issues have been addressed. GOB, and the PSM, should just get over it, and, in GOB's case, move on to the next battle-ground. The course will be built. Long live the golf course of Muro! (I say that with some irony, as some of you may know from previous postings that I don't believe there is a case for it - in terms of demand.)


QUIZ
Today: which group did "Cry Wolf"?


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Chestnuts Roasting - Street cleaning and golf

A couple of old local chestnuts are being given a further roasting: one that has been long on the brazier and remains so, the other we all thought had been thoroughly cooked and eaten. They are - the street cleaning of Pollensa and the golf course in Muro. Yep, one more time for both of them. Here we go ...


Pollensa's street cleaning goes hi-tech
Pollensa town hall is to double its investment on street cleaning, bringing the annual spend up to 800,000 euros. For a cash-strapped and indebted town hall this represents a far from insignificant increase. The latest round of tendering for the cleaning gig is in progress, and so presumably there will be a contractor in place before long that does actually have a contract.

In return for this increased spend, the good people of Pollensa can now expect to be asked their opinions as to the levels of service. Dependent upon satisfaction findings, the new contractor will be subject to variable payments. Low satisfaction and they don't get so much. Performance payments in other words. How novel. Moreover, the town hall is to introduce a system of real-time monitoring, via satellite positioning technology, of worker activity and frequency of cleaning. And there I was, mentioning the other day the apparently questionable privacy legal issues with webcams. Someone's going to be watching you, fellas! Now, there's an idea, add a webcam to the satellite monitoring, and everyone can watch the dog mess being swept up. They could integrate the opinion surveys and make those function in real time as well. Vote now for the chap doing the pinewalk - marks out of ten! One could then also watch the amounts being paid - or not - to the contractor, like a Comic Relief running total, but bearing in mind that investments can go down as well as up.


And finally ... finally they're building the golf course in Muro
Work on the golf course in Muro is due to now start in the next couple of weeks. You might be forgiven for having thought that it had already started and that all the final impediments to the course's creation had been overcome. Indeed it had been reported, as long ago as 3 September last year, that work was set to begin during September. The delay seems to have had nothing to do with the endless debates about rare orchids and other environmental matters that had so taxed many, mainly the enviro pressure group GOB, but with the payment of a tax, some 170 grand to the town hall. This money, to be coughed up by the developers, was, we were led to believe, meant to have found its way into the emptying coffers of Muro town hall all those months ago, but has only now been handed over. Which does make one ask why there has been such a delay. There again, the debate regarding the building of the course has gone on for that long that a few months more won't make much of a difference. And no-one will actually be teeing-off in Muro for some time yet. At least two years, possibly longer. Doubtless we can now anticipate beardies prostrating themselves in front of bulldozers in order to protect the orchids. Not that they need to, as the protection of rare flora on the Son Bosc finca is a condition of the development, and the developers have - for the duration of the work - engaged a firm of environmental consultants who will presumably ensure that the environmental conditions are indeed adhered to.


Hiper in administration
On a different tack ... The car-hire sector, the one that has caused and is still causing much heat because of increased rental charges, has received a bit of a shock. Hiper, considered the leading Mallorcan car-rental company, has gone into administration (the meaning, effectively, of "concurso voluntario de acreedores"). Resolution with banks is hoped for - within two weeks - and the company is continuing to operate. One to watch.


QUIZ
Yesterday: Obvious, it was The Association, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJFHLmTz4RI.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Windy - British business associations

Associations. Always associations. They are hardly novel, yet "The Bulletin" describes an association formed in Menorca as being just that: "a novel way of beating the recession". This is ABC Menorca, the Association of British Companies Menorca. It will work with other associations, with the Council of Menorca, look to expand into Mallorca and, perhaps crucially, be a member of the Balearic Business Confederation. Though styled, clearly, as an association for British-run businesses, the intention is that any business with British clients could join.

Here we go again - perhaps. Towards the end of 2008 there was a fair amount of publicity for a British and Irish business association formed in Calvia; I spoke about it here, even met a couple of the prime movers. It never got off the ground, a problem - as I understood it - being some relatively small funding from the Council of Mallorca that was not forthcoming. This association also seemed, to me, to be not so far removed from ESRA in that it had a social and charitable agenda; one with a solely business focus would be, well, more focussed.

An association - such as that being formed in Menorca - seems a good idea, but as it is open to any business with a British interest and were it to embrace, in a significant fashion, Menorcan-run businesses and businesses owned by other nationalities, then how different would it be to other business associations? In a comment by the paper's editor, we are told that Mallorca needs a similar association, one that could "advise local authorities on the best way to help the British market". This, seemingly, would be the difference, though quite what this means isn't stated.

There is a risk. It was one expressed to me by a British business owner when that Calvia-based association was around; namely that indigenous Spanish businesses would see it as a threat which could cause polarisation and antagonism. A generally held view, among many British owners, is that it is better to keep their heads down and get on with running their businesses. When, last summer, I spoke with British bar owners in Alcúdia who were expressing their concerns as to various issues in the resort, they did not want to be identified. To do so might, in their view, have exposed them to, how can one put it, some comeback.

It is the need to be running businesses that is a further obstacle to such an association. Most owners have little interest outside of their own affairs; they also have little time to devote to something like an association. It is revealing to note in the report that businesses currently involved are in the real estate and nautical sectors; businesses, in other words, of a more professional level of organisation than your average bar, which might be able to give time to an outside body.

Where I would agree with "The Bulletin" is in the observation that there are British businesspeople with good ideas (to help Mallorca), but who lack a direct link to the authorities - mainly the tourism ones - that might enable these ideas to be expressed. Perhaps the Menorca association, or an equivalent in Mallorca, might be a conduit to facilitate this. But then, there are any number of bodies - at town or island level - which could, were they inclined to do so, invite or co-opt representatives of British businesses and the British market onto committees to offer their ideas. One has to ask why they don't. Maybe the suggestion has never been made, or maybe those authorities would rather not listen. Yes, there almost certainly are good ideas to be offered, and this association may well indeed prove to be the way of making them heard. We'll see.


As a footnote. The paper's report refers to a launch on Friday, yet a report of the association's first meeting dates back to the start of June last year. Maybe there's a re-launch. The paper also did not go into detail as to the people behind the association, other than mentioning the name of Colin Guanaria. Who he? The founder of Bonnin Sanso, the estate agency. A serious player, in other words, and one who does - or should - give confidence that this association could indeed be a force, despite any misgivings outlined above.


QUIZ
Yesterday: Chuck Berry, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4TyR492qSs. Today: well, it is "Windy" - very much so at the moment - but what's the song's link to associations?

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

No Particular Place - The Unió Mallorquina's internal strife

Politically, the English "ite" is a Spanish "ista". For Blairite or Thatcherite, read, within the warring ranks of the nationalist party in Mallorca, "Nadalistas" or "Munaristas" or indeed "istas" of no particular name. The no-particular-istas have won the battle if not necessarily the war, that of the heart and soul of the Unió Mallorquina party. They have got their man - Josep Melià - who has been confirmed as the new president of the party; the fourth in less than four years, following Mother Munar and two Micks, Nadal and Flaquer, all three of them implicated in corruption cases. Melià has hardly won a ringing endorsement; the vote in his favour was close. He has, as has his rival, one of the former tourism ministers Buils, made the right sort of noises regarding a new phase and stability for the party, but it is unlikely to be anything of the sort. The UM is ripping itself apart on the rocks of internecine strife and the fall-out from the corruption charges.

There is an ideological battle being waged within the UM, one that goes back to the succession process when Mother moved over to become speaker of parliament. It is one of Palma-ism versus the regions, one of right versus centre, one of old ways versus new and one of support for discredited politicians versus those not implicated by scandal. One has, of course, to be fair. No-one has been found guilty, but mud sticks, and the right of the party, identifiable with Nadal and Munar, is setting itself up for discredit by association by maintaining support for Nadal and Munar and for a political mindset that the "new way" wishes to sweep away.

It is never as simple as it might seem, given that the party's Palma-ism garners its own support in the regions, but the northern UM faction - that of former Alcúdia mayor Ferrer and his successor and of Pollensa's mayor Cerdà - represents a more modern form of Mallorcan nationalism, one of the centre and liberalism, that failed to win support when Munar stepped down, but that has now come to the fore. Ferrer, it should be recalled, was Nadal's opponent in the Munar succession fight. Nadal, a Palma councillor, had Munar's backing, as did Buils in the latest vote.

The "Diario" journalist Matías Vallés savaged Nadal and Munar in the paper yesterday. He described Nadal as "ineffable" and compared Munar to Gloria Swanson, hankering for a time when justice was "voiceless" in Mallorca and presiding over her own political funeral. Both have been charged with egoism by their opponents of the new way. It is hard to fathom quite how they can have been seen to have been taking active roles in the latest leadership election, given the ongoing cases against them. It is hard also to fathom the thinking of their supporters, who might be better advised to create some clear blue water. But there is always "innocent until proven guilty" as well as there are enduring motivations of power struggles that any political party is subject to.

Does the fighting have any real relevance though? The UM, though well represented at mayoral level across the island, only finds itself in the governmental spotlight because of the need for coalition. It does have a role to play, therefore. As tourism minister, Ferrer, it might be said, holds the second most important post in the regional government, after the president. But set against the two big parties - the PSOE and Partido Popular (which, some in the UM idiotically claim, have conspired to bring about the corruption charges) - the UM is something of a sideshow. The party has never truly succeeded in making itself a force, partly because it is has not always been clear what it stands for. There is more than a slight sense that it is a sort of flag of convenience for politicians disinclined to ally with the two main parties, especially with the PP which occupies similar political territory in certain respects; a flag of convenience that might be the springboard to satisfy political ambition that might otherwise not be available in a bigger party.

It is the striving for some clarity that is the political debate within the party, one overshadowed by the corruption cases, and the "big thing" informing this debate is to try and shape the UM in the mould of the CiU or PNV, i.e. the centrist and liberal nationalist parties in Catalonia and the Basque country. It is this, perhaps more than anything, that the no-particular-istas want to achieve. Though neither of these parties is militant, they do, nevertheless, herald from regions with a long history of nationalist sentiment; indeed the two regions most clearly associated with historical opposition to a unified Spain. This is not, for one moment, to suggest anything sinister, but it is to suggest that the UM may be willing upon itself a more assertive nationalist posture, albeit one moderated with the humanist tendencies of, for example, the PNV. But unlike Catalonia and the Basque country, there is not and never has been anything of a true nationalist desire in Mallorca. Despite the rise of Catalanism, Mallorca remains an essentially conservative and passive society. Moreover, when I asked Alcúdia's new mayor about "nationalism", he was quick to point out that it wasn't some kind of Little Mallorquínism. The ambition, though, to be something akin to the PNV is almost certainly far-fetched. The PNV is not only the second oldest political party in Spain, it has also been the dominant force in Basque politics.

In seeking a "new way", the UM appears to be embarking on the local road to Damascus in attempting a definition, but one of an abstract political ideology of questionable relevance to the majority of Mallorcans. Far more important is that it distances itself from its recent and current travails, those being played out in the courts in Palma, and ensures that it is not tainted by the Nadalista and Munarista associations. In this respect, it has taken the first step.


QUIZ
Yesterday: The Jam's second album ("This Is The Modern World") and their third single ("The Modern World"), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzSJY5AbEZo. Today: "no particular place to go"; who?

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

The Modern World - Reality at the town halls

Hard on the heels of the report into the growth in town hall spends on personnel over the past decade, comes evidence that, when it comes to paying suppliers, Mallorca's town halls are far less willing to splash the cash; cash they owe against invoices raised for work done. While staffing levels have risen - in some instances by some astonishing amounts - and have clearly eaten into town halls' revenues, companies over which some of this staff have supervision are being left unpaid. And in certain instances, especially construction companies, they have gone out of business or maybe are about to. Work that has been funded by central government is being paid for, but other work - ostensibly paid for by the town halls - is not.

The suppliers are caught in the vicious credit circle. Several town halls have had to seek bank money, but the banks of course are unwilling to part with it, or not all that is being sought. Pity the poor suppliers to the likes of Pollensa and Muro town halls, where considerable debts are sloshing around and where budgets are seemingly neither supported by tax and other revenues nor by lines of credit. Pollensa's budgets for this year were described by the opposition as "science fiction"; Muro's financial situation has been portrayed as being "frightening". Pollensa was denied all the bank lending it wanted, and Muro faces a similar reluctance. Good luck, frankly, to anyone putting in an invoice to a town hall. The chances of it being paid are ... who knows?

This is not a new situation. Many town halls have reputations as being lousy payers, and have had for years. Even an administration that is relatively flush, such as Alcúdia, can take ages to cough up, with all the frustration to say nothing of harmful effects for cash flows that this can cause. Chances are, as well, that unless invoices are pro forma, the supplier has had to declare those invoices and been obliged to pay tax and IVA, despite not having received a remittance. The situation has been exacerbated by the current lack of credit. Companies, though, have taken the risk, in all probability having to seek their own credit, which may not actually be available. Without doing so, and given the importance of public building projects, local economies would all have but ground to a halt. They may yet still do so, if suppliers keep going out of business.

The president of the federation of local authorities, in an interview with "The Diario", has admitted that the town halls are causing serious problems for businesses. Joan Ferrà, himself the mayor of Puigpunyent, points out that town hall revenues are down by as much as 40%. While tax revenues are part of the story, Ferrà refers also to non-payments to the town halls and of course to the banks. He talks, vaguely, about the need for greater efficiency and effectiveness and about "good practice" when it comes to setting budgets and seeking cost cuts. To this end, he mentions fiestas and sports facilities as two areas that will have reduced spending, while staff will have to make do without using mobiles.

So, I guess our hearts should bleed for Vodafone and Movistar, as they will have reduced town hall contracts. Efficiency and effectiveness - where have we heard these words before? They were at the heart of the drive towards value for money in British public administration of the early Thatcher years. The town halls needed to increase staffing levels as they were operating from too low a basis of service, but one wonders as to how much attention has been paid to working practices. Staffs have grown like topsy, making town halls major employers, thanks to the spending frenzy of the Spanish boom years. More personnel was needed, but so also was more professionalism in terms of operational management, to which one can add factors such as inefficient working hours and departmental duplication in the governmental mini-me's that are the town halls.

So, fiestas are to be more "austere". Some already are. Pollensa cut its budget in 2009, for example. Trapped in a cycle of the traditional colliding with the modern, and in the social fabric of which the fiestas are integral, the town halls barely dare to question their fiesta spends. But the town halls have been, and remain, wasteful in this regard. Back in 2008, I asked, in the context of Can Picafort's summer fiesta, just how sustainable the fiesta was. And this was before the real impact of the crisis kicked in. The amount of money going up in flames seemed grotesque, and was made even more so when Santa Margalida town hall announced that some 300,000 more euros were to be allocated to fiestas. It was madness. Here was a town hall willing to fork out on bread and circuses while the benighted village of Son Serra lacks a decent police presence and has a vandalised sports centre. There again, sports facilities are to be deprived of money, aren't they.

The town halls are the Spanish economy in microcosm. Easy money was thrown at beefing up administrations and at creating projects. Much of this was necessary, but was approved by politicians - locally and nationally - overtaken by the thrills of growth but lacking a vision of sustainability. The national government now has its programme of economic sustainability, one that is long overdue and born out of the economic crisis. If it is to work, then different levels of government, including the town halls, are going to have get used to reduced spends, as are residents of the towns. More fundamentally, they - the town halls - are going to have to appraise their practices and priorities, as I said on 11 January. They cannot continue to operate way beyond their means, because the consequence is that suppliers don't get paid. But whether some of these suppliers should have been engaged in the first place is another question, as some of the projects have been of such deeply questionable value - like Can Ramis in Alcúdia. Ah yes, value. Value for money - efficiency and effectiveness. Welcome to the modern world.


QUIZ
Today: which group came second with the modern world?

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

I'm Anti, Fly Me - Tourism Priorities

Despite some predictions that 2010 might be worse than 2009, there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic about the coming season. The resident travel expert that "The Bulletin" short-hauls out on regular occasions - a chap from the combined Co-Op, Monarch and Cosmos group - referred the other day to factors previously mentioned here, such as issues in Turkey and increasing consumer confidence. As ever, or so it seems with the paper, there was some confusion. The article had a strap-line "Cosmos reports 43 per cent increase in Majorca holiday sales", yet nowhere in the article itself was this mentioned or was an explanation offered as to the time frame during which the increase had occurred. Maybe Cosmos has indeed experienced such an increase, but overall sales figures quoted for this year suggest a 15% reduction. Such a decline could clearly be used as evidence to support the argument that 2010 will be worse, but there are factors to take account of which might counter this - a bad summer in the UK last year and recent bad weather preventing trips to travel agencies, and, more positively, the improvement in the pound, that returning confidence and, in all likelihood, a later surge in holiday bookings.

There is a further reason for optimism - and this is that the regional government does appear to be galvanising itself. In the paper's editorial, Jason pointed to the fact that President Antich is to make tourism his top priority this year, rightly noting that he might surely have been doing this previously. Antich, in addition to announcing greater funding for tourism, has called on all government departments to get behind tourism and for it to be everyone's priority. Maybe the centimo has finally dropped. I have argued that the regional government should be restructured in such a way as to place tourism at its peak. Antich should, I believe, have grasped the nettle when Miquel Nadal was forced to resign and taken on the tourism brief himself. But if the president can persuade the rest of the political class that it, in effect, acts in support of the island's only strategic industry, then this has to be applauded - at last.

A question is, however, whether the rest of the political class will take any notice. There was a letter to "The Bulletin" a few days ago. It was questioning tourism minister Ferrer's ambitions for changes in the tourism sector, bracketing this with a reference to members of the coalition government who "have gone on record saying that they would prefer to see less (sic) foreigners here". I'm not sure who these members are, but it is the case that there have been some political voices raised against swelling tourist numbers, a sort of anti-tourism brigade that isn't. One of them belongs to Mother Munar, the matriarch of Ferrer's nationalist party, who once spoke out against an invasion of foreigners, but a member of government only in the sense that she is the speaker of parliament. (Incidentally, Mother applied her constitutional right the other day in keeping mum when she appeared before the beak investigating the corruption accusation against her.) There may well be some Little Mallorcans lurking who would prefer to turn the clock back or others who would rather Mallorca tourists were only those with bulging wallets, and these politicians may well reside in the ranks of the nationalists or parties to the left of Antich's PSOE, but there is one very important factor that none of them would wish to ignore. It is a factor which gives lie to what they may or may not allow their different ideologies to say about tourism numbers, and that is ... the airport.

Antich used the platform at the Fitur exhibition in Madrid to make not only his announcement about tourism priority but also to refer to the management of the airport by the regional government. This is, and has been, a major ambition of local politicians for some while. And why? Because it means money. And a pre-requisite for granting local management is passenger numbers. The more there are, the closer that management gets. And more passengers means more tourists. And more passengers, more tourists means more money for whatever body runs the airport because of landing and docking licences and all the rest. No politician, of whatever party, is going to thumb his nose at the potential moolah that will be forthcoming. The central government vice-president has been making positive noises about local management during a visit to Palma, which may or may not be simple politicking in support of fellow party member Antich as the regional elections approach. Presumably, Antich would see securing airport management in advance of these elections as a voting feather in his cap.

One can be cynical about the motives behind the renewed tourism drive. But airport management or no airport management, the declaration of tourism priority is an overdue statement of reality, if also an overdue statement of the bleeding obvious. In the absence of any other industry of real note, certainly given the parlous state of construction, then tourism it has to be. Now just get on with it.


QUIZ
Yesterday: The Thompson Twins, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oWfHN1rrGc.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Watching You, Watching Me - Webcams and surveillance in Mallorca

The surveillance society. It is said that the UK has the highest level of surveillance in Europe. Much of it can be deemed necessary or beneficial, much of it isn't. And so it is in Mallorca. Or rather, it isn't quite the same, as in Mallorca - and in Spain - there is a greater level of concern for the invasion of privacy.

Video surveillance was late to catch on in Mallorca. This was not a failure of technology but a legal issue. Police cameras, such as those for traffic and speeding, were also late on the scene, for a similar reason. Officially in Mallorca, there are even now only some 7000 video cameras of different sorts that are used by the police and by security companies. As "The Diario" has reported, there are many, many more cameras, most of them unregulated. A combination of the agency responsible for data protection and the police ensures that cameras used for security purposes are correctly registered. Video surveillance of property, for example, is a matter of registration by the security company that has to comply with the need to ensure that posters, informing of such surveillance, are clearly visible and also with ensuring that the cameras do not show the "public way". In other words, they "guard" properties, their access points and grounds.

When you take into account government buildings, banks and some of the property in Mallorca, the 7000 cameras are not really so many, and for the most part they are activated only when an alarm goes off. The officially registered cameras that are on more or less permanently are those controlled by the police. Some concern has been raised about these, for example where they are used to monitor "deliquency". These are directed at the "public way". Yet one can accept their role in policing and in maybe acting as a deterrent.

Another concern relates to all those other cameras. And here one is mainly talking webcams. The paper makes it clear that much webcam use is private, but much is not. Anything pointing at a street, a park, a beach is showing the public way. Hardly any of these webcams are registered. In Palma, some twenty webcams are sanctioned by the town hall. But generally, webcams are put up, pointed and there is no registration. The law may well be being broken as a result, if there is no authorisation by the data protection agency.

One has to understand that the strictness with which privacy and data protection are controlled has a historical background. In Germany, there was also a similar anxiety about cameras. If you want to know why the Germans - or at least some of the Länder - have been rather more tardy than other countries in introducing anti-smoking legislation, you have to go back to the Nazis who frowned on smoking. And for smoking, read also the surveillance and intrusiveness of an authoritarian state. It's the same in Spain, because of Franco.

Webcams that show a resort's promenade or beach may seem innocent enough, and in truth they are. Many, many people access them via the internet; many, many people who would consider this a purely innocent activity. A not infrequent question one may come across on a forum is - are there any webcams of such and such a resort? Not for one moment would the person asking the question think this is anything other than innocent. But that would be to miss the point - the invasion of privacy.

A webcam that shows public places, it can be argued, is being used under conditions of freedom of speech or information. Similar justification can be used for the altogether more intrusive use of cameras by Google. It's a disingenuous argument. It may all seem just like a bit of fun, but the public webcam operates under a similar principle of intrusion, the main difference - usually - being the more fleeting and temporary nature of the privacy being intruded into.

There is the possibility that there are some unwitting double standards applied to public webcams and by those who access them. Stick a cam outside your house, down your street, and would you be quite so happy? When Google come filming, would you be quite so happy?

One can make too much of this. Personally, I am rarely in favour of anything that limits freedom of speech or information. Public webcams are rarely so intrusive as to be potentially invasive of an individual's freedom, but I can understand the sensitivities, as they exist in Mallorca. Innocent enough the webcam may be, but it may not be quite so innocent under law.


QUIZ
Yesterday: Jonathan Meades. Today: "Watching You, Watching Me"; pretty sure we've had this song before. Think Tintin.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Filthy English - Standards of English in Mallorca

Harking back to that report into standards of English among students at Palma's university, there was a comment piece in yesterday's "Diario" which drew attention to the apparent contradictions in the report. These concerned the fact that, for example, two-thirds of students said they did not understand English, yet 50% spoke it.

Standards of English in Mallorca are not high. They should be higher: not to give British residents even more of an excuse not to learn Spanish or Catalan, but to be pragmatic in recognising the importance of the language where tourism is concerned. Pragmatism. A word that crops up time and time again whenever language is discussed, yet one widely ignored by the Mallorcans. Whereas the non-pragmatism of the Castilian versus Catalan debate is granted much attention and emotion, insufficient attention has been given to the learning of international languages, especially English. It is an historical failing, one of inadequate education, and one that is only now being given anything like the attention demanded.

However, for all that English is not as good as might be hoped, one should spare a thought for the locals, confronted by English in all its different manifestations - regional accents, idioms, slang, changing usage and the simply wrong. Pity the poor receptionist or waiter who has to decipher Geordie, Scouse, Brummie, Cockney, Ooh-Arr, the English of the Northern Irish, Southern Irish, Scots, Welsh, to say nothing of mangled English by other nationalities. If you can do Spanish, then try making sense of different accents or dialects. Ever had to listen to Argentinians? Impossible. Despite the apparent contradictions referred to above, it is generally the case that one can speak a language but have difficulty understanding it when spoken to. Take another language - German. If you do this, you may find it easy to understand someone who speaks "hochdeutsch", only to then try and fathom out a Franconian dialect replete with an accent that sounds as though the speaker has an entire potato field stuffed into his gob - rather like many Mallorcans.

No-one much speaks English any longer. Not English as in the Queen's English or a long-past BBC English. They speak street English, football English, soap English, estuary English. They apply the infinite variables of internationalised English, of English in all its flexibility. They speak mingin' English, innit, English that's so not English - alrahht. They speak a corrupt English, a filthy English of a low-lifed anti-vocabulary.

And it is not just spoken English. In the same report into standards, 68% of students said that they could read English. The question is, what sort? Take newspapers, the broadsheets for instance. Generally speaking - as it were - these will contain "high" English. It's the same with Spanish newspapers, the quality end at any rate. In their pages, one is likely to encounter a formal style of Spanish, one quite removed from much everyday usage and typified by a preponderance of the different subjunctive forms that exist in Spanish. No-one actually speaks like that, or very few do.

Then there are other newspapers and other forms of English. A couple of days ago, along with Graeme and Aimee from "Talk Of The North" and auntie Susan, I was trying to make sense of "Lashlish", the unique style adopted by a certain columnist in "The Bulletin". The paper does, I seem to recall, get used in English teaching locally. We come back to those receptionists or waiters, those who may be presented with:
"True or false? - In the daily sent "Majorca Daily Bulletin" is to find Cynthia Lennon as this is on this celebrated Majorca one long standing celebrity writer most talented."
I've made that last "sentence" up (sort of), in case you're wondering.

"Inglich not espouken" was the title of the piece in "The Diario". Let's not be too harsh on the students or on any Mallorcan whose standard of English is low. If native speakers can't "espouke" it, then what the hell chance have the locals got.


QUIZ
Yesterday: "Round The Horne", Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick. The wooden horse was Margaret Thatcher on "Desert Island Discs". Today: which author and journalist - one who, when not low-lifing, writes in a higher form of English - wrote "Filthy English"?

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Ooh, Isn't He Bold?

Bold. Boldness. New tourism minister Ferrer is going to be bold. Or at least he said something along these lines several times when addressing the press at the Fitur tourism exhibition in Madrid. This boldness will involve "profound re-developments", the breaking of "old habits" and a speeding-up of bureaucratic procedures as they affect hotels and their ability to undertake modernisations. Bold words. We'll see. To Ferrer's credit, though, it might be recalled that he was one of the mayors - following the hotel collapse in Cala Ratjada and the kerfuffle regarding the lack of a building licence - who admitted that work on hotels, in Alcúdia, regularly went ahead without all the requisite licences because of the tortuous bureaucracy and paper trails between town halls and government. One of the strengths Ferrer is meant to bring to the post of tourism minister is that, having been mayor of such an important tourism town, he has a wide appreciation of issues facing the tourism industry. We'll see.


Whether Sr. Ferrer has an opinion about the impact of a smoking ban, one doesn't know. But the argument is now raging on both sides, the national anti-tobacco committee having weighed in with its pack's worth, stating that visitors from countries with strong anti-smoking laws cannot understand or indeed accept the current permissiveness in Mallorca and Spain. The committee flatly rejects the idea that a ban would cause the "total ruination" of the bar and restaurant sector. Well it would say this, but it is probably not wrong, and it has come up with figures in respect of the effect on employment that followed the previous tightening of smoking in bars and restaurants. It had been argued that this would result in the loss of some 23,000 employees; there was, according to the industry ministry, an increase of some 100,000 employees between 2005 and 2007 (the previous law kicked in on 1 January, 2006). One might, though, say that the previous law seemed to be largely ineffective; there was little major change, certainly in Mallorca.


Each Had A Wooden Horse
The parties for Sant Sebastià go on until Saturday, even if Wednesday, the 20th, was the actual day of the saint. It is never quite clear where is open and where is not on Sebastian. Palma closes, as do some other towns, while others are open for business. It is all rather confusing. As indeed is information as to when events actually take place. Someone queried the date of the fire spectacular in Palma that had been posted on the WHAT'S ON BLOG. It is on Saturday, as is stated, but it is quite possible that there is information flying around that suggests a different day.

In Pollensa on the evening of the 20th, there was the procession of "L'Estendard", the banner of Sebastian. This is a curious thing, as it features a couple of blokes "riding" what are like wooden toy horses who follow another chap dressed up as a Roman soldier, which was what Sebastian was. At least no-one lost any fingers in the process. And talking of which, Steve from Little Britain reckons that the British gesture of two fingers all has to do with the French who used to cut off two fingers of archers they captured. Sounds plausible, though as Steve added, it could also be complete "tosh".


QUIZ
"Ooh, isn't he bold?" Where does this come from? And "each had a wooden horse"? Apart from Rolf Harris, who once referred to this in a truly excruciating manner?

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Smokey And The Banned-It: Part Two

Following up on yesterday's piece about the smoking ban, the local health minister has dismissed - as you might expect - the idea that this will lead to "total ruination" of the bar and restaurant sector. She has also sought to remind everyone that the ban is part of a wider European Union-inspired drive to enforce total prohibition in public places in all countries by 2012. When all else fails in the winning of hearts and minds, blame it all on Brussels. She has also been at pains to point out that more stringent enforcement has been applied elsewhere, such as in the UK, so that's alright then; it's all a question of degree. Where she has more justification is in pointing out that a ban has not proved to be particularly harmful in Italy, another grand smoking country, and though the measure has proved to have popular support in Italy, she might have added that Italian bar owners have been adept at finding the odd loophole. Without naming them, she says that bans have resulted in increased numbers of customers in some countries. It might be interesting to know which ones.

As always, it comes down to how politicians want to spin the issue. Sra. Buades (the health minister) has not seemingly referred to the Croatian backtracking or to the lack of enforcement in Greece, but despite all this, one can pretty much safely assume that the ban in Spain, and therefore Mallorca, will go ahead, albeit that no date has been set.

On this topic, my thanks to Dave for drawing attention to the harmful impact of the smoking bans on country pubs in Scotland. He calls for "more freedom to choose, less proscription". Amen to that, whatever the cause, only problem being, Dave, that Europe ain't going to let there be a choice.


IVA and tourism
The Spanish Government has been getting it in the neck again about the decision to increase IVA (VAT). At the annual leaders in tourism forum in Madrid, staged by the hotel and tourism association Exceltur, the president of this association has stated that the increase is a mistake. Almost no-one seems to think it is a good idea, especially as tourism in other countries has been treated more kindly in having tax cuts. The president believes that the Government has not shown tourism the same consideration as it has other sectors of the economy. Elsewhere, there have been calls to bring the rate of IVA for tourism-related business down to 4%, which is the rate currently applied to newspapers.

At this forum, the great and good of the tourism world have been having their say as to the travails of the Spanish tourism industry. More is needed in terms of modernisation, there is over-supply etc, etc. None of it new in other words. And nothing concrete being offered either, unless you count the concrete that would go to improving infrastructures. One does have to wonder about these forums and conferences. Statements of the bleeding obvious but no obvious plans or suggestions.


Señor 80 Cents - Café Zapatero
And something else for the Spanish Government, specifically Sr. Zapatero. Recently, I discovered that he is widely referred to as Mr. Bean. I hadn't appreciated this to be the case, having myself dubbed him that on the day he first won the presidency. Physically, there is a resemblance, but it was his manner, when he won the election in 2004, more than appearance, that smacked of Rowan Atkinson's character. He hadn't been expected to win. As a consequence, he looked sheepish, awkward, perplexed and not a little bit like he was out of his depth. And a few months ago, he made what has been a celebrated gaffe. On Spanish TV, there is this thing called "I've Got A Question For You". President Zap was grilled by an audience, one member of this asking him to give the normal price of a coffee. 80 centimos came the response, accompanied by tittering in the audience. The youtube* of this finishes with the president saying "depende", i.e. it depends, which is true. Depends where, what type of coffee and so on. You could get a coffee for 80 cents, though it would be unusual. The Dunkin Donuts chain has now started its own 80 cent coffee, an "anti-crisis coffee", promoted with the help of a photo of a Zapatero double. Who could that be? Mr. Bean perhaps. And no, no jokes about coffee beans, please.

* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4382KyAnP-M


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Smokey And The Banned-It

The smoke-don't smoke argument is hotting up. The glowing embers of a cigarette tip threaten to become a mighty conflagration, if predictions are correct as to the impact of the proposed smoking ban in public places. The trouble is that these predictions are of course self-serving. They verge on the apocalyptic. The Balearics restaurant association is forecasting the "total ruination" of the bar and restaurant sector.

The law on no-smoking in bars and restaurants has yet to be enacted. Exactly when it might - or might not - be brought into effect is still not clear, though it is meant to be this year, a year that, according to the Spanish hotel and tourism association Exceltur, will be worse than last year in terms of tourism. In other words, recession is still wreaking havoc, and the last thing that's needed is a smoking ban.

Whether the prediction regarding this year's tourism is indeed accurate is open to debate. A strengthening pound and the Euro concerns caused by the Greeks could yet see a turnaround in Mallorca. Personally, I would question the prediction. Further evidence that might rebut it comes from increased consumer activity in the UK, while the great competitor - Turkey - has its own problems, those of supply. Nevertheless, the timing of the smoking ban may not be the best. A question is, though, when would be the best time. Never, if the bar and restaurant owners had their way.

The total ruination that the federation believes will occur will manifest itself in the form of a ten per cent drop in turnover, which doesn't sound like total ruination. But on top of takings reductions over the past couple of years, a further 10% drop would be significant.

One has, however, to distinguish between different markets and different types of bar or restaurant. For the tourism restaurant market, a smoking ban would be unlikely to have much impact for the simple reason that the ban is not due to be applied to terraces, which is where most tourists eat. That non-smokers on a terrace may have to continue to suffer nearby smoke is not really an issue. They have long had to endure this, with no discernible effect on restaurant trade.

Where a ban would be most likely to have a detrimental impact would be on smaller bars which either have no terrace or only a small one and on nightclubs which cannot allow terrace business after midnight (or maybe it's eleven - who knows for sure?). The federation is probably right to highlight "locales de ocio nocturno" as being the sector of the so-called "complementary offer" that has most to lose from prohibition - to the tune of 15%.

In the case of the smaller bars, there should be genuine concern. Both tourist and resident markets could be affected by a ban, especially the latter. Yet this raises an issue regarding the overall supply of bars and cafés, of which there are too many. Perhaps a shake-out might be deemed a good thing, though this is a pretty heartless argument. Moreover, unlike, for example, the impact of all-inclusives which has been and is one of changed market conditions, the impact of a smoking ban would not be. A smoking ban is a form of societal engineering that creates an arguably unfair market condition.

In the UK, if a bar goes to the wall as a consequence of the smoking ban, it can be argued that alternative forms of business or employment exist, given the great diversity of the UK market as a whole. The same conditions, however, do not apply to somewhere like Mallorca. The apparent over-supply of bars is largely a consequence of economic necessity. A smoking ban may be as prejudicial to the wider economy as much as it is to small bar owners. In Croatia, another of Mallorca's great competitors, a total ban introduced last year was partially reversed because of the apparent harm that it caused. And Croatia is hardly a highly diverse economy either.

The saving grace, at least where tourism is concerned, may be that visitors from other countries are now used to not smoking when out at bars or restaurants, so that any change in Mallorca would not be a great issue. However, it is the case that some visitors enjoy the liberal smoking laws that currently exist. Or maybe one is making too much of all this. And maybe the federation is as well. In the UK, habits have changed. Far fewer people smoke than used to be the case, the result of publicity, education and also a smoking ban. Tradition, of sorts, it may be for the Mallorcan bar to be a smoker's haven, but were it no longer to be, then would that really be such a bad thing?


Smoking bans elsewhere -
Bulgaria: a total ban in public places is due to be introduced as from June this year.
Croatia: a law banning smoking in bars etc was reversed in September last year, allowing for either designated smoking areas or, in the case of small bars, for owners to choose if bars are smoking or non-smoking (as is the case at the moment in Mallorca).
Cyprus: a ban in public places came into effect at the start of the year; as with the Spanish proposal, smoking can continue on terraces.
Egypt: who knows? There was a ban imposed in 2007 in "public places", but it has not been enforced. In practice, there is none.
France: smoking rooms are permitted but with strict conditions.
Greece: there have been similar provisions as to those now in Croatia, but enforcement is lax. A total ban was supposedly imposed from 1 July last year, but there has been a backlash.
Italy: as in France, strictly controlled smoking rooms are permitted but are rare, and in the country generally tough restrictions have proved to be popular.
Turkey: smoking has been banned inside bars and restaurants since last summer.


World Cup Song
Further to yesterday, I received a comment bigging up a thing called "Green Fields Of England" by George and the Dragons. Here it is - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_9WJ6WKeS4.


QUIZ:
Yesterday's title - The Police, http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2prui_the-police-wrapped-around-your-fing_music.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Wrapped Around Your Finger - Pi de Ternelles Accident

The events of Sant Antoni claimed a victim; the boss of fiestas in Pollensa needed to have parts of two fingers amputated as the result of an accident in the movement of the pine tree of Ternelles to the town of Pollensa. Reports of the whole day's festivities said that there were "regretfully various incidents". But while the actual climbing of the pine tree might be said to be the most dangerous aspect of the Ternelles ceremony, it should be noted that it was not this that caused Miquel Ramón to lose those fingers. Nevertheless, other reports spoke of excessive amounts of alcohol being consumed, while "The Diario" made it clear that the very act of transferring the pine tree is not a "game".

It is easy to see the night of Sant Antoni, with its fires and fire-runs, and the day of Ternelles, with its tree climbing, as all jolly good fun and hang the safety angle, but not for the first time this most traditional of Mallorcan occasions has raised concerns. One can add the voices of animal rights supporters who object to the live cock that is the "prize" for the first person to climb the tree. Personally, I couldn't give a damn whether someone injures himself, scaling the pine, or whether there is a non-sentient animal in a bag at the top of the tree. It is unfortunate that Ramón has lost fingers, but accidents can and do happen. It is all jolly good fun (unless you happen to be divested of parts of your body), but tradition or no tradition, one does wonder if it is not under threat, and not only because of Europe's rulings regarding the fire-runs.

Heaven help us that Anglo-Saxon principles of arch-health and safety should intrude, but it would be impossible for something like Sant Antoni or Ternelles to occur in the UK. Someone would cop for a major compensation claim, of that you could be sure; the police just wouldn't tolerate any of it, nor would local authorities. The notion of some 3,000 people (seemingly far more than before) trooping off to get the pine tree and then manipulating it and moving it, under the influence of drink, would be absurd to British sensibilities. That, though, is how it is in Pollensa. For how much longer?


World Cup Song
You may know that there will not be an official World Cup song to mark England's campaign this summer. No "Back Home", no "World In Motion". Apparently, Fabio doesn't want the distraction. But there will of course be a song, several songs in all likelihood, and let me lend my support to Danny Baker's call for something truly awful to be one of those songs, something truly awful that has a Mallorcan dimension in that the perpetrator is one of the island's X-listed unter-celebs. Jess Conrad. Remember him? His name crops up now and then in the so-called celeb columns of the island's media. He once recorded a song called "Soccer Superstar", and it is this atrocity that Baker is promoting - and rightly so. If you are unfamiliar with this, then check it out - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_urjNkxaLz0. Who knows, there is probably already a Facebook campaign behind this inspiration for our boys in South Africa. Or maybe it could be remixed for a contemporary market. Give it over to Pete Hook to be newly ordered, and throw in Rooney doing a rap.


QUIZ:
Yesterday's title - Jeff Goldblum. Today's title - which group did the finger-wrapping?

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.