So, I had gone to pay for the coffees, and there was a familiar expat at the bar. He noticed the copy of "The Bulletin" and wondered what I was doing reading the paper, about which he was less than complimentary. The answer was because it has things in it that the Spanish or British press would not. And one of those things is its letters. This I explained to the chap at the bar. "A letter by Garry Bonsall." "Again!!?" was the response. It seemed somewhat surprising a response from someone who seemingly didn't read the paper, but be that as it may. The drift of the resultant argument was that there are certain expats who are driven by certain motives to appear regularly in the paper's letters section. The implication was that they should shut it - sending the letters, that is, as opposed to the paper.
It is fair to say that there are a few names that do appear regularly with their names appended to letters, but if they have something relevant to say, what is the problem? My friend at the bar considers it an exercise in oversized egos. One could take a different view, which is that they care, and are prepared to express this. The problem is that if someone sticks his or her head above the expat parapet, there are plenty who will delight in shooting it off. Perhaps this blog is merely an exercise in ego, too. If so, I shall, like the birds being hunted at the moment, watch out for rifles glinting in the autumn sun.
The English-speaking fourth estate in Mallorca, most obviously "The Bulletin", is the the most significant medium that British expatriates can use to voice their opinions. That only a few seem to choose to do so is neither their problem nor the paper's. But the question of motive is a fair one. And that brings me to what Dr. Bonsall had to say this time. In brief, his letter was a form of call to arms to expats to create associations (together with local people) in all the island's municipalities as a force to influence the local political process. The motive was political.
It is probably fair to say that the expat voice and vote is largely overlooked, and one reason for this is that the expat is generally apathetic. He is more interested in British politics than in a Spanish or local Mallorcan alternative. Even those who might be inclined to vote (as they can, assuming they are registered, in local and European elections) would probably find it challenging to know what the issues were. Certainly at a local municipal level, there is no mechanism to spell out in English what these might be, and, for most expats, that would be necessary, even for those with a reasonable grasp of Castilian or Catalan. The language effectively disenfranchises the expat, except where they choose on purely party grounds. And my guess would be that the favoured party would be the conservative Partido Popular. How many expats would vote for the nationalists, for example?
What Garry is arguing is that political parties prepared to support the agendas of these local associations would benefit from their vote. In certain instances, this might well prove to be decisive. His own association, the Gotmar residents in Puerto Pollensa, has a considerable beef with the nationalist-topped Pollensa town hall (it is actually a coalition). I don't know that it takes too much imagination to think which opposition party it may wish to talk to. There are, however, certain issues that this raises. Firstly, there are really only four municipalities in Mallorca where there is anything like a sizeable (UK) expat registered population. In order of size, these are Calvia (which includes the likes of Magalluf and Santa Ponsa), Palma (where the numbers are dwarfed anyway), Pollensa and Alcúdia. To give an example of the smallness in other towns, the figures for the start of 2007 showed that there were 2100 people from the UK registered in Pollensa and Alcúdia and five other places - Sa Pobla, Campanet, Búger, Muro and Santa Margalida. Of this total, only 17% reside in those five municipalities together. And these figures do not take account of those actually registered to vote; they are population statistics. In Pollensa and Alcúdia, the percentage of the town's populations made up of UK people is less than 10% in both cases. It is not insignificant, but would it ever amount to some sort of unified pressure group or voting bloc either municipal-wide or neighbourhood-based?
Even if one were to add on other expat nationalities, who is to say that there would be a harmonious and unanimous agenda? Take any group and rub them with politics and the likelihood is that they would form factions, whether on the basis of issues or nationality (if there were wider expat groups). With the Gotmar residents, who are multi-national, there are basically two issues - the town hall's apparent indifference to the state of amenities in the urbanisation and the perceived injustice of the pedestrianisation scheme as it affects them. They are issues around which unanimity can form. Yet is there not the potential for a certain bias to then be played out? Were a political party to say yes to their grievances, secure their vote and then win, what has happened to all the other issues in the municipality? The association may well be exercising a democratic right to press its claims, but at what cost to others? It would be a classic example of how single-issue (or double-issue if you prefer) politics can skew the practice of democracy. But this is to assume that the chosen political party would then indeed follow through. Promises and broken promises are the stuff of politics.
There is the potential also for this to be seen as the work of some uppity foreigners, even where the associations comprise Mallorcans as well. Let's assume that the Gotmar residents attracted the support of a party, voted for it, and it then won, with the Gotmar vote being seen as decisive in the election of a new mayor. It is not strange for self-interest to influence a vote and nor is it undemocratic, but Gotmar is recognised as an area of some affluence. Whether inclusive of Mallorcans or not, one could see the possibility of a degree of resentment among the wider electorate at the actions and influence of a vociferous and minted group that would inevitably be regarded as "foreign". A way of combatting this would be to present the Gotmar case in the context of a municipal-wide dissatisfaction with the present administration, though that would make what was just a neighbourhood group a de facto political entity. But effectively that is what it would have become anyway. Garry has said previously that his association is non-partisan in the political sense, but by auctioning off its vote to a particular party, does it not become partisan?
However, as a way of engaging the otherwise apathetic expat with local politics, there is probably merit in what is being proposed. There again, that chap at the bar. He turned back to his British newspaper and was going to head home for some bacon and eggs, and that would have been the end of the local politics for the day and probably the rest of the year. Just about sums it up.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Spandau Ballet (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLR9yyI9CHg). Today's title - line from something that shifted a famous record label towards a touch of psychedelia.
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