John, I'm Only Debating

Are you bothered that John Bercow is the new Speaker of the House of Commons? If you live in the UK and/or are a student of politics, then probably you are. But if you live somewhere else, let's say Mallorca for example, unless you are that student of politics, are you really that bothered? To the extent, that is, that the subject has been written up by the local press, i.e. "The Bulletin", and has been the subject of letters to the same paper.

The story itself is worth reporting, of course it is; the readership is British after all. But the column inches it has generated serves once more to highlight the degree to which stories that do not materially affect people who live in Mallorca dominate to the exclusion of local news and comment. It's interesting, sure, but not that interesting.

In the current "Euro Weekly" there is the regular piece by that old scoundrel Leapy Lee. This current article is worthy of attention; it is a strong condemnation of all-inclusives and of the change to the law on bar noise. Ok, there is some potential vested interest - he is a bar owner in Calvia where there the law has been implemented - but this does not negate the sentiments of what he has to say. There is something interesting at the end of this piece. He says: "I'm sorry to have been a little ‘Mallorca indulgent’ this week." He has written about something that does materially affect a lot of people on the island - in a way that John Bercow does not - and yet sees the need to apologise. For those used to rants against "Herr Braun" and expect a weekly diatribe of a somewhat dubious right-wing nature about how bad things are under Labour, then perhaps his devoted readership needs an apology. It shouldn't be.

Coincidentally, I was told that that thing I did about bar owners and all-inclusives in Alcúdia will now be appearing this Saturday in "The Bulletin". Well, that's what I'm told anyway. But if it is a part of contributing to a wider debate and awareness-raising as to the impact of all-inclusives, then one can but hope that there will indeed be a wider and more fruitful debate and also campaign conducted in the paper's pages. It is a subject that all the media in Mallorca needs to be devoting serious attention to. It is the "principal problem" with the island's tourism model, as I said the other day. But the debate needs to go further than the normal volleys across the net of how-bad, how-good all-inclusives are. We've heard it all before. There should be a call for some genuine research, perhaps conducted by the tourism department of the university in Palma, as to the impact of all-inclusives. Whether it would be commissioned is another matter; the conclusions might not be what certain bodies want to hear. But this is the direction that the debate needs to go in; not just a constant reiteration of anecdotal moans and praise.

John Bercow by all means, but let there be less of him and more of the real issues facing the island. Personally, I reckon Bercow is a good choice, but I don't really care one way or the other. Now, if Ann Widdecombe had got the gig ... What a hoot that would have been.


Michael Jackson
What can you say? Remarkable that tmz.com broke the story.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Beastie Boys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sbqIyeed4g. Today's title - one word changed of course; who?

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