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.