Why Andrew Mitchell Is Irrelevant

Over the past few days Spain has experienced momentous events that point to more than just some little local difficulties. Catalonia has taken the first step towards seceding and becoming an independent nation. Riots have taken place in Madrid against the government's economic policies. Violence has been perpetrated by both protesters and police; the latter had also infiltrated the protesters - with what aim in mind exactly? The banks need a colossal financial injection from Europe and the government totters on the edge of requesting its own bailout.

Spain's reputation has been dragged through an already deep mud. The prime minister, immune to PR, has been out walking while puffing on a fine cigar; his own twist on Nero by engaging in a form of burning while Spain burns. So widespread and in tatters is this reputation that even the Taiwanese have come up with a satirical video replete with images of police violence and an inept Rajoy as Pinocchio. Closer to Spain, the British media (that in Britain, that is) has drawn attention to chemists in Valencia which have all but run out of medicines and to Spain's cultural fabric being torn apart. It is hard not to feel that with the massive show of support for independence on the streets of Barcelona and the at-times shocking scenes and reports from Madrid that it is more than just the cultural fabric that is being torn apart. This is a country being torn apart.

The morale of the Spanish people is slumping to the point that it has to be asked how much more can they take. On top of the austerity, humiliation is being heaped on the country by foreign media and, in all likelihood, by the act of having to go cap in hand for the bailout; the final humiliation.

Over the past few days Mallorca has experienced less momentous events but it has nevertheless experienced bad news. Finance from national government has been almost halved. The economy has been put on "red alert" by the Centre for Economic Research. The standards of democracy have been attacked by the Economics Society of businesspeople and professionals. Levels of child poverty have been said by Unicef to affect almost a third of under 18s in the Balearics. A separate report, by the Economics and Social Council, has said something similar, while bemoaning an economic over-reliance on tourism and a lack of investment in education and innovation. Pleas for diversification of the economy, for innovation and for improved standards of education have come from other sources. And with September ending and October starting, the first wave of the seasonal unemployed are going in search of benefits that may or may not exist, and which are low in any event, or are going in search of work which is almost totally non-existent.

Mallorca escapes the worst of Spain's implosion because of its geography, and this remoteness adds to a sense of being shielded. Or at least, this is how some of its expatriates would like to think. There is plenty of wealth in Mallorca is just one of the fatuous remarks I have encountered and which is expressed to explain why events in Madrid could not be repeated on the island. Of course there is wealth in Mallorca. So there is in Madrid and even in Extremadura and Andalucía, two of the poorest regions of Spain. Wealth means nothing though to the unemployed, the impoverished, those with no sign of a future.

Expatriates do not exist in a state of blissful ignorance as to what is happening in Spain, though some give a very good impression of doing so. Maybe some are ignorant. Certainly some will consider that all is well in the world so long as there is the golf club and the yacht club, and so long as the greatest concern is for what damage the boat might suffer as a consequence of autumn storms.

No, the expatriate isn't necessarily ignorant but despite living in Mallorca, he or she sees what's happening as somehow distant. He or she is still locked in a world that is in fact distant, in Britain. He or she looks to Britain for solace, because he or she can understand Britain. And so matters in Britain, amidst the gathering turmoil in Spain, acquire or have not lost importance. They can be explained. There is reassurance in being able to explain them, even when they should be of little consequence because they are relatively inconsequential and because they are over there, in Britain, and not over here.

While momentous events occur in Spain, how does the expatriate seek this reassurance? For example, in earnest discussion of what is irrelevant to local life, argument over the meaning of a word ("pleb") and dissection of the character of a stupid Conservative politician who had a stupid brush with a probably equally stupid policeman. I, for one, couldn't give a damn. I do give a damn about what is happening in Spain. I have nothing whatsoever to say about Andrew bloody Mitchell.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.