The Missing Numbers Among The Two Million

So, we learn that 9 August was this summer's M-Day when the maximum population of the Balearics was reached. Biel Barceló will feel slightly aggrieved. It was 10 August when he roped in unions and the business confederation to make his statement - "welcome sustainable tourism". The day had been chosen because 10 August in 2015 was last year's M-Day. Then the max was 2,010,520. On 9 August this year it was 2,036,132.

Much was made of the fact that the two million mark was exceeded for the first time in 2015. A socio-psychological threshold was crossed. The number was thus unsustainable for no better reason than it was more than two million. This year there has been rather more justification for concern with this size of population. Water has been the principal one.

The declaration of M-Day has in the past been around the start of the following year. The number-crunchers at the Balearic statistics institute must have been putting in overtime in order to get out the M-Day declaration to more or less coincide with the official end of summer. One detects a degree of political expedience in the manner in which this has been expedited.

Confirmation of human pressure can thus be latched onto more rapidly by those with human pressure agendas, among them Biel Barceló, whose legislative agenda includes holiday rentals, the apparent cause of this increased pressure. Curiously enough, Barceló had said that the draft legislation would be presented before the end of October. Does one conclude that it has been delayed so that the M-Day declaration can provide more grounds for whatever legislation he has in mind? One can't help but feel that there is some convenience in the earlier than usual declaration. Or maybe they've just got more efficient.

Intuitively, if only because of that socio-psychological threshold, one might feel that here is evidence of too high a level of human pressure. But it is largely intuitive. Exactness in scientific terms is thin on the ground. We therefore rely almost exclusively on anecdote and on "sensation". When opinion surveys ask about "saturation", they couch the question in terms of its feeling, of its perception. Responses are therefore given on the basis of subjective observation, itself made less objective by the constant resort by agenda-setters to wave the banner of saturation. In addition, we are bombarded with the Palma-centric obsession with cruise passenger numbers. While these can be proved, there is less proof (if any) that all those numbers actually "invade" Palma at any given time.

The real proof lies with what can be observed in the reservoirs. There again, low levels of water and low capacities are only indirectly the consequence of added human pressure. The direct consequence is Mother Nature. Populations have always struggled to combat her capriciousness.

But what precisely is this population, the one that exists on M-Day? The number is precise: 2,036,132. How is it arrived at, though? The answer, as always, lies with statistics. It has to because there is no possible way that the number can physically be verified. Elements of comparative exactness can be thrown into the statistical pot, such as the total number of hotel places and airport arrivals, but these cannot simply be added together because of the massive degree of overlap. The most certain element is the resident population, though even that is questionable, given that there are those who are resident but who mysteriously go unaccounted. Countering this are the numbers of the resident population who have evacuated. Strange though it may sound but a fair number of people go elsewhere in August.

On the basis of the official resident population and the official number of registered accommodation places, it is possible to arrive at some fairly conclusive figure, albeit that there is never any such thing as 100% occupancy of all accommodation places. But simple calculations which draw on these numbers will always fall well short of what M-Day indicates. There is anything between 150,000 and 300,000 people unaccounted for, and this "missing" population factors in the number of apparently illegal accommodation places and a stab at estimating the size of the seasonal working population.

The figure that is arrived at will be a statistical calculation, yet scholars of population studies have long recognised the difficulty of precision. One learned paper acknowledges that there is a drawback in terms of a lack of solid data regarding the temporary population. The de facto population, which is what M-Day seeks to prove, is therefore - one assumes - the product of multiple data sets, the reliability of which is only as good as the methodology. And inevitably, scholars disagree.

How reliable is the 2,036,132 figure? Indeed, how transparent is it? A precise breakdown of the figure should be given, but it never is.

How Do You Set A Ceiling On Tourist Places?

The battle for Balearic holiday rentals has been well and truly engaged, tourism minister Biel Barceló of Més surrounded by all sides. The hoteliers we have known about for years. Right out in the open now have emerged Podemos and Aptur, the holiday rentals' association. Nothing that either of these have said is fundamentally new, but both are stepping up the pressure on Barceló.

To take Podemos, the parties of government, of which it is one, met this week to consider their "agreements" for government. Tourism was top of the agenda. At least there were some conciliatory noises from Podemos. Having accused the actual government (PSOE and Més) and so therefore Barceló in particular of policy "improvisation" (a euphemism for saying that the government has failed to get on top of tourist "saturation"), there was an acceptance that holiday rentals' legislation is not straightforward. Hallelujah, the penny had dropped. Podemos, seemingly always in a hurry to legislate, would have pressurised Barceló into total improvisation, had holiday rentals' draft legislation been rushed in by the end of August (which had been the original intention).

Fundamental to whatever legislation is enacted is the principle of a ceiling on tourist places. Podemos wants a lowering of numbers; Més, Barceló and PSOE don't see that as plausible. But through legislation they believe they can create a limit to the total number of tourist places. It's going to be fascinating to see how they intend to set this and what the limit might be. Determining it is pretty much anyone's guess.

There are, however, individuals who can assist in removing the guesswork, which is why the government has commissioned two studies. One of these, for indicators of the sustainability of tourism in the Balearics, has lost its chief expert. Dr. Ivan Murray of the University of the Balearic Islands, says that other commitments will not allow him the time to undertake the study. Perhaps so, or maybe he prefers not to be caught in any political crossfire. Whatever the reasons, the government can ill afford to lose good thinkers. There needs to be objectivity rather than political dogma.

Where Aptur is concerned, it has been banging the drum for liberalisation for ages and regularly producing its own studies to back this up. It came out this week with what appeared to be a startling statistic: that the "illegal" supply of holiday accommodation in the Balearics represents over 11% of GDP. It is possible to calculate GDP in different ways and, in the case of tourism, to assign to it a GDP impact that is highly indirect as well as direct, but this was an astonishing claim nonetheless. What was the basis for it? National statistics, funnily enough.

There is confusion regarding the number of properties and of places that represent holiday rentals - legal and illegal - in the Balearics. Aptur did attempt to clear this up. There are almost 46,000 properties, of which under a third are regulated (i.e. registered as legal holiday accommodation). The illegal remainder - 31,500 - provide 126,000 places. The conclusion one draws, therefore, is that there are around 180,000 places - legal and illegal - in the private accommodation sector.

Notwithstanding any more property and places to be added courtesy of Airbnb and others, might this 180,000 be taken as the "ceiling", assuming that they were all legalisable (a big assumption)? It is here that being certain of the statistics becomes tricky. For example, what is the total number of hotel places?

According to the regional government's figures for August 2015, when occupancy is at is highest and so "saturation" is at its greatest, there were 344,445 places in the Balearics: 250,000 of them were in Majorca. On 10 August last year, the total population of the Balearics topped the two million mark for the first time, a figure that will have been repeated this year. However, the regular Balearic population is 1.1 million. Add some 530,000 from Aptur and hotel numbers, and how does one account for the remaining approximately 400,000? They can't all be itinerant workers. One can add numbers for "extra-hotel" accommodation, such as camping in Ibiza, and also numbers for relatives and friends, but the discrepancy still requires some explaining. Therefore, before any ceiling is set, there has to be rigorous certainty that the numbers are accurate and beyond question. At present, there isn't this certainty, and perversely the tourist tax may add to it. Does the system of hotelier self-assessment for making tax returns not carry with it an inherent tendency to under-estimate the number of places? Podemos, for one, thinks that it does.

Aptur's economic argument is on the face of it compelling. The association may also be correct in arguing that private accommodation supply is not the cause of "saturation", and the uncertainty of the statistics as outlined above might reinforce this. However, it is being extremely naive (and simplistic) in brushing off any potential for saturation by saying there need to be improvements to road infrastructure, public transport and water supplies.

The battle for holiday rentals' legislation is fully engaged. Like the battle for the tourist tax and the arguments over "purposes" (remember the old folks' homes?) and distribution of revenue by island, respectively raised by Més and Podemos, it is one that will have many a skirmish along the way.

The Population Principle: Municipalities

There are 67 municipalities in the Balearics - 53 in Mallorca, eight in Menorca, five in Ibiza and the one of Formentera. There are 59 deputies in the Balearic parliament. There is a mismatch between the two figures because there isn't meant to be a match between the two. Deputies are not elected according to municipality; their number is the consequence of some strange logic which determines that there needs to be one deputy for roughly every 17,000 people on the islands. The population-deputy ratio differs from region to region in Spain. There is no hard-and-fast rule other than a principle of arriving at the number of deputies based on population and size of territory, but this does give rise to huge variations.

Part of the backdrop to the elections on Sunday has been discussion of both the number of parliamentary deputies and the number of municipalities. President Bauzá tried to get the former reduced but his proposal was defeated. Certain parties have spoken of cutting the number of municipalities or merging them. The rationale behind both has been cost and the anticipation of greater efficiencies that would accrue, and it is a rationale which, in purely pragmatic terms, is difficult to take issue with. But the stubbornness in resisting either fewer deputies or fewer municipalities takes little account of cost. There is history to consider as well, and the municipalities are where it resides.

It can seem daft that almost half the total number of municipalities across Spain - 8,122 in all - have populations of under 500 people. (Mallorca might be said to be positively sensible in this regard as it only has two - Escorca and Estellencs.) It might seem crackers that despite the desire of national government to reduce the cost of public administration, and indeed a 2013 law aimed at doing so, seven new municipalities of small size have emerged in Spain since the last local elections in 2011. Why? It all has to do with old law under which a petition for "independence" could be granted before the 2013 law came in which established that there had to be 5,000 people resident before "independence" was attainable.

Mallorca, over the years, has seen its municipalities grow in number, thanks to this principle of independence. Once upon a time, and just as one example, Son Servera wasn't independent but part of Arta. An 1820 law decreed that once there were 1,000 residents, villages could become independent, which is what happened to Son Servera. The population principle is what, despite the mismatch between municipalities and parliamentary deputies in the Balearics and the loose way in which the number of deputies was arrived at (the population was significantly lower when it was), goes to the heart of representation in Spain and it has done for centuries.

But more than this is the political role of the municipalities. Spain today is highly decentralised. While the Franco regime operated according to far more centralised criteria, decentralisation of a type existed. There were still municipalities with their town halls and their mayors (albeit they were appointed by the government). Spain has long been decentralised, and it has been a decentralisation found in the power but also the political freedoms of the municipalities.

Today's electoral system, with all it implies for numbers of deputies, can be traced back to one municipality - Cadiz. It was here in 1812 that the Liberal Constitution was drawn up and a national parliament created. It was a declaration of resistance against Napoleon and to be a further one against the odd ways of King Ferdinand VII, but it was one which partly took as its inspiration the quasi-democratic traditions of other Spanish municipalities that had existed for years.

The municipality is, therefore, something ingrained into the national consciousness. Because of the historical association, it is an institution which means far more than simply an administrative area. Ally this to sentiment and to a social desire for identity, and the forces against reform of the system of municipalities are immense. (In Mallorca an expression of this identity is the way in which residents of a particular town are known by it - Alcudia "alcudiencs", Calvia "calvianers" and so on.) And then on top of all this are the needs of current-day politics. Sweep away municipalities or merge them and political parties would eliminate positions for members. They would also lose power bases, those which help them to be represented among the 59 parliamentary deputies. The Rajoy government might have seemed as though it would reform local government but how much was it aware what it might have lost were it to have done so seriously and drastically? There is self-interest and self-preservation in having so many municipalities. And on Sunday, votes will be cast for councillors of the 67 and for deputies to make up the 59. Logic doesn't really come into it.

Formerly Quaint: Mallorca's fishermen

"Quaint fishing village." This is a description beloved of the brochure talkers and of the website traders in cliché. The description is at its most clichéd when it refers to yesteryear and is prefaced with "formerly a". It is at its most inaccurate when it insists that the quaint fishing village still exists. The fishing villages are all former. There is no such thing as a quaint fishing village in Mallorca any longer.

Old photos from the turn of the last century will confirm the one-time evidence of this quaintness and of the fishermen's trade. The quaintness persisted for many a decade. The 1960s did for it. Coastal settlements which could once legitimately claim such quaintness had it concreted over and turned into a living but dying museum piece amidst the rush towards so-called "balearisation", a term of inherent contradiction as it alludes to an orgy of construction that was simultaneously de-construction. Can Picafort was once a quaint fishing village. Even Magalluf has been described thus (less accurately as there were barely enough dwellings to constitute a tiny hamlet let alone a village).

The old-timer fishermen now long into retirement are honoured annually at fiestas to celebrate Sant Pere, aka Saint Peter, the patron saint of fishermen. These ancients of the sea accompany the image of the saint to the water's edge and watch misty-eyed as it floats and bobs on the bay as though it were in supplication for a return to the days of quaintness, abundance and simplicity.

Last year, they held a secondhand fair in Puerto Pollensa. Its purpose was to assist in raising funds for the local fishermen. The "confraria" (brotherhood or perhaps guild) of fishermen had been stung by changes to ways in which charges were made for storage. Some fishermen were having to consider giving up.

In 2011, the fishermen in Puerto Alcúdia pulled out of the resort's annual boat and sepia fair. They objected to restaurants buying sepia at lower cost from wholesalers and then using it during the fair. They argued that their traditional catch, part of the reason for the fair in the first place, should be honoured and so paid for.

These two examples are just two of many which have become the fishermen's lot in more recent times. Costs, competition, quotas, EU inspectors, decline in boatbuilding, trawling, recreational fishing - they have all conspired to make the fishermen's lot a less than happy one. Quaintness was never this complicated.  

At the time in 2012 that the controversy in Puerto Pollensa started to brew over storage charges, the brotherhood was celebrating its centenary. It comprised twenty-two members; the number may now be lower. There are ten brotherhoods around the coast of Mallorca. The total number of professional fishermen who belong to them is 400, and their number is declining along with the number of boats.

It is difficult to place a number on how many fishermen there once were, but as an indication, in 1940 there were over 1,500 boats in the Balearics, the majority of them in Mallorca. As there are nowadays said to be only 190 boats supporting 400 fishermen, one can guess that there were at least 3,000 fishermen in 1940, over a half of them in Mallorca. By 1986, a census of fishermen and of types of boat and types of fishing gave some hard data. In Mallorca there were 1,052 fishermen, a third of them based in Palma, and with Cala Ratjada and Colonia Sant Jordi having been numbers two and three on the list respectively (there were only 26 fishermen in Puerto Pollensa even then).

For twenty years, the fisherman population was in slow decline, but then came economic crisis and a hastening of this decline. Since 2010, the number of boats in Mallorca has been reduced by a quarter to the 190 there are today.

By contrast with this fall, there are now over 50,000 licences for recreational fishing in the Balearics. It might be thought that recreational activity wouldn't affect the professional fisherman, but it does in terms of reducing stock. Moreover, there are reckoned to be at least an equivalent number of unlicensed fishermen to the 400 brotherhood members.

The condition of the Mallorcan fisherman is not terminal but equally it isn't very healthy. The new (and first) Balearics fishing law will permit fishermen to legally be able to take tourists - up to four or five at a time - on fishing trips. It is a move which might offer some salvation through diversification, though as yet the legal niceties are not all known, such as those to do with liability and insurance: further costs therefore. Still, it is a step in the right direction, but one trusts that when it comes to the attention of the brochure talkers, they don't try and brand it as quaint.

A History Of Migration: Mallorca

In 1405, the Kingdom of Mallorca went bankrupt. It was one of the most spectacular failures of the mediaeval depression that had brought down banks in Mallorca and on the peninsula. Kingdoms, albeit minor ones like Mallorca's, subordinate to a greater Crown, that of Aragon, didn't typically go bust even in those days. But Mallorca's did, and it was the culmination of a number of factors: tax fraud and unsustainable debt and interest repayments, a housing bubble, to which could be added the effects of wars and their financing and the legacy of the Black Death in the middle of the fourteenth century.

The story of the kingdom's bankruptcy is one that deserves its own treatment, if only because it is a story which highlights the fact that there is nothing that new under a Mallorcan sun. It is a story that tells of island councils - those of Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza - and their own debts, taxes imposed on meat, fish, oil and various produce as well as on the movement of people and goods, and of good old-fashioned corruption.

Of the consequences of this prolonged mediaeval recession, which in effect lasted for the whole of the second half of the fourteenth century and into the next one, there was one that didn't occur because physically and logistically it wasn't possible to occur. And that was migration. Even if it did occur, there weren't lands grassed with gold to head for; the east of the peninsula (Tarragona and Barcelona, as examples) was only slightly less of an economic basket case than Mallorca was.

Go forward some centuries, and migration had become a consequence of economic crisis. Mallorca's history, in more modern times, is one of migration. The staggering increase in the island's population from the 1960s was largely due to immigration, but emigration had been a factor decades before the island's demographics were to be changed utterly by mass tourism and competitively priced new apartments and villas which attracted foreign owners.

Between 1860 and 1887, there was an earlier population boom. It wasn't one caused by migration but by human biology, and of an increase of 40,000 people over that period, over three-quarters of them were inhabitants of the "part forana", i.e. they weren't inhabitants of Palma, and as they were living in the sticks, this meant that they were mainly engaged in agriculture.

There were various responses to this population boom, one of which was the establishment of the "colonies" (Sant Pere, Sant Jordi, for instance), which were designed to alleviate strains on living space and to cultivate new land to feed this increasing population. But though this boom might have been considered a positive, it was to prove to be anything but, as various factors conspired to make it a negative. In 1889, things came to a head. There was a farming crisis, brought about by successive poor harvests, disease which decimated the pig population, unfairly low wages and even less fair taxes. Over the next few years, there were to be further blows. One was the destruction of vineyards by phylloxera in 1891. Another was the loss of overseas markets in Cuba and Puerto Rico because of their wars of independence.

These were to exacerbate the crisis that had become evident in 1889 and which was partly the consequence of the previous population boom in the "part forana". Poverty was appalling, jobs were disappearing, families couldn't be fed and the Guardia Civil had to intervene, such as in Pollensa, where there were riots. The town hall in Pollensa was, by then, already aware of a potential solution. In June 1888, it raised the possibility of the provincial authority making resources available for people to emigrate. By 1889, this emigration drive was in full swing, assisted by emigration agents from Argentina and Chile and by subsidised or assisted travel and low interest rates provided by the governments of those two countries.

Rather like the bankruptcy of the Kingdom of Mallorca deserves its own detailed treatment, so also does the story of this mass emigration to South America. It was one of the movement of some 5,000 people and of a scandal of appalling conditions that they encountered on their journeys. It wasn't, though, the only story of migration. There were others, such as to Algeria, and it wasn't a story that had an even impact across the island. Pollensa, Manacor, Sant Joan, Felanitx were among the towns which lost relatively more people than others.

Depression, recession, crisis, call it what you will, it has the same consequence. History repeats itself. In the late nineteenth century, the Mallorcan migrants were part of the 70,000 Spaniards who left for South America. In last year alone, 125,000 Spaniards headed abroad. Of Balearics citizens, the number who now reside overseas is 24,600; this figure rose by 10.4% last year.

Pouring Cold Water on Mallorca's Tourism Growth

A recent report of the signing of long-term contracts between Mallorcan hoteliers and tour operators suggested that Mallorca's tourism future as far as 2020 was secured, rosy and on the up. The report was, on first glance, misleading. It hinted that Mallorca would, by 2020, be receiving 100 million tourists per annum. On closer look, what it was saying was that in the seven years from 2014 up to and including 2020, the total number of tourists would increase to 100 million.

Currently, Mallorca receives in the region of nine million tourists a year, over half of them pressed into a period of around fourteen weeks in summer. Such a concentration of humanity leads to the August peaks of total population of the island (residents, tourists and transient workers) when there are, not untypically, 60% more people than in December. In 2012, for instance, on 4 August there were 1,350,000 people as opposed to 843,000 on 23 December. Were the island to in fact receive 100 million tourists over this seven-year period, this would correspond to an increase of just under 60% of what it would receive based on current figures. It would be an enormous increase - 5.3 million more tourists per annum.

On the face of it, if this 100 million were to in fact be a realistic and achievable number, then the island's tourism future would indeed be very rosy. But how achievable would it be? Allowing for the taking-up of hotel occupancy slack, especially in the lower months of the summer, the capacity wouldn't be there. Even if there were the capacity, it doesn't follow that tourists would come in the great numbers that would be needed to make up for what, based on current levels, would be a missing 37 million tourists over seven years.

What might make a difference would be a relaxation of rules on private holiday accommodation (something that would be most unlikely) and something of a construction boom (also unlikely). While there are new hotel projects in the offing, these would not amount to anything like the number of places that would be required.

One has to conclude, therefore, that the report was, at best, an exaggeration. At worst, it was just plain wrong and complete rubbish. Moreover, behind the glowing headline of 100 million tourists was the absence of some pretty obvious questions. Would Mallorca actually want so many tourists and would there be the infrastructure, not just in terms of accommodation, to allow for so many tourists?

Santa Margalida is a town with one of Mallorca's leading tourist resorts, Can Picafort. At present, the town's regular population is no more than 12,000 people. In summer, this can double, thanks to tourists who are primarily accommodated in Can Picafort. There is a limit at the moment on tourist places in the municipality. The maximum is 13,000.

Under an old urban ordinance, the total number of people that Santa Margalida could ultimately accommodate was set at 50,000. This was a figure arrived at years ago and one that did of course envisage significantly more development than has actually occurred. The town hall has now revised this number down to 34,000, but this 34,000 is a limit which does not foresee any meaningful expansion of regulated tourist accommodation, i.e. hotels. It is a theoretical figure which sets a limit on urban development of a residential nature, one that would see the resident population almost doubling but one that is not about to be attained in the foreseeable future.

Town halls do, in theory and usually in practice, have the final say on urban planning matters. The Balearic Government attempted to shift the goalposts on this where tourism accommodation was concerned but was forced to back down in the face of opposition from the town halls and the Council of Mallorca. The town halls do also have responsibility for certain vital services, such as water supplies. And it is these services, as much as anything else, which have to make projections of such a massive increase in tourism numbers highly questionable. If Santa Margalida is indicative of other towns, then it will not be attained.

Such an increase does, though, raise a question which is difficult to answer. Difficult but not impossible. And that is what might be the maximum number of people that Mallorca could support at any one moment in time? Water supplies are one part of the equation. There are others - airport capacity, roads, medical services, emergency and security services, power as well environmental impact. It would not be impossible to create computer models which might give an indication, but, and setting aside possible impacts of climate change, water supplies would be the most important factor.

In this regard, German research published in the journal "Land Use Policy"** highlights the harmful nature of a Mallorcan drive towards ever more "quality" tourism and so the use of water for domestic consumption, pools, golf courses etc. in what are often non-tourism areas of the island. This research echoes the so-called "Benidorm effect", the one by which high concentrations of tourists in limited areas are vastly more efficient in terms of managing resources than a sprawl of tourism. But as can be seen from what Santa Margalida are doing, there is no desire or intention to make its tourism denser.

100 million tourists might sound like good news, but could such a level of tourism be sustained? Where water is concerned, almost certainly not.

** Hof and Schmitt, "Urban and tourist land use patterns and water consumption: Evidence from Mallorca, Balearic Islands", "Land Use Policy", 2011.
http://xesc.cat/ET2050_library/docs/med/water_mallorca.pdf


Index for November 2013

Aznar's memoirs and the Madrid bombs - 3 November 2013
Balearics regional election and party leadership - 16 November 2013
Bank financing of tourist resort renewal - 4 November 2013
Catalan or Mallorquín - 18 November 2013
Doctor Who in Spain - 20 November 2013
Golf tourism - 14 November 2013
I Need Spain slogan - 19 November 2013
IB3 and its costs - 12 November 2013
Illegal rural property - 10 November 2013
Illesbalears.es - 21 November 2013
Innovation and Mallorcan culture - 27 November 2013
Mallorcan place names' ancient origins - 29 November 2013
Millennials and tourism - 15 November 2013
Muro pumpkin autumn fair - 1 November 2013
Olive oil dispensers - 24 November 2013
Palacio de Congresos - 13 November 2013
Poster designs: Pollensa and Muro fairs - 9 November 2013
President Bauzá interview on La Sexta - 26 November 2013
PSOE and national leadership - 11 November 2013
Sa Pobla Japanese tourism - 23 November 2013
Second casino and PP fallout - 25 November 2013
Smart all-inclusive resorts of the future - 2 November 2013
Solar energy law - 8 November 2013
Tourism growth in Mallorca and water resources - 30 November 2013
Tubular Bells, The Exorcist and Mallorca - 28 November 2013
Turespaña director-general - 5 November 2013
Unsold properties - 6 November 2013
Weather in November in Mallorca - 17 November 2013
Winter tourism products - 7 November 2013

MALLORCA TODAY - Record number of people on the Balearics

Each year figures are produced which show how many people were on the Balearics on a given day, and on 10 August last year the record was broken; there were 1,890,426 people, which represented a virtual doubling of the normal population.

See more: Diario de Mallorca

Too Many People: Mallorca's population

The population of Calvia now exceeds 50,000 - 53,765 if you like precision. In 1979 the number of inhabitants was just over 11,000. Population growth in Mallorca as a whole, from a census of 1981 up to 2008 was over 300,000, a percentage rise of nearly 60%. In Calvia, as in other parts of the island, the growth can be partly attributable to immigration; it exceeds emigration by a factor of roughly one-third. Prediction for further growth in population, during this current decade, is less dramatic - at around 7% - but this might not be accurate; from 2000 to 2008, the island's population went up by 170,000, a 25% rise.

The increase in population raises all manner of issues, not least one related to the diversity of the population; in Calvia the foreign population is 20,000, 37% if you prefer, of which 6,000 are British. The trend is not as marked in other municipalities, but foreign populations are still significant; around 8% British in Pollensa for instance, slightly less in Alcúdia. In more general terms, population increase asks questions of housing, education, health, transport and resources.

One can view the population increase in two ways - either positively or with alarm. On the plus side is the potential for wealth and demand creation; downsides include the environmental impact. As a matter of policy, the Spanish Government wanted an increase in population, growth having stalled after the early boom years of the 60s and 70s. The so-called "baby cheque", now dropped, was partly designed to give an incentive to growth. Not that it really worked, and Spain remains one of the lowest spenders on family benefits in Europe.

Where there has been population growth in Spain, it has been uneven, with Mallorca and the Balearics having the highest, double that of the national average. But the at-times dramatic rise in the local population begs the question as to whether there should be a limit, and if so, what it is.

Answering the question is far from easy. Economists and those engaged in demographics studies find it difficult to agree as to models of optimum population, so much so that many have abandoned the word "optimum" as it is too difficult to arrive at. Much of the theoretical basis for population studies is fairly ancient, one such basis being the social welfare model onto which has been grafted concepts such as happiness (Cameron's happiness index is not as stupid as it might sound). In general terms though, overcrowding and congestion are bad things as they lead to environmental damage and a loss of welfare, be it through crime or social breakdown, of which immigration might, say might, play a part.

None of this, however, gets us any nearer to being able to say with any degree of certainty whether Mallorca's population is set to become too large or if it already is too large. Indeed, the contrary may well be the case; there may be scope, a necessity even, for an increasing population.

Fundamentally though, the size of the population boils down to the ability to sustain it and to provide for it. And in Mallorca's case, the situation is complicated by the size of its temporary population - tourists.

Between 10 and 12 August in 2008, the number of tourists in the Balearics peaked. There were 1,930,000, the overwhelming majority being in Mallorca. This represented more than a doubling of the number of people on the island. To put this into some perspective, Mallorca is roughly the size of Essex. At peak times in the season, its population exceeds that of what is a densely populated county. But it has a very different geography. Congestion and overcrowding might well be said to occur, especially because of the uneven spread of people.

Ivan Murray, an academic at the Universitat de les Illes Balears, has made the point that Mallorca's level of tourism is all but unsustainable; it's too high in other words. He has also made the point that over the period from 2003 to 2008, the number of tourists needed to realise a million euros of tourist expenditure rose by 35%. What he is saying, therefore, is that the economic returns from the temporary population have slumped. Quite alarmingly so. And yet to provide for this decline, there is still the pressure on resources, be they water, electricity or other services. If the social welfare model places such a premium on the environment, and it does, then it can be argued that, because of diminishing returns from tourism and the overwhelming reliance upon tourism (80% of GDP), the temporary population actually creates a negative.

The logic of Murray's argument, not one that he advocates, is more construction for tourism in order to compensate for these diminishing returns. Though Mallorca is still relatively "unconstructed", further construction would be in existing centres. Indeed, it should be, if one adheres to the notion of the "Benidorm effect" of more efficient super holiday hubs. But then these would create localised overcrowding; the tipping point of too high a population would be reached, if it hasn't already been.

The conclusion from all this is that, while there may well be scope for the permanent population of Mallorca to increase, there may well not be if one adds in the temporary population. Not at current levels at any rate. But to not increase that temporary population means, where Murray is concerned, a loss of economic well-being. And none of this takes account of what might occur going forward - the greater strain on resources, water especially, because of climate change.


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We Can't Go On This Way: Sustainable tourism in Mallorca

Any idea who Ivan Murray is? Probably not. So I shall tell you. His grandmother was Canadian of Scottish origin, he lives in Port Soller and is an academic at the university in Palma, whose specialism is the sustainability of tourism in the Balearics. What he has to say is important.

In yesterday's "Diario" there was a report into findings of a study led by Dr. Murray into different facets of tourism in Mallorca (and the Balearics). Perhaps the most revealing was that in order to realise a million euros worth of tourist expenditure, the number of tourists necessary to meet this target increased by almost 500 over the period from 2003 to 2008. The 2008 figure is 1906 tourists to make the million mark, a percentage rise of 35%. Over a third more. In six years, six years before the crisis took hold.

Ok, so what, you might ask. Just another set of statistics. True. But unlike the figures which get bandied about by the regional government, and which many tend not to believe, Murray's findings are, one would hope, independent. In an interview with the Diario's Matías Vallés a couple of years ago, Vallés suggested that Murray might just be a bit of a moaning leftie. By implication, this suggests he may have an agenda. Possibly, but academic rigour, and the demands placed on academics to support their research, might negate any hint of political bias. One should take Murray's findings for what they are, because they are significant.

While government figures always seem to indicate an increase in tourist spend, Murray refutes these. There has been a year-on-year decline if you take the annual growth in the numbers necessary to meet the target of a million euros (the figure did actually drop, however, from 2007 to 2008). Moreover, the findings beg some questions, most obviously why are that many more tourists needed to reach the spending level and what does this mean for pressure on resources. No answer is given in the paper's article to the first of these, but one might begin to hazard a guess or two. Let me make one such - the rise of all-inclusives, possibly?

Murray points out that despite the reliance on tourism to sustain the Balearic economy, there is a loss in efficiency, by which he means that increasing numbers of tourists are needed just to stand still, while these increasing numbers place ever more stress on the ability to cope with them. Consider this. In 2008 the highest recorded total population of the islands (that's everyone, tourists included) occurred between 10 and 12 August. The number was 1,930,000, or 1.8 times the actual normal population. And this is a figure spread out across the whole of the Balearics. Consider Alcúdia. If one takes its resident population to be 16,000 (and one does tend to get different figures), its population at the height of summer is - a guesstimate - about 45-50,000 (there are some 26,000 hotel places in Alcúdia to which one can add other types of accommodation and the temporary workforce). Around three times the normal population in other words.

In the earlier interview, Murray was asked what would be the ideal tourism population of the islands. He didn't really answer this, but did say that twelve million tourists (roughly accurate in terms of total annual tourists) is "an aberration without comparison in the whole world".

It is often in the nature of academia to raise questions and pose problems rather than necessarily answer the questions. While Murray clearly considers the tourism population to be excessive, he has also said that, strictly speaking, only six per cent of Mallorca is "constructed". While he would not advocate more construction, his findings imply that this is what is needed in order to increase tourism numbers just so that economic growth can be - at best - in neutral. It is a deeply worrying conclusion. Where would these tourists come from anyway?

Murray has also referred to a highly polarised society. He is not wrong to do so, and by doing so he paints a picture of potential increased social division allied to an economic model - of tourism - that is not sustainable, unless there is more and more construction in order to grow the tourism population. And even then, were the trend towards all-inclusive and to a more cautiously-spending tourist to persist, the numbers would continue to rise ever more in order to keep parity with that one million benchmark. Ever more construction, ever more tourists, and for what? But one does perhaps have to ask again the question as to what this population could or should be. The problem is that no-one, not even Dr. Murray I would suggest, can give an accurate answer, because I suspect that no-one actually knows. He has said that the Balearics have been a "field of experimentation", and in this he is correct. The experiment was in introducing mass tourism and in its growing like topsy, without any real regard to its ultimate sustainability or to the changing nature of markets and competition or to economic diversification.


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Stranger In Town

Alcúdia has more residents of foreign origin than of those born in the Balearics. Of a total population of 20,395, 7,847 come from outside Spain, 80 more than those from the islands (the missing four and a half thousand or so come from the mainland).

What do we make of these figures? Anything? There will probably be those who want to make quite a bit of them, minded if they are to bewail an undermining of traditional Mallorca or Alcúdia. A related issue is that it is not unreasonable to assume that Catalan is not the majority language. Most but not all those native to the Balearics will use it as a first language. Most of those from elsewhere will speak Castilian (if they speak anything other than their original language), unless they are from Catalonia. The largest single foreign grouping is the Argentinians - more than a thousand; the British represent nearly a thousand, itself an advance of over 100 since the last figures were issued. Just on this, I recently sent an email to the organisers of the "Trobada de Músics per la Llengua", the Catalan music event in Pollensa. I apologised for using Castilian and received a perfectly helpful response - in Catalan. There is an increasing number of the locally born who pointedly refuse to use anything other than Catalan. That's their legitimate choice, but to not use Catalan does - sometimes - make one feel as though offence is being caused.

This locally born often comprises younger Mallorcans, those who are involved in the organisation of events that are thoroughly commendable, such as the "Trobada". There is a confidence and a degree of defiance in their insistence on Catalan. It makes one a little uneasy. There is an element of the locally born young that favours a back to the future policy in terms of language, tourism restriction and also a constraint as to the number of incomers. It's all perfectly understandable and idealistic, if not totally pragmatic.

A more assertive Catalanism may well represent a reaction to the shifting demographics of a town like Alcúdia. It's the sort of assertiveness that has spawned the likes of the "Trobada" and the "Acampallengua", alongside the at-times dogmatic refusal by local authorities to use anything other than Catalan (they are meant to use both languages for official documents). There is an impression that there is a lack of concession made to the increased cosmopolitanism, while other manifestations of Catalan promotion, such as its use in the public sector, reflects a determination to hold on to the cultural emblem that is the language.

Yet there is no denying the cosmopolitan nature of even relatively small towns such as Alcúdia. There is also no turning the clock back; no back to the future. But there is a growing sense of polarism, not just in terms of language but also in political and societal attitudes, the latter being reflected in a possible radicalisation of the locally born young. If indeed it is the case that Catalan speakers are in a minority, one fancies that there will be those who are minded as to its implications.


QUIZ
Today's title - a '60s American singer, whose biography used this minor hit as its title. Think runaway.

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Oh Well

Clearly, the town halls all look to push the boat out when they're heading off to Madrid for the Fitur jolly. For some, such as Muro, this involves promotional material for something that doesn't actually exist (as noted yesterday); for others, Alcúdia say, it is a musical offering. Specifically, those who pitch up to hear what Alcúdia has to offer at the Madrid tourism fair are also likely to become the proud owners of a CD with twelve chill-out songs, reflecting "the sensations of well-being" associated with Alcúdia (it says in "Ultima Hora"). Of course when you have introduced something as massively under-publicised and as pointless as the beach chill-out area then what better to complement this particular sensation of well-being than a CD with the sort of sounds that you would struggle to hear from the couple of speakers hanging limply from poles of said chill-out area. Otherwise, what are these "sensations of well-being", do you suppose? Good beach, yep; some decent enough restaurants, sure; an old-town atmosphere to complement the tourism centre, certainly. And then? The marina; the smaller, out-of-the-way areas like Mal Pas; the Roman history. Do you know something? I may be a cynic at times, but Alcúdia has got a hell of a lot of "well-being" going for it. Ignore those naysayers who would deny this. Yes, there is naffness, too, but naffness is often fun. Ignore that "it's like Blackpool" rubbish. They don't know what they're talking about. I wouldn't mind one of those chill-out CDs. I'm sure I can find a way of getting hold of one.

Anyway, not so much chill, indeed the temperatures rose quite remarkably on Friday - to almost 20 degree maximum in Sa Pobla. But this change was accompanied by the most ferocious of winds. That doesn't do justice. Frightening at times. Not even a sleeping pill could prevent my being woken in the middle of the night before last by the sound of the wind; a wind that kept on throughout the day and then on into last night. It was a "ponent" - a west wind, gusting up to 130 kilometres per hour. It's one way of reducing the processionary caterpillar problem, I guess. High winds, bring down pine trees, doesn't really matter if there are caterpillars ready to destroy them. For once, "desastre" is fairly appropriate. And this morning, calm but cold again, one can go out and survey the damage - the trees and bits of tree across and to the sides of streets; all the debris in the gardens and in the roads.

But coming back to the Alcúdia chill-out CD, this is the idea of a body known as the consortium for the external promotion of Alcúdia (or something like that); the same consortium which has dreamt up all the developments on the beach, such as the unknown chill-out zone. The funding for the beach stuff is not coming from central government, i.e. from Madrid. But there are other projects which will enjoy such state benefaction. And so it is that Alcúdia, for example, is due to receive a bit over 3 million euros for projects such as developments of the residence home for senior citizens. Pollensa is to get slightly less than 3 million. The money going to all the town halls on the island has been listed in the press, and there does seem to be a pretty firm correlation between population and the amounts. Alcúdia - population 17,435; funding 3,085,790; Pollensa - 16,570; 2,932,696; Santa Margalida - 10,608; 1,877,492; Muro - 6,741; 1,193,078. And so it goes on. Spare a thought for the smallest municipality in Mallorca. That is Escorca. It has a population of 290, and is getting a measly 51 grand.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Shaggy, "Mr. Boombastic" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lutqplLMvfk). Today's title - before some of them went strange.

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The West Is The Best

The Maya civilisation of central America is a very small footnote in Spanish history. By the time Columbus and the other early Spanish adventurers encountered the Maya, their great civilisation was long past - by some 600 years - and their population was massively smaller than it had once been; the surviving Maya were their own footnote of succession. Yet the story of the Maya, their rise and fall, has long fascinated historians. And the reasons for the decline of what had been a great civilisation are still debated.

Into all of this comes an article in "The Guardian", which draws comparisons with the Maya's decline and current-day Western civilisation, that of a wavering system of capitalism and the overuse of resources. One needs to be cautious. "The Guardian" is almost an environmental-lobby house magazine. But the thrust of the argument, that it was environmental and population factors which led to the downfall of the Maya, has some clear enough similarities with our own civilisation. There is a rather convenient conclusion to the article - that civilisations last, at most, for 600 years. The glory years of the Maya amounted to a bit more than 600; current Western civilisation, starting with the Renaissance, is reaching its terminal point of decline.

It is a seductive argument, but it could of course be total bollocks. The alternative explanations for the fall of the Maya are based on attacks from other tribes (akin, perhaps, to Rome) and natural disasters. However, the article deserves to be read if only for the characterisation of our own "kings" (Brown and the G8) as being incapable of reading the signs of decline - as the Maya kings were similarly tunnel-visioned.

Ok, leap of imagination time. Mallorca is a footnote in the history of Western civilisation. Indeed it is another footnote in Spanish history. Yet, following the argument of the Maya analogy, it could be seen as one of the last great follies of Western civilisation, a one-time backward but sustainable island propelled suddenly into the world of big money with scant or no regard for its resources.

And so they came to build their temples of tourism and palaces by the sea, and all this was done in a period, a tiny fraction of history, with a speed that choked the island's resources and made them groan under the pressure of this haste. What the "kings" did not know, until very late, was that the island's location made it more susceptible than others to the impact of voracious anti-nature, artificial climate change; one that could mean that the great period of Mallorcan civilisation comes to last a mere 70 years or so.

A neighbour, who lives closer to the sea than do I, asked me the other day why anyone would now want to buy a property right by the sea. It's a fair question, as no one can say with any certainty what might happen to sea levels. We only have the predictions, and they, as also those for extreme temperatures, are far from comforting.

Yet there is one great flaw in the Maya parable, and it concerns - ironically enough - technological innovation. While this may have caused the circumstances of potential decline, it is also the potential saviour. The point about the Maya, which is perhaps being overlooked, is that, despite their great achievements, they seemed to reach a plateau of innovation. The Mexico that the Spanish discovered was a wheel-less society. The tribes, not just the Maya, lacked curiosity. Though they traded, they were not seafarers. When the first Spanish ships appeared off the coasts of the Americas, they were alien things to the Mexican peoples. It could be argued that the great civilisations of the past, such as the Maya, had an in-built and finite time span. The same cannot be said of a technologically innovative and curious Western civilisation. It can be facile to believe that "something will turn up" that prevents its collapse, but the chances of that something turning up are vastly greater than was the case with old civilisations.

The Maya comparison is an interesting one, but it maybe is no more than just that: interesting.

Here is the article from "The Guardian":
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/28/climatechange-population


REAL MALLORCA - NOT YET THE END
Well, having myself said that the end had been reached - an end also echoed by the press - it looks as though as everyone is being made to look a chump. The takeover of the club by Paul Davidson was supposed to have been consummated yesterday by the transfer of the 38 million euros agreed price. Then there was an email which asked for an extension of a further ten days, the reasoning being - apparently - "unforeseen circumstances of the global economy" (as quoted in translation from the report in the "Diario" this morning). The extension has been agreed to, but now obviously some doubts are being raised, both by the press and from within the club.

It is all somewhat extraordinary not to say somewhat farcical. And one guesses that, if the payment is indeed made, there are those who will be wondering quite what the delay indicates in terms of the future. The sale price of Real Mallorca is not, when one considers English clubs, that high, but there are also those who will argue it is still too high, especially for a club that does not actually own a key asset - its ground.

Still more to run on this one.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Death Cab For Cutie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfBw0IWwO5U). Today's title - a line from a terminal song by one of the great US bands.

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Half A Million Strong

Some of you will of course be aware that I have had my moments of taking the rip out of elements of the local media. I have sort of taken a step back from this, partly because it could appear repetitious and rather petty and also because - in the case of "The Bulletin" - I have something akin to admiration for a daily newspaper that can be maintained for what is a pretty small market. Which is not to say it doesn't still have its moments, like today. In the leader, the editor refers to the growth in population in Mallorca and the Balearics. He describes the fact that there will be some 1.2 million people on the islands as an "outrageous situation". How can this be outrageous? The population growth may be creating a difficult or delicate situation, but outrageous? Are we outraged that there are, or will be, 1.2 million people in the Balearics? I'm not, but there again I'm one of the incomers who, along with so many others, has led to a population growth.

This is not the first time I have spoken about the population rise here. On 19 December last year ("Everyday People"), I said that the daily increase is around 80 people per day, many of them people moving to the islands. I also pointed out that, in the case of Mallorca, the island is roughly the size of Essex but with a significantly lower population, except that, at times in summer, the actual number of people on the island may be nearer to the numbers who reside in that county. Add on the transient workers and the tourists and, at a peak, it might be that there are some 1.5 million people knocking around. And they need medical services and roads, to which the editor refers. He goes on to say that there is a need for better planning to cope with the growth in population. But it is here that the problem arises. That more roads might be needed, that better rail systems might be needed, that more schools, hospitals and houses might be needed are all legitimate quests, but where do they go and how do the politicians cope with the competing demands of satisfying population growth and the environmental lobby? Politicians may also like the population increase as it can bring with it further wealth creation and demand. But there is a tipping point. Quite where that is, I wouldn't know. Any planning has to be a multi-faceted investigation of population studies, economic welfare, quality of life, environment, resources, infrastructure, innovation, employment - the list is extensive. For all I know, the current population may be inadequate.

The one thing of which there can be reasonable certainty is that the population will not decline (at least not until climate change makes the island too damn hot). Immigration, from the EU at any rate, is straightforward, and Mallorca is an attractive destination. The market does not place obstacles in front of such migration, nor does the market place constraints on factors such as car ownership (and therefore the demand for roads); it is worth bearing in mind that Mallorca has the highest per capita level of car ownership in Europe. But the market itself runs up against walls, such as the environmental one.

The situation is not outrageous, but it does require a planning and political approach that is rigorous and joined-up. And it is here one wonders about the political will or wherewithal, given the factional nature of a political system that requires a trade-off between what can seem to be mutually antagonistic philosophies - the Conservatives, the Socialists and the Nationalists.


QUIZ
Last time - Dido. Today's title - well, add the half a million at peak times. Who wrote it?

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Everyday People

The population of the Balearics rose by some three per cent last year. In total, the population stood – as of 1 January this year – at 1,030,650, much of the increase being down to immigration, with the Germans and the British leading the way in terms of the numbers of foreigners resident on the islands. The increase translates as a net gain of some 80 people per day.

How sustainable would such an annual increase be? It is a matter that taxes the politicians, not least the Unió Mallorquina (the Mallorcan national party) which believes that there is only so much of Mallorca to go round, even if this perfectly legitimate stance may be influenced by a touch of xenophobia (though they would doubtless deny that).

A report earlier this year suggested a drop in the level of foreign property purchasing. Though this perhaps conflicts with the actual population growth, Mallorca remains an attractive target, and new markets keep emerging, as with the Russians. It is the overseas purchaser who, in part, helps to keep property prices high, and it is the overseas purchaser who is important at a time when the credit squeeze has hit in Spain.

Yet there is a point at which even Mallorca’s improved infrastructure will begin to creak. I mentioned a while ago that Mallorca is roughly equivalent in size to Essex, but its population is less than two-thirds of the county, nearly a half of it in Palma. Plenty of space you might think, except Mallorca has mountains that do not readily lend themselves to vast urbanisations. Over 40% of Spain’s whole population lives by the coast; in Mallorca it is more like 70%, probably higher. Despite the environmental worry (and the threat to coastal areas is a similar issue in Essex, perhaps more so because of the Thames flood plain), there is no sign of a reverse in residential-construction policy that would inhabit the interior to a far greater extent. Indeed, one of the current political footballs is the extent to which rural areas might be built on or not (to which I have referred before).

Much as I might find displeasure in the new architecture of a small urban area such as Puerto Pollensa (or at least the context of that architecture), there is of course sense in exploiting this area rather than the “green belt”. But there again, a town like Puerto Pollensa can only itself take so much. Yet, like the UK and therefore no doubt Essex, there is a not insignificant amount of housing stock that is under-utilised. How many of those new apartments in the “Pollentia” development, I wonder, will be lived in all year? Take a walk around my area in Playa de Muro, and perhaps as much as a third of the dwellings are unoccupied at this time of the year.

The population growth is a sign of the attractiveness of Mallorca (and the Balearics) as a place of residence; the growth is thus a potential negative of the island’s success. Housing is by no means the only issue related to population growth, but if it really is such an issue (and there must be still some doubt as to that), then all new house or apartment purchases should be unequivocally – and legally – either first homes or residential lets: no second, third or however many homes, and no holiday lets. Fine in theory. Wouldn’t work in practice.


QUIZ
Yesterday – Donovan. Today’s title – which American outfit?

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East Was Dawn

One can praise the editor of “The Bulletin” for keeping awareness of Mallorca’s winter-tourism difficulties to the front of people’s minds. He speaks about it again today, comparing the closed nature of Mallorca’s resorts and its hotels and shops with eastern England where hotels and shops stay open through the winter, the hotels bolstered by offers such as mystery weekends.

This is not really comparing like with like. It would help to know exactly where in eastern England he is referring to, but - for a kick-off - East Anglia has things of appeal: “Constable country” (to echo what I mentioned before about Shakespeare and the Brontës); the Broads and the Fens; historic cities and towns such as Cambridge, Ely, Thetford, Bury St Edmunds; the coastal walks at Dunwich and Southwold; birdwatching at Minsmere; Sutton Hoo; Orford Ness; castles, abbeys, houses and grounds. It is an area of appeal to both the national and the international visitor. The weather may not amount to much in winter, but at least the visitor knows not to expect very much in that respect. There is also a major promotional source for areas of England that is often unrecognised - it is the work of the National Trust and English Heritage. The National Trust has 3.5 million members. Visit its website and see how many sites it has in East Anglia.

Mallorca just does not have the profile that an area such as East Anglia does, certainly when it comes to off-season tourism.

Hotels in England may find things tough in winter, but it is not the norm for them to close; nor do coastal towns and their shops shut down. Take somewhere like the borough of Great Yarmouth. Population of 92,000. These people need shops; they probably also need hotels for the likes of wedding receptions and other celebrations. Many of these hotels tend to be quite small; 50 beds might be typical, just over one-tenth the average size of a hotel in Alcúdia. That they may offer special events such as mystery weekends is just part of a mix for businesses who operate with a different set of criteria to a large Mallorcan hotel with just one - summer sun. They do not operate at the kind of scale of most Mallorcan hotels that makes opening the latter in winter economically unviable.

Where I would agree with the editor is when he says that he believes it is not “in many people’s interests that hotels and shops remain open”. The ease by which fixed-contract employees can obtain benefit in winter, the money that can be generated in the summer months both militate against staying open. There are other factors, most importantly perhaps the tour operators, but maybe there is also the fact that people in the UK might just prefer a weekend break without having to get on a plane and to enjoy the “scenic countryside” (of a previous editorial) that Britain has in abundance - just a thought.


QUIZ
Yesterday - “Hello Goodbye”, The Beatles. Today’s title - a very lyrical lyric that continues "coming alive in the golden sun”; it’s a line from a hauntingly wonderful song by? Clue, ‘cos you will need it - they did the original theme tune for Radio One.

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