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Thursday 3 November 2022

A Farewell To Lisbon

It’s not just the weather: the other week, the rain lashed down across Lisbon, out came the umbrellas, and tourists took cover under a gloomy dark sky. Yet here was a capital, and a wider country, that gave the impression of being more at ease with itself, happier, and more optimistic than the UK.

View over Lisbon from O Miradouro da Nossa Senhora do Monte in Graça

As I settled into my seat and the Intercidades rumbled across The Bridge on its way south, the question kept asking itself: what brings that difference? Is it something easily quantified? What follows shows why much of what we are fed by our print and broadcast media, so much of that informed by bad faith actors, means that countries like Britain get it badly wrong.

It’s Not About Low Taxes Portugal levies taxes on almost everything; one example is IVA, or what we call VAT. Exemption? You jest. Bottle of still mineral water? 13% on that. Legal services? That’ll be the top rate of 23%. Everything in your supermarket shop takes a hit. VAT is a highly effective tax raiser. There are also local taxes, like on your hotel bill - €2 pppn.

They Remember Life Without Democracy Less than half a century ago, this was a totalitarian dictatorship. The fear of arrest, imprisonment or worse was real, as was the censor’s red pen. Pretence of democracy was a sham: the Estado Novo knew how to get the poll result it wanted, and always got it.

Praça do Comércio, seen from O Arco da Rua Augusta

Politics Is Taken Seriously
The transport minister suggesting that Lisbon’s new airport will be across the river at Montijo, before being slapped down by the PM, was a major political event. The health minister resigning over the state of the SNS (roughly equivalent of the NHS) was moreso. Politicians are more in touch with reality and tend not to lie for kicks. Membership of the EU is not seriously challenged. A proportional voting system helps.

There Is No Monarchy Portugal became a Republic on the 5th of October 1910. There is a President, but his is an elective office, with real powers, like being able to dismiss a Government and call new elections. Sure, the press gave wall to wall coverage to the death of Isabel II, as they called Brenda, and also Carlos III, but they don’t want one of their own, thanks.

Home Ownership Need Not Mean Houses Most people, especially in cities like Lisbon, live in apartments, some of which are Very Exclusive Indeed. Many less well off people rent, and as The Big City is increasingly pricy, they live in areas like the south side of the river, commuting often by ferry. Cacilhas to Cais do Sodré, and Barreiro to Terreiro do Paço, are routes that move serious numbers of people across the water. Every day.

Catamaran Fernando Namora about to depart the Terreiro do Paço ferry terminal for Barreiro

History Is Not Optional
England, in particular, serves up a highly selective subset of the country’s history; many bad faith actors misinterpret it while denouncing those who advocate for a fuller understanding of what was done in their country’s name. In Portugal, every town has a street commemorating April 25, October 5 and December 1, alongside figures from the age of discovery to the 20th Century. Being knowledgeable about history is not difficult. It’s all around you, good, bad and indifferent.

Cities And Towns Look Cared For Outside London, even within it, the impression of post-2010 neglect is inescapable. Not so in big city and small town Portugal: yes, there is broken infrastructure (the Lisbon Metro has a grim record here), but green spaces are mowed, squares swept, litter picked. The constant grind of austerity has been eased. But not in the UK.

People Interact Congregating at cafés, meeting for dinner, conversing over a bifana, that most Portuguese of fast food (or, yes, while enjoying the ubiquitous Pasteis de Nata), just talking to one another on a train journey - while so many in the UK shut themselves away, don’t move outside their own crowd. Maybe the weather does have something to do with that one.

Part of the start-up scene: the LX Factory in Alcântara

There Is No Delusion Of Empire
The increasingly desperate and pointless colonial wars died with the expiry of the Estado Novo; former colonies became independent; most are happy with the place of Portugal on the world stage, as a medium sized country within the European Union.

Migrants Are Welcomed Sure, there are fringe politicians peddling hate, but successive Governments in Lisbon have known the value of inward migration. Hence the city being a magnet for digital nomads and start-ups. When the first plane load of refugees from Ukraine arrived, the President was first up the aircraft’s steps to welcome them personally.

There Is No Rupert Murdoch Here As with many European countries, the malign influence of the Murdoch Mafiosi is absent, so none of Rupe’s troops sticking their bugles in, telling the voters who to support, who they should like, and who they should hate. And no subsidiary of Associated Newspapers either. Trust in the written press in 2019 was 58% in Portugal; in the UK it was 15%. Media bad faith actors have poisoned the English speaking world.

Portugal, and other European countries, have much from which the UK could learn. But the largest part of the UK - England - will not listen. Sad, really.


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12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dean Acheson in 1962 said that Britain had "lost an empire, and failed to find a role".

He was wrong then and now. Britain was (willingly) absorbed into the American Empire years ago.

Hence its sheer seediness, racism, organised crime, crooked politicians and media and far right corruption. A sort of Uncle Sam Phillipines anchored off the north coast of Europe.

Gulliver said...

I guess another thing they've got in Portugal that is now absent in the UK (well, England at any rate) is a genuine choice at the ballot box.

The Portuguese can choose between a party not embarrassed to call itself Socialist, a social democratic Party that is probably to the left of UK's Labour and LibDem's and other party's to the left and right of the aforementioned.

Here in England, we don't need to expend too much energy choosing where to put our cross at the ballot box these days because we can vote for any party that has a any realistic chance of power so long as it's right wing, neoliberal and gasping to kick the f*ck out of anyone less fortunate in the hope of getting the approval of you know who.

Aren't we lucky.

Tram 28 said...

An opportunity to caption the photo of the mosaic pattern at the Monument of Discoveries.

Anonymous said...

No Dirty Digger? That truly would be Shangri-La.

Paul Turpin said...

Good article. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Cheered me up while simultaneously making me despair. I’m over here not over there

Nigel Stapley said...

Aotearoa's (that's New Zealand to youse) PM Ardern was asked why NZ didn't have anything like the levels of snarling, frothing, beer-gutted, shaven-headed Gammonism seen in other English-speaking territories. She had a straight answer: "We never let Rupert Murdoch set up in our country".

And that's it. Shortly before his death, in a lecture at the Edinburgh Film & TV Festival, Dennis Potter suggested very strongly that Murdoch should be put on public trial and every minute of it should be broadcast on all channels. If you want to see why our society, our politics and our social discourse are the deep, poisonous oceans that they have been for over forty years, just consider Rupe.

Mr Larrington said...

@Nigel Stapley: exactly what I was going say re Murdoch & New Zealand. He doesn’t have a presence in Canada either…

iMatt said...

On much of Merseyside, the boycott of the Sun continues apace. Hence, in part, the fact that Liverpool had one of the strongest votes for Remain.

Gav said...

Agreed that Lisbon is a very attractive city - and Porto.

Not so sure about VAT being a good thing though - it is regressive in the sense that it does hit the poorest hardest. UK needs to have a serious discussion about a wealth tax although that probably won't happen in my lifetime.

Anonymous said...

https://libcom.org/article/1974-1975-portuguese-revolution

But it'll never happen in Britain...............

Paul Turpin said...

Missing you.