After The Storm – 2

As the ruckus over the student protests in London earlier this week dies down, there are two loose ends. The second I’ll leave to the end. The first, which has been troubling me more or less since the trashing of 30 Millbank ended, comes first.

Even though the Metropolitan Police has admitted that they called this one wrongly, and allocated around 225 officers – and none of them in other than normal garb – to the demonstration, the status of Tory HQ mystifies me. The Houses of Parliament, as always, were already well protected. Also, the Lib Dems, as junior partners in the Coalition, had their HQ protected.

Moreover, the Lib Dem HQ is in Cowley Street, which although just back from Millbank, is tucked away and not visible from the march route. So the police had, in that case, made doubly sure. But the Tory HQ, which certainly was visible from the march route – because it was on it – had no police protection. None whatsoever.

This does not make sense: the route to be marched was discussed and approved – by the Met – well in advance. The existence of Tory HQ inside 30 Millbank was also, no doubt, also known to them. So why, especially as it became clear that the march was so heavily supported, did the Met not act to protect it?

It’s a question that, thus far, remains unanswered. Another question that has been answered previously, but that some of those involved are unable or unwilling to take on board, is the influence limit of the blogosphere. The aftermath of the student protest underscored that limit, as the MSM declined to run with a story whose shelf life had expired.

Still trying to prove that he can influence events without MSM assistance, Paul Staines (aka Guido Fawkes) is still calling for NUS head Aaron Porter to go. Yesterday, he cited a Commons debate in support of his claim, but then devalued his currency by highlighting the contribution of Nadine Dorries, who has confessed that her blog is of limited veracity.

Staines’ tame gofer Henry Cole (aka Tory Bear) is also in pursuit of Porter, and is having a similar level of success. Cole tells Porter to “Man Up”, which may sound familiar to observers of US politics: it was a favourite saying of “Tea Party” candidate Sharron Angle in her battle for Harry Reid’s senate seat. Angle lost.

And finally, former stalwart of the so-called Taxpayers’ Alliance Mark Wallace, by complete coincidence, is also after Porter. Wal’s appeal to authority is that he was once a student. Aye, Wal, but just the once, mind.

What these three do not seem to get is that Aaron Porter is still in place, nobody of any consequence is listening, and they are going nowhere.

The Faultlessly Burning Bush

He was right. Damn right. Waterboarding, Guantánamo Bay, invading Iraq, planning to invade Iran, and even to invade Syria. In his presidential memoirs, Decision Points (give someone their due, that’s not a bad line), George W Bush lays it all out, together with his admiration for Tone.

However, he does at least admit that actions in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina were the worst point in his presidency. Damn right they were: the images of people, generally African American and poor, being left to fend for themselves in the wake of a major environmental disaster, even brought forth condemnation from Shepard Smith, and he reports for Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse).

Even Dubya’s support for waterboarding has not found universal approval. He approved it, he said, because the lawyers said it was legal. Those who recall the UK Attorney General’s volte face on the legality of the Iraq war may be permitted a wry smile. Unfortunately for those who believe that torture, conveniently declared legal, has any place in intelligence gathering, the UK disagrees.

Both sides of the Commons have critics: Kim Howells, formerly head of the parliamentary intelligence and security committee, has doubted that waterboarding stopped any attack on the UK. And Tory David Davis has been dismissive of the idea, quoting a former deputy head of MI6 who noted that in World War 2, the Allies did not torture, while the Gestapo had no such qualms. The result was that the latter got plenty of information, but much of it was wrong. They were on the losing side.

And both Bush and Blair still have problems admitting that they should shoulder any blame for the Iraq adventure: that the failure to find all those WMDs was the fault of intelligence, rather than the excessively colourful “interpretation” of it. The tens of thousands of dead Iraqis due directly to the invasion and subsequent dismantling of the Iraqi security apparatus do not appear to get a mention.

We should not be surprised. For every person who looks at the evidence of the Iraq adventure and sees a shameful failure, there is another who is ready to cheer on the torturers. Dubya still has his admirers both in the US and the UK: there are none so blind that will not see.

After The Storm

Yesterday afternoon, there was a protest march in central London. This is not an exceptional event. However, the aftermath of the march – with a fringe group of protesters managing to enter and trash Tory HQ on Millbank – has led to the Metropolitan Police being accused of being unprepared, and set the right leaning part of the blogosphere into full froth mode.

So how did events get out of control? The march – called by the National Union Of Students (NUS) over the upcoming rise in tuition fees – had been organised and cleared well in advance. The Met knew and agreed the route. But somehow the police persuaded themselves that no more than 5,000 would turn up. Someone missed a zero off that one: more than 50,000 attended.

And for all those protesters, less than 250 police were deployed. Moreover, while the Lib Dem HQ in nearby Cowley Street was protected, that of the Tory Party at 30 Millbank was not. Clearly, for some on the fringe of the protest, the temptation was too much and what followed did not reflect well on all concerned. Young Dave, watching from his visit to Korea, was not impressed with the Met.

As the clear-up begins, and peace is restored to the area, what is to be learnt from these events? Met Commissioner Paul Stephens has admitted that the policing of the protest was “an embarrassment”. Occasional London Mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson has blustered about how those who used violence “will face the full force of the law”, something the relevant authorities might have already known.

But out there on the right, there are vengeful minds clunking slowly into gear. Despite his condemnation of the violence, NUS head man Aaron Porter is being fingered for the disturbances: Paul Staines, who blogs under the alias of Guido Fawkes, makes a number of typically colourful allegations including naming Porter. Staines’ tame gofer Henry Cole, aka Tory Bear, claims that pressure is mounting on Porter.

And looking on from his Twitter feed, our old friend Donal Blaney claims that the NUS is to be sued, that they face financial ruin, suggests that the police should have used baton rounds, and even tries to suggest a conspiracy involving Harriet Harman. But then, Blaney also suggests that Barack Obama is an “erstwhile Indonesian citizen” who attended a madrassa. And he, along with Staines and Cole, miss the point.

Suing the NUS, demonising its head, scratching around after non-existent conspiracies, and calling for more aggressive policing will not serve if there is real and sustained dissent from the Government line. The Coalition has only been there for six months, and the wider cuts have yet to bite. There could be a lot more unrest out there in the months to come.

NBC: Switching From General Electric

While we in the UK are focused on the attempts by Rupe and his troops to secure the 61% of BSkyB they don’t yet own, there is another media organisation potentially changing hands, and ultimately 51% of it: NBC Universal, at present majority owned by General Electric, is slated to fall under the control of Comcast.

NBC includes the well established NBC television brand, and also channels such as CNBC and MSNBC, the latter having a majority of liberal leaning hosts, making it the only cable network so to do. Of its competitors, CNN still attempts to be even handed, whilst no such constraint is even considered by top cable player Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse).

But why should we be concerned about the change of controlling interest from GE to Comcast? Well, as Timothy Kerr has shown in this piece for the HuffPo, the likelihood is that Comcast will ultimately put one of their own appointees in charge of MSNBC, and of the three contenders Kerr identifies, all have right leaning form.

Moreover, Kerr also notes the coincidence of business interests of both Comcast and News Corp., the latter of course owners of Fox News. He is therefore concerned that any Comcast appointee may not be happy about MSNBC’s liberal leaning evening line-up of Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, and Lawrence O’Donnell.

It’s certainly possible that one or more of these hosts may not keep well under the potential new management. But then, if viewers want content of a more right leaning style, they are probably already watching Fox News. Those who tune in to MSNBC know what they’re getting of an evening, and most likely is that they like it that way.

So it may come back to ratings once more: it’s entirely possible that Comcast will install a new CEO for MSNBC whose views are seriously at variance with those of Olbermann, Maddow and O’Donnell, but who is realistic enough to know that this is what brings in the viewers.

Chinese Markets

Young Dave, as every part of the media is reporting, is in China, along with several of the Coalition cabinet. There, he is hoping to help the UK do more business with the Chinese. So what has the PM got to show for his trouble? One encouraging sign has been a deal between Rolls Royce and China Eastern Airlines, for engines to power Airbus A330 aircraft.

That’s understandable: Cameron going in to bat for one of the UK’s few remaining significant high value manufacturing companies. But he’s also been showing encouragement to Tesco, who have a significant presence in the country. But why?

Sure, I’m not a fan of Terry Leahy’s empire, what with its appalling customer service and – in Crewe at least – an offer that doesn’t measure up to what the competition can put forward. But this is just a retailer. It’s not as if Tesco is bringing some kind of high end and unique product to the Chinese marketplace.

So it can hardly be compared with high value manufacturing exporters like Rolls Royce. And with the Chinese middle class set to continue expanding – along with disposable income and a more sophisticated market awareness – Tesco won’t need any UK Government help with growing their business.

But the UK’s manufacturing base always can.

Not Just Barking Beck

This week, all will be revealed. But all of what? Well, that would be telling. And the kind of folks to whom this proposition is being made generally do not ask questions, because the revealer in question is the increasingly wayward Glenn Beck, “star” of Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse).

With his television show, Beck is doing what he does most effectively: frighten the audience, spin ridiculous conspiracy theories, accuse “the left” (Which is who? Er, don’t ask) of preparing for violence, while all the time telling of the approaching crisis. Yesterday, he surpassed himself.

Beck seems to have forgotten Byron Williams, now safely locked away after his disagreement with the police on Interstate 580, but he has remembered the Tides Foundation, who he is now accusing of being part of the coming storm, whatever that may be.

Also, he dismisses any opposition to his views by asserting that the part of the blogosphere opposed to him has been “bought” by people like George Soros, who Beck considers part of “the left” despite Soros’ part in the ending of communism across Eastern Europe, and particularly in his native Hungary.

But mere facts just get in the way when Glenn Beck is away and ranting. In this video you can see just how utterly unhinged he is: think twice before dismissing him as a nutter – this particular quack doctor pulls in a nightly audience of 2.7 million, many of whom hang on his every word.

Including some in the UK, which is a truly scary thought.

Forward No More In Yorkshire

Like him or not, leading the way in making cuts and abolishing public bodies since the election has been Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary. Fat Eric cut his teeth in local Government, heading the so-called “Bradford Revolution” of the late 80s, which was so well received that the electorate decisively threw out the Tories at their next opportunity.

Now he’s after the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), which are to be abolished. But what do local business leaders think of this move? The thought has entered that Pickles may not have been listening to them, if figures from his old stamping ground are anything to go by.

In July, the Yorkshire Post Business Barometer was published (see it HERE [.pdf]). The YP may have a circulation of only 65,000, but it is widely read by the local business community. It’s a solidly – sometimes bullishly – Conservative paper. Columnists include Margaret Thatcher’s old gatekeeper Bernard Ingham.

Looking at the Business Barometer report contents, then, it is no surprise to see that the personal satisfaction with the General Election result was 64% positive, with only 24% negative (page 14). On the question of the new Labour leader, 60% either didn’t have a preference, or didn’t care (page 17).

But one public body scored well with this audience: RDA Yorkshire Forward. In fact, 55% wanted to see it retained, with just 10% strongly for abolition (pages 18 and 19). This will come as no surprise to the region’s commuters: one of YF’s most widely known interventions has been to put up the money for more carriages on local rail services (commuters in Manchester have not been so lucky).

Rail has a large share of the commuter market, particularly into Leeds, where its time advantage over road is huge. YF’s move has eased, but not eliminated, overcrowding. Moreover, YF claim that 1 in 30 of the region’s workforce are in jobs as a result of the RDA’s efforts. And that their efforts have generated annual additional tax revenue of 725 millions.

If 2008-9 is taken as an example, the total of central Government (“single pot”) funding, together with EU funds, comes to less than 400 millions. That’s not a bad return on investment, so why abolish it? Eric?

Dave’s Got Style – And It’s Official

Brand new Government – that’s the line we were sold. All the old bad habits of New Labour would be swept away. So there would, presumably, be less spin merchants and other hangers on in 10 Downing Street. Wouldn’t there? Alas, no, if last week’s revelations are anything to go by.

Young Dave has appointed a personal photographer and cameraman to his staff, and as they are on short term contracts – rather like a lot of freelance workers – the usual rules for civil service interviewing do not apply. And yes, they are on the public payroll.

Added to these two are an appointment to the Government’s “nudge unit” – those of a certain age will be disappointed to know that neither Eric Idle nor Terry Jones feature – and someone to help Sam Cam with her wardrobe. The Guardian has merely looked on with a certain amused detachment, but for the Daily Mail, this is serious stuff.

The legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre doesn’t like Young Dave. He was on reasonably good terms with Pa Broon, but detested Tone. And he isn’t impressed by Corporal Clegg or Mil The Younger either. So any of the current party leaders is fair game for his obedient hackery.

Hence the article appearing under the by-line of Simon Walters, although doubtless done to order, which talks of “the Camerons ... falling into the same trap as the image fixated Blairs”. This is a warning shot across the bows of the PM’s ship of state, and it says that there will be more of these stories.

And, as with the ridiculous tirades against Miliband, the next round of knocking copy will be of the usual righteous and overbearing nature. Others do not need so many words, though: this cruel and tasteless, but very funny, cartoon from the Guardian’s Martin Rowson is just as effective.

Welcome to the sharp end of politics.

Phil Griffin’s Dilemma – Solved

As I posted the other day, MSNBC’s head man Phil Griffin simultaneously laid down the law and handed himself one big headache on Friday. He suspended his highest rating host, Keith Olbermann, “indefinitely and without pay” for making donations to political candidates in violation of the NBC employees’ code. But any lengthy loss of Olbermann would likely damage the channel’s ratings.

Moreover, there was condemnation from across the political spectrum, and the point repeatedly made that Olbermann probably benefitted the Democratic Party far more by his attacks on their opponents (and the right leaning part of the media) than by three 2,400 dollar donations. A petition for Olbermann’s reinstatement garnered over a quarter of a million signatures.

So push came to shove in short order: it has been announced by NBC that the suspension will end tonight, and Olbermann will be back on air tomorrow. One interesting additional insight came from Mike Allen, who has suggested that Griffin would not have suspended Olbermann, had his host made an on-air mea culpa.

But Allen’s thought that MSNBC is not so dependent on Olbermann I don’t buy: as I pointed out previously, the 2000 hours EST slot sets up the evening for the broadcaster. It’s also why CNN desperately needs Parker Spitzer to establish itself, as it goes out at the same time, and CNN now has the lowest ratings of the three main cable networks.

CNN’s problems will hardly be helped when Larry King Live (which occupies the 2100 hours slot) gives way to The Percy Moron Show. Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity are not reported to be quaking in their boots.

How Tired Is Your Pilot? – 12

A new month brings a very old and tired excuse to the arena of low cost air travel: someone is scaling down their operation at what is flatteringly called a “secondary airport”, and blaming it on something that is not the real reason for their actions. The airport is Hahn (which is not anywhere near Frankfurt am Main) and the carrier is, of course, Ryanair, the Millwall of air carriers (everybody hates us and we don’t care).

The Ryanair press release confirms that they are reducing their flight volume at Hahn by around 30% next summer, citing what they call the German Government’s EUR8 “tourist tax”. But there is no evidence put forward as to how this may impact on loadings or yield. Moreover, the Ryanair claim that countries like the Netherlands and Greece are taking an approach more to the carrier’s liking rings rather hollow when they don’t base any aircraft there.

Also, the UK charges Air Passenger Duty (APD) at a rate far higher than the German level, and it hasn’t stopped Ryanair maintaining nine bases here. The real reason for the reduction, I would suggest, is that Hahn is 120km from Frankfurt am Main, while that city’s primary airport is just 14km distant. Carriers like Air Berlin, Condor, and TUIFly all offer flights from the real Frankfurt airport.

And the real Frankfurt airport is linked in to the national motorway network, it’s on the city’s S-Bahn system, and there is a high speed rail link too. Punters are not stupid: if the cost and time of trekking to Hahn makes Ryanair no cheaper overall than a carrier operating out of the real Frankfurt airport, then the notoriety of Michael O’Leary’s finest may well do the rest.

On the one hand, Ryanair continue to push the ridiculous idea that distant secondary airports are somehow “near” major cities – the latest being Vatry in France, which the carrier has renamed “Paris Vatry”, despite it being over 170km away from the French capital – but then, with Barcelona, has yielded to reality and started flights from the city’s main airport.

And that latter action has given the game away: to keep on making money, Ryanair cannot stay away from primary airports: they’ve even started flights from Gatwick. Other low cost carriers are finding out that punters have done their sums and are seeing that distant secondary airports are little more than an operational convenience – convenient for Ryanair, but not for passengers.

EasyBlog – Happy Birthday

Next Thursday, there is a fifteenth birthday celebration at Luton Airport: although it is now the UK’s largest airline, EasyJet has only been in the game a decade and a half. Some parts of the package – booking by phone, the ITV Airline series, the Boeing 737 – are gone or going, but the image of fun, and being low cost yet popular, has endured, despite last summer’s horror show on timekeeping and reliability.

I first encountered the carrier back in 2000, when work was in Amsterdam, and for some months I became a regular on what was then the Stelios Speke-Schiphol Shuttle. Not having to pay the kind of prices that “full price” carriers charged when not meeting the infamous “Saturday stopover” rule – since discredited and all but abandoned – was an essential part of my personal economics.

Since then, EasyJet has meant trips to Madrid (three), Barcelona (two), Faro, Berlin, Lisbon, Munich and Naples. All have been good on timekeeping, service and of course cost. The only exception was, ironically, a return to Amsterdam, marred by a theft from checked luggage and the worrying abdication of responsibility from carrier, handling agent, and both countries’ police forces.

And that’s a pity: separating the Schiphol handling process from local criminality should be a priority for EasyJet going forward, especially given that Amsterdam and the wider Randstad area are still providing good revenue for them. And, of course, such action would stop those affected from blogging about it (more than once, in my case).

But enough of the minus points: for many in the UK, before EasyJet, flying was either by charter carrier or not at all. City breaks were for the better off, unless that city happened to be a charter destination. Expats and holiday home owners also had to pay through the nose, rely on charters, or even drive. And working abroad was, well, not so easy on the pocket.

So when I read in the November edition of the EasyJet in-flight magazine (this time free from controversy) that new CEO Carolyn McCall was looking for feedback from her customers, there was only one thing to do: provide some.

And here it is.

Phil Griffin’s Dilemma

It might surprise some in the UK, but most of the USA’s broadcast media operates to a well defined code of conduct, which includes a ban on employees making donations to politicians or their parties. That code was also behind the actions of National Public Radio (NPR) when they barred their staffers from attending the Rally To Restore Sanity, unless they were covering the event.

So on that basis, it was not a surprise when MSNBC head man Phil Griffin suspended top rating host Keith Olbermann yesterday, after learning that Olbermann had made donations to three Democrats prior to last Tuesday’s mid-term Elections. However, that the suspension was declared “indefinite” and without pay has raised eyebrows, and brought forthright condemnation from all sides.

Even Eliot Spitzer, co-host of CNN’s newly launched Parker Spitzer, has weighed in – and that show goes out directly against Olbermann’s Countdown on weeknights. The thought has entered that Griffin may be trying to demonstrate to his not always cohesive array of hosts that he’s the boss, but if so, he is playing a dangerous game.

Countdown is MSNBC’s only show that regularly pulled in over a million viewers last month, and its weeknight line-up is underpinned by Olbermann’s presence at 2000 hours. This overtly liberal presenter sets the tone and helps the audience for the two hosts who follow his show: Rachel Maddow at 2100, and Lawrence O’Donnell at 2200. Pulling out that underpinning would undo all the hard work displacing CNN as the second most popular cable channel.

That last point has not been lost on Maddow, who partly owes her presence on MSNBC to Olbermann’s advocacy. She openly voiced her support for him on her show yesterday, and made the comparison between the standards of MSNBC and those of the current top cable network, where hosts soliciting donations and appearing at party fundraisers is not only tolerated, but apparently encouraged.

No prizes for guessing the identity of that top cable network: it is, of course, our old friends at Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse).

Protecting The Revenue

The brand conscious people at Spanish rail operator Renfe have names and identities for all their passenger operations, and for commuter and local trains the name is Cercanias (or, in Catalunya, Rodalies). If you’ve ridden the coast service from Malaga to Torremolinos and Fuengirola, or from Barcelona along the Costa Brava, then you’ve already sampled the brand.

And with that brand comes a basic level of comfort and service: it’s only a local service. So the only on-board human presence is the driver, and many stations have limited ticket office facilities, or in some cases just automatic machines. To offset concerns about safety and security, guards patrol the Cercanias network, generally in pairs, and occasionally with dogs.

However, the security guards cannot guarantee to be where the next ruckus kicks off. And the extent of their powers, short of summoning the real police, is unclear, although any physical presence is welcome, especially at night.

One area those guards clearly do not cover is what we in the UK call Revenue Protection, or, put more directly, eliminating fare evasion. Most stations on the Cercanias network are fenced off and allow access to their platforms via automatic barriers: you only get through with a valid ticket.

But some stations are not thus secured, and even when they are, the determined freeloader can get through. Gaps in lineside fencing, level crossings near stations, and nearby sidings all present opportunities, and when the security guards aren’t looking, folks will appear at platform ends, having evaded the barrier line.

Many of those freeloaders also know their destinations: one such in Barcelona is the recently restored Estació de França east of the city centre. But the draw is not to be near Ciutadella or Barceloneta, or a trip to the nearby Zoo, but the more prosaic reality: França, presumably because of some Spanish equivalent of listed status, doesn’t have a barrier line.

Because that is the only ticket check on the Cercanias network: you won’t see a conductor or inspector on these trains. Presumably someone at Renfe, or network owner Adif, has sat down and done the maths. It would be interesting to see the figures.

That’ll Cost You, Sport – 22

And so, while I was otherwise distracted doing city break things, normal politics continued in the UK, and the decision on whether to refer the News Corp bid to take over the 61% of BSkyB that they do not already own arrived on the desk of Business Secretary Vince Cable.

Whatever Cable decided, he was going to get a kicking from part of the media. Had he waved the News Corp bid through, all those players who had already opposed it would be unhappy, and if he referred it, Rupe’s troops and their cheerleaders would kick off. It was a thankless task.

Ultimately, Cable played the safety shot and referred the bid to Ofcom – coincidentally the body that Young Dave had indicated, before the General Election, would be all but abolished if the Tories won. It was also the body that had ordered BSkyB to lower the price they charged third party suppliers – like BT and Virgin Media – for broadcasting their content.

So now the Murdoch press is annoyed with poor Vince. But could he have acted differently? Passing the bid could have meant the matter ending up with the EU Competition Commission, or Cable could have tried to pass it to them at the outset. But the principle of subsidiarity would in all probability have meant the EU passing it back to Cable, as an example of a matter best dealt with initially at member state level.

Subsidiarity is one concept that the Europhobic tendency have difficulty recognising: to them, the EU is a solely centralising force, sucking the life out of member state Governments. That idea, though, is fatuous: subsidiarity means that decisions should be taken at as local a level as possible.

Which brings us back to Cable and Ofcom. And the word the latter will have at the centre of their investigation is plurality: this is the idea that allowing News Corp to own 100% of BSkyB would concentrate too much of the marketplace in the hands of one organisation. After all, Rupe’s troops already have a third of the newspaper market, and BSkyB’s revenues significantly exceed those of its largest competitor, the BBC.

Cable has instructed Ofcom to report back by the end of the year, and then he may yet refer the matter to the EU. But for Murdoch, this is getting in the way of setting up his legacy: Rupe will be 80 next March, he cannot go on for ever, and the thought that News Corp may not, like the empire of William Randolph Hearst, long survive his passing must have occurred to him.

And if Cable does pass the bid to the EU, having had Ofcom do their investigation, he may have to wait long beyond that 80th to get his 61%.

Barcelona: Knowing The Language

If anyone thought that getting from one part of a Tube station to another, negotiating all those passageways and flights of steps, was tiresome, then they had never had to do the same thing in Barcelona. Where the Metro shows an interchange between lines, the first reaction should be to scepticism.

Many of the walks cause the thought to enter that maybe the interchange should have been one stop away – think of Bank to Monument without the escalators, but a lot further. But here there are also opportunities: one long passageway under the Estació de Sants has been turned into a series of adverts for a name familiar to all who have experienced the very worst of low cost air travel.

Yes, those adverts proclaim the addition of Barcelona’s main airport to the route network of Ryanair, the Millwall of air carriers (everybody hates us and we don’t care). After years of trying to pass off Girona and Reus as “Barcelona”, because both are not only operationally more convenient, but also cheap on handling costs, Michael O’Leary’s finest have decided to do as EasyJet did in the first place.

However, some of the locals are less than impressed with the Ryanair advertising: a rash of red stickers have been applied to the passageway sides, suggesting that the carrier is not showing the Catalans sufficient respect. Why? Because the ads are in Castellano, or what we would call Spanish.

And the first language of Barcelona is Català, or Catalan. That means a lot to many in the city and the region: the language was banned during the Franco dictatorship, with Castellano imposed, as with all other law, from Madrid. One might have thought that Ryanair would have done their homework, although the thought did enter that they might have done so, but were too tight to get another translation done.

Perish the thought, eh, Mike?

Barcelona: Barceloneta

The suburb of Barceloneta (“Little Barcelona”) was for decades a place without: away from the city, it was where fishing folk lived and worked. The grid pattern of narrow streets gives the neighbourhood an intimacy, with everyone living very closely together.

Midday in Barceloneta

And it still is a place apart: behind the touristy, glitzy and overpriced main drag at the west side of Barceloneta, this is still a working people’s suburb. And despite being so close to the city, the symbolic presence of a busy dual carriageway road, and behind that the approach to the Estació de França, on its northern fringe effectively cuts it off from the rest of Barcelona.

That impression is reinforced by there being a Barceloneta Metro station, but knowing that you have to cross that dual carriageway to reach it. Having said all of that, it’s a part of Barcelona that should not be missed from any good tour.

Barcelona: Hard Times

The Olympic Games of 1992 showed Barcelona as a city resurgent: new infrastructure, the local economy growing rapidly, and the recently gained autonomy of the Catalan region from rule by Madrid. And the construction work has gone on since, with extensions to the Metro, two new tram networks, the arrival of high speed rail links, and lots more roads.

But the downturn in Spain has hit here too. Unemployment is around 20%, and despite the continuation of infrastructure projects like the cross city high speed rail tunnel (part of the new line to the French border) and an all automatic Metro line which will eventually run around the north and west side of the city to the Airport, times are hard for many locals.

So it’s no surprise that there are a lot of folks out on the streets, and on an increasing number of Metro trains, trying to scrape a few Euro together by whatever means they can muster. On street corners, beggars hold out cups or hats, often displaying signs telling of their plight and their needs. On one Metro journey, I witnessed the sorry sight of one woman falling to her knees and pitifully regaling passengers with her story.

Some are more enterprising, but their lack of polish does not do them any good. Travelling on the FGC (a commuter railway system run by the Catalan Government), one journey was accompanied by a man playing what can only be described as an odd wind instrument. He attempted a selection of Abba songs, and all of them he did badly.

On my return journey, I just missed one train, only to hear the sound of the bloke with the pipe attempting Abba as it sped off. My relief was short lived: another man boarded, this time with an accordion, attempting a number of tunes, but was so bad that, well, he was bad. What they were I couldn’t tell. Neither he, nor the Abba copier with the pipe, secured a cent from their audience – and both trains were busy.

What is certain is that, like the tat sellers in the parks, they will be back, because right now, that is how they try to make ends meet.

Sanity Is Now Unavoidable

So now almost all the results are in from the US’ Midterm elections. The House has gone Republican, and by some margin: of the 435 seats, the GOP have taken 239, with the Democrats trailing on 185. Those results yet to come will not change matters greatly.

However, the Senate has been a different affair. Just one third of seats were up for grabs, and the GOP failed to win enough of them to secure a majority. Of the races that they lost, those in Delaware and Nevada should give Republican chiefs much to ponder, because they lost both when they should have won.

In Delaware, Democrat Chris Coons looked to be vulnerable, but then his mainstream opponent lost the primary to Tea Party candidate Christine O’Donnell. From there it was downhill all the way, as O’Donnell’s past, and her views, plus her unwillingness to engage with the media, told against her. Trying to smear Coons as a Marxist was also unsuccessful.

And in Nevada, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also faced a Tea Partier, in the form of Sharron Angle. Yet again, Angle was not interested in meeting the media – well, that part which wanted to ask her real questions about real issues, rather than play softball. She alienated minority voters, the result being that Reid took two thirds of the Latino vote, 80% of African American preferences, and three quarters of Asian voters’ picks. His winning margin was 6%.

So, with neither party having a majority in both houses, very little will get done unless there is some measure of bipartisanship. The problem is, the Tea Partiers are not interested in even considering such things, and some of them got elected. Already, new House Majority Leader John Boehner has called for the repeal of health care reform, which I suspect the Dems are not about to gift him.

The only way forward for the next two years is going to be through a dose of that sanity that was on offer at last Saturday’s rally. Otherwise there will be stalemate, a kind of Congressional trench warfare in which neither side will yield. Also, the GOP will have to put some ideas on the table.

And all the while the economic malaise of the USA will remain untreated. This time, the Republicans may come off worst. The party managers will also know that there are more Tea Partiers lining up to challenge mainstream GOP incumbents in 2012.

Barack Obama may not be in such bad shape after all.

[UPDATE: another Tea Partier, Ken Buck, appears to have narrowly lost the Colorado senate race. Three GOP losses that should have been wins, three Tea Party candidates. Anyone out there not get it yet?]

As Bad As Crack?

David Nutt secured some notoriety recently when he was removed as a Government scientific advisor by Alan Johnson – it was a few months ago – over the classification of what are at present illegal drugs. He’s now published a paper in the Lancet which has reopened the debate – and not just in the UK.

Nutt’s intervention has made the papers here in Spain: Público has the story HERE. It’s a debate which such publicity is slowly opening up, but with much of the Fourth Estate – well, that part in the UK – wanting to shout down any attempt to have that debate, we may be some time in getting it.

Meanwhile, think on before finishing that bottle. Or, if it’s not so strong, starting another.

Yikes Readers, I wasn’t First!

Much in evidence all around central London of late have been the blue bicycles bearing the wholly coincidental sponsorship of Barclays Bank, and already nicknamed Boris Bikes. But the idea is not a new one, and neither do other participating cities see the need for such overt sponsorship.

Bikes - hundreds of them!

In Barcelona, the scheme is called Bicing (website HERE, in Català). The bike station in the photo is at the Arc de Triomf, just to the east of the old town. The only organisation shown on the red and white cycles is the Ajuntament de Barcelona.

That’s the local authority.