Tim Parfitt's Blog, page 10
March 18, 2018
Un observador inglés (11) – Thou must not Tweet, protest, insult God, the Virgin Mary or the Crown.
Sometimes the week’s news from Spain, Catalonia (and Geneva) needs little or no further commentary. It’s been one of those weeks … A French documentary film, ‘Catalonia: Spain on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown’, is to be screened today, Sunday 18th March, at the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) in […]
March 11, 2018
Un observador inglés (10) – Foreign robots … and Catch 155.
Whilst writing this week’s blog, some very sad news came in. The body of 8 year old, Gabriel Cruz, was found near Níjar, Almeria. He’d been missing for 12 days. His body was found in the car boot of the girlfriend of the boy’s father. RIP. This time last week, Carles Puigdemont, already exiled in […]
March 4, 2018
Un observador inglés (9) – Don’t mention Franco. I mentioned him once, but I think I got away with it.
To explain (if needed) the title of this week’s blog: in perhaps the most famous episode of Fawlty Towers, the manic hotel manager, Basil Fawlty, played by John Cleese, has a major problem behaving in front of some German guests. ‘Don’t mention the war!’ he says to one of his staff. ‘I mentioned it once, […]
February 25, 2018
Un observador inglés (8) – Felipe VI, rocket science, Barbra Streisand & Pep Guardiola.
When I came back to work here in Spain (well, to Barcelona) in early June 2007, to run another magazine company, a friend of a friend (I won’t give his/her name) invited me for dinner and said: ‘If you ever want to meet Prince Felipe, I can organise it.’ Back then, Felipe VI was still […]
February 17, 2018
Un observador inglés (7) – Let’s be clear: Rajoy is attacking Catalonia, Catalans, and now also Catalan.
I might have imagined it, but I thought the week started on a little bit of a ‘charm offensive’ by Spain’s ruling PP government. Every Monday morning, first thing, they have a comité de dirección ‘steering committee’ meeting – and they posted a photo of them all smiling with their coffee and water. Perhaps they […]
February 10, 2018
Un observador inglés (6) – Define ‘normal’, M.Rajoy.
Speaking at an economic forum in Madrid this week, Spain’s Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, said that the Catalan Parliament must appoint a ‘normal’ president. It echoes the comments of a man called Xavier García Albiol, who, at the end of November last year, said that he’d like to close the Catalan broadcaster, TV3, and re-open […]
February 4, 2018
Un observador inglés (5) – An unjust ‘justice’ system in Spain. A country in denial.
At last, a top Human Rights lawyer, Ben Emmerson QC, has said what needs to be said this week [his words are below]. There’s not much more that one can add, apart from this: Spain, I believe, is ‘in denial’. Complete denial. I’ve written here before about my own views on Catalan independence, and I […]
January 28, 2018
Un observador inglés (4) – Forget dialogue. Forget real politics. This was a week in Spain …
Forget dialogue. Forget real politics. This is just some of what’s happened in the past week – all whilst there are still four political prisoners in jail, still without trial: Spain’s Interior Minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, tried to justify the €87m (plus) spent on failing to stop the referendum in Catalonia on 1st October. He […]
January 21, 2018
Un observador inglés (3) – Bad PR: Felipe VI should have at least visited the Catalonia stand at FITUR.
I don’t know who’s in charge of the appalling PR & communications for Rajoy’s government, but it looks like Spain’s Royal Household could also do with some help. On Wednesday, I was watching events unfold at the opening session of the Catalan Parliament, zapping between TVE and TV3 – the day that the Republican Catalan […]
January 14, 2018
Un observador inglés (2) – Would a European country (or any country) be allowed to deploy an army against its own citizens?
Writing about Spain’s minister of Interior, Juan Ignacio Zoido, last August, I said that he had the appearance of being irritated when required to do a press conference, as if he’d just been interrupted from the start of a long lunch. Everything looked like it was an inconvenience. It happened again last week, after 3,000 […]
