Jason Webster's Blog, page 2

Catalan referendum announcement

The Catalan government has announced it will unilaterally hold a referendum on independence from Spain next November.

It is hard to overemphasise how significant and potentially dangerous this is. The situation in Spain is very different to the one concerning Britain and Scotland. No one in London is whispering about using military force to keep Scotland within the UK. Nor is there any constitutional legitimacy to back up such an idea. Yet in Spain that is precisely the scenario.

Fact and fiction

In the fourth Max Cámara novel (BLOOD MED – out in June 2014) I imagine a situation where far-right groups have infiltrated the Spanish police. Today I learn about a new law passing through the Spanish parliament, that will allow private security guards to be employed in policing capacities, providing a cheaper alternative to paying real policemen extra-time. All well and good, you might think (or not). Except that in Valencia the largest security firm is headed by a man who is also the leader of a far-right, deeply xenophobic political party.

Meanwhile, new laws mean that the rights of ordinary people to demonstrate peacefully are being seriously curtailed.

So you end up with a bizarre and disturbing situation, where street protests are virtually criminalised and racist thugs are given more power and even payed by the state to help keep everything in its place.

As the El País cartoonist El Roto puts it in today’s edition: ‘If you don’t allow protests you’ll end up with revolts.’

New website

As you can see, my website has had a revamp, and I think it looks wonderful.

Many thanks to Iain Ronayne of Design 309 for doing such a great job.

I’m going to be doing more blog post here in future (got a bit tired weeding out computer-generated comments sent from God-knows-where, but they seem to have stopped now), so look out for them. And for more announcements about my future books. 2014 is going to be a busy year!

Flashmob Flamenco

I’m presenting a BBC Radio 4 documentary on the relationship between flamenco and the current economic problems in Spain. It’s broadcast today, 26 March, at 1130 GMT.

You can listen to the programme using this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rg228

Mountain farm for sale

I’m selling my mountain farm in eastern Spain, the subject of my book Sacred Sierra.

For more details please see my new website dedicated to the sale by clicking here