Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Serious Bullshit Alert

Much of central and southern Spain will be on brown alert tomorrow as torrential bullshit is predicted following today's vote in the Catalan parliament to ban bullfighting. The highest levels of bullshit are predicted for Madrid, particularly in the areas around the offices of ABC, La Razón and El Mundo. Such high levels will be provoked by repeated attempts to associate the bullfighting ban with Catalan nationalism. Smaller, but still dangerous, waves of bullshit will also emanate from TeleMadrid and the Cope radio station. It is not expected that the recent decision by Madrid's regional parliament to accept for debate a similar Iniciativa Popular against the blood sport will have any significant effect on the levels of bullshit generated. The worst should be over by Friday but the brown alert will not be officially lifted until August begins and everyone goes on holiday.

12 comments:

Nick said...

Haha. Very clever. I'll remember to take my umbrella. Sounds like a shit-storm is brewing.

Graeme said...

Not sure the umbrella will be enough Nick, the official recommendation for those living in the worst affected areas is only to go outdoors if really necessary, wearing a full scuba diving kit. Care should obviously be taken when turning on the television or radio.

Lavengro said...

So why didn't they ban the correbous? Surely not because they are very popular in strongly nationalist areas.

Graeme said...

Almost certainly because of the political cost of doing so, but that doesn't mean that the bullfighting ban is wrong.

Lavengro said...

I don't say that it is wrong, but to say that it this ban is driven by a concern for animal welfare rather than by Catalan Nationalism is difficult to square with the facts.

Graeme said...

I would argue that viewing this issue entirely through the prism of Catalan nationalism is equally hard to square with the facts. Those who have supported this measure come from nationalist and non-nationalist circles. Otherwise, how can we possibly explain the existence of a similar proposal in Madrid? There is a growing rejection of bullfighting amongst many Spaniards that has nothing at all to do with nationalism. Those behind the already growing bullshit storm would like us to believe otherwise, but they are the ones focusing on the nationalist issue. Interestingly enough, the proposal which led to bullfighting being banned in the Canary Islands was proposed by the Partido Popular.

Nick said...

Interesting. There must be something more to it than that - I mean, under what circumstances would the PP push for a ban on bullfighting!? Maybe they meant to ban immigrants instead but got the wording wrong.

As regards Catalan nationalism and the ban - I don't think it has much to do with it although the timing - coming soon after the much publicised independence march - is interesting. Barcelona declared itself an "anti-bullfighting" city 5 years ago in a symbolic move.

The ban has been a long time in the pipeline.

Graeme said...

It wasn't a mistake by the PP, but it was an implicit result of a general animal welfare bill rather than a direct attempt to prohibit bullfighting - which very rarely occurred anyway in the Canaries. The legislation did specifically exclude cockfighting.

Nick said...

Ah cockfighting. That's where the big money is in the Canaries then :)

Graeme said...

And why not? Probably now they'll have some fancy, smooth talking Catalan nationalist come along and try to ban it!

Jan said...

I'm glad they've banned bull fighting here, though I couldn't care less about catalan nationalism.... oops, I hope no-one from our village reads this!

Candide said...

Today we can read that, finally and as announced, correbous are exempted from the ban on bullfighting.

The brown storm continues because it has developed between two equally unagreeable groups of shit-throwing monkeys, each of which shows no signs of making any step up the darwinistic ladder.

Leaving the Zoo would be an option, at least for all those who have not yet become part of the menagerie.