Simiocracia

Mariano Rajoy, the man who proudly proclaimed in January that he would always show his face and never hide from the crisis, left today's Spanish senate session by the back door to avoid having to answer any questions from journalists. This on a day when Spain has again been battered by the markets, to an extent that has previously provoked the dreaded EU "rescue" for other countries. All of which comes the day after an increasingly panicky government tried to placate the markets by throwing them a bone in the form of €10,000 million worth of additional cuts in Spain's health and education services. Because, as we all know, health and education services cause tremendous problems for a modern, 21st century, economy. Just as they did in the 19th century. These are services which have gone, in the space of just 3 months, from being "untouchable" to being top priority for cutting. The PP made very few concrete commitments, but they have already broken almost all of them.

Rajoy seems to have very quickly achieved the difficult task of making Zapatero look like a far sighted, long-term strategist by comparison. Those who so freely accused Zapatero of constantly improvising are now all over the place, although they maintain their ideological focus. Hence the offer of cuts in education and health in response to all the attention focused on the financial sector and its dodgy finances. The latest cuts figure was announced yesterday buried in the third paragraph of a press release, and with no indication of any sort of where the cuts are to be made. It's had no effect of any kind when it comes to improving Spain's situation, nor was it ever likely to. But now the government has created a situation where the cuts will have to happen, or they will be punished for not doing them.

This seems like a suitable time to recall how little Spain's public services have to do with the crisis here, which is above all a problem of construction related private debt. From the creator of the admirable Españistan we now get Simiocracia.

via Graham Hunt

La Cortina De Humo

We've now had about 6 weeks of Spain's tougher anti-smoking legislation, and it looks very much like this law is here to stay. Despite the predictions of widespread disobedience, it's now a regular sight in Madrid to see smokers standing on the street outside bars or restaurants and the law is being observed with very few exceptions. It's even been quite funny to read accounts of people who seem to have suddenly discovered the link between spending the night in a smoke filled bar and the smell of their clothes afterwards. 

A significant part of why the law is succeeding comes from the fact that the noise being made by outraged smokers is out of all proportion to their weight in Spanish society. It's a widespread assumption outside of the country that almost every Spaniard smokes constantly, but it simply ain't true.  Before the tougher law was introduced I'd already noticed a steady decline in the number of smokers in bars and concerts, and the new reality here is that most people are not smokers and are happy to be in places that are not full of smoke.

A lot of the opposition has come from bar and restaurant owners who fear a decline in their takings with smoking being banned. Now maybe I go to the wrong places but I've been enjoying nights out in Madrid in bars or restaurants that seem to be as busy as ever. Some restaurant owners were opportunist enough to start using the law as an excuse for firing employees as early as two days after it came into force! I know I've complained before about the short termism of Spanish employers but even so.

The new legislation has also created a very unappealing martyr for the cause of smokers liberty. The owner of a restaurant in Marbella openly defied the law from the beginning and has finally been forced to shut the place down or obey the law on the orders of Andalucia's regional government. Marbella is of course a place where respect for the law could hardly be said to be a well-established tradition. In this particular case the restaurant owner has become a hero for the likes of Intereconomía because of his insistence that nobody should be allowed to eat a steak unless there is someone blowing tobacco smoke across it. His arrogant "I do what I feel like doing" attitude is nicely topped by his thoroughly balanced description of the government as being Marxist and terrorist. He has deservedly won his very own Twitter hashtag, #eltontodelasador.

The requirements of opposition to everything the government does leads many Partido Popular supporters to talk about how we now live in a dictatorship where nobody is allowed to do anything. Funnily enough I don't think their party has presented any proposal to change the law when they come to power. Things can really get a bit ridiculous, I was in a shop last week where the owner was talking about a fire that was raging in a nearby building. On hearing the word smoke, the customer in front of me launched into the "dictatorship" diatribe for all the world as if a house fire was just a minor distraction. I felt like suggesting it could have been started by a smoker but I showed commendable restraint. After all, you have to feel sorry for people who are now only allowed to smoke, er, almost everywhere.

Nor should we forget the contribution which some politicans and smokers themselves made to the toughening of the legislation. It wouldn't do at all not to acknowledge the role played by that crusader for individual liberty, Esperanza Aguirre. It was her decision to defy the previous law that meant it went virtually unenforced in Madrid. Under that legislation nobody should have been smoking at all in a concert venue but once she made it clear that the law wouldn't be enforced then smokers felt free to do what they wanted. I went to a concert a few weeks before Christmas in Madrid where it was written very clearly in large print on the ticket that the band respectfully requested those attending not to smoke during their performance. The result was, predictably, that nobody took any notice. Is it any wonder, given such arrogant selfishness and unwillingness to think of others, that the previous law had to be hardened?

Intereconomía And Sexual Education....Part 2

Having previously delivered such a thoughtful and insightful argument against condom use in Africa, the ultra rightwing digital TV channel Intereconomía has now turned its attention closer to home. Marvel at the cultured, mature and educated way in which they discuss the issue of sexual education in Cataluña, and the always respectful manner shown towards Marina Geli, responsible for health service provision in that region.

Spanish Pensions Work....So They Must Be Stopped!

Let's turn our attention to the question of pensions, and the proposal by the Spanish government to increase the retirement age to 67; a suggestion already dubbed the "pensionazo" here in Spain. The government did little to improve their already severely damaged reputation for handling of sensitive political issues when it was revealed that they had also submitted a document to the European Union suggesting that they planned to increase the number of years used to calculate the state pension from 15 to 25. This proposal, a covert way of cutting pensions further, was hurriedly withdrawn amidst unconvincing excuses about how it had just been an exercise rather than a genuine plan.

Almost the first thing to be said about the proposed change is that it may not happen for a while, if at all. Changes to the Spanish pension system go through what is called the Pacto de Toledo, an agreement to seek the maximum political consensus for the changes. That also means it takes time. Given that the Partido Popular has expressed opposition to the government's plan along with almost all other parties it is entirely possible that no change will be introduced before the next general election. The PP's opposition to the plan is almost certainly based around short term electoral advantage, given the party's current devotion to ultra liberal economic solutions it's very likely that they would favour something far more drastic once in office. Probably involving privatization. However, at the moment they flatly oppose all economic measures proposed by the government.

The really odd thing is to see such a proposal being presented as an anti-crisis measure. Odd because Spain's pension system isn't in crisis at all, it's been doing very nicely in recent years. Now of course that doesn't mean to say that things will always be that way and the balance between contributions and expected number of claimants has to be maintained....for the future. The automatic assumption made by many is that Spaniards are living longer and that therefore it's inevitable that they should work longer too. The problem is that figures on average life expectancy get used in a very loose way. The fact the life expectancy has increased by x number of years doesn't mean that all Spaniards can expect to see their own life expectancy increased by the same amount.

Nor is it that simple for everyone to keep on working, it's not the same for someone to be clambering over scaffolding at the age of 67 as it is to be sitting in an office taking the money that people pay for the house that gets built. There are some jobs where those doing them are lucky if they even reach 65. Another major problem with a generic raising of the retirement age is that it discriminates against the poorer sections of society; who tend to be those with the longest working lives. It's one of the paradoxes of welfare provision that those who do best out of it are often more hostile towards it.

There are many issues that should be addressed with Spanish pensions. Too many companies have used early retirement as a means of shedding labour and people who would find it difficult to find other work are therefore forcibly retired, but on pensions probably lower than they would have received by working longer. Also, it doesn't make much sense that a professional footballer can get early retirement for an injury that stops him from playing but not from doing all sorts of other jobs. The situation with the self-employed autonomos is frankly a bit silly. Most autonomos pay the minimum social security contribution until they reach 50, at which point they have to raise their contributions hugely to stand any chance of receiving a decent pension. So there is plenty of scope for sensible reforms which help to maintain the system, and if people want to work beyond 65 then they can swap places with me. Sorry, I meant to say they should be allowed to do so.

The fundamental problem is that the debate on the viability of state pensions is almost always contaminated by the ideological hostility that some have to their very existence. That's why favourable reports by banks or insurance companies on state pensions are about as rare as blizzards in Madrid in July. They want the business and it's in their direct interest to float the idea that the state system can't work. We're told that Spain must reduce the proportion of its GDP that goes on pensions even though the estimates for 2050 show that it will only just have reached the level that some European countries already have. Spain's social spending is well below that of many of its neighbours, yet much of the evidence on demographics suggests that extra spending can solve some of the problems that ultimately affect pensions. You want a higher birthrate? Then spend money on facilitating full, and flexible, access to the labour market for women so that they don't have to choose between work and having children. No such thing is likely to happen given the way things are going at the moment in Spain.

The loudest applause for the government plan comes from those who will either not need to work until 67, or who have very comfortable alternative arrangements for themselves. Members of the Spanish parliament only have to sit there for 11 years to qualify for the maximum pension. Yesterday we were informed that the president of the BBVA bank has had his pension pot capped, he's only left with a criminally low €79.5 million to see him through the tough years of retirement. The European employers federations says the move "goes in the right direction". Ah, but clearly not far enough for some.

Then there is the inaptly named Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) who have come up with a very bright idea. The OECD suggests that the Spanish government needs to dedicate more public resources to promoting private pensions, by protecting them from the vagaries of the market! This is a very "Washington Consensus" argument. Public money spent directly on pensions is bad, but spend it on guaranteeing banking profits regardless of what they do and it suddenly becomes good. Oh, and who was it who bought much of the worthless crap peddled as sound investment products by the banks and ratings agencies before the crisis? The pension funds. Take your pick.

El Limbo De La Dependencia

The Ley de Dependencia is perhaps one of the most significant pieces of legislation introduced by Zapatero's administration. It recognises the situation of many people who are having to spend much of their lives looking after dependent relatives, and offers financial assistance to them. I wrote a post over two years ago on how this law was being systematically obstructed by the regional government in Madrid, and it's sad to report that this situation still exists when most other regions of the country have implemented the law in full. In Madrid thousands of applications for help under this law have been ignored. It matters little to the Aguirre gang that those who pay the heaviest price for their political posturing are amongst the most vulnerable.

It seems that there are two regional governments in particular, those of Madrid and Valencia (both PP controlled), who are determined to ensure that no national government initiative with any risk of being popular gets implemented successfully. It's not just the case with the Ley de Dependencia, the government's education plan to ensure access of all schoolchildren to laptop computers has also been obstructed in both of these regions. Of course neither Madrid nor Valencia likes to claim that they do this just for reasons of sectarian political opposition, they find all sorts of other pretexts for not being able to do what the rest of the country can. But when it comes to non-compliance the same names come up again and again. With Murcia occasionally joining in.

We wait to see now what will happen with the plan by the national government to tighten anti-smoking legislation, but Madrid has already hinted that this law could go the same way as the current one; completely ignored in the Spanish capital because the regional government refuses to enforce it. With the rumours of a new law being introduced Esperanza Aguirre left it to one of her most loyal sidekicks to express opposition. The fact that the smarmy Juan José Güemes is allegedly responsible for Madrid's health service and supervises the spending of huge sums on treating tobacco related diseases doesn't mean that he should not lead the charge. I know what you are thinking, surely the PP that runs these regions can't be related to the other PP that constantly claims it is the only party supporting equality of treatment between all of Spain's autonomous regions? It is, I have to insist, the very same party.

283 People Enjoy Another New Year

Complain, if you want, about the crackdown on dangerous driving in Spain. The figures tell their own story, last year saw the lowest number of deaths from traffic accidents since 1964, and you have to bear in mind that there are now 15 vehicles for every one that existed 45 years ago. It's a combination of factors that have seen road deaths more than halved in the last 6 years alone, from campaigns against drunk driving to the points system for licences and the increased use of speed traps. When I arrived in Spain in the second half of the 1990's it was still common for people to get completely drunk in a village bar and then drive a long way home. Now it has become quite normal for the person doing the driving driving to steer clear of alcohol on a night out. Most people no longer drive so fast, it may be for fear of fines or losing points but the system is working to the extent that this year there were almost 300 fewer deaths than last; even after the sharp decline of recent years. There's not much to celebrate about 2009, but at least more people survived it than might have been the case a few years ago.

Intereconomía: Where Ignorance Comes First

You couldn't make it up part 9456. As if having Libertad Digital TV wasn't enough, those of us who live in the PP heartlands are also blessed with the gift of Intereconomía. This channel would have us believe that the use of condoms to help prevent HIV infection in Africa is doomed to failure; because of the climate, because of the apparent absence of manicures and because Africans are said to be unable to read the instructions.



via Escolar.net

The Amazing Legend Of The Extremaduran Masturbation Workshops

As an example of how inaccurate news spreads rapidly across the Internet you could hardly do better than choose the reporting of a sexual education campaign launched by the youth department of the regional government in Extremadura. Because the name of the campaign is "El placer está en tus manos" and because masturbation is one of the many topics covered in the campaign it has now become more or less an established fact for many of those reporting on the issue that Extremadura is offering practical workshops on how to masturbate. This "bulo" started by some of the most notoriously inaccurate media in Spain has even spread to some of the foreign press.

The reality is very different and anyone who understands Spanish can read the document published by the campaign for themselves. This document seems to me to contain a sensible and straightforward exploration of many issues affecting sexuality. Naturally, those who believe above all else in the parental right to deprive their children of any sex education will no doubt be appalled by the content. The mere fact that it recognises the existence of homosexuality and contraception is in itself enough to enrage such people; hence the manipulation and distortion of its contents in some of the press.

One of the most bizarre aspects of the press coverage has been the emphasis placed on Extremadura being one of the poorest regions in the country. As if sex education should only be available for those areas with money to spend. The cost of the campaign is a hardly staggering €14000. Add up the cost to health and social services of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases and it won't take long to realise that this campaign will pay for itself even if only a tiny percentage of its target audience take it seriously. Obviously "Extremadura saves money through sensible sex education for young people" is unlikely to ever make it as a headline in the national or international press.

We'll probably now be hearing for years about the great legend of the Extremaduran masturbation workshops. It reminds me of the myths that still circulate in the UK about how the European Union is attempting to systematically extinguish all distinctive aspects of British culture. Many of them started life as tabloid inventions but they continue to live on for ever in the popular imagination.

A Mexican Health Warning

The Mexicans are no fools when it comes to taking sensible health precautions. If you don't believe me take a close look at this poster advising citizens in the state of Hidalgo about how to avoid spreading swine flu.


Flu might be the least of your worries if you are trapped into a deadly embrace with one of these two shady characters. You are more likely to get a 20cm blade lodged in your rib cage when greeting Espe or Alberto.

Marching Against Abortion, But Only When The Left Are In Power

As my post on the Gürtel case is still very much a work in progress let's turn our attention to last weekend's demonstration against the Spanish government's proposed abortion law reform. It's extremely bad manners to organise such a major demonstration of Madrid's permanently angry right when I'm still on holiday but we'll let that pass. Were you there? If we believe the reports in the right wing press, it would be easy to get the impression that almost the whole Spanish population turned out for the event. A tidal wave of decent Spaniards marching united against Zapatero the baby killer.

Well not quite. Despite the now habitual claims by the organisers, the sympathetic press and the Comunidad de Madrid of a million or two attending, it seems that the true number fell well short of 100,000. Apart from those who habitually attend these events to estimate numbers, there is a new kid on the block. A company called Lynce claims that it has software which can count the number of people occupying a given space from aerial photos. Such a method would obviously be open to question in a genuine march which starts at one point and ends at another as you have to take into account the movement of the participants. Fortunately, that's not the case for the demonstrations organised by the Partido Popular and allies; they are generally static affairs concentrating crowds in a prominent Madrid street for the benefit of the Telemadrid helicopter. The PP doesn't walk.

Since we're on the subject of Telemadrid it's worth noting that the channel did its very best to encourage participation in the demonstration, virtually the only thing lacking was a direct instruction from the Lideresa herself for viewers to desert their sofas and take to the streets.



Santa Esperanza was of course there, and was joined by Jaime Mayor Oreja and none other than the Moustachioed Crusader, Jose Maria Aznar. The latter was accorded superstar treatment by many of the nostalgics who so fondly remember his time in office. Oddly, for a demonstration against abortion, none of them appeared to remember that during Aznar's time in office it's estimated that approximately 500,000 abortions took place in Spain. We can't be on the streets all the time was the excuse offered for this memory lapse by one of the organisers, who appeared to have forgotten that he occupied a position in the same government. PP leader Mariano Rajoy simply forgot to go, although he claims that he didn't want to politicise the event! The PP has now said it will introduce it's own reform when it returns to office, although the party refuses to spell out even a single detail of what that reform will involve. The signs from the turnout, habitual exaggerations apart, are that abortion doesn't even get the full PP hardcore support onto the streets, never mind the less rabid voters they need to attract if they are to stand a chance of winning an election.

If we needed a reminder of why the abortion reform is necessary it came a few days ago. In my first post on this subject I mentioned the case of a fishing exercise carried out by members of the Guardia Civil eager to find evidence of illegal activity at a Madrid abortion clinic called Isadora. This included doorstepping women who had been to the clinic and subsequently the judicial decision to allow an extremist anti-abortion organisation to involve itself in the case. The case has finally been stopped, because not a single indication of illegal activity had been found. Despite the absolute lack of evidence, a handful of police officers and a sympathetic judge have been allowed to intimidate women who had taken the (never easy) decision to have an abortion under the existing legislation.

Water Not Holy Enough For Swine Flu

The Spanish Catholic Church has shown a disappointing lack of faith in its own propaganda recently. The faithful who came to Toledo last weekend to pay homage to La Virgen del Sagrario were advised not to follow the traditional customs of kissing the Virgin's medal or drinking the "agua de la Virgen" from communal containers. Why the Virgin should have a medal is a mystery to me, presumably it's awarded for good behaviour. Anyway, the reason for the advice was the risk of passing on swine flu. This is more than a little ironic when you consider that the water from the holy well has long been claimed to have curative powers! Meanwhile, poor Madrid bumps along in mid-table in the international swine flu league with a miserable 700 cases a week. Although we're still in the pretemporada.

An Independent Verdict On Abortion?

Proposed new laws in Spain are normally presented for consideration of their legal implications to the Consejo General del Poder Judicial (CGPJ). This body is theoretically responsible for the administration of the judicial system and is also a part of the much broader system of political patronage. When the CGPJ was finally renewed last year after the Partido Popular stopped blocking any change, there were significant protests about the packing of the institution with political appointees by both the PSOE and the PP. The PSOE did surrender a couple of their places to representatives recommended by the conservative Basque and Catalan nationalists. Then Zapatero seems to have decided that he needed to take the edge off the evidently political choices by appointing an independent to preside the body. That person was Carlos Dívar, who is truly a god fearing citizen.

So recently it came to the turn of the proposed reform of Spain's abortion law. The CGPJ split right down the middle with those appointed by the PP acting as a bloc and issuing a report against the new law. The PSOE representatives then produced their version in favour and both reports were put to the vote. The PP supporters cannot on their own command a majority so their report was voted down. The other report favourable to the reform could have been passed were it not that the representative proposed by the Catalan CiU decided to abstain on both documents. This left the result for the second report in a draw meaning that the president had to use his casting vote. Step forward Carlos Dívar, who apparently believes that the only true justice comes from God, making his choice of earthly profession a strange one. Dívar voted against the report approving the new law on the basis of his religious convictions and creating for the first time a situation where the CGPJ cannot pronounce itself either for or against a new law. The reform will still go ahead and will inevitably end up in the Constitutional Court, destination of all laws in the last few years that the PP has opposed.

A Very Spanish Invention....The Garrafonix

The first time I ever opened a bottle of whisky in Spain I wondered about the little paper seal covering the top of the bottle. Maybe I even asked myself whether the bottles could get refilled. After having lived here a bit longer I became familiar with the concept of garrafon, the idea that the drinks you get served in many of Spain's numerous bares de copas are not necessarily the real thing. There are different varieties of the garrafon tale, and it's hard to know whether some are urban legends. Perhaps the most common is the notion that the bottles lined up behind the bar have been refilled with a cheaper brand of the product they are supposed to contain. You think you are buying Johnnie Walker and you get Dyc. Another version is that the manufacturers themselves have different grades of their own products and that the one they supply to the bars is a lower quality variety. In the worst case it is simply that the drink in question has been adulterated, either with water or with something more harmful.

To some extent garrafon can also become the excuse for excess. The reason you feel so bad on Saturday morning is because the bar sold you bad alcohol, not because you drank the best part of a bottle of whisky! Anyway, science has come to the rescue with the invention of the Garrafonix, the inventor claims that dipping this into your drink will reveal whether you have been sold the real thing. Of course the problem is what to do if your Garrafonix displays the skull and crossbones. Take it up with the owner of the bar and the best response you might get is a finger pointing to the sign that says salida. Now all we need is an invention to deal with the 15-20% of Spanish concert audiences who are prepared to pay 20-50 euros to go to a concert where they completely ignore the performance and chat as loudly as possible with their friends the whole time. I'm looking for something similar to the device that is supposed to stop dogs from barking, but which works on a more selective point and click basis. A blowpipe and tranquilizer dart would do the trick but security at these events can be funny about that sort of thing.

So Where Were The Bishops?

In the end South of Watford was unable to cover Sunday's demonstration in Madrid against the government's proposed abortion law reform. A demanding weekend eating tapas in a cold and wet Cordoba left no time for other things. Despite the usual exaggerated claims of massive attendance, it looks as if I wasn't the only one who didn't make it to the event. Over at the Manifestómetro they reckon that the numbers on the march didn't exceed 24,000, although the organisers claim 20 times that figure. What this suggests is that many of those who I have assumed would turn out for any demonstration on any topic if it's against the government didn't bother to put their walking shoes on this time. Maybe it was a bit cold?

It was a sign of the times that the Partido Popular didn't officially endorse the demonstration, and all of their most senior figures seemed to suddenly find themselves with pressing agenda problems that meant they were unable to attend. Even the church itself kept a certain "official" distance, whilst encouraging people to turn out. Apart from anything else, the failure to achieve a massive mobilisation serves as a demonstration of the distance that separates the leadership of the Catholic Church from many of their followers. Obviously not all Spanish catholics are ranting, foaming at the mouth, "fachas", although the percentage that are rises quite steeply the further up the church hierarchy you go.

Another indicator has been the mixed reaction to attempts to use the traditional Easter processions as a platform to protest against the abortion law. Many people who are quite happy to dress up like members of the Klan and march endlessly around their home town are not willing to see the event used to promote the more extreme aspects of religious dogma. It's clear that a lot of those who participate in these processions do not see them as being the property of the Church, despite the obvious religious background. Indeed, were participation to be confined to the faithful the only result would be a huge reduction in the numbers taking part. Not a bad thing in my view, the knowledge that these processions form an important part of the holiday is now enough on its own to make me avoid a place as an Easter travel destination.

We saw the true face of the opposition to citizenship education last week when the director of a school in Logroño forced pupils to watch a crude propagandistic presentation on the abortion issue. Apparently it didn't fall far short of accusing Zapatero of personally executing babies. The option of conscientious objection was not made available to any parents who didn't want their children subjected to extremist political propaganda as part of their school curriculum.

Why Spain Needs A New Abortion Law

It was only a matter of time. With the Spanish government's proposed reform of the abortion law taking shape we had to reach a moment when someone would call a demonstration in Madrid on the issue. In some ways it's surprising that it's taken so long, but the Catholic Church here has been strangely muted in its criticisms of the national government in the past few months. Some believe that this is because the Vatican has decided that the alliance betwen the Church hierarchy and the Partido Popular is not in its long term interests. Couple that with the attempts by the PP to present a more "moderate" image, a situation which means that they oppose the proposed reform but don't feel able to say exactly why. Now the inappropriately named "pro-life" lobby has called for a mobilisation and we will see how the PP handles this. It's going to be seen as a gift from heaven for the extreme right, who've been feeling a bit frustrated and restless ever since they stopped the monthly demonstrations accusing Zapatero of being a terrorist. March 29th is a good date, South of Watford will be in Madrid to report on it.

The Church itself has embarked on a silly advertising campaign which compares abortion unfavourably with the measures taken to protect the Iberian lynx. The distinctly unsubtle message is that we act to protect animals whilst we slaughter babies. They don't seem to have cottoned on to the fact that the only reason the lynx is protected is because we have reached a situation where there are hardly any of them left. The last time I looked that was not the case with the human race. It seems that they have even chosen the wrong species of lynx, the one shown in their poster campaign is not the Iberian variety. The timing of the campaign is not particularly good either, coming as it does just after the Pope has loudly backed the position that it's better for Africans to die of Aids than it is for them to use a condom.


The reform that the government is considering is by no means an extreme measure, it would do little more than bring Spain more or less into line with many other European countries on the issue. It seems likely from what has been published so far that the new law will permit abortion on demand up to a limit of the 14th week of pregnancy, with exceptions after that point only where the life of the mother would be in danger. The existing law has many defects and was a typical product of the transition in that it opened the door to making abortion possible, but in practice has still left it extremely difficult to obtain for many women. The hypocrisy on display from some of the anti-abortion squad is occasionally astonishing, notably when they claim that abortion has been converted into a "business". The principal reason for that state of affairs is simply that several regions of the country make it impossible to obtain an abortion using the public health service. In one region, Navarra, it's impossible to obtain one privately as well. So women seeking abortions find themselves obliged to travel and to pay. It's always been the case that restrictions on abortion do not make it unobtainable, it simply becomes the preserve of those who can afford it elsewhere.

Then there is the often precarious legal situation in which those who have had abortions find themselves placed. In a case last year in Madrid an investigation was provoked by the complaints of anti-abortion groups and was taken up by the environmental division of the Guardia Civil. Although the complaint was supposedly based around the disposal of embryo remains by the clinics practising the operation, the police decided to start doorstepping without any warning some of the women who had attended these clinics. These were women who had followed the legal process for having an abortion, and had the operation carried out in a clinic licensed to perform them; so why they had to be dragged before a judge to testify is something which only the judge himself can explain. It got even worse at one point when it looked as if the personal details of these women might be handed over to an extremist anti-abortion group that had managed to get itself represented in the case concerned. The current law is simply unsatisfactory, making the right to abortion dependent on a psychological report never works well because it means in the end that the specialist concerned has to be able to detach their verdict from their own personal opinions on the issue – I wonder how many abortions have been approved by psychologists who are loyal to Catholic dogma? It permits intimidation of women having abortions by religious extremists, as well as allowing the same groups to ally themselves with sympathetic judges and use the law to try punish those who have taken an already difficult decision to have an abortion. Meanwhile, three lynxes were born in Doñana this week, it's hard to tell whether the bishops are pleased or not.

Witch Hunts Are Bad For Our Health

The battle between the Comunidad de Madrid and those who oppose their ever more rapid progress on privatising health care in the region took a new turn this week. The Comunidad has been getting increasingly shrill in its campaign against the demonstrations that almost always accompany visits to health facilities by senior politicians from the regional government. This has been the case more or less since Esperanza Aguirre arrogantly swaggered her way through a hospital visit a few months ago; the video capturing her confrontation with opponents of her policies has since been seen by almost the entire universe; with the exception of Telemadrid viewers.

These days the visits are mostly done by the man in charge of health provision for Madrid, Juan José Güemes. You know your health care is in safe hands when it’s being run by someone who is the son-in-law of Carlos “I’m just very lucky with the lottery” Fabra. After the latest demonstrations the Comunidad was trying hard to get the police to crack down on the protests. As that strategy failed to take off they have fallen back on an old claim that their opponents are just full time trade union delegates, suggesting that no ordinary health worker would have any problem with their policies. They topped this off a couple of days ago by releasing a special video of a protest with some of the trade unionists involved being publicly identified. Shocking isn’t it, when people whose job it is to represent the interests of health service workers take part in protests about policies that affect their members. Shouldn’t be allowed. The way things are going in Madrid it may not be for much longer.

Blogging Is Good For You

It’s not me making the claim, it’s this article in Scientific American. According to this piece, the beneficial effects of blogging include improved memory and sleep as well as a more active immune system. I didn’t realise until I read the article that there is a medical condition concerning the uncontrollable urge to write, it’s called hypergraphia. I’m afraid the article doesn’t mention any health benefits from reading all this stuff but, hey, I’m feeling better already.

via The Cedar Lounge Revolution

Let Me Through, I'm A Priest!

Looking back at my most recent posts I find that not as many as I thought are about the antics of Esperanza Aguirre. Clearly something needs to be done to redress this situation, so let’s take a look at the latest advances in health care in Madrid. It was announced last week that Espe, being the formidable defender of individual freedom that she is, has signed an agreement with the Catholic Church in Madrid which will permit priests to belong to the ethics committees in public hospitals in the region. These committees have to take important decisions on issues such as palliative care for the terminally ill, or on the issue of abortion. I can just see it now, the priest taking his time and looking at all the arguments to decide on whether to support an abortion or not. It's a policy development that might have been considered a tad reactionary even in the time of the Black Death.

I think following this decision there is definitely a gap in the market for an insurance policy promising immediate evacuation from Madrid in the event of serious illness. It’s bad enough being sick without having someone overseeing your case who decides that as Jesus received no palliative care on the cross then it will be spiritually enriching for the rest of us to die in agony too. That’s assuming they don’t have to operate. If you need surgery in one of Espe’s new privatised hospitals you’d better hope that the person who drives down to collect the sterilised medical equipment from one of the remaining public hospitals hasn’t taken the day off sick themselves. Rumours that priests will also soon be involved in carrying out police investigations or in deciding tactics for Real Madrid’s next game are not so crazy that they can be safely discarded in Espe’s empire. Those of you who live elsewhere in Spain may feel safe, but remember that Madrid is just the laboratory where La Lideresa practises for what she hopes will be bigger opportunities to come.

Death By Unnatural Causes

Two people from the province of León have died recently of BSE (mad cow disease) within the space of a few weeks. The announcement of the cause of death has provoked a flurry of official announcements intended to convince the public that there is no risk, and the emphasis of almost all of these announcements has been on defending the meat industry rather than putting public health concerns first. We are told that the two latest victims of the disease were infected before more stringent controls were introduced in the year 2000. The director general of health services for Castilla León even unilaterally adapted the incubation period of the disease to 8-10 years to try and establish as fact that these people must have been infected before the new controls were introduced. He achieved his aim as sections of the press duly reported this as if it was fact. In reality many sources put the incubation period at 5-10 years, and one page I have seen with information on the disease puts it at 2-8 years; a period which would not reassure anyone about the effectiveness of controls in slaughterhouses.

It’s a familiar pattern to those of us who lived through the original BSE crisis in Britain. I can still vividly remember the Tory minister John Gummer force feeding hamburgers to his children in a bid to convince the public that there was no problem with eating beef. I wonder how they are doing? The almost criminal way in which the government of the time treated the issue in their attempts to defend above all the interests of the food industry is enough reason to treat official announcements with distrust. However, another reason why I suspect the information we are given is that I have a bit of inside knowledge about how things worked in the UK in the aftermath of the initial BSE crisis.

Not a lot of people outside of the industry know this, but much of the meat hygiene inspection in British abattoirs in the 1990’s was being done by Spanish vets. This was a result of the privatisation of the inspection service, in order to make things much more “efficient” it was deemed necessary to give huge sums of money to private companies who then employed the cheapest vets they could find to do the work. These vets were then sent in to try and implement the regulations in rural abattoirs where people who came from the next village were often viewed with suspicion, never mind foreigners coming in and telling them how to kill their animals! The vets weren’t even there for most of the time so anything could happen; regardless of the best efforts of the vets concerned. Yet another triumph for free enterprise, it may still be Spanish vets doing the job although I suspect that they have probably found cheaper Eastern Europeans to do it now.

I’m not suggesting that inspection in the Spanish abattoirs works in the same way, for all I know it may work fantastically well. However, with Spain we are talking about a country where there is always a significant distinction between a law existing on something, and it actually being applied. None of this is intended to suggest that there is a serious problem now, even with the latest deaths the total number of fatalities attributed to the disease in Spain is still only three (although you have to qualify this with the likelihood that others may well have died from the disease without it being diagnosed as BSE). I generally still have more confidence in the food industry in Spain, because not so many products disguise what they are containing as in the UK. Despite this, I would have thought that two deaths occurring so close together and in the same province would at least provoke some concern about whether the control system is actually working or not.

So that will be two steak fillets and a kilo of reassuring lies please. Buen provecho.

Lamela Hides Behind A Smokescreen Of Lies

The politician who was principally responsible for the witch hunt of the doctors working in the Leganés hospital of Severo Ochoa finally showed his face on Saturday. It wasn’t a pretty face either, Manuel Lamela put on a defiant show, claiming that he was proud of everything he had done. The general response by the Partido Popular (PP) in Madrid to a judicial verdict which undermines their entire case against the doctors has been one that is now familiar. Instead of just accepting that they got things wrong and making the best of a bad job, the PP have decided instead to make matters worse by lying on a grand scale about the whole affair.

Lie number one was a small one compared to the rest, Lamela’s absence during the week in which the court’s verdict was announced was initially explained as a working trip. When he was eventually discovered skiing in the snobby Pyrenean resort of Baqueira he insisted that he saw no reason to interrupt his holidays just because some doctors he had accused of murdering patients had been cleared of all charges. A hole in a wall in a Metro station in Madrid provoked by some tunnelling works was however enough to make him return in clandestine fashion to Madrid for a day, before resuming his holidays.

The really big lie comes with the manipulation of statistics. The PP has loudly claimed in the last few days that the number of patients dying in the casualty unit in Severo Ochoa has decreased dramatically since Dr. Luis Montes was relieved of his post. The implication being, nudge nudge, that something must have been going on there. Now the basic data is true, the number of overall deaths has decreased, but for reasons which have nothing to do with doctors allegedly bumping off their sick patients. A new hospital was opened in nearby Fuenlabrada which dramatically cut the numbers being attended at Severo Ochoa. Taking this into account, and despite an instruction given that terminally ill patients should not be allowed to die in casualty, it turns out that the numbers dying per 100,000 people treated have in fact increased substantially. The lie of the statistics is normally accompanied by another one claiming that Montes was removed for administrative reasons unconnected to the claims about involuntary euthanasia.

Just in case these lies don’t work, the rearguard defence comes with Lamela and company claiming that they did no more than pass on the anonymous accusations they had received. If this was the case, and sadly it isn’t, then they should equally have no trouble in restoring to their positions those who have now been cleared of any wrongdoing. The final deception is to invert the burden of proof, suggesting that if the courts cannot demonstrate that there was no malpractice, then that could mean that there really was. Who said the Spanish Inquisition was dead? Now the PP and their friendly media have of course spent much time over the last few years perfecting this technique, if you can’t prove that ETA wasn’t involved in the Madrid train bombings then that means that they were! It’s a callous, hard-faced, response which consists of covering each lie with an even greater one. That those affected should be victims of terror or doctors attending the sick makes no difference to those behind the lies. Dr Montes has now announced he will take legal action against those in the media who called him Dr Death as they casually tossed insults and accusations of mass murder at him and his colleagues. I wish him every success.