Editorial:
Sat in the car at the airport, doing a swing past the guards every so and along so as not to get stuck in the expensive park and queue to pay and lug the suitcases across and up the steps. It’s worse inside with huge hangers full of marble and Germans. I park on the flowerbed for a piece. My old mate and his companion arrive. The girl looks nice. I help haul the suitcases. We leave with the windows down and papers blowing around and out. No air-con in this old car.
With friends staying you want to show them around and impress. That’s right. It’s too early though. I was once in the airport bar having a drink, you know as one does, and Dennis Hopper came in, so I pretended I didn’t know who he was then we bought each other beers and stuff, and laughed at the girls, then it turned out it wasn’t him anyway.
Right, come on, they’re a lot cheaper just down the road here than they are on the coast and, frankly, the company is nicer.
Sandwiched between a tour-bus and a cement truck, we pull off the road at the first opportunity. A few houses stand around, looking unconcerned. The car cools down over another flowerbed, this one rather tatty, as we enter a building through an enormous barn-door. We’ll have a couple of beers and tapas. I’m all knowing as the host; role-playing as a tour-guide with witty answers to all the queries.
‘…That’s right, donkeys!’
Some blond fellow watches us from the far end of the bar. He probably works down at the nearby cowboy town film-set. A young girl with a bruised face works the beers and the customers. The blond looks like he wants to start something. The foreign residents here have an easy way to measure themselves against each other: how long you bin living here? You must watch their eyes when you face up for this one. It’s a kind of pissing contest where there can only be one winner.
After better than fifty years man and boy, I try and avoid this, as the loser can get sore.
My friends are looking at the sad range of pickled entrails lying under the glass counter.
‘Sí, una ronda de cañas. ¡Oiga!’ The little barmaid brings the drinks and goes ‘t’ree beer?’ and I’m deflating like a spare tyre on a Renault. Kinda place is this anyway? ‘Thank you, dear child. And where are you from?’
Rumania. Well, I’ll be buggered. All these years living here, trying to blend in with the locals and to pick up a few words of various languages as one does, and do you know, I couldn’t even say in her gibberish: ‘I am a secret policeman, where is your sister?’
A Russian friend had been telling me about his work permit and the paperwork he’d given in. He’d prepared and written up the document himself on a sheet from a Saint Petersburg cigarette company with fancy headed paper and had covered it with stamps made with ceiling wax and a melted metal top from a Chivas Regal bottle.
We need people like this in Spain.
By now, we’re into some of those beers that come in dark glass bottles and feeling the kick. The blond fellow has joined us. It’s too hot to take an attitude.
From the terrace you can see a piece of a wide, sandy riverbed. It was here that they shot the film Lawrence of Arabia in 1962. Well, a small piece of it. A Welshman, cashiered from the Horse Guards, once told me the story of how the producer, Sam Spiegel, had obtained a thousand horses and camels to attack the papier mâché town of Aqaba on the Carboneras coast. The Welshman led the charge dressed in suitable togs but for some reason, with no saddle. ‘One mistake and I would have been trampled to death’ said the Welshman sadly as I solicitously bought him another drink. It is told that, after the single take was successfully filmed, they asked Mr Spiegel what was to be done with the animals.
He answered laconically: ‘Give the horses to the gypsies and shoot all the camels.’
The whole bloody lot. Some reward for being in an Oscar film.
My friend notices that the bar has a sign to say that This Establishement has Complaining Sheets. We order a few to take away with us.
A man in a string vest comes through a door behind the bar. He’s scratching himself with a kind of reserved enthusiasm. ‘You boys look like you would fit in perfectly in Mojácar. You ever been there?’
It’s about an hour’s driving to get to my place. I reckon it’s going to take us a little longer.
Housing:
Sur in English brings us: ‘Spain experiences new real estate 'bubble' with 360,000 homes sold in just six months. Property sales soared 20% in the best six-month period since 2007, despite prices also rising by double digits’.
Spanish Property Insight has ‘The rise of property as a safe haven fuels Spain’s housing squeeze. As traditional savings vehicles lose their shine, more investors—big and small alike—are turning to property as a financial refuge, pushing housing prices higher and squeezing out would-be homeowners…’
From El Levante here: ‘Israeli and US funds rush to buy up lots of heavily discounted apartments in Valencia. The Cap i Casal real estate agencies manage listings of up to 1,000 apartments from large investors who get them at half price and then put them on sale for double that’. We read: ‘The voracity of these institutional investors has reached such a point that they are buying homes sight unseen. "Most funds buy lots. They send a representative to view the apartments and sometimes record them on video. Sometimes they buy them simply because of their location without even seeing them," explains Vicente Díez, spokesperson for the Valencia Association of Real Estate Agents (API)…’
‘A young 200-apartment owner responds to complaints from several residents of his vacation rentals: "It's a service to the community", he says’. The story at LaSexta here.
How to get your name on the town hall register, el padrón, with Idealista here.
El Mundo says that Trump cites Madrid as the safest city in the world (on Monday, he was turning Washington DC into an occupied city).
Tourism:
‘The sociologist Alberto Sotillos analyses Spanish tourists and prices: "They compete with millions of foreigners. Maybe we should just leave August for foreigners". Low wages and real estate pressure are driving out those who sustain tourism. Sotillos poses a paradox: tourism generates wealth, but it also exacerbates inequalities and he proposes "rebuilding our cultural structure"’. Item from LaSexta here.
La Razón brings ‘Mass tourism in Barcelona: the world's most overcrowded city is already looking for ways to survive. Barcelona breaks records for mass tourism and prepares an emergency plan’.
San José, a resort in Ibiza, is concerned about the drop in domestic tourism: "The middle class that used to come to Sant José every summer has practically disappeared". Businesses warn of a loss of customers and a 40% drop in revenue’. El Periódico de Ibiza is here. ‘…This perception is echoed by many retailers. According to them, Ibiza is ceasing to be an accessible destination for the middle class and is becoming an exclusive destination for high-net-worth tourists. "Ibiza is expensive, very expensive," says another retailer. "The prices of houses, hotels, and restaurants keep rising. This means that people who used to come for a week can now only afford two or three days," he adds’.
La Manga (Murcia) hoteliers are demanding urgent solutions to the loss of customers this summer. The hotel agency HOSTECAR estimates a 20% drop in turnover and demands measures to guarantee access and to simplify procedures’. Murcia Economía says that the regional authorities will seek solutions, while protecting the delicate Mar Menor.
‘Private beaches are proliferating in Spain: the illegal phenomenon that has already closed thirteen bathing areas. Hotels and residential developments, built mainly in Andalucía and the Canary Islands, prevent free access to the sea to people who do not reside in these complexes’. The story is at ECD here.
RTVE has a map of preferred destinations by municipality for Brit, French, German, Italian, Dutch and American tourists.
‘Twenty tourists for every resident: the economic engine of the Balearic Islands is heading toward environmental and social collapse. Despite numerous citizen protests across the archipelago, the Government continues to support the expansion of the mass tourism model, partnering with hotel chains and investing in the expansion of airports like Palma’. The photo alone is worth the visit. El Salto is here.
From Infobae here: Nobody wants to work as a waiter, say restaurateurs: they earn 16,274 euros on average. While tourism and hospitality reach historic highs, thousands of waiters face low wages, excessive hours, and a housing crisis that even forces them to sleep in cars.
Finance:
The Ibex 35 stood on Wednesday at just over 15,000 points. More at Expansión here.
‘Spain’s top six banks smash another profit record despite the tax: they were earning 94 million euros a day in the first half of 2025.
The CEOE (the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations) raises its president’s salary by 11% over three years, Antonio Garamendi now receives 391,000 euros.
From LaSexta (with video) here: A retiree's reflection on Vox's migrant deportations: ‘"They need 24 million contributors, and they want to kick out eight million of them". A retiree analyses the present and future of pensions in Spain. He argues that migration can be key to sustaining the system and criticizes policies that seek to expel millions of immigrants’.
Politics:
From The Guardian here: ‘Miriam González Durántez weighs up move to lead new Spanish centrist party. The wife of the former British deputy PM Nick Clegg is understood to have had talks with the Renew grouping of liberal parties in Europe’. We read: ‘At a public meeting of her embryonic party España Mejor in Cádiz on Friday, she said: “If civil society proves incapable of cleaning up politics, I’ll consider establishing a political party,” the local La Voz de Cádiz reported…’
‘Vox adds 300,000 Catholic voters in two months in its offensive against both the Church and the immigrants’. El Mundo seems oddly unconcerned.
‘A wave of Spanish politicians are correcting their CVs due to falsification of degrees and diplomas’ says a Spanish blog here.
Jumilla:
In Jumilla (Murcia) – a town 110kms north of Torre Pacheco (wiki) – a ban on religious gatherings in public sports centres has sparked criticism and accusations of Islamophobia. The ban, initially proposed by the far-right Vox party, was recently approved by the coalition (PP/Vox) in the Jumilla town hall. This decision affects the local Muslim community, who traditionally use the sports centres for religious celebrations. The ban is seen as a violation of the Spanish constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion and worship (Google IA). The Guardian here says: ‘Outrage as Spanish town bans Muslim religious festivals from public spaces’. *I’ve written up this story at Eye on Spain here.
Gibraltar:
From EuropaSur here: ‘Spain will activate the new Schengen border controls between La Línea and Gibraltar on October 12. Fingerprint and facial image registration will be carried out at the border gate until the drafting, approval, and signing of the treaty that will transfer the border crossing to the port and airport is completed’.
Europe:
Brussels allocates €23,100 million to Spain from the NextGenerationEU fund: it will be invested in transport and energy. This is the largest payment from the European Commission to date says Infobae here.
‘A consensus by a number of countries is forming after Spain's decision: those who are closing the door on the US F-35. The fighter remains with its unparalleled operational power, but US trade and diplomatic tensions are undermining cohesion around its acquisition’ says Xataca here.
Health:
A doctor explains the reality of healthcare in Spain: "I'm going to work 235 hours in four weeks. I won't have a single day off." El Economista here says ‘The healthcare situation in Spain is becoming increasingly critical, as, in addition to the long waiting lists for medical tests, there are also the dire working conditions of healthcare workers. There have been numerous complaints from doctors across various specialties denouncing the dire conditions they face, such as 24-hour on-call shifts. Beyond the effects on the health of healthcare professionals themselves, these types of practices can be a danger to patients…’
Media:
The Conferencia Episcopal, often known simply at ‘Los Obispos, the bishops’ (the CE is run by them and them alone) has its own radio, La Cope, and its own TV channel, called El Trece (Wiki). It puts out a lot of old spaghetti westerns. From El Plural, we read: ‘Trece, the bishops' television channel, is on the verge of extreme unction: the red numbers that not even a miracle can save. The channel hasn't seen any positive figures in its accounts since its founding, fifteen years ago’. The channel’s stats for 2024 stood at just 1.9% of viewers.
The New York Times says: ‘Spain is having a moment bucking Western political trends. The country has recently recognized Palestine as a state, resisted President Trump’s demand that NATO members increase their defence spending to 5 percent of gross domestic product and doubled down on D.E.I. programs. But there’s no better example of Spain going its own way than immigration. At a time when many Western democracies are trying to keep immigrants out, Spain is boldly welcoming them in…’
From the ABC here: ‘The United States warns of a rise in antisemitism in Spain and points the finger at Podemos. The U.S. State Department detects in its new human rights report a 77% increase in hate crimes against Jews and singles out Ione Belarra for hosting an event in Congress with speeches that justified the 2023 Hamas attack’. Rather, it sounds like she’s an anti-Zionist.
No, bulos (hoaxes) are no longer funny: RTVE’s Xabier Fortes' formula for fighting hate mongers: "Hoaxes have become a toxic weapon in this hybrid war against the democratic system, growing on fertile ground from the pseudo-media," he warns. Leading journalists reflect in infoLibre on disinformation and how to combat the shock of hate speech through good journalism’.
Ecology:
Spain is ablaze this month with many fires, some out of control. ‘The Government activates the national pre-emergency phase due to the numerous active fires throughout the country. The objective is to analyse and coordinate the deployment of resources to assist the affected autonomous communities.’ says 20Minutos here. The worst hit region is Castilla y León. From elDiario.es here (Monday): ‘The PSOE minister Óscar Puente criticizes the PP president of the region Alfonso Fernández Mañueco for continuing his vacation in Cádiz while four provinces of Castilla y León are burning’. There are serious fires at ‘Level 2’ in the provinces of León, Ávila, Zamora and Palencia says El Plural here. A map of fires is here (Wednesday). Some were lit by pyromaniacs apparently. The current clips on the TV news are simply devastating.
‘Federico Grillo, forest fire expert: "For every euro you invest in prevention, you reduce your firefighting bill by 100". Interview with the forestry engineer and fire analyst about the causes of the fires ravaging Spain and how improvements can be made to prevent them’. Found at El HuffPost here. ‘Ignore prevention, pay the price: Castile and León and the bill for climate denial’ with El Plural here. CadenaSer here: ‘A firefighter from Castile and León: "We're in the hands of people who don't have a fucking clue"’ (Google translated).
Record temperature: Badajoz reaches the highest temperature of the heat wave, at 45.5°C. The Aemet forecasts that the first twenty days of this month will be the warmest in Spain since records began.
Various:
From 20Minutos here: ‘Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has announced that a new flotilla with dozens of boats will depart from Spain on August 31st to bring humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, according to an Instagram post she made this Sunday’.
‘Fire at the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: damage localized, monument safe. A short circuit in an electric sweeper was the possible cause of the fire that affected 25 square meters of the World Heritage-listed complex’. The item at El Reto Histórico here.
José Ramón Mateu, the Vox councillor who bought a piece of the mountain. The businessman is in the middle of a dispute over a plot of land on one of the most emblematic mountains in the Valencian Community. It cost him €54,000. He wants to build a bar, an illuminated cross, and a museum "so everyone can see it". El Mundo reporting here.
The first municipality to show enthusiasm for the giant metal bull is El Molar in Madrid. “It would bring jobs and tourists to the town”. They got that right! (El Mundo here).
A bullfighter waves a Spanish flag in the bull-ring: ‘Sánchez to Prison’ it reads. A day later he says: I had no idea that there was something rude written on the flag’.
The far-right Abogados Cristianos denounce Mayor Jaume Collboni over the poster for the Barcelona fiestas. The story is at elDiario.es here. El Plural explains who these jokers are.
This Andalusian nobleman forged alliances, moved fleets, and plotted in the 17th century to turn Andalucía into an independent principality. This was the Duke of Medina-Sidonia's audacious plot to make Andalucía independent: in 1641, the political map of Spain was about to change forever. NatGeo has the story.
The Toledo School of Translators: How Toledo brought Arabic and classical knowledge to medieval Europe. A medieval cultural movement that gave rise to scientific Spanish in the 12th and 13th centuries at El Reto Histórico here (informative, with some nice pictures).
See Spain:
El Economista brings (another) essay on Cuenca with some good photos: ‘The most underrated city in Spain that no one wants to visit’. (Highs of 37ºC this week).
Mapping Spain has ‘What to see in Cartagena, Murcia’s second city (and some money saving tips)’.
Letters:
Hello Lenox
I always enjoy your editorials but I must say that the BOT 594 one was particularly entertaining - it brought to mind my own adventures with various motors in the 60s and 70s. Keep up the good work, we need as much light relief as we can get at the present time!
Saludos
Philip
Finally:
Café Quijano - La Lola (Auditorio Ciudad de León, 2015) on YouTube here.
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