Spanish practices........

Like Churchill’s pudding, this missive has no theme. There has been nothing happening lately that commands exclusive attention, so it will be ‘a thing of shreds and patches’.

After the Xmas hiatus in the political panto, the world seems to be returning to its customary state of deranged equilibrium. Here, for example, is F&CO advice to travellers:

‘There is a high threat of terrorism in Thailand. Bomb and grenade attacks have been indiscriminate, including in places visited by expatriates and foreign travellers. Sporadic attacks continue in Bangkok and around Chiang Mai. Since the beginning of 2010, there have been 114 reported explosions in Bangkok and the surrounding provinces’.

Who writes this damaging rubbish? Does the F&CO ever weigh its words against their possible impact, particularly on the tourist trade? It’s true that a few grenades were chucked around during the riots last year, but apart from the Muslim south, ‘terrorism’ is virtually unknown. F&CO is confusing terrorism with violent political demonstrations. Surely the two countries most at risk from terrorism, apart from its birthplace, Israel (which invented terrorism as an acceptable political weapon under the British Mandate) are the UK and the US. Does the F&CO describe them as having a ‘major terrorist threat?

More dottiness in Spain.

It has a financial crisis that observers say makes Ireland’s problem look like a walk in the park. So what is the first piece of legislation passed in the New Year? Why, a draconian smoking ban – in a country where the hospitality industry is huge. Spain is Europe’s fourth largest tobacco-grower. It receives large subsidies under the CAP (yes, the EU subsidises tobacco at the same time as spending taxpayers’ money on promoting smoking bans – no surprise there, then). Have they not learnt from the experience in UK and Ireland, where pubs are closing daily because of the loss of custom, or that in Ireland recently published figures show that smoking has gone up since the ban, especially amongst the under-25s?

Back in the UK, people are now getting worried about the dangers from the proliferation of urban foxes, following attacks on children. There was photo in the DT of a monster that was twice the size of a rural fox, nearly as big as a large dog. Apparently this is because of them feeding mightily on the prolific food waste that is a feature of modern Britain. This is all a consequence of the hunting ban, a ludicrous and unenforceable law that occupied something like 700 hours of Parliamentary time whereas the debate on the Iraq war only took up about 17 hours of our masters' consideration.

They, of course, brushed aside the fact that hunting with hounds is the the most humane and environmentally-effective way of controlling population growth. Other measures are cruel and ineffective. Hunting culls the old, the sick and the unhealthy, and death is instantaneous and certain. Other methods don’t discriminate and often leave the animal wounded, to die miserably. The outcome of banning deer-hunting is that they have proliferated to such an extent that they are becoming a major traffic hazard. At least as important is that diseased animals are no longer taken out, with the result that they are spreading infection amongst farm animals.

Needless to say, the townies and bunny huggers won’t listen.

One of the consequences of Wikileaks is that the well-turned apercu is likely to disappear from diplomatic dispatches. When I was working on elections in Pakistan, the British High Commissioner gave me a copy of his note to the F&CO about the conduct of the EU election observer mission. It was hilarious. Concerning the French representative he wrote ‘ The French Government representative arrived with gorgeous pouting Rita Chevrolet, checked in to a five-star hotel, never to be seen again’.