Christopher Gray, Oxford Times

It was a curious circumstance that I needed to travel to Gibraltar and its first literary festival last weekend to hear a story local to Oxfordshire, and specifically to Faringdon. Its teller was William Chislett, a Madrid-based journalist well-known for his work in Spain and Mexico. If his name sounds familiar to my readers in Oxfordshire, this is possibly because his father, also William Chislett, was an authoritative writer on Oxford’s cultural scene over many years as the Oxford Mail’s chief music critic.

The story concerned Arturo Barea, best known as author of the autobiographical trilogy translated as The Forging of a Rebel. Obliged to leave Spain after difficulties with the Communist party, he later settled in England as a BBC broadcaster and writer.

Chislett told his audience: “He lived for ten years in Middle Lodge, a house he rented from the second Lord Faringdon on the edge of Buscot Park, near Oxford. The lord was a socialist who converted his Rolls-Royce into an ambulance and joined a British field hospital in Aragon in the Civil War. He was one of the gilded youths depicted by Evelyn Waugh in Brideshead Revisited. Basque refugee children, who were shipped out of Spain in 1937 after the German bombing of Guernica, also lived on Faringdon’s estate.”

Barea died in 1957, aged 61, and has a commemorative stone in Faringdon cemetery. Next to it are the graves of the parents of his Austrian wife, Ilsa.

In August of this year, a plaque in Barea’s memory was put up outside The Volunteer pub in Faringdon, where he spent many convivial hours. This was the brainchild of Chislett and a group of admirers that included the Spanish novelists Javier Marías and Antonio Muñoz Molina.
http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/opinions/graymatter/10775573.Spanish_writer_remembered_at_his__local__in_Oxford/

Letter published in The Economist in response to a Charlemagne column about migration.

SIR – Contrary to the impression given in the Spanish press of an exodus of engineers from Spain (Charlemagne, September 21st), they, and others, are leaving in very small numbers. Between January 2009 and January 2013, the worst years of Spain’s recession, the number of native Spaniards (those born in Spain) who resided abroad increased by a mere 40,000, which is less than 0.1% of Spain’s population, to 1.9m.

These figures are based on official Spanish statistics cross-checked with data in the countries where Spaniards reside, and the differences are not significant. Moreover, Spain’s foreign-born population of 6.4m is more than three times higher than the number of Spanish citizens living abroad.

Since the death of General Franco in 1975 Spanish society has, in fact, been exceptionally immobile.
http://www.economist.com/news/letters/21588053-spain-bulgaria-david-cameron-census-art-missing-people-roundabouts-energy

Interview in ABC.
http://kioskoymas.abc.es/noticias/opinion-editoriales/20130930/abcp-debe-abdicar-hasta-resuelva-20130930.html

Entrevista en El Imparcial.
http://www.elimparcial.es/cultura/spain-what-everyone-needs-to-know-la-historia-de-espana-reducida-a-200-paginas-128548.html

Chapter 3 of my book “Spain: What Everyone Needs to Know”, published by Oxford University Press, answers 13 key questions about the Spanish transition to democracy, including the political process, the protagonists, the role of King Juan Carlos, the media, social mobilization and the new constitution. It has been placed on the website of the Fundación Transición Española.
http://www.transicion.org/En/destacados/LibroChislettEn.php

Friday 25 October, 2.00pm, King’s Chapel. With Paul Preston, “Shattered by War and Exile: Arturo Barea and Manuel Chaves Nogales.”
Saturday 26 October, 2.00pm, King’s Chapel. Presentation of “Spain: What Everyone Needs to Know.”
http://www.gibraltarliteraryfestival.com/

The installation of a concrete reef by Gibraltar in disputed waters off the British territory, which is designed to encourage sea-life to flourish, was the final straw for Spain, which has long claimed sovereignty over the Rock at the southern tip of the country.

British diplomats say there is little room for doubt in international law that the waters are British, despite the Spanish government’s argument that they were not specifically referred to in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht under which Spain ceded the territory to Britain.

As a result of the 72 concrete blocks dropped on the seabed, Madrid imposed extra border checks on the Spanish side that have caused lengthy traffic queues of up to several hours. Spain has similar reefs for environmental purposes in various areas of the Spanish coast.

The UK government in London says the checks are excessive and break EU free movement rules. The conservative Popular Party (PP) government of Mariano Rajoy insists they are needed to control smuggling, particularly of cigarettes. A European Union (EU) team is to monitor the border.

In a move that was reminiscent of the conflict over the Falklands in 1982 (another relic of the British Empire invaded by Argentina), the Royal Navy’s HMS Westminster docked in Gibraltar in the middle of August after a flotilla of Spanish fishing boats staged a protest about the reef.

In a reversal of the Spanish Armada, the Spanish fleet that sailed against England in 1588 and was defeated, other British warships joined HMS Westminster in what UK defence officials called a long-scheduled deployment in the Mediterranean and the Gulf. A British aircraft carrier, the Illustrious, sailed along the Spanish coast as part of the military training exercise.

Obviously, the two countries are not going to war. Spain, however, has threatened to join forces with Argentina and take the sovereignty issue to the United Nations, while the UK government might take the case of border controls to the European Court of Human Rights. In Spain, the spat is seen as a diversion from the country’s five-year recession and tough austerity measures, and the slush fund scandal in which the PP is embroiled.

Unlike in the 16th century, Spain and the UK are allies and not sworn enemies today: both are members of NATO and of the EU. Some 12 million British tourists visit Spain every year, the largest country group, and two-way trade and direct investment is very strong.

The squabble comes at a time when Gibraltar is celebrating 300 years of British rule. The anniversary has been marked by a set of four Gibraltarian stamps, which bear the Union Jack, a portrait of Queen Elizabeth and the words from the Treaty “for ever, without any exception or impediment whatsoever” which Madrid regards as provocative.

While the previous Spanish government of the Socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (2004-2011) sought to ease the tone over the contentious issue of sovereignty by agreeing to set up with London a trilateral forum (Spain, the UK, and Gibraltar) to air grievances other than sovereignty, the PP killed this initiative by insisting on widening the forum to include local interests in the Campo de Gibraltar (the area in Spain close to the Rock). The UK and Gibraltar rejected this. Had the trilateral forum still existed, Gibraltar would probably have informed the Spanish government about the reef and the current situation might have been avoided.

The PP government hankers after a return to the 1984 Brussels Process, which established a bilateral negotiating framework with the UK for the discussion of all issues including sovereignty.

The trilateral forum was a modest step in winning the hearts and minds of Gibraltarians. The PP government’s heavy-handed response to the artificial reef, though it has legitimate concerns over other issues such as money laundering, has only served to harden Gibraltarian attitudes to Spain and remind them of previous crises, particularly the closing of the border in 1969 by General Franco, Spain’s dictator (1939-75). Last March, the US Department of State called the Rock “a major European centre of money laundering.”

The preamble to the Constitution declares that “her Majesty’s Government will never enter into arrangements under which the people of Gibraltar would pass under the sovereignty of another state against their freely and democratically expressed wishes.” In other words, Gibraltarians have the last word and it is highly unlikely they would ever vote to come under Spanish rule or even some kind of shared rule (the idea, as opposed to an actual agreement, was rejected in a 2002 referendum by 98.9% of votes, although it carried no legal weight). The residents of Hong Kong were not consulted when handed to China in 1997 when the New Territories’ lease ended; Gibraltar has a different status.

My wife and I suffered the consequences of the closure of the border, which was not re-opened until 1982. We were married in Gibraltar in 1974 because during the Franco regime Catholicism was the state religion and it was difficult for a Catholic (my wife) to marry a Protestant. Civil marriages did not exist in Spain. The only way to get to the Rock from Madrid, where we lived, was either by flying to London and then to Gibraltar or by train from the Spanish capital to the port of Algeciras and from there to Tangiers by boat and then in another ship to the British territory, an arduous journey and the route we took there and back.

We are hoping that by the time I appear at the Gibraltar Literary Festival at the end of October, it will not take hours to cross the border and common sense will have prevailed.

http://blog.oup.com/2013/09/gilbraltar-spain-uk-concrete-reef-border-delays/#sthash.HVEBj45M.dpuf

September 9, 7.30pm at the Cervantes Institute, 102 Eaton Square, London.
To confirm attendance, email: reservas.londres@cervantes.es
http://londres.cervantes.es/FichasCultura/Ficha90861_22_2.htm

Tras cinco años de recesión, solo hay un destello de luz en el largo túnel del desempleo en España. Esto obedece a que todavía tiene que surgir un nuevo modelo económico que sustituya a otro excesivamente basado en el sector inmobiliario, que se vino abajo con consecuencias devastadoras.

La gravedad de la crisis en España es tal que el país, con un 11% del PIB de la zona euro y una población de 47 millones de habitantes, tiene 5,9 millones de parados (alrededor de una tercera parte de todos los desempleados de la zona), mientras que Alemania (con 82 millones de habitantes y un 30% del PIB) tiene solo 2,8 millones (un 15% del total de la zona).

La tasa de desempleo del 26,2% que registra España es la más elevada del mundo desarrollado – más del doble de la media en la zona euro y cinco veces mayor que la de Alemania, de un 5,3%, la más baja desde la reunificación en 1991 – y se prevé que se mantendrá en este nivel durante varios años.

Durante los últimos cinco años, la economía española no se ha contraído significativamente más que la alemana, la francesa o la italiana y, sin embargo, su tasa de paro, a diferencia de la de esos otros países, se ha disparado.

El problema tiene mucho que ver con el modelo económico asimétrico e insostenible de España, desproporcionadamente basado en el sector inmobiliario, con un uso intensivo de mano de obra. Este modelo generó millones de puestos de trabajo, en su mayoría temporales, cuando la economía iba viento en popa, y los destruyó de manera igual de masiva cuando se pinchó la burbuja inmobiliaria. Es más, actuó como un imán para los inmigrantes, sin los cuales no habrían podido construirse tantas casas. La tasa de desempleo de estos es del 35%. De los 3,7 millones de puestos de trabajo que se han destruido desde 2007, 1,6 pertenecían a la construcción.

Las reformas del mercado laboral han reducido los costes del despido y han concedido ventaja a las empresas, dependiendo de su salud económica, en los convenios de negociación colectiva entre la patronal y los sindicatos.

Las reformas no están teniendo ningún impacto notable en la creación de empleo. Sin embargo, cuando la economía empiece a crecer de nuevo, reducirán el umbral de crecimiento del PIB para la creación de nuevos puestos de trabajo desde aproximadamente un 2% a un 1,3%. Pero no se espera que España crezca más de un 1% hasta 2018.

El modelo económico anterior fue incapaz de crear empleo de manera sostenida. Teniendo en cuenta la crisis el estado del sistema educativo, será muy difícil cambiar el modelo. En España, una de cada cuatro personas entre los 18 y los 24 años ha abandonado los estudios prematuramente, el doble de la media de la Unión Europea, aunque la cifra se ha reducido desde su máximo de un tercio durante la expansión económica, cuando los estudiantes dejaban de estudiar a los 16 años y acudían en tropel a trabajar en el sector de la construcción. Igualmente preocupante es que una cuarta parte de los jóvenes en edades comprendidas entre los 15 y los 29 años no están recibiendo ni educación, ni formación ni empleo.

Los resultados en las pruebas Pisa de la OCDE en lectura, matemáticas y conocimiento científico de los estudiantes de 15 años, y de los niños de cuarto curso en los exámenes TIMS y PIRLS, también son malos; ninguna universidad española figura entre las 200 más importantes del mundo en las principales clasificaciones académicas, y el gasto en I+D, situado en un 1,3% del PIB, se halla muy por debajo del de otras economías desarrolladas.

En estas condiciones, una economía más basada en el conocimiento es una quimera, lo cual se ve agravado por los recortes sin visión de futuro realizados por el Gobierno en I+D y en el gasto en educación. Asimismo, la decisión de la empresa estadounidense Las Vegas Sands de situar el complejo de casinos, salas de conferencias y hoteles más grande de Europa a las afueras de Madrid refuerza el modelo económico ya de por sí sesgado.

El único punto positivo son las exportaciones, pero este sector no puede crear suficientes puestos de trabajo para tener un impacto importante en el desempleo.

El FMI ha animado al Gobierno a seguir con sus reformas del mercado laboral para reducir el desempleo. El Banco de España planteó la controvertida idea de suspender el salario mínimo en determinadas circunstancias. Una opción sería un plan de miniempleos al estilo alemán.

Teniendo en cuenta que es poco probable que los sectores inmobiliario y de la construcción se recuperaren en una década, además de las enormes reducciones de plantilla en las administraciones públicas para reducir el déficit presupuestario, y que el decaído consumo nacional no anima a crear nuevas empresas, las perspectivas del desempleo seguirán siendo sombrías. ¿Cuánto tiempo seguirán mostrándose tan resistentes los españoles?

Arturo Barea, autor de la trilogía “La forja de un rebelde”, el relato más esclarecedor y sincero de los primeros 40 años del siglo XX español, falleció en Inglaterra en 1957 después de 18 años de exilio. Este sábado, una placa en honor a Barea ha sido instalada en la fachada de su pub favorito, The Volunteer, en Faringdon, condado de Oxford. La inaugiración ha corrido a cargo del alcalde de Faringdon, David Price, y de la sobrina del escritor, Uli Rushby-Smith. Al acto han asistido, entre otros, el hispanista Paul Preston.

Esta placa es parte de una campaña entre amigos y admiradores de recuperar la figura de Barea, incluyendo a Antonio Muñoz Molina, Javier Marías, Elvira Lindo, Paul Preston y William Chislett. Ya se encargaron de restaurar en 2010 la deteriorada lápida en honor de Barea que puede verse en el cementerio de All Saints Church, de Faringdon, cerca de Oxford, donde vivió y murió el escritor. Además, sus libros publicados en inglés fueron donados a la biblioteca del pueblo.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://hemeroteca.elimparcial.es/files/barea_chislet_558_0.jpg&imgrefurl=http://hemeroteca.elimparcial.es/noticias-cultura-espectaculos/&h=321&w=558&sz=77&tbnid=3HRGgq-4E68n4M:&tbnh=68&tbnw=118&zoom=1&usg=__D_341jIzw80WwYpApW1zFh5VoMQ=&docid=IkhsxV4faIB5EM&sa=X&ei=TncfUoeBOPTb7AbF9YHYBg&ved=0CG0Q9QEwCA&dur=140