Whatever happened to "my Spain"?

Tuesday January 11, 2011

Peter Thurgood bemoans an important loss of freedom in Spain where the smoking ban demonstrates a worrying move towards lifestyle socialism in what was a smokers’ paradise

When I first heard last year that Spain was to impose a smoking-ban along the same lines that we have in the UK, I took it with a pinch of salt. I have always argued that the Spanish are not like us. Spain is a freedom loving country, with strong nationalistic tendencies. They stand up for their rights and do not allow themselves to be bullied.

In January 2010 the Spanish minister for health, Trinidad Jiménez, announced that she planned to introduce a ban on smoking in all enclosed premises later in the year. Jiménez insisted that the ban would not harm Spain’s economy and that no bars or restaurants will be forced to close by the new law.

Jiménez, like her counterparts in our own government who are very good with words but not too clever when it comes to statistics, claimed that in other countries where similar legislation had been introduced “not one single establishment had closed”. Obviously this poor deluded woman has never heard of the Great British Pub (RIP).

Neither, it seems, has her boss, prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, and the Partido Popular, the governing socialist party of Spain, who then went onto bring in this draconian and very unpopular law which only just scraped in by a few votes: 189 votes for, 154 against.

This poor grasp of figures completely overlooked the fact that in 2010 smokers in Spain paid 9.5 billion euros to the state in taxes. Where on earth do they think they will recoup such a colossal amount of money from if Jiménez or Zapatero’s plans to stop the population smoking work out according to their plans? But then, as we all know, socialists seem to rely on the Dickens character, Mr Micawber, who when in trouble, would say, “Don’t worry dear boy, something will always turn up”.

Significant

But will it this time? I very much doubt it, because apart from losing a significant amount in taxes from the loss of tobacco sales, Spain’s main industry is the tourist industry, which I myself have been a part of for the past twelve years.

My main selling point has always been not just the sun and the sea, but the ‘Freedom’ with a capital ‘F’. Where else can you go, I would say to people, where you can drive along beside the sea and pull over onto the beach wherever you like, no parking restrictions, and no petty health and safety rules.

Fancy lighting a barbeque on the beach? That’s alright, just go ahead and do it. Want to tow your boat onto the beach? Why not, that’s what it’s there for. Even the restaurants and bars are built there, right on the beach. All you had to do after finishing your meal or drink was to saunter a few yards onto the sand and lie back, relax and dream of where your next sojourn would be that evening.

Bars, restaurants, hotels and clubs all catered for everyone. Want somewhere where smoking is allowed? Just look for the sign on the door telling you that you are welcome. Want somewhere where smoking is banned? Again, the sign on the door explains all, meaning that everyone is happy, everyone is catered for.

Over the last few years however, since Señor Zapatero and his ruling socialist party came to office, I started to notice changes. Local authorities were suddenly empowered to put parking meters in the streets, admittedly very cheap compared with the UK but, nevertheless, still restrictive and still driving trade and tourists away from town centres and beach areas.

Empty

In one small village where I used to go quite often the local council placed a row of meters in front of the beach, restricting parking down to a three-hour limit. Didn’t these idiots ever think that the average family usually spends the best part of their day at the beach? Obviously not, because this beach is now almost empty, all the time, along with the bars and restaurants nearby.

It’s the nightlife, however, where I started to notice more drastic changes. As long ago as five years, I walked into my favourite restaurant in one small town, stopped at the bar for a drink, and quietly lit a cigarette. It was then that the owner’s wife, who is Spanish, approached me, and told me that her husband had died a couple of months earlier, and now she had banned smoking on her premises.

I obviously had not noticed the sign on the door so I extinguished my cigarette and asked her why. Her answer really angered me, first because it had always been one of my favourite restaurants, and second because I knew that both she and her late husband were also smokers. She told me that of late the restaurant had seen a large amount of trade from English customers and it was they, she insisted, who had pressurised her into going smoke-free. Needless to say, I have never been back to that restaurant, from that day to this.

What was happening to “my Spain” I asked myself? What will the English be insisting on next? No Spanish food because it contains too much garlic, maybe? Or how about no Spanish music? I mean, do we really want their mumbo-jumbo? Yes, we bloody well do. Well, I certainly do. I want Spanish music and Spanish food and the Spanish language, which I think more Brits should learn a little more of. And I want Spanish traditions such as spending hours chatting, drinking and smoking in little local bars and restaurants, long into the night.

These are the reasons I go to Spain. I don’t go there to spend 15 minutes in a burger bar with the sound of Cheryl Cole blasting out of the sound system, surrounded by hoards of loud-mouthed Brits insisting that everyone speaks English and there is a bottle of Daddies sauce on every table while waving their fat hands in front of your face if you dare to light up a cigarette.

Reprimanded

I remember one night, not too long ago, when I was reprimanded by one irate English woman because I was smoking a cigar in a bar. I had already asked the owner if it was alright to smoke it and he had said of course it is, but this woman, being English, thought she had the right to tell me to go outside. I was very angry but instead of letting her see that she had angered me I politely pointed to the outside area and told her how fresh the air was out there and if she didn’t like the smell of my cigar that is where she should go.

By this time it had started to dawn on me that Spain was changing; the Brits were starting to take over. I would like to point out at this point that I am British, and very patriotic, and therefore have nothing against the true British, but the people I am talking about, the people who are ruining Spain, are the same class of people who are ruining the United Kingdom. These people are not interested in the freedom of the individual; they are only interested in themselves, and their own personal tastes and dislikes.

My next big letdown was last year when northern Spain banned bullfighting. I know this is not everyone’s cup of tea, but neither is smoking, and to me bullfighting is as much a part of “my Spain” as the sun and the sea and the rest of Spain’s culture. When I drive from Malaga airport and I hit the coast road, the first thing I always do is look for the huge Osborne Brandy bull advert in black silhouette that stands on a hilltop. It is then that I know I am there, in “my Spain”.

What, I ask myself, is going to happen to Spain next. First they came for the peseta, then for the motorist, then for the bullfights, and now for the smokers. What will be next, I wonder – a tax on the sun and the sea? We had 13 years of Labour rule in the UK and look what that did to this country. Spain needs to change drastically. It needs a new government to get them back to the freedom-loving Spain that I and others like myself know and love.

I am sorry to say that after spending twelve years of my life recommending Spain to people, I feel that I can no longer do it with any conviction. I have wound up my business and ended my connections with my Spanish partners. I will be going back there because I want to see what is happening for myself as I have heard that there are groups of people, bar owners and restaurateurs, rebelling against the new smoking ban.

I just hope and pray that they have more success than their British counterparts.