Tag Archives: spain

Martin Petts

A letter from……Catalonia

By Martin Petts | Wed 14th November 2012 - 11:57 am

As the UK plans a referendum on Scottish independence, those of us watching from Spain can only look on in envy at the orderly and civilised process led by the Secretary of State for Scotland. Here in Catalonia, Northern Spain, similar demand exists for an independent state, but the two sides have chosen indignation and confrontation instead of a serious debate.

The last two years have been tough for all EU governing parties and Spain has unique problems, with its sky-high unemployment levels, corruption and a rickety banking system. But this month Catalans will go to the polls in a general

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV poll: 83% of Lib Dems say break-up of Eurozone will be bad for Britain’s economy

By Stephen Tall | Mon 11th June 2012 - 9:09 am

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 560 party members responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

This weekend saw eurozone ministers agreed to lend Spain’s banks up to 100bn euros (£80bn) in the latest attempt to stave off economic collapse. We asked our sample of Lib Dem members for their views…

LDV asked: Thinking about the current problems facing the European single currency, the Euro, do you think it would be good or bad for Britain’s economy if the …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged | 2 Comments
Ruben Arbaizar

A postcard from… Valladolid

By Ruben Arbaizar | Tue 14th February 2012 - 1:22 pm

It seems that this idea is catching on, as Liberal Democrat Voice has received its first unsolicited postcard. So, without further ado…

It is generally assumed that the Mediterranean countries do not have a strong liberal, democratic strand to their politics. Indeed, the two members of the ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) Group in the European Parliament are the nationalist parties of two Regions, Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (Catalonia) and Partido Nacionalista Vasco (the Basque Country).

However, there are liberal democrats in Spanish politics, awaiting discovery by …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged and | 12 Comments
Stephen Tall

Spain turns to the right – but are the voters rejecting ‘the left’ or incumbents?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 21st November 2011 - 8:00 am

As the polls had predicted, Spain has a new government: Rajoy’s right-wing Partido Popular (PP) defeated Zapatero’s left-of-centre Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE). The only surprise was the large margin of victory, 16%, the worst defeat for Spain’s socialists in their electoral history.

So yet another right-wing government takes power in a European nation. On the face of it, it seems almost perverse that at a time when confidence in the deregulated capitalist system associated with the right is at its lowest ebb that those parties which champion it are winning elections. As I noted here on LibDemVoice back in …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged , , , , and | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

What caused the riots? It’s more than just the economy, stupid.

By Stephen Tall | Thu 11th August 2011 - 8:57 am

Aditya Chakrabortty has a pretty compelling article in today’s Guardian scrutinising the political responses to the past few days’ rioting under the concise headline, UK riots: political classes see what they want to see. He summarises the binary analysis that has dominated:

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 55 Comments
Stephen Tall

How Clegg switched sides at half-time

By Stephen Tall | Wed 14th July 2010 - 6:58 pm

No, not more revelations from the memoirs of New Labour’s svengali, Lord (Peter) Mandelson – rather a diary piece by Hugh Muir in the Guardian.

LDV readers may recall Nick Clegg’s conflicted loyalties in deciding whether to support Holland or Spain in Sunday’s World Cup final. It appears he found out a way to resolve them:

… at a cross-party reception for the Lib Dem thinktank Centre Forum, the deputy prime minister admitted that while he began watching the World Cup final supporting Holland, as the Diary said he would, he switched sides halfway through and began rooting for

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Miriam Gonzalez blows whistle on sexist media: “treat women for who they are and not simply for what their male partners do”

By Stephen Tall | Tue 13th July 2010 - 8:20 pm

Hat-tip to Lib Dem Welsh assembly member Peter Black for blogging the letter by Miriam Gonzalez (or Mrs Nick Clegg as she’s known to right-wing tabloids) published in today’s paywall-protected Times, in which she directs a well-aimed shot at the paper for its shabby treatment of a woman who happened to have fallen in love with a man in the public eye:

Sir, now that Spain has won the World Cup and Iker Casillas demonstrated on Sunday that he is an outstanding goalkeeper regardless of whether his girlfriend, Sara Carbonero, watches him from the touchline or not, it may be time for you to eat a bit of humble pie. Trying to blame Sara for Spain’s initial lacklustre performance while she was simply doing her job was not worthy of a newspaper that should treat women for who they are and not simply for what their male partners do.

Miriam Gonzalez
London SW15

You can read the background to the story, and The Times’s reaction to Miriam’s letter, in the Telegraph.

And for those who missed it, here is the rather touching video of Sr. Casillas meeting his girlfriend, Srta. Carbonero, for the first time after Spain’s World Cup triumph:

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 7 Comments
Helen Duffett

Nick Clegg’s budget trip to Spain

By Helen Duffett | Wed 16th June 2010 - 7:20 pm

Nick Clegg in Madrid
Giles Paxman, British ambassador to Spain, has blogged about Nick Clegg’s visit to Spain last week.

While emphasising Britain’s interest in the Eurozone’s economic success, the Deputy Prime Minister showed he’s economising too:

The top priority, obviously, is tackling the problems with our public finances. Nick Clegg made the point strongly, in his long meeting with Prime Minister Zapatero and his speech to a packed audience of top Spanish movers and shakers, that this was a duty that we owe to future generations and that

…

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged , , , and | 9 Comments



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