I have a growing fascination with the history of the Spanish War and some time ago read the excellent The Spanish Civil War by Hugh Thomas (bit hard going but if I could find where I put the book I would read it again!!). On the subject of books three excellent books that use the Spanish Civil War as a backdrop are: Winter In Madrid by C.J. Sansom, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and Moment of War by the excellent Laurie Lee (if you haven’t then I suggest you check out Cider With Rosie.

Just read a couple of disturbing bits of news off David’s Blog relating to El Ejido:

A couple (Spanish) were arrested yesterday after brazenly trying to steal a newborn baby (only 24hours old) from the Poniente Hospital in El Ejido.

More signs of the pressure on the flight industry as it looks like BA and Iberia may be merging:

British Airways and Spain’s Iberia are holding talks on a possible merger, the two airlines have said. The firms said the British Airways and Iberia brands would be retained as part of a combined group under the plans.

All about cost cutting ………..

Funny where you find things isn’t it? Bet you didn’t know that one of the centre of operation for all those Spam emails you get was in Roquetas de Mar did you?

If you have received the “I need your help to get my dead Aunts money out of Nigeria” type emails then you can breath a small sigh of relief today as National Police have arrested 28 (primarily Nigerians) recently. 6 have been deported already with the rest awaiting court appearances.

Carlos Sastre has won the 2008 Tour de France (the third Spaniard in a row), adding to an already impressive year of sporting success for Spain - Nadal (French and Wimbledon), Euro 2008 winners, what odds on a great Olympics?

Spain says a feasibility study for an undersea tunnel to connect Spain and Morocco is in the final stages.

Swiss engineers are finalising a feasibility study that will determine whether this underwater connection is technically possible.

If the project goes ahead and construction begins, trains carrying both passengers and goods are expected to start using the tunnel in 2025. The tunnel would be 40km long and pass 300m under the Mediterranean Sea.

Just over a month after the Irish No Vote on the Lisbon Treaty the Spanish Senate (the upper house of Spain’s parliament, the Cortes Generales, it is made up of 264 members, 208 of whom are directly elected by popular vote, with the other 56 being appointed by the regional legislatures), has adopted it.

The Med Union comprising 43 nations has just been launched. Building up on the 1995 Barcelona Process* the 43 nations, which include the original 27 of the Barcelona Process along with countries in the Middle East and North Africa that form the Mediterranean Sea’s eastern and southern rim have pledged to:

“pursue a mutually and effectively verifiable Middle East Zone free of weapons of mass destruction”

Among the objectives of the Union:

Yesterday, the National Federation of Fishermen, representing mostly small boat owners, announced it was returning to work because it could not maintain the strike. The bigger fishing boat owners, however, are to continue their near 2-week-old stoppage.

This article is a bit of a link to a link! since the article I read and found interesting recently itself link to an article in the Guardian: Debt in the afternoon: bullfighting staggers into crisis.

It’s San Isidro here in Madrid this week, Spain’s premiere bullfighting fiesta, with daily corridas seeing exorbitant wages paid to big-money matadors: “José Tomás recently negotiated a deal worth €450,000 a bullfight during San Isidro - a figure that caused outrage among aficionados as part of it was paid by Madrid city council.”

Boris Johnson is a little like Marmite, I guess you either love him or hate him. I think he is a star!!! Love his attempts to host Have I got News ….., and think he writes a great column in the Telegraph.

Anyway while the UK, and London in particular, steals itself to be ‘Borrised’ it seems that Europe is taking notice as well:

Surging food and fuel prices pushed up annual inflation in the eurozone to a record 3.6% last month, official figures have shown. (BBC)

It looks like inflation across the 15 ’states’ that use the € was higher in March (3.6%) than in February (3.3%) and the forecast of (3.5%). It is way ahead of the target of 2% set buy the Central Bank.

My self education regards Spain continues!

Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has unveiled his new cabinet, which for the first time includes more women than men. (BBC)

Brought back memories of when Tony Blair was first elected Prime Minister and they made a big thing about ‘Blair’s Babes’ as he had a large number of woman in Parliament, but as with everything the spin seemed more important than the substance and you would be hard pushed to name more than a couple that made it into the cabinet and stayed there.

Gibralter has long been a bone of contention between Britain and Spain, with Spain calling for its return; the latest move towards joint sovereignty in 2002 was rejected in a referendum by 99% of Gibraltarians.

Now Spain is calling for the British colony to be blacklisted as a tax haven, claiming that it shelters corrupt businesses, among its 28,000 registered companies.

Following on from my article on Saturday about the forthcoming elections, I read a great results article online yesterday, so thought I would post some extracts:

Anyone interested will have picked up that the ruling Socialists have won a second term but not convincingly.

I thought that as Spain’s General Election is upon us, I would write a ittle background. I for one am trying to take more interest in the country where I now spend most of my time.

Prior to yesterday’s assasination of a former socialist councillor, which the Prime Minister (Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero) has now officially blamed on Eta, Spain was into its final day of campaigning ahead of Sunday’s general election.

The final day’s campaigning ahead of Sunday`s general election here in Spain has been cancelled following the murder of a former councillor from the ruling Socialist Party, who was shot outside his home in the Basque region.

“Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the Basque separatist group Eta had “assassinated” him. Eta, which ended a 15-month ceasefire in June 2007 after failed peace talks, has carried out similar attacks before. No group has said it carried out the attack.”