And now Spain turns to the Left

And now Spain turns to the Left

The mould has been broken in Spain. Yesterday, in Spain’s general election, yesterday, the two Parties that have dominated Spain’s post fascist democracy both lost seats and votes. The new parliament has no natural majority. The PSOE, in particular, has some interesting challenges in front of it and the next few weeks and months may act as a signpost for the politics of Europe. …

International pursuit of corruption

International pursuit of corruption

Here is a presentation, dated 2011, called Changes in Spanish Anti-bribery Legislation by Rafael Jiménez-Gusi, a Partner of Baker & McKenzie, a Law Firm. It has what is now familiar, the concept of corporate bribery and private bribery. The mitigation acts are interesting, but more so is the unexplored extra-territoriality of Spanish Law and prosecutors. Do you think that Spanish prosecutors can pursue corruption throughout Europe? I also note that bribes are anything of value, that are not socially acceptable. So what’s a big dinner count as? What does a secret job offer count as? …

Spain again

It’s always the way. I have been planning a holiday trip to Valencia, and flying directly there, without using Easyjet is not easy. I don’t want to use EasyJet because watching “Airline” has put me off for life. I don’t want to use Ryan Air because their UK airports are too far from where I live. They’re both owned and run by greedy entreprenuers with a zero customer service ethic. And beyond all these principled factors, I have never found a £10 ticket offer. Unsurprisingly, they’re not that much more inexpensive.

I looked at traveling via Alicante or Barcelona. Again, not easy synching with trains etc, almost worked out how to do it via Alicante, but the flights out were at appalling times. So I had just booked a return trip to Barcelona when I had the Fly Be site pointed out to me. Doh! I had checked that there were no flights to Valencia from Southampton and Bournmouth, but forgot to go around again when I changed my plans. …

Barcelona

I travelled to Barcelona with Mrs L. and on my return went up to London and travelled by Tube to deliver a presentation to Kable’s “Open Source in the Public Sector”, which reminded me of the weekend in Barcelona, both the prices and experience were better in Spain, although I didn’t travel on the Metro during a rush hour. As I landed, the day before, I received a message that Oracle had bid for Sun Microsystems, I also reflect on the helpful people at Heathrow. This post includes a slide show of my Barcelona pictures. …

A trip to Seville

We got back from Seville on Thursday. What a marvellous place. I haven’t been to Spain for over 30 years and never been to Andalusia. One of our inspirations to do the journey was the Cafe Mauresque in Canterbury. While there we visited the Alcazar, the Cathedral & the Giralda, the highest point in the city and some of the best views. …