davidinspain

But Rajoys party line there pockets Are we now officially Europes..... Banana Republic?

steviedeluxe

Is that why Volkswagen, Ford, Renault and Ford are investing so heavily in Spain this year?

I don't know of a banana republic that receives 58 million tourists in one year either. Or dominates the world retail scene (via Inditex) so succesfully.

But have to admit, their football team is extremely good....

agoreira

According to many, Spain has been un país bananero for a long time. A quick google of "España bananera" will throw up thousands of examples. Respected reporters have no problem telling it like it is.
http://verdadypoder.com/espana-bananera/

Dick Dasterdly

Ah, but they have a good football team.
Problem solved.
Economy booming.

amideislas

The automakers finally were able to receive concessions from the unions, who were previously expecting continued posh benefits and high wages. But I reckon in such a vibrant economy, unions become extraordinarily generous.

Spain is, after all, the most business-friendly nation on the planet.

I don't suppose that 300 days of sun, 5000km of coastline, and 2 hours flight from most of Europe has anything to do with Spain's tourism? (and lucky we have the sun and sea, or else tourism wouldn't even be on the map).

Oh, and lest we forget to mention the world's best trains.

cricketman

For some things yes

The problem is that corruption is unregulated in Spain, people get away with what they think they won't get caught with

In countries like the UK and US corruption is also a problem, but it is unspoken and regulated (institutionalised) e.g. politician's expenses, or cash for questions, or in the US, political lobbying from the corporations and politican donations worth billions of dollars to buy policy

In the UK the corruption only comes to light when the press decide for whatever reason to make a big deal of it, and then the mood of the country changes and people have to resign and even end up in jail

Hopefully, the same will happen to Rajoy and his mates

amideislas

Well, they better get corruption regulated soon. I hate it when corruption is against the law.

cricketman

It's a serious point, if you'd just think about it a little bit

steviedeluxe

Not just trains, but many cities in Spain have excellent metro and tram public transport systems.
Which may have helped the likes of CAF develop their expertise and then sell public tranport systems to the likes of Cincinnati or Helsinki.
The point about so-called "Banana Republics" is they generally only have one major money earner (often agricultural). They don't help build London's crossrail (Ferrovial) or high speed rail in Saudi Arabia (Adif). Nor do they supply a lot of wi-fi routers to the British public (Fon via BT, or O2 owned by Telefonica).

Just seen this - http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/i...-brief-21.html

amideislas

Yes, it's always good to be optimistic, but apparently you haven't had the pleasure of rail travel in Germany or France or Holland or...

Spain is improving, though. I agree.

jackytoo

Jeezuz, on about trains again. It's like having your senile Grandad join the forum telling you the same stuff day in day out

steviedeluxe

Considering you have spent an enormous amount of time over at least 5 years and on at least 3 talkboards doing your talking down Spain spiel, this is a very good example of the pot calling the kettle black..

Dick Dasterdly

Ha ha, Casey Jones rides again.

Unfortunately Stevies so called "best trains in the world" are of German design built with the aid of UK technology consisting of parts shipped in from elsewhere in the world.

Sadly they are already well on the way to being outdated by train developments elsewhere in the world and most likely will be by the time the system is completed, if ever.

Not to worry that they are running up a bill in the region of 83 Billion euros which will likely have to be written off and are still unable even to pay their way on a day to day basis.

davidinspain

If this translation is accurate Rajoy is on the way to becoming a real Banana Republic politician.
Asked about the payments, he said: "Everything that refers to me, and that appears there, and to some of my fellow party members that appear there, is not right, except for something that the media has published."

amideislas

Oh, I take it very seriously.

On an equally serious issue, I hear they plan to finally regulate stacking. I was at a friend's house yesterday, and her cat jumped on a pile of old magazines, it fell over, and literally scared the shit of the cat, who shit all over the floor. It was disgusting.

Just like corruption, how you put things on top of things should be regulated. That's the only way society can ever safely function.

Here's some other pressing things that I think should be regulated:

• Putting lit matches in your ears
• Thinking about elephants
• Making funny noises
• Stupid hats and shoes
• Stinky cheese
• The colour green
• Ugly cars (especially green ones)
• Rocks and boulders

Unfortunately, I don't expect the EU will get around to regulating these things for some time, but I'm glad they are daily making up new regs for everything else.

Still, I think a good corruption reg would be that you can only be corrupt once per year... Or do you think that's too much?