Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'
Covid
Learning lessons.
Reading that article might well convince you of the accuracy of this statement: History may well conclude that the lockdowns were a dreadful mistake and a grotesque overreaction to a contagion that could be managed without recourse to such measures. After all, national lockdowns had never been part of pandemic emergency planning. But: By the time the world found out that Covid was nasty but not as virulent as feared, it had embarked on a course of action that those responsible could never accept might have been wrong.
I would add that politics demanded that a collapse of healthcare systems arising from initial failure be avoided at all costs. Including more deaths than there needed to have been. As MD of Private Eye said months ago: Lockdowns are an admission of earlier failure.
Looking ahead rather than behind . . . The growth of cases of the British, South African and Brazilian variants looks like jeopardising the vaccination certificate scheme desperately wanted by countries such as Spain dependent on tourism. Until, at least, 'adapted booster vaccines' are available later this year. .
Cosas de España y Galiza
In 2019, almost 84 million foreign tourists came to Spain. Last year, far, far fewer. The Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism says he’s confident Spain can recover around 40 million tourists this year. I fear he's being quite to very optimistic.
Some good news . . . Ten epic bike routes around Spain.
Pertinent headline: Tourism in Holy Week. Why can't I go to next door Asturias when Germans can come to our Rias Biaxas resorts in Galicia?
The UK
The government’s plans to allow international travel to recommence from 17 May are expected to be delayed, possibly until the end of June – which would be a further blow to Spain’s tourist industry.
The UK and The EU and Covid
If you take the Pfizer vaccine, 280 materials go into making the vaccine, 86 suppliers supply those materials from 19 countries around the world. If you start putting up barriers, other countries may follow suit in terms of some of those vital raw materials that are required. If we start that, we are in trouble: Boris Johnson? No, the Irish prime minister.
Scapegoating Britain will not save Europe from a self-made disaster. Bris Johnson? No, Ambrose Evans Pritchard here.
Germany
Fear is back among many Germans - and not only fear, but anger. [Many Spaniards, by the way, are angry that there are so many Germans here in Spain, in the Balearic Islands and on the mainland.]
Finally . . .
It’s very hard to believe but true that, at the start of 1914 - after years of tension over naval expenditures - relations between Britain and Germany had become very good indeed. In fact, if the midsummer Balkans crisis of that year had been left to these 2 superpowers of the time, it’s very probable that there wouldn’t have been either the First World War or the Second World War. As it is, the former saw the death of 3 empires. Including that of Germany, which - surprisingly - included islands off China and Japan.
We are all still paying the price for the actualities of 1914.