Costa Blanca Olive Press - Issue 52

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Vol. 2 Issue 52 www.theolivepress.es March 25th - April 7th 2021

Lessons needed

15 years of fun

As the Olive Press reaches its 15th birthday, we recall a few of our favourite interviews and remember a couple of our top readers, such as ex-prime minister Rajoy (top) and prime joker Paul Gascoigne...

Fiona Govan in Madrid

Horrified

“We worked together at the school for 18 months, took on private classes together going to the homes of some of the children for extracurricular teaching and ran a summer camp at the school during 2018,” said the Irish colleague, who is filled with horror at the access he had to children.

The Olive Press has discovered that the day after sen-

NAMES: Lewis and his real and doctored passport tencing in the UK he changed his name by deed poll from Ben David Lewis to Ben David, in a process that takes just 15 minutes.

He then applied for and received a British passport in his new name, while he also presented a doctored photocopy of his Israeli passport stamped and verified by a non-existent law firm that showed his name as Ben David Rose.

The Olive Press has seen photocopies of these, plus a teaching degree and Qualified Teaching Status (QTS) certificates presented in the name of Ben David Rose as well as certificates in his original name.

What is amazing is that by April 2019 he had applied for a teaching job at a leading private school in the upmarket Arturo Soria district that teaches the British curriculum to the children of Madrid’s elite.

By now he also had a DBS certificate (a criminal record check Opinion Page 6 Continues on Page 4

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EXPOSED: COSTA CONMAN

conviction.

Clifford - a long-time visitor to the coast and involved in charities and local events of - has been found guilty eight counts of sexual assault, mostly on minors. on At least two were groomed in the coast, after being lured with promises of stardom. his He is pictured here with showbiz chum Kenny Lynch at a bash in Marbella.

See full story on page

By Tom Powell and Jamie Micklethwaite NiCOSTA del Sol fraudster out gel Goldman is hiding in a classic English country cottage under the false name ‘Howard del Monte’.

Goldman - aka ‘Del Monte’ has also returned to the business of buying and selling it coins, stamps and antiques, can be revealed.

Renting on a six month lease in the charming Berkshire village of Kintbury, he and

2

EXCLUSIVE

The Olive Press can reveal that the Russian President may have bought a multimilliona euro Marbella mansion with group of six businessmen.

See full story on page

3

in BRITS are still happier Spain, despite reports suggesting 90,000 have abandoned the expat dream.

An exclusive Olive Press survey found that more than three quarters of our readers are happier since making the move.

his partner Suzanne Couling via are peddling their wares a joint Ebay account called ‘Bensons Emporium’. the Village post office staff told Olive Press that he regularly to collects parcels addressed ‘Del Monte’, and also ‘sends many packages’.

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HERE are few places beer with in the general an army general world where Ronda, stands all the … you can Celebrating however, rounds!and even fewer drink bar El Porton,a recent is one of where those places. the ish Legionnaire an olé promotion After introducingCarlosaway from with friends Velo is Spain’s oldestin quintessential quail eggs eager to - Carlosme to the town’s Iraq, Afghanistan include bullring - Span(above) me in the the ‘best regales signature tapa and party. me with “I have place in the Bosnia before tales - jamon been all world’. explaining from toursand says, taking over why Ronda to back into a swig the world and seen is been to.” his face. from his cana many “But Ronda and Originally things,” is the pushing his he ago when from Madrid, best place glasses he joined Carlos its two I have moved ever naires national basesthe Spanish to Ronda at present. some 35 Legion, here, counting “The quality which years can live of life on around has one in Ronda of 800 legioneveryonelike a gentleman is like else.

“Everything here, in nowhere else Madrid is affordable, ing from I would in Spain. I in your tapas bar just be if you like to tapas pocket. like “And the bar and you can spend scenery you will the still have day gois breathtaking,” change he adds.

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Removing the floor

A VICTORY for mortgage been awarded of Justice. owners by the European has The court Court mortgage has ruled that two holders to additional in million because refundsSpain are entitled from It came they paid too muchthe banks clauses’ due to the interest. fail to that saw most so-called Spanish ‘floor rowers lower their interest banks to match rates to the European the The court Central base rate setborruled that Bank. by that repayments it was entire life of should unfair time that the mortgage cover and continue interest rates during the to be. were low the When and loweredthe central bank economy to stimulate base rate was some repayments years the eurozone ago, mortgage 1.5% to should continued2%, howeverhave tracked it to many to pay The surprise 3.5% and borrowers be appealed. ruling is final more.

Around and cannot now be two million timated set to receiveborrowers should to be worth repayments, billions of euros.es-

Little slice of home

BRITISH yours for gym The chic spree in expats are a cool London on bella, justnew addition England. and the a buy-to-let the latest east of the to Bahia According south east Marto mortgage of installed technology,town, includes International sound cant rise and underfloor there has lender Skipton system, with a prebeen a cent years.in expat investment The property, heating. solar panels signifiNew figures Properties, marketed over rereveal to-lets

by Panorama with 24-hoursits in a gated community are in are in the UK40% of expats’ security. capital, buy“Pricesthe pricey south while 25% east. nificantlyin London ing that in the pasthave increased sigattractivecapital gainsfew years, have beenmeanmortgage for investors,” very “Expats director Nigel said Skipton Pascoe. ing and have many reasons the mostlong term investment for investThe trendimportant.” is usually has occurred come pats, easier to secure as it has who previously lending becredit checks for Some 35% and recentstruggled exwith of expats credit vestment cited long history. ing, while as their main term of their another 19% reason for inpension buyplan. said it was part

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PAGE 13

www.century21gibraltar.com Century21 202-204 Main Street · Gibraltar Tele: 00 350 Mob: 00 350 200 51020 565 23000 info@century21gibraltar.com

EXCLUSIVE: Expat tip snare one leads Olive of UK’s most Press team wanted paedophiles to

EAGLE-EYED readers helped Olive Press snag one of ain’s most BritWORDS AND PICS Spain, just wanted fugitives in

By Rob Horgan been named.hours after he had Laurence and Dollimore Following Within an hour, the Olive suspected a tip off to the paper, al Crime Agency, team scrambled paedophile Press car, Sammon was Matthew the scene after the who arrived at Sammon learning from to Fuengirola, and remainedcovered his face campervan dragged from his “Well done Olivearrest. that he was another builder silent when currently questioned time raid in a dramatic night- thanks to the expat Press and out at the camped He by and whisked an unmarked was then the Olive Press. away in for tipping us off, thiscommunity After a dayferia ground. bundled into police car. son we run is the reaBMW and Working closely Londoner working nearby, the these the taken to Madrid duly arrived be Daniel Reid, with informant The dramatic campaigns.”

English-plated to in his for fingerprinted and day had started firstly track we were able to when Crimestoppers cream Moncayo prepared extradition. campervan. annual list issued its Following to Fuengirola, down Sammon Parking up, of most wanted two Reid the arrest, father-ofGuardia Civil then call in the tives in Torremolinos fugias he took he looked relaxed said he was day morning. on Thursto see Sammon On the run to arrest him. ‘relieved’ around the his dog for a walk for two years, taken away.

Leading “As soon as mon - a blackbelt spoke with feria ground and Sam- stories to hundreds neighbours. the most I saw his face among of press was wanted in Jujitsu around the Once identified, world and said Reid, wanted I felt sick,” ing indecent in the UK for shar-- on national television, we called Guardia Civil from the “I let the hunt and CrimestopHis seizure images of children. was immediately him hang Blackpool. pers and so around my began a tense dren, after he wascame just 10 hours But, it was to on. hour waiting chilthree- arms we took him in with tion Captura named in Opera- newspaper the popular local and at first sitting in the game, with Reid open and is the Olive Press were none wiser. recorded arrest quickest that expat plasterer Sky News car beside us. the reached out crime reporter in the joint Reid, 40, “But and Spanish tin Brunt was UK ‘do Mar- a bit we always thought the job to, trusting us to SUCCESS: “It was a police operation. he was weird, Eventually, soon there too. fantastic result,” In a seriesproperly’. never talks he’s a real loner and Steve Reynolds, Reynolds Reid, Horgan, and truly as night had well said sages, of Facebook from the Nationand Brunt “He creepedabout his family. he announced mes- as black BMWfell, an unmarked a mon, 45, much that my family out so plain clothes arrived and two had workedthat Sam- livinglabourer and was currently in a campervan Incredibly, I fired him.” detectives for him moved in the Mijas and for the arrest, swiftly evidence police did not take Fuengirolaaround cating his passport confis- cluding from his campervanany area. and phone.

Frisking him his computer inat the side and other of the

Secret Malaga

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UPROAR: and virginBeach protestors Cala de in Tarifa San Pedro (below)

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347

CAMPAIGN

CHRIS STEWART WRITES FOR OLIVE PRESS THE

We send our hot new columnist to interview designer Cranston Sophie

Living Consciously

OLIVE PRESS

LAUNCHES

Last stretches by new law, of pristine alongside coast endangered EXCLUSIVE inland beauty spots La Cala

press

EU steps in to investigate El Algorrobico hotel opening after Junta u-turn that “disgraces” Spain... while a pair of British pensioners watch as their house - which DID have a licence - is torn to the ground.

Selling Euros?

KAT’Z CAFÉ-BAR

IMPACT: Tracking down covering the devastatingcrooked Nigel Goldman (above) and Costa del Sol fire in 2012

BRITISH CONSUL CHARMAINE ARBOUIN

OH TO BE OLVERA IN

El Horrible opens

Goldman fled Spain last year amid accusations of fraud, leaving behind dozens of victims owed a total of €15 million.

While he refused to answer questions, he seems happy living with Couling, her two the daughters and two cats in modest three-bedroom property.

While the pair are Kintbury’s Suzanne hottest topic of conversation, UK bolthole and (top) with they are rarely seen and ‘keep HIDEOUT: Goldman’s ticket. themselves to themselves’. “I have nothing to say to you, with a parking why he Couling’s family live nearby but I look forward to meeting “I don’t understand if a trafhasn’t been arrested, in Hungerford. you again,” he called down. fic warden can find him then In fact, the secretive man surely the police can,” said from Del Monte is seemingly to the the neighbour, who wished only ever seen leaving Parking ticket remain anonymous. house to go to the post office. the village When the Olive Press con- His hair was disheveled, but “Everyone in whatfronted him in his country- he did not have the mous- knows he’s Goldman, under.” side retreat, Goldman refused tache some have claimed he ever name he goesdeleted his sporting as part of his Goldman, who to come to the door, instead is of is now Facebook account recently, briefly poking his head out disguise. currently being investigated his bedroom window.

The previous morning, Coulthe for failing to return millions ing was seen leaving in his fihouse at 9am to load up their of euros to investors silver Vauxhall Zafira with nancial companies. told the Olive boxes and head off, possibly Various victimsare practically Press that they to a car boot sale. life destitute after losing their One neighbour explained that schemes, that the the day they moved into ar- savings to his house, a traffic warden Continues on Page 4 rived and issued the couple

On behalf of all at the British Embassy and Consulates, I want to wish huge congratulations at the to all Olive Press on your 15th anniversary.

The English language press plays a vital role in keeping nationals in Spain informed. UK we very much appreciate And your help in getting key messages out to UK nationals here.

After an incredibly difficult year for so many of us, including many businesses, it is great to see the Olive Press thriving. We look forward to seeing what the next 15 years bring.

FREE

Issue 26, January 24th 2008

Where are they?

Press can EXCLUSIVE: The Olive Nigel reveal that convicted fraudster using Goldman is back in business Del Monte’ the false name ‘Howard

It’s MORE fun in the sun

Cartel behind Putin’s mystery costa home

FROM ENGLISH VILLAGE

OU

A PAIR of young girls paedophile PR guru Max Clifthe ford sexually assaulted on his Costa del Sol have led to

Mijas Costa OLIVE PRESS

HAND OFF! S

www.theolivepress.es

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April 30 - May 14 2014

FOUND PEDDLING COINS

The man from Del Monte

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Vol. 15 Issue 365 March - April 2021

ROM its very first issue in 2006 the Olive Press has been paigning for its community. camWhether fighting for the environment or digging into crooks, we have taken some big scalps.

Starting from Issue One (see top right) we highlighted the ridiculous plans to build 2000 houses, two golf courses and two hotels on UNESCO-protected land near Ronda, as well A decade and a half of campaigning the madness of building as exposed has a 350-room scored some big wins for monstrosity on a virgin the Olive Press beach in Almeria’s Cabo de Gata.

Both schemes - Los Merinos, in Ron- maverick Jeremy Griffiths, and Nigel When da, and the Algarrobico it comes to corruption hotel, in Alme- Goldman, a degenerate gold-dealing ria - went into reverse after the first English newspaper we were legends Ferran dirt-bag, Adria to write made the UK AND Spanishour stories in a localwho had a restaurant column about the ERE scandal and Gordon Ramsey. newspaper, which he used at the Junta national newspapers and green to de Andalucia that cost an estimated And it was nice to chat groups includ- cover his tracks. ing Greenpeace and Ecologistas billion euros to Ciudadanos leader en Ac- We also tackled timeshare crook Toni also tackled to the taxpayers, while we cion joined our protests.

Albert town Muldoon, who certainly deserves a scale on dozens of hall theft on a local as the Rivera, as well And then there were the occasions. only newspaper crooks, like mention for conning thousands of Crimestoppers’ Most peo- Animal cruelty has been to be able to pose a ple and eventually went Wanted a continual Daniel to prison for bugbear and we have Johnston, a bank robber, couple of questions to setting up fake escort websites. exposed so many Sammon, a dangerous and Matthew Meanwhile, evil abusers, as well as Michelle Obama on her the scoundrels our crime reporting who we single-handedly paedophile, missing visit to Marbella a few teen Amy Fitzpatrick ‘blew on who allowed hunters to kill innocent to a village near Sevilla tracked down the case’, open circus lions and tigers at years ago. and a car park to use the words of her grandin Fuengirola. tremadura (see below). a finca in Ex- Indeed, the mother, while our continuing positives And fraudsters like David investiga- On a more positive front, far outweigh the neg‘the dogman’ tion into missing Maddie McCann it was great Klein, pet transport has to interview everyone from Princess atives yielded exclusive after exclusive, Di- prefer and we would ana’s with its ex-lover James Hewett to cooking frequent links to Spain. to be judged SUPPLEMENT ON ESTEPONA DON’T MISS OUR 20-PAGE SPECIAL over 50 rather than the 15 years.

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...and our team of long-term writers, recall their decade and a half living in the world’s most exciting country.

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COME AND GET INSPIRED!

...meanwhile, we spend time at the home of the world’s most famous plumber as he announces he’s becoming a Spanish citizen, after 15 years here and losing €15m to his ex-wives...

S

ing handed a two-year suspended sentence, he was barred from leaving the country or working with children.

Yet within weeks he had moved to Spain and found work in Zaragoza as a live-in au pair to a family with three young children.

The following year he relocated to Madrid and began teaching children at a wellknown language academy after getting a criminal record check from Zaragoza police to show he had no convictions in Spain over the previous 12 months.

Then in December 2017 he accepted a job as an English teacher at a leading semi-private (concertado) secondary school that receives subsidies from the state.

“He was going by the name Ben David by then and was offered the job after another teacher dropped out midterm,” a former colleague Natasha Fitzsimons told the Olive Press.

“I think they were desperate to fill the position so maybe they weren’t as thorough as they should have been.

A

INTERNATIONAL schools around Spain have been put on high alert after a British man began teaching at one of Madrid’s most exclusive colleges months after being convicted in the UK. Questions have been raised after Ben Lewis, 31, was able to work at the school despite being on the UK’s sex offenders register.

The Olive Press has discovered that Lewis, who is now awaiting trial for child sex offences at Centro Penitenciario Madrid V, managed to hoodwink TWO schools and a language academy after creating a new identity, using forged documents.

Former colleagues of the sex offender revealed that he created a new name to dodge criminal record checks in order to run summer camps and teach private classes to young children.

He had changed his name to Ben David after being convicted in June 2016 of taking and possessing indecent images of children in England.

As well as being placed on the sex offender list and be-

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EXCLUSIVE: Private school warning after a convicted British paedophile moved to Spain, dodged criminal record checks and found work as a teacher

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CONTINUES

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2

THERESA Britain won’tMay has vowed half out’ Brexitaccept a ‘half in, in a landmark speech that long-lasting is likely to have and all expatseffects on Gibraltar The Prime in Spain.

Minister 12-point plan issued to take Britaina out of the ing Street EU, with Downlooking to single market scrap EU toms union and current cusIn the biggestaccess. month tenure,speech of her sixshe said: “To clear, what be not mean I am proposing canmembership single market.” of the She added longer give Britain would no EU, however‘huge sums’ to the Parliament she conceded that vote on the will have the final Maintainingdeal. the common travel area Kingdom between the United Ireland is and the Republic of EXCLUSIVE

By Gabrielle the Brexit also a priority during Pickard-Whitehead However, negotiations. and Laurence the border Dollimore tar with Spain of GibralA BRITISH was not mentioned. after finding expat has called in police a late-night five of her dogs executed rushed to in The Guardiamassacre. the vets he Control later. died 30 minutes “We want ing the horrificCivil are now investigatin 2004, found An X-ray attack that migration to control our imof Illona Mitchell’s showed he also in their pens the five rescue shot through also May. “We from the EU,” said dogs shot Meanwhile, gouged out. horses with left one on January the roof of had a bullet the Reyes its eye his mouth. importance also recognise the (Three Kings). 6, the night of was The detectives one of Mitchell’s Her beloved also attacked, and the best of the brightest section Seprona from the environment seven-year-old of the friendliest eye may have so savagely12 horses coming here. told Dizzy, ‘one recognise it was one that its to be removed.

We dogs you meet’ and the contribution Vets have of the worstMitchell, 48, that have made.” seen and were will ever four-year-old, been struggling attacks they shot dead a puppy called Maisie visibly shocked they had to treat the May is believed They have were he has named Rocco, Meanwhileat the gates of their become too permit system to favour a workpens. an eye on put on extra patrolsby it. nervous and because shot in their Coco and Domingo, Deeply traumatised the estate trigger Article as she looks to night. at weekendsto keep skittish. ing they had beds, with Mitchell were thankfully by the attack and at It comes as 50 by March.

“I am sickened before being cowered in their believ- ter Ella, 11 was not seen by her - that as to why published the House of Lords would carry - Mitchell Coco, two, killed in cold blood.kennels so angry that continued:daughder closuredata showing a borbaric attack out such a cruel someone had been shot someone would “I am range between thing as with Spain and baron innocent, at put 40% animals,” week. would the eyes, point-blank animals.”disgusting as this do someyear-old Domingo defenceless she told the while threeto innocent braltar. of jobs at risk in GiThe mother-of-one, Olive Press was shot through side of his Mitchell, this her estate The 32 above, the tack is from Chester, believes They laterface. page-report, in mountains who bought linked on Gibraltar found Jack, the atnear Granada German Shepherd, ban hunters to her recent decision governmentbased a six-year-old dence, estimates evito under a nearby estate that from her huge 173-hectare having convulsions Rock’s 26,000 10,500 of the tree, but despite the Sierra sits in stunning scenery workers crossed the border de Baza. being in “A frontierdaily.

Continues on Page necessary which lacked the Est 1984 4 fluidity would fore put directly Opinion therePage 6 at risk the of 40% of jobs Antiques, force,” said the Gibraltar workFor all your a spokesman.

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CRIME

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NEWS IN BRIEF Pedal power BENIDORM is planning to roll out another 43 kilometres of cycleways by the end of 2021 to boost its position of having the most cycle routes on the Costa Blanca.

Royal route A new dual-carriageway by-pass costing €1.7 million will be opened next year in Calpe to reduce traffic congestion in the city centre. It will be called Avenida Felipe VI in honour of Spain’s king.

Big spend JAVEA council will spend €2 million on buying 30,000 square metres of industrial land in Catarroges as a new home for the city’s eco park and all of the municipality’s storage facilities.

Spare parts AN eight-man Alicante area gang has been arrested for stealing cars to sell off their parts before scrapping them.

AN Alcoy man stabbed his ex-wife and their two young children before using the same knife to take his own life.

The tragedy unfolded on Sunday at an apartment on Avenida Hispanidad. The 33-year-old Uruguayan man entered the block shortly after 6pm and knifed his former partner in the abdomen. He also injured his

Family Assault 12-year-old-daughter as well his son, aged six.

Neighbours heard screams coming from the apartment and the blood-

March 25th - April 7th 2021 stained woman went out onto the street crying for help.

Residents cornered the offender in the entrance area to the building and when he saw police arriving, he used the same knife to fatally stab himself in the heart.

The mother and two children were taken to hospital for treatment to non-life-threatening injuries.

Cashing out

AN 18-month operation to bring down a giant counterfeit currency gang has cashed in with a jackpot 37 arrests.

Police from the Guardia Civil and National Police united to bring down the criminals who laundered money in banks in Andalucia, Catalunya and the Costa Blanca.

A BRITISH man accused of being part of a £13.7 million pension fraud has been extradited from Alicante..

Westminster Magistrates issued a European Arrest Warrant for 61-year-old Alan Barratt with the Metropolitan Police passing on details of his whereabouts to the Policia Nacional.

Barratt from Althorne in Essex is facing charges with two other people in a case

Gang of 37 collared after long police fake Euros probe

By Alex Trelinski

The fake cash of mostly €500 bills initially started appearing in Granada Province in

Face the music brought by The Pensions Regulator (TPR). It’s the first time that the TPR have been involved with the police in getting an extradition.

Barratt appeared in court twice in January but skipped the UK some time after January 29.

Barratt was extradited to the UK last week and

2019.

They soon started spreading out across Andalucia and even to Santa Pola, in Alicante, where one of the gang opened a bank account with later released on conditional bail.

The fraudulent pension scheme was allegedly run by Barratt and his co-defendants, 65-year-old Susan Dalton from Rochdale, and 56-year-old Julian Hason, from Batley.

The trio persuaded 245 people to transfer their pension pots between 2012 and 2014 into 11 schemes. The arm-twisting of clients included the incentive of a tax-free payment.

170 of the big value notes.

The man deposited the dud bills into ATM cash machines as a key part of their plan to swap them for legitimate currency.

Paid 'mules' were hired by the gang to open up bank accounts which were filled up by the fake notes.

Withdrawals or transfers of the 'real' cash were then made from the accounts.

Complex

The police said that their investigation was 'very complex' as the gang took substantial security measures to prevent them from being detected.

The arrests took place at 16 addresses where a total of 402 bogus €500 notes were seized along with €12,000 in bitcoin and €32,000 in genuine cash.

The investigation remains open with police not ruling out further arrests.

Foolish Fire

A BRITISH man got into trouble after deciding it would be a good idea to light a bonfire in the Montgo natural park near Denia.

The Guardia Civil said the man, aged in his 40s, lives in Benissa.

He had set up camp next to a path that climbs up to the Denia Shooting Club. The whole area comes under a special protection order and has a long history of being susceptible to serious forest fires. A number of incidents occurred there last year and residential areas had to be evacuated after blazes in 2014 and 2015.

Firefighters from the Martina Alta regional park force were dispatched to the scene after getting reports of smoke. They arrived to spot the British camper stoking up the flames with some wood. They extinguished the bonfire and Guardia Civil officers charged the man with starting a fire in a protected natural park.

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Olive Press Alicante– 170mm x 256mm – Colour

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NEWS

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March 25th - April 7th 2021

3

Flushed with success EXCLUSIVE

He can afford to holiday anywhere in the world. But Charlie Mullins, plumber to the stars, wouldn’t swap the Spanish idyll he bought into 15 years ago - at the same time as the Olive Press launched for all the builder’s tea in Britain. Kirsty McKenzie finds out why over a brew at his palatial mansion

W

LIVING LA VIDA: Charlie in his Spanish home

HEN Charlie Mullins invites you round for a cuppa the first thing you’re dying to do is visit the loo.

Who wouldn’t want to snoop inside the bathroom of Britain’s richest plumbing boss whose firm looks after the lavatories of the rich and famous: Dames Judy and Helen, Sir Richard Branson, Hugh Grant and Joanna Lumley (who also does his TV commercials).

And let me tell you, it doesn’t disappoint. Even the one here in Spain, in La Cala de Mijas. Glossy white doors swing open to reveal a shimmering magenta temple of calm with monogrammed towels, a giant bathtub and rubber duckies. There’s sparkling silver all over the villa, and acres of black, purple and grey; signed football shirts won at charity auctions line the walls; ornamental skeletons and glittering panthers artfully placed. Welcome to Casa de Charlie where the living is, well …spectacular … as befitting the 68-year-old majority shareholder of London’s Pimlico Plumbers, whose net worth is over £70 million and counting...

Londoner Charlie made the blue-collar job sexy in the city, with smart uniforms, liveried vans and a touch of lavatory humour - plumbing-themed number plates (LAV 1, F1USH).

Today his empire stretches from Lambeth to Mijas - not bad for a council estate lad who left school at 15 with no qualifications. This time next year he could even

be London’s Mayor, having anten on the country and has his nounced his candidacy eye on a sea view mansion in La as an Independent in the Cala.

May 6 elections.

“I love the restaurant La Sala I find the plumbing Pasha and Legends,” he raves. “The enreclining on a pristine white tertainment here, you can’t beat sunbed dressed head-to-toe it. I love heading out and watchin Dolce and Gabbana - pink ing all the tribute acts. Can you shorts, white branded tee; a blue guess my favourite?” he grins, signet ring emblazoned with a C raking a hand through his spikey glints on his pinkie. “Drink?” he blonde-highlighted mane. asks. “I’ll have what you’re havYes, I tell him. (He could be a tribing.” “Double scotch, then?” he ute act himself.) But it’s funny to jokes. We settle for milky buildthink that with all er’s tea served his money and in a latte glass. celebrity pals, “My favourite,” I have more he’d rather watch beams the holder a Rod Stewart of the first OBE friends in Spain d o p p e l g a n g e r ever awarded for over a pint with than in the services to plumbhis buddies in ing. ‘I bought this UK, I’m very at Spain than live it place for the kids large with the real home here 15 years ago,” deal in London. he tells me as “I’ve seen the we move into the real Rod, course I kitchen, more gleaming white have. But I have more friends in surfaces, statues and glamour.

Spain than in the UK, I’m very at He used to own the villa next home here,” he says with feeling. door but sold it after his 40-year He has his lawyers working on a marriage to their mother ended. way for him to stay longer than Though still raw from his second three months in any six and say divorce (if I had a swig of scotch ‘Bollocks to Brexit’ – to quote the for every time he mentioned slogan on the giant sign he put his two ex-wives, I’d be on the on the company rooftop in Lambathroom floor by now), family beth. makes up for it – two sons, two An ardent Bremainer and big daughters, the 10 grandchildren Tory donor (as well as business they’ve given him, and years of advisor and plumber to David happy holiday memories.

Cameron and George Osborne), “They love coming to Spain,” he switched sides and poured says Charlie, who’s totally smitmillions into the Lib Dem cam-

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paign to stop Brexit.

Charlie courts controversy and limelight in equal measure. He’s starred on The Secret Millionaire, and is a regular fixture on Jeremy Vine and Good Morning Britain. “It’s just good business sense. I worked that out 30 odd years ago,” he says - though some of his business practices have been panned in the press: his ‘no jabs, no jobs’ dictat to anti-vaxxers on the payroll; letting go of 30 staff who didn’t return to work after their furlough payments ended; his extortionate £180-an-hour call-out fees, his mainly self-employed workforce and the way he keeps tabs on them via trackers fitted in the vans they have to rent from him.

Does he mind the backlash?

“People get the wrong idea of me, they think I only do things for money but that’s not true. I just think people should work hard.”

The money’s still rolling in.

“We’re up 20% from the good times,” he says brightly. # “I’m not lying!” he adds, a phrase he often uses after saying something a bit smug.

As for becoming a Spanish citizen, he is definitely going ahead, he told the Olive Press exclusively.

“My people are sorting it out for me. I’d hate to not be here, I really would. I’d miss the weather!”

POLLY’S International Bookshop

Quality Used Books since 1985 Polly’s Bookshop in Javea Port is 35 years old.

“Polly’s is as old as me,” says Sam, her proud owner, “and to celebrate, we are opening a new Polly’s Bookshop in Moraira.”

Like Polly’s Javea, the new shop has thousands of quality used books, fiction and nonfiction, in English, Spanish, German, French and Dutch. Apart from the books that are extra special, they’ll still be 3 euros each with a euro credit if you want to return it.

We are continuing with our busy proofreading and editing services and our popular book finding and ordering services too. It feels great finding an out of print book for someone who has been searching for it.

Javea Port, Calle Santisimo Cristo del Mar 03730 – tel: 665 314 404 Moraira-Teulada, 237 Moraira Calpe Road 03724 – tel: 711 010 439

4

NEWS

www.theolivepress.es

Family misfortunes

Meeting up at home fueled COVID spike

THE vast majority of COVID-19 outbreaks in the Costa Blanca and Valencia area have been down to private gatherings of families and friends.

There is little to suggest that bars and restaurants have been a significant driving force in outbreaks during that time.

Figures compiled by the regional health ministry show

By Alex Trelinski

that since the first State of Alarm ended last summer, most infections (66.7%) came from meeting family and friends at home.

It largely confirms a key factor for the big uptake in December and January infections which were caused by

Raising the bar The Olive Press is a professional newspaper, with some very interesting articles.

We are very fortunate that they are extending the coverage around Spain.

I wish them every success and you have my total support.

Jennifer Cunningham – Spain’s leading female insurance agent

socialising over the festive period.

The review of the statistics suggests that a ‘socially-originated’ outbreak tends to be below 10 cases and among middle-aged people. The total outbreak figure is 7,523 between late June and early March, with 12.1% within educational centres and 11% at the workplace.

Age breakdowns reveal that the greatest number of outbreaks come within the 35 to 64 years age group at 42%, with 25% in the 15 to 34 year bracket.

Drinking

The figures also tend to add greater strength to the arguments from the hospitality sector, that home socialising is one of the biggest drivers of new COVID-19 cases as opposed to people drinking or dining in a socially-distanced environment. No specific breakdown over hospitality was available but a similar report on outbreaks in the Valencia region up to late November, showed that just under 3% of outbreaks were traced back to bars and restaurants.

March 25th - April 7th 2021

Hogueras Paedo teacher alarm halted From Front

ALICANTE’S biggest outdoor event of the year, the Hogueras (Bonfires) celebrations, have been called off for the second successive year due to the pandemic.

But there is genuine hope that the festival can be rearranged once widespread vaccinations have taken place.

Six days are normally set aside in the city between June 19 and June 24 to celebrate the summer solstice with the Hogueras, which became an official festival in 1928.

Parades and entertainment are staged over the period culminating in La Crema which is a symbolic destruction of everything evil with large effigies of politicians and celebrities burned in several bonfires across the city.

The major attraction for both locals and tourists alike finishes off in a giant bonfire display at midnight on June 24 launched from Mount Benacantil.

They then searched his home, a shared rented flat in the Las Tablas suburb, north of Madrid.

“I had absolutely no idea about his previous conviction when the police arrived at the door and searched the flat,” said a former flatmate, who spoke to the Olive Press anonymously this week.

“I subsequently discovered he had hidden laptops, mobile phones and memory cards in our shared basement lock up as well as lots of documents.

“I found both the originals and the ones he had forged.

I handed them all over to police,” she said.

“He was an utterly convincNo idea ing liar, and it is just terriBut his masquerade came fying that I lived with him to a shattering end when for several years and had no on June 24 last year police idea who he really was, and arrested him after cameras the disgusting things he was were found in the children’s up to,” she said. changing rooms at his new Fellow teachers at his former school. school this week demanded action to tighten up rules and to investigate how easily he was able to dupe authorities and gain access to children.

“The whole criminal records check is obviously flawed here in Spain and clearly ripe for abuse by those very people that need to be kept away from kids,” SPOT THE DIFFERENCE: Real said one. and fake certificates in the UK) in the name of Ben David Rose on a request from a company called Grupo Estudiantes that he had formed himself. That DBS certificate, which the Olive Press believes could be fake, allowed him to work with children and stated he was ‘clear of any previous convictions’.

It is unclear how he was able to secure this certificate as in a normal DBS check you need to provide all your addresses for the previous five years, your National Insurance number, your passport and your driving licence.

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6

www.theolivepress.es Voted top expat paper in Spain

A campaigning, community newspaper, the Olive Press represents the huge expatriate community in Spain with an estimated readership, including the websites, of more than two million people a month.

OPINION Parents’ nightmare IMAGINE being a parent contacted by police to say that your child has been identified from photographs uploaded and traded between paedophiles on the dark web?

Now imagine that the person who took those photos was a trusted teacher at your child’s school, a teacher you had invited into your home to give your child extra English classes?

And if the horror of that scenario isn’t enough, then imagine finding out that that teacher had done the same before, been prosecuted and put on a sex offender list and banned from working with children?

This latest case in Madrid has highlighted just how weak the system is at identifying and protecting our most vulnerable from those who want to abuse them.

It has revealed just how easy it is for a known paedophile to escape his past crimes, create a new identity and produce documents convincing enough to be hired at an expensive private school.

Last year alone, data from 16 police forces across the UK showed that 913 sex offenders had gone missing.

At a time when bilingual education has become so prized that hundreds of native English teachers are hired each year to work in schools across Spain, we need more vigorous checks in place to ensure another one can’t slip through the net.

Merry go round Political shenanigans that kicked off with a failed coup in Murcia threaten to reshape the political landscape from Madrid where elections will be held on May 4 to the Valenciana Community where regional head of the Ciudadanos party resigned last week as his party slides slowly but surely towards electoral oblivion.

Instability and uncertainty is the last thing needed in Spain right now as fears of a fourth wave loom just as the country is preparing to open up again to foreign tourism.

Isn’t it about time Spain’s elected representatives put a stop to the petty political infighting and focus on the bigger picture?

Publisher / Editor

Jon Clarke, jon@theolivepress.es Dilip Kuner dilip@theolivepress.es

Fiona Govan fiona@theolivepress.es

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2012 - 2021

Named the best English language publication in Andalucia by the Rough Guides group.

NEWS FEATURE

All change!

They say that a week is a long time in politics… and that adage runs particularly true in Spain, writes Fiona Govan

SPAIN has seen an intense period of tumultuous political drama that started with a falling out between coalition partners in the southern region of Murcia, sparking a series of repercussions that could see a reshaping of the Spanish political scene entirely.

Tensions had been brewing in Murcia where a series of corruption scandals involving the conservative Popular Party (PP) and allegations of jumping the coronavirus vaccination queue led to a rebellion by junior coalition partner, centrist party Ciudadanos.

Ciudadanos, the party that soared in the polls when it went national in 2014 on a market-friendly, anti-corruption platform which sought to wipe out the traditional leftright divide and occupy the centre ground, had allied with the PSOE in an attempt to oust the PP from power in a region where it has ruled for 26 years by calling a no confidence vote.

The attempted coup ultimately failed when on Thursday afternoon the regional chamber, with the support of Vox and three Ciudadanos deputies who rebelled against the

CHANGING FACES OF POWER: (from left to right) Iñigo Errejon, Pablo Iglesias, Pedro Sanchez, Isabel Ayuso, Pablo Casado and Santiago Abascal party line and were thrown out of their party, voted in favour of the PP. But the wrecking ball had already been set in motion and the true battlefield shifted 400km north to Madrid.

Fearing a similar move in Madrid, where the PP governs with fragile support from Ciudadanos, conservative leader Isabel Ayuso took a gamble; she dissolved the regional government triggering snap elections set for May 4.

But the shockwaves didn’t end there. In a

surprise move, the pony-tailed Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias announced on Monday that he would step down from his role in national politics and as Deputy Prime Minister in Pedro Sanchez’s coalition government to lead the challenge of the Left in Madrid.

This is the party that grew out of the indignado movement in the wake of Spain’s economic crisis to become a dazzling new force in Spain dedicated to tackling corruption and fighting austerity.

Fight for the vote The 15-year cut-off date that prevents an estimated one million overseas Brits from voting in the UK parliamentary election is about to be scrapped, writes Sue Wilson of Bremain in Spain

U

NLESS you were paying very close attention, you may have missed a reference to our voting rights in UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s recent Budget announcement.

Hidden away in the small print on page 48 was the following government statement: “Overseas Electors – The government is providing an additional £2.5million to remove the limit preventing British citizens who live overseas from voting after 15 years.”

This welcome news followed a recent announcement that the government’s manifesto commitment – to scrap the 15-year rule – would be included in the forthcoming Electoral Integrity Bill, expected to be laid before parliament later this year.

The 2019 Conservative manifesto stated, “We will make it easier for British expats to vote in Parliamentary elections, and get rid of the arbitrary 15-year limit on their voting rights”.

Although the news of the bill and budget commitments were largely welcomed, there was naturally considerable scepticism too. Brits long denied their democratic voting rights were quick to point out the failed government promises of the past. This was not, after all, the first time such a manifesto promise had been made. Nor the second.

Over 5 million UK nationals around the world have been denied their right to vote, some for years, if not decades.

For the last 25 years, veteran campaigner, Harry Shindler, MBE, has been c h a mp i o n i n g the fight for his right to vote in British elections. Harry,

who has lived in Italy for 40 years and will turn 100 in July, does not share the scepticism felt by many.

He told me: “This government, unlike others that were in power before, have the numbers to make it happen.”

When I asked him what he would say to those that doubted the government’s word, he replied: “Have faith! This thing will happen after 25 years of campaigning. With the promises made this time, I have every confidence.”

Harry is so confident, in fact, that he is already planning a celebratory dinner in Westminster for when his decades-long fight is finally over.

The Electoral Integrity Bill’s passage through parliament may not be quite as straightforward as the government would hope, as it includes controversial proposals regarding the need for ID when casting ballots.

Despite government claims that the new measures will “strengthen the integrity of UK elections”, campaigners disagree, claiming that millions will be prevented from exercising their right to vote.

The government claims the new ID cards would prevent electoral fraud. However, an Electoral Commission report suggested there was no evidence of electoral fraud in the last general election.

Darren Hughes, Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society said, “rather than pulling up the drawbridge to large groups of voters, ministers should deal with bringing in the nine million people who are missing from the electoral register”.

British citizens living abroad make up a significant portion of those “missing” from the register.

After the 2015 general election, the government made a

SEASONED CAMPAIGNER: Harry Shindler commitment to scrapping the 15-year rule.

The following year, they produced a policy document entitled “A democracy that works for everyone”.

In 2017, a further promise appeared in the Conservative Party Manifesto, followed by the “Overseas Voters Bill 2017-2019”.

The bill failed when it was “talked out” by serial filibusterer, Tory MP Philip Davies – not because he was opposed to the concept, but because he was against Private Members Bills on principle.

I remember it well – I was observing firsthand from the public gallery of the House of Commons.

What is different this time is that the new bill is a government-sponsored bill, which cannot therefore be ‘talked out’. Not to mention that we have the budget commitment for additional funding, and the government has an 80-seat majority.

In correspondence received from the Cabinet Office in 2020, the government recognised our strong links with our homeland.

They said that ‘most British citizens overseas retain deep ties to the United Kingdom’.

“Many still have family there, some will return there, others are drawing a British pension after a lifetime of hard work and some have fought for our country”.

March 25th - April 7th 2021

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Keep on growing

QUALITY: The OP website keeps you updated

Are you with the With the battle lines drawn for an ideologically charged fight for the capital, Ayuso introduced the slogan “Communism or Liberty”.

The move has set Madrid for a clash against the polarised forces of Left and Right, sending Ciudadanos plummeting towards electoral oblivion and driving the PP further into the arms of the far-right Vox, led by Santiago Abascal, if it is to have any hope of maintaining power in the region.

Judeans People Front?

“If I have to make a pact, I have no problem with Vox,” said Ayuso, who has forged a reputation as a maverick defying the leftist central government and health authorities by keeping bars and shops open during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Such a pact will be uncomfortable for Pablo Casado, national head of the party and leader of the opposition, who has made efforts to present a more moderate face and distance the party from the extreme views of Vox. Meanwhile the Socialists will launch their own bid for Madrid, where they came first in the previous elections but failed to find support to pull together a government.

The repercussions don’t end with Madrid as Ciudadanos’ waning power could have significance in both Andalucia and CastillaLeon where they are in coalition with the PP to rule.

The governments’ in both regions have so far insisted the pacts remain valid.

In fact, the Popular Party and Ciudadanos strengthened their commitment to the coalition in Andalucia, where they joined forces in 2018 to end almost 37 years of uninterrupted rule by the Socialists, by signing a five-point agreement not to waver from the pact.

But back in Madrid, the far left itself is fractured. On Tuesday, Más Madrid – a breakaway group led by Iglesias’ former wingman Iñigo Errejon – refused the offer to join forces with Podemos and run together on a joint far left list.

For any fans of Monty Python’s Life of Brian the situation is laughably familiar but ultimately depressing for those who fear Ayuso

I await, with interest, a response to my latest enquiries asking the Cabinet Office for an update.

The right to vote is widely recognised as a fundamental human right.

Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, “Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives”.

Since Brexit, our voting rights have been further diminished, and our voices further silenced. All the more reason to continue the fight to restore our lost UK voting rights.

I confess to a hint of scepticism, but it’s hard not to be lifted by Harry’s optimism and faith.

Not to mention his energy and commitment, despite his long struggle and his age.

He asked me to pass on his appreciation to all those that have lobbied their MPs or joined his campaign. He said he was “proud of us all” and added that we have “reached the top of the mountain”.

Let’s hope that the view from the summit is the one we hoped to see.

The Olive Press has been an important communication channel for us for the last 15 years along the Costa del Sol. The Metro Grupo wishes them continued success and resilience in our changing times, and continued success with their expansion throughout Spain.

Sue Wilson is the Chair of Bremain in Spain, a group that campaigns to protect the rights of British migrants living in Spain & across Europe.

Karen Wolfson Director of Marketing, MetroGrupo

is unstoppable.

“Are you the Judeans People Front?” asks Brian. “F**K off! We’re the People’s Front of Judea.”

What the polls say

The latest opinion poll by GAD3 currently predicts a win for Isabel Ayuso and the conservative People’s Party (PP) with over 40% support among likely voters, about double the result in the previous election in May 2019. This would win them between 6062 seats but still falls short of the 69 seats needed to form a majority government.

This is well ahead of Spain’s main ruling Socialist Party which scores 24% of voter share or between 35 and 37 seats, down from 27% at the last election.

Vox looks set to win 7.9% of the vote (between 10 and 12 seats), a slight drop from the 8.9% in 2019.

Ciudadanos looks set for electoral oblivion scoring only 1.9% support of potential voters, a whopping drop from the 19.4% share and 26 seats it won in the last election. This is below the 5% share needed to secure a presence in the regional parliament.

Mas Madrid drops 9.2% (13-14 seats) from the 14.6% (20 seats) it won in 2019 while Podemos looks set to double its share of support from 5% to 10.9% (winning 14.15 seats).

If results fall along these lines then the likely result would be a PP government with the support of Vox as a leftist group involving PSOE, Podemos and Mas Madrid still wouldn’t reach 50 percent of the seats.

T

HE past 15 years since the inception of the Olive Press have seen tumultuous times.

The financial crisis has come and gone, Brexit reared its ugly head and now the COVID pandemic is in full swing.

And the Olive Press website has been there through every step of the way.

Bringing Spanish news to a world-wide audience on a 24/7 basis www.theolivepress.es has grown from a sapling into a fully grown tree.

From a standing start in 2006, it rapidly grew until it took its place not just as the premiere English language news website in Spain - but also became a player on the world stage.

According to INFLUENTIAL: Our good work is Amazon’s Alexa. widely recognised com, by 2018 the site was ranked at an incredible 9,079th place out of more than 2 million websites in Spain.

Meanwhile our domain authority sits at a steady 67 to 70/100 and last year we welcomed 22 MILLION visitors to our site.

Dedicated

What’s more they all came to read about Spain, for we don’t give them the latest gossip from Coronation Street, British royal tittle tattle or criminals being arrested in New Zealand, as some of our downmarket rivals in Spain do.

Since the Olive Press website went behind a paywall, our numbers have inevitably dipped, but we still get an amazing 20,000-plus visits a day. And that’s without any tourists coming to Spain.

With registered users steadily growing - 18,000 people have so far signed up for our daily newsletter, which is crammed full of the latest news - we are confident that we will keep on gathering new fans over the next few years.

So, from everyone at the Olive Press, a big thankyou to all our readers who have made this possible - and we pledge to keep you in the know for the next 15 years and beyond.

The top five most read stories on www.theolivepress.es in the past two weeks are:

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Brits can do to avoid getting 1- Everything caught out by 90-day rule as March 31 looms British driver found hiding in hedge from 2-police after delivery driver killed in horror crash on Spain’s Costa del Sol

Here’s to 15 more Happy birthday to the Olive Press and congratulations for surviving through these difficult times.

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Andalucia to review restrictions 3on-andSpain’s perimetral lockdowns between regions March 18 for possible travel over Easter Thousands of British expats in Spain re4-main exposed and unprotected since Brexit This is when the clocks go forward in 5-Spain in 2021 and why it might be the last time

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A

LA CULTURA

t best, the adage ‘Old Spanish Practices’ is considered an innocent turn-of--phrase. At worst, the phrase is considered a pejorative –a stereotypical ethnic slur. Regardless, the expression carries with it some cultural baggage which is revealing. What is the context for the phrase ‘Old Spanish Practices’? When is it used? What does it mean?

Why the Spanish? For those of us who grew up in the English-speaking world AND who have an affinity for Spain, we might be wondering the same thing…

At first glance, they are interpreted to be derogatory terms prefaced with the descriptive ‘Spanish’ to denote arrogance, duplicity, inefficiency, sexual corruption, etc. Examples include; Spanish gout connotes syphilis, while Spanish Money alludes to insincerity and empty compliments.

A Spanish padlock means a chastity belt while a Spanish trumpeter is the annoyi n g

March 25th - April 7th 2021

‘Old Spanish Practices’…WTF? ‘Spanish’ is a derogatory term in the English language that’s well past its sell-by date

braying of a donkey.

Even the infamous Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 carries with it a misnomer - the flu was actually of American origin.

It’s not clear why the Spanish are blamed.

Brewer’s

were only ‘trying to make people work for the hours for which they were paid’ while the Communications Union countered Dictionary of Phrases and Fawith claims of ‘unfair labour bles (first published in 1870) practices and new set of worker states that ‘the Spaniards demands’. somehow seem to attract peDialogue between the two joratives…not the least of regroups got heated with Royal garding working practices - the Mail claiming in court that there mañana attitude and all that’. had been ‘1,442 Old Spanish They define ‘Old Spanish PracPractices at Royal Mail a few tices’ as: industrial slang for years ago and these had been irregular or restrictive unauthocut to 92’. This seems to sugrised practices between workers gest that the term ‘Old Spanish (unions) and management.

Practices’ not only made its way With that said, the phrase has into the court record of a major been popular on Fleet Street in British labour law case, but also recent decades. was a recognised Before computand well underers and the stood term. hot-metal printHistorians Some cultural ing press of the suspect the historians assert 1980’s-90s, that the phrase Fleet Street manphrase is a ‘Old Spanish agement and Practices’ is aclabour unions result of old tually American would often butt grievances slang. It can wideheads over deadly be found in the lines. It was widelyrics of early folk ly understood music. The American hit song that unorthodox workplace It’s an Old Spanish Custom (by customs such as cash only, unthe Sons of the Pioneers) was der the table payments, bogus widely popular in the UK in the overtime reporting, crony hiring 1930s. American films starring practices, etc. were practiced. the likes of Roy Rodgers (The Management looked the other Old Spanish Trail) and Buster way turning a blind eye in order Keaton (An Old Spanish Custom) to maintain harmony within the often used the adage. workforce. It seemed like a small Many historians suspect the price to pay to meet a deadline. phrase is the result of past This was known on Fleet Street historical grievances between as a living/breathing example of Britain and Spain. The defeat of an ‘Old Spanish Practice’.

The Spanish Armada, The War More recently, the journalistic of Spanish Succession, contenreporting of the 2009 Royal Mail tion over the status of Gibraltar, vs the Communications Workmigrations between both couners Union dispute was replete tries and now the uncertainty of with references to ‘Old Spanish Brexit all have created an atmoPractices’. sphere of ‘the other’.

According to Royal Mail, they

By Jack Gaioni

DODGY: Fleet Street printers allegedly indulged in Old Spanish Practices a Regardless of its origin, the phrase does not sit well in today’s sensitive culture. It rings hollow and offensive. Any of us who have Spanish friends know that most are honest, sincere and hard-working.

Ironically, what I have noticed among some of my Spanish friends is that they detect some self-effacing truth to some of these tropes.

They see the humour knowing that there have been more than a few Spaniards in the past who fit the stereotype of an Old Spanish Practice. Like most cultural stereotypes, they are born of at least a kernel of truth.

The challenge is to acknowledge people as individuals without assigning certain characteristics to

ethnic groups. Those of us who grew up as native English-speakers know that the English language is rich and resourceful enough to not make generalisations that assign incrementing traits.

Given the historical track record (both positive and negative) between the UK and Spain, it is safe to say that the two counties will continue to have conflicting issues from time to time.

Brexit, the status of Gibraltar and the recent COVID 19 quarantine restrictions are all fertile ground for potential conflict.

Should the phrase ‘Old Spanish Practices’ become part of the conversation, I’d like to think we can lighten up and see it as an archaic relic of a past age.

LA CULTURA

and (above) a donkey braying is known as a Spanish trumpeter

Do you have a what’s on?

Send your informa tion to newsdesk@theolivepr ess.es

March 25th - April 7th 2021

9

Bronze Age bosses AN ancient burial site suggests that women may have ruled the roost in the early Bronze Age. That possibility is being seriously put forward after the remains of a female were found with a silver crown on her head.

Archaeologists first discovered the burial ground in 1944 which dates back to 1,700 BC at La Almoloya in the Pliego municipality in Murcia.

Cradle

The site is believed to be the cradle of the El Argar society, which flourished between 2,200 and 1,550 BC. The woman’s remains, discovered in 2014, were buried with a man and several valuable objects, most notably the rare silver crownlike diadem on her head.

The man had far fewer items in the grave which has led experts to suggest that the woman had more power and could have ruled the area.

DNA samples showed that the two individuals were not biologically related, but had had children together.

Further analysis of the remains and artifacts over the last few years led researchers to their conclusions about the significance of

Grave goods could show women ruled the roost the find. They said: “These grave items have allowed us to grasp the economic and political power of this individual and the dominant class to which they belonged.”

Besides the trinkets found on the woman, another as-

pect of the discovery has excited researchers.

The remains were found underneath a room in what was a large building that could have been used for ‘political’ purposes as well as a home.

It included an area with

benches that could have seated up to 50 people.

That’s led experts to suggest that the use of the building could qualify it to be called a palace and therefore make it the first one to be discovered in Western Europe from the Bronze Age.

10

LA CULTURA Raise the wreck

March 25th - April 7th 2021

Lady is not for returning

SPAIN’S Culture Commission has refused to permanently transfer an iconic statue back to Elche. The Commission voted for the ‘Lady of Elche’ to continue being exhibited at Madrid’s National Archaeological Museum.

The Lady of Elche is a polychrome stone bust that was discovered by chance in August 1897 at L’Alcudia, an archaeological site on a private estate just south of Elche.

It’s a piece of Iberian sculpture dating back to the fourth century BC and was bought by the Louvre museum in Paris for 4,000 francs and put on display there.

In 1941, it returned to Spain where it stayed for 30 years in the Prado Museum before a ministerial order decreed that it should form part of the Archaeological Museum.

Unyielding

Elche council has campaigned for many years for it to be permanently displayed in the area. Despite the pleas, the national government constantly refused to yield ground on the possibility of the Lady returning to its ‘home’ region.

In 2016, Valencian president, Ximo Puig, suggested that a branch of the Archaeological Museum should be formed in Elche to feature the statue but nothing came of the idea. Valencian Compromis party senator, Carles Mulet, led the latest move for the Lady’s return, 124 years after her departure .

He said: “Art ought to be in its place of origin and the Lady is part of a whole series of works in the Madrid museum, while it would be the focal point both culturally and for tourists if it took centre-stage in Elche.”

A PHOENICIAN ship that sank off the Spanish coast will see the light of day again after some 2,700 years.

The wreck of the Mazarron II has been protected from the elements by a steel dome for decades, but it has become dislodged after the seabed moved, meaning the structure now endangers the remains it was meant to protect.

The ship’s valuable cargo of litharge lead, a residue from which silver can be obtained, is now set to be extracted, according to the Ministry of Culture.

Ship from pre-biblical times to be rescued from seabed

FRANCE and Spain may have their differences but when it comes to surrealist painter Picasso they are going to act as one.

The governments of the two nations have agreed to set up a bilateral commission to prepare for the 50th anniversary of the death of the Malaga born painter, which will take place in 2023.

Colourful

Exhibition

The wreck is sitting in only 2.5 metres of water, about 50 metres off the coast of Mazarron (Murcia).

Originally discovered by divers in 1994, the protective steel dome was installed six years later.

However, authorities have now decided to raise the wreck and its cargo in order to conserve, restore and exhibit it at the National Museum of Underwater Archeology (Arqva)

Honouring a great

By Simon Wade

in nearby Cartagena.

An international conference is planned in order to pool various experts’ intelligence

regarding the best method of extraction.

A multidisciplinary team involving UNESCO will be formed, with restoration work carried out in the Arqua laboratory.

Picasso – who led a life as colourful as his paintings - died in 1973 in France.

Although he had spent most of his life in the neighbouring country, he always maintained an intensely sentimental and artistic relationship with Spain.

Now the two governments have decided it appropriate to share the planning of the events to mark his death to ensure the importance of Picasso to both nations is made clear.

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page 3

page 22

His take on the Brits jailed for “saving the environment”

the

INVolive pres EST s IGA T

page 24

The hulking shell set for a 311-room of concrete - once SWATHES of rural mega resort - has Andalucia are in remained an eyesore danger of being concret ed over after work was halted by for years after a new planning law the courts. was brought in Bunkers are also being by the regional governm 700-home golf course dug to stop a Green groups includin ent. scheme, near g EcologisNerja, which will tas en Accion and ment of one of thesee the developjoined with hundreGreenpeace have Costa del Sol’s final stretches of pristine ciations to fight on ds of local assocoast.

And protesters in fronts opened up a series of new during Mijas the are also COVID digging in to stop crisis.

SOON LEGAL?: the law being used to build in woods Algarrobico They are up in arms overlooking over the so- one, but TWO the sea at El Chapar called LISTA law new hotels the lockdown - that- passed during beaches in the supposedlyon virgin The first of many ral. planned protect is set to allow ed natural dozens of previou park of Cabo de Gata. - took place outside council protests sly outlawe offices d proj- The first involves the in ects to go ahead. green light for la Cala de Mijas this week. a 30-room hotel It could also see In particular, activist near the about a controv s are outraged famous Bahia de Los the globally Valdevaqueros projectcontroversial course in Nerja, ersial new golf beach, while the second Genoveses of homes go up on of hundreds is for a two- tected a heavily-prostand of woodlandas well as a final star hotel close to the pristine virgin in Mijas.

Cala Under the beach, near Tarifa. de San Pedro bay They are also furious recently resubm about not Protestors fear (pictured above). the new law will also project, backed by TV celebrit itted now allow the legaliza y Ana tion of nearby Rosa Quintana, the stunning area between Bolonia and El Algarro- see a series of hotels getTarifa would bico hotel, Ecologi built. sts are also worried built dis- Los Merino that the s project for gracef ully courses and hundreds oftwo-golf on a virgin es houson UNESCO-prote beach, near land See page 24 near Ronda could cted virgin Carboneras, despite be revived, due to a preme being quashed by the SuCourt. planning mix up.

Fairway to hell: See page 6

AN ecological nightmare, “This hundreds of ancient is a cynical and oaks ap- attempt botched parently stand to create ambien Pulled up for a dead. ce around the golf course and roproject, they huge golf mac- create space,” rie rows like warline up in ee- geon Kit Hogg.said tree surgraves in the very “I Somme. few of these am sure Many centurie trees will survive. protected s It is disbeen sacrificed old, they have gusting.” insatiable desirefor Europe’s Despite ongoing efforts to holiday homes. for golf and stop the work, EU investigaPart of the tions and – crucially – no unrelenting guarant costafication ee of they sound the of Andalucia, Los Merinos water, work at , near Ronda nature conserv death knell for continues uncheck ation in southed. This is ern Spain. the true price of golf.

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BANGED UP: Samm on bundled into police car and (inset) his campervan

EAGLE-EYED Olive Press readers helped snag WORDS AND ain’s most wanted one of BritBy Rob HorganPICS and Spain, just hours fugitives in Laurence Dollimo after he had re It’s a true city of been named. culture, but Followin Malaga has so much g a tip off to the paper, al Crime Agency, who arrived more at suspected paedoph the scene after the arrest. ile Matthew “Well Sammon was dragged PAGE 16 done from his thanks to the Olive Press and campervan in a dramati expat time raid and whisked c night- for tipping us off, community this is the away in son we an unmarked police run these campaig reans.”

Working closely withcar.

The dramatic day had started informant when Daniel Reid, we were able to annualCrimestoppers issued its firstly track down list of most wanted fugito Fuengirola, then Sammon tives in Torremolinos S on ThursGuardia Civil to arrestcall in the day morning.

On the run for two him.

Leading to hundred mon - a blackbe years, Sam- stories around the s of press was wanted in thelt in Jujitsu - on national televisio world and ing indecent imagesUK for shar- was immediately n, the hunt on. of children .

His seizure came But, it was to popular just 10 hours newspa after he was named per the Olive local in Opera- that tion Captura and Don’t miss our 12-Pag expat plasterer Reid,Press 40, recorded arrest inis the quickest reached out to, trusting Ronda supplement e us to SUCCESS: Reid, and Spanish police the joint UK ‘do the job properly ’.

Reynolds and Horgan, “It was a fantastic operation.

In a series of Faceboo Brunt PAGE 19 k mesSteve Reynolds, fromresult,” said sages, he announ ced that Sam- as a labourer and was currently the Nation- mon, living in a camper 45, had worked van around for him the Mijas and Fuengirola area.

NDS O

CHRIS STEWART WRITES FOR THE OLIVE PRESS

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g l and convicted

By Tom Powel reveal that back in business usinte’ ethwaite is Jamie Mickl Mon Ni- Goldman ‘Howard Del Sol fraudster out COSTA del false name last year is hiding an fled Spain gel GoldmanEnglish country the g Goldm accusations of fraud, in a classic the false name vicSuzanne Coulin his partner g their wares via amid behind dozens of milcottage underMonte’. leaving on page - are peddlin account called tims owed a total of €15 ‘Howard del See full story ‘Del Monte’ Ebay aka joint a an Goldm lion. d to the busito answer ns Emporium’. has also returne and selling ‘Benso post office staff told the While he refused ly seems happy s, it Village ness of buying that he regularto questions, he and antique g, her two Olive Press with Coulin addressed coins, stamps d. in the collects parcels ‘sends living ers and two cats propalso lease can be reveale and , daught a six month ire ‘Del Monte’ edroom Renting on modest three-b ng Berksh packages’.

Suzanne in the charmi ry, he and many erty. are Kintbury’s and (top) with village of Kintbu UK bolthole While the pairof conversation, Goldman’s ticket. hottest topic seen and ‘keep HIDEOUT: with a parking why he g to say to you,g “I don’t understand if a trafthey are rarelyto themselves’.

“I have nothin to meetin arrested, themselves live nearby but I look forward down. hasn’t been find him then in Couling’s family said fic warden can again,” he called still happier police can,” in Hungerford.secretive man you BRITS are surely the reports sugwished to the who despite our, fact, gly In Spain, t the neighb is seemin have abanous. from Del Monte leaving the gesting 90,000 dream.

Parking ticke remain anonym in the village one only ever seen office. doned the expatOlive Press but post “Every led, to the Goldman, whathouse to go Olive Press con- His hair was disheve An exclusivethat more than mous- knows he’she goes under.” y- he did not have the When the survey found s of our readhe ever name his in his countr who deleted y, is fronted himGoldman refused tache some have claimed three quarter r since makpart of his Goldman, t recentl are happie side retreat, the door, instead is now sporting as Facebook accoun investigated EXCLUSIVEreveal that ers to move. of disguise. tly being to come ing the s Coulhis head out can return millionfis morning, the curren briefly pokingwindow.

The Olive PressPresident may his for failing to The previou story, see No leaving investors in his bedroom For the full h dream on the Russian a multimillion ing was seento load up their of euros to nies. end to Spanis have boughtla mansion with a house at 9am ll Zafira with nancial compa told the Olive 4. victims s Vauxha page y euro Marbel Variou silver smen. off, possibl are practically group of six busines page 3 Press that theylosing their life boxes and head on sale. that to a car boot explained that destitute after See full story his schemes, g One neighbourmoved into the savings to Leading Buildin 4 es on Page day they Costa Del Sols arthe 1996.

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legends Ferran Adria and Gordon Ramsey.

And it was nice to chat to Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera, as well as the only newspaper to be able to pose a couple of questions to Michelle Obama on her visit to Marbella a few years ago.

Indeed, the positives far outweigh the negatives and we would prefer to be judged over 50 rather than 15 years.

As far as we are concerned we have only just begun.

ess.es

the olive press

er tive newspap

the

When it comes to corruption we were the first English newspaper to write about the ERE scandal at the Junta de Andalucia that cost an estimated billion euros to the taxpayers, while we also tackled town hall theft on a local scale on dozens of occasions.

Animal cruelty has been a continual bugbear and we have exposed so many evil abusers, as well as the scoundrels who allowed hunters to kill innocent circus lions and tigers at a finca in Extremadura (see below).

On a more positive front, it was great to interview everyone from Princess Diana’s ex-lover James Hewett to cooking

maverick Jeremy Griffiths, and Nigel Goldman, a degenerate gold-dealing dirt-bag, who had a restaurant column in a local newspaper, which he used to cover his tracks.

We also tackled timeshare crook Toni Muldoon, who certainly deserves a mention for conning thousands of people and eventually went to prison for setting up fake escort websites.

Meanwhile, our crime reporting on missing teen Amy Fitzpatrick ‘blew open the case’, to use the words of her grandmother, while our continuing investigation into missing Maddie McCann has yielded exclusive after exclusive, with its frequent links to Spain.

www.theolivepr

ON ESTEPONA IAL SUPPLEMENT 20-PAGE SPEC ish-language and only Engl Andalucía DON’T MISS OUR The original in

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Getting things done

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ROM its very first issue in 2006 the Olive Press has been campaigning for its community.

Whether fighting for the environment or digging into crooks, we have taken some big scalps.

Starting from Issue One (see top right) we highlighted the ridiculous plans to build 2000 houses, two golf courses and two hotels on UNESCO-protected land near Ronda, as well as exposed the madness of building a 350-room monstrosity on a virgin beach in Almeria’s Cabo de Gata.

Both schemes - Los Merinos, in Ronda, and the Algarrobico hotel, in Almeria - went into reverse after our stories made the UK AND Spanish national newspapers and green groups including Greenpeace and Ecologistas en Accion joined our protests.

And then there were the crooks, like Crimestoppers’ Most Wanted Daniel Johnston, a bank robber, and Matthew Sammon, a dangerous paedophile, who we single-handedly tracked down to a village near Sevilla and a car park in Fuengirola.

And fraudsters like David ‘the dogman’ Klein, pet transport

PARKING)

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Bracing for Brexit

Vol. 11 Issue 257

Voted BEST expat paper in Spain www.theolivepres

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A VICTORY for mortgage been awarded owners has by the European of Justice.

Court The court mortgage has ruled that two holders in to additional Spain are million entitled refunds because from It came they paid too muchthe banks interest. clauses’ due to the so-called that saw fail to lower most Spanish ‘floor banks rowers to their interest rates match the the European base rate to borCentral set by The court ruled that Bank. that repayments it was unfair entire life and should time that of the mortgage cover the during the continue interest rates were low and When theto be. lowered central bank base economy to stimulate the rate was some years eurozone repayments ago, mortgage should have 1.5% to tracked it continued2%, however many to to pay 3.5% borrowers The surprise and be appealed. ruling is final more. and cannot Around two now be set million borrowers should timated to to receive repayments, be worth esbillions of euros.

Little slice of home

a cool The chic BRITISH bella, justnew addition to Bahia spree in expats are on a buy-to-let Marthe latest east of the town, England. London and the south east of According installed technology, withincludes sound system, to mortgage a preInternational and underfloor solar panels there has lender Skipton cant rise The property, heating. been cent years.in expat investment a signifiProperties, marketed by over re- with sits in a gated Panorama New figures 24-hour security. community to-lets are reveal 40% of are in the in the UK capital,expats’ buy“Prices in pricey south east. while 25% nificantly London have increased ing that in the past few years, sigmeanattractivecapital gains have mortgage for investors,” saidbeen very director Nigel Skipton “Expats have Pascoe. ing and long many reasons term investment for investthe most is usually The trendimportant.” has occurred come easier as it has pats, who to secure lending becredit checkspreviously struggledfor exwith Some 35% and recent credit history. vestment of expats cited long term ing, while as their main reason inanother 19% for of their pension said it was buyplan. part

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MALAGA €2 millionprovince’s second La Estrella project failed to biggest castle will finally be being used castle is spreadtake off almost a decade renovated over 25,000 after a ago.

Spanish TV during the filming of ‘Douglas,square metres and A project series which features el Guardian is currently to give the onset of the structure the battle of de Historia’ – It now back global financial a face lift was Teba, where the castle a abandoned crisis. investigation, on, and will improve in 2008 at lies. consolidate the accessibility, structure. the walls undertake and generally archeological improve the existing

PAGE 13

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THERESA May Britain won’t accepthas vowed half out’ Brexit in a ‘half in, a landmark speech that is likely to have long-lasting effects on Gibraltar and all expats in Spain.

The Prime Minister issued a 12-point plan to out of the EU, take Britain ing Street looking with Downsingle market and to scrap EU toms union access.current cusIn the biggest speech month tenure, she of her sixsaid: “To be clear, what I am proposin g cannot mean members hip of the single market.”

She added Britain longer give ‘huge would no EU, however she sums’ to the conceded that Parliament will have the final vote on the deal.

Maintaining the travel area between common Kingdom and the the United EXCLUSIVE Republic of Ireland is also a priority

By Gabrielle Pickard during -Whitehead the Brexit negotiati and Laurence ons.

Dollimore However, the border rushed to the vets tar with Spain was of Gibral- A BRITISH expat he died 30 minutes has not men- after later. tioned. finding five of her called in police An X-ray showed dogs executed in a late-night massacre he also had a in 2004, found the The Guardia Civil . five rescue dogs shot shot through the roof of his mouth.bullet in their pens on January are now investiga Meanwh Control ing the horrific attack t6, the night of was also ile, one of Mitchell’s 12 horses the Reyes (Three that “We want to control also left one attacked, so savagely of Illona Kings).

Her beloved seven-ye that its eye migration from the our im- gouged Mitchell’s horses with its eye ar-old Dizzy, ‘one Vetsmay have to be removed. out.

EU,” said of the May. “We also have friendlies been t dogs you will recognise the The detectives from the meet’ and a puppy ever four-year-old, struggling to treat the importance of the environment brightest section Seprona told Mitchell, shot dead at the gatescalled Maisie were he has become named Rocco, because and the best coming 48, that it was one too of their pens.

Meanwhile Coco Deeply traumati nervous and skittish. recognise the contributhere. We seen and of the worst attacks they had were visibly shocked ion they shot in their beds, and Domingo, were thankfully was sed by the attack - that have made.” by it.

They have put on not seen by her daughwith Mitchell believing they had cowered extra patrols to keep ter Ella, May is believed to an eye in their kennels so angry 11 - Mitchell continued: “I am before being killed permit system asfavour a work- night. on the estate at weekends and at that someone would do Coco, two, had beenin cold blood. something as disgustin trigger Article 50 byshe looks to “I am g as this to innocent sickened as to March. range between the shot at point-blank animals.”

It comes as the House why of Lords would carry out such a cruel someone year-old Domingo eyes, while three- Mitchell, from published data showing and bar- week.

Chester, believes was shot through a bor- baric attack on innocent, defencele side of his face. the atthe tack is linked to der closure with animals,” she told ss The mother-of-one, the Olive Press this ban hunters fromher recent decision to put 40% of jobs Spain would above, who bought They later found Jack, her huge her estate in mountai at risk in Gia braltar. ns near Granada German Shepherd, having six-year-old estate that sits in stunning173-hectare convulsions the Sierra scenery in under a nearby tree, The 32 page-rep de Baza. but despite being ort, based on Gibraltar governm Continues on Page ent evidence, estimates 4 10,500 of the Rock’s 26,000 workers Opinion Page 6 Est 1984 crossed the border daily.

“A frontier which necessary fluidity lacked the fore put directly atwould thereAntiques, Jewellers risk the jobs of 40% of the Gibraltar For all your & Pawnbrokers force,” said a spokesm workinsurance needs!

A huge variety of May’s speech was an. over Leave campaigners,cheered by 1 carat diamond jewell pushing for a ‘hard’ who are ery.

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18 January

Happy 15th anniversary!

2

We made it!

A message from the publisher Jon Clarke

WELL Issue 365: The number of days in the year and certainly sleepless nights I have had worrying about being sued, being attacked or being able to make the deadline.

There have certainly been some moments, like the time when we couldn’t afford the printing bill, or the 5am finish when we had to send the entire paper to the printers from our local pub, after a series of power cuts.

And it’s not exactly been a picnic since 2010 with half a decade of recession, followed by four years of Brexit… and then COVID to add to the mix.

But luckily for us, the best journalism comes out of crises and it’s in times of trouble when good journalists are needed more than ever.

And we have had some of the best, dozens in fact, who have gone on to work in national newspapers back home or on TV networks in America and even Russia.

This intrepid bunch of men and women went out to investigate, probe and explore the four corners of this fine country, scouring the very best stories along the way.

Now, after launching our sixth edition in Valencia and taking on our first national journalist in Madrid, we are certainly not resting on our laurels.

While we are consolidating our position in Andalucia and on the east coast this year with more papers and more journalists, we are looking to expand again to give our readers even better coverage, in particular online, where we publish 20-plus stories a day.

It is luckily thanks to our excellent readers and, above all, clients that we are able to continue to expand and improve our service.

Thanks so much to all of you for allowing me to do this job that I love so much, sleepless nights and all.

The time of

It came as a shock the first time he read it 15 years ago, but now News Editor Dilip Kuner (inset) is proud of the varied mix - and above all campaigning DNA - of the Olive Press

A

S a journalist who rolled up on Spanish shores in 1994 I had no idea what to expect.

I had intended to spend a few glorious weeks of laziness enjoying life with my girlfriend and spending my meagre savings on an

NEWCOMER: Dilip arrives in 1994

extended holiday, before returning to the Fleet Street rat race at the Sunday Mirror.

It did not take long to become seduced by the relaxed Spanish lifestyle – and a return to the hard grind of the UK started to seem not very enticing.

So almost by accident I settled down in Spain.

I married my girlfriend (Sandra) at Mijas Town Hall the next year, and since then have raised three children here. I would not change a single minute of the life I have enjoyed in this wonderful country.

My first challenge back then was getting a job. Given my background in journalism I naturally looked for opportunities in the press.

Not speaking Spanish at the time, my options were of course severely limited.

There were very few English language newspapers on the Costa del

Sol – and the ‘No Vacancies’ signs were out in force.

Which seemed a bit odd, as reading them they could certainly have done with a little more journalistic talent.

This was a recurring theme down the years – papers came and went and some were a better read than others.

Most were entirely advertisement-led with little thought given to what is, in my mind, the most important bit – the stories themselves.

So I made a new life for myself - as do many expats – working in the restaurant trade, doing a bit of writing in my spare time.

That is until the Olive Press arrived on the scene. I remember the first time I picked up a copy and was slightly shocked - and definitely delighted - to find a local English newspaper that put journalism first.

3

our lives At the time I was helping to run a couple of restaurants with my father.

But reading the Olive Press that first time definitely implanted in my mind an itch to make a return to the world of print.

There was something about its wide selection of stories, its ability to find an interesting feature and, above all, to take on some of the coast’s worst crooks that I loved.

It would not be for another six years that I made it back INK IN THE VEINS: Dilip, a long time Olive Press reader to my ‘first love’ of journalism, but during that time I always picked up my covered it had not given up on its origfortnightly copy of the Olive Press and inal remit, based on quality content and NOT advertising. followed the local news avidly.

Why? Because it offered investiga- Even better, its DNA is still following tive reporting that looked behind the the big issues of the day and exposing headlines and covered real issues wrongdoing. that affected the expat communities And indeed, since I joined we have consistently looked at dodgy busiin Spain.

While I was to spend a few years at nessmen, bent politicians and greedy one of its former rivals (not one I care developers, alongside some excellent to remember), it was great to be final- environmental stories and travel stuff. ly offered a job at the Olive Press last But it’s the human stories that best tick my box… and we are never short year.

In the course of the 15 years since I of them. first picked up the paper somewhere The Olive Press has grown and evolved around La Cala de Mijas it has always over 15 years – just as Spain has. I reflected on the things that interest await to see what the next 15 years bring for Spain and, obviously, at the me.

And gratifyingly for a journalist, I dis- place where I spent my working days.

It’s a double

Olive Press digital editor Fiona Govan is also celebrating the 15th anniversary of her career as a correspondent in a much-changed Madrid

I

ARRIVED fresh faced in the spring of 2006, dispatched to The Daily Telegraph’s Madrid desk to provide British readers with light-hearted tales of holiday mishaps on the Costas and the strange things Spaniards got up to at fiestas.

Plus countless stories on how Spain had finally broken the pact of silence to explore its dark past; that of the Spanish Civil War and ensuing fascist dictatorship, and the inevitable calls to dig up Franco from his tomb in the Valley of the Fallen.

Spain was booming. The periphery of the capital was a construction site, literally, as the Madrid ring road was being dug up and sunk underground, transforming the rubbish-strewn ditch where the Manzanares pitifully trickled into the wonderful recreation area now known as Madrid Rio. Cranes stretched their lofty arms over the city, transforming the skyline with skyscrapers in the swanky business district and modern apartment complexes in spanking new suburbs to house a thriving class of affluent workers mortgaged to the hilt but full of optimism for their bright future.

But traditional Spain was omnipresent. Bar floors were still strewn with discarded prawn heads and restaurants were still family-run, offering classic Spanish fare with a €10 menu del dia in overlit, smoke-filled See next page

RIDING OUT: One of Fiona’s first forays while reporting for the Telegraph in Madrid

Now’s the time to write your book!

English-speaking Kindle books soar during lockdown in Spain

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“I’m an American novelist living in Valencia, Spain. When I moved from Los Angeles in 2014, I brought my book promotion company with me. Self-Publishing Review is one of the original sites

for ‘indie’ authors, that is, those who write, edit, and publish their books themselves online.

Since I founded the company in 2008, we’ve helped an estimated twenty thousand English-speaking writers from around the world achieve publication.

SPR is a family business. My wife, a British ex-pat and qualified book editor, organises the US and UK-based teams that work for us. We are now one of the most trusted authorities in this industry and a go-to source for

authors of all genres.

The self-publishing industry is booming, because it’s free to publish a book on Amazon’s KDP eBook system. And, of course, expats in Spain have long used Amazon to buy English language books, because it can be difficult to get a good selection in shops.

Since lockdown is upon us, and pubs and clubs are out, many have turned to writing that book they always wanted to pen, as well as re-discovering the joys of reading.

With all the time spent at home, people are buying more books.

At Self-Publishing Review, we specialise in helping English-speaking authors achieve their dream: Publish and sell your book, and become a Best Selling author. We offer editing, reviews, and our popular promotion service that can get you to #1 on Amazon, with an estimated quarter of a million global views.

We give free advice to authors looking for a start, and you’ll find lots of information about writing

and publishing on our website at www.selfpublishingreview. com. You are also welcome to ask us anything by email: edit o r @ s e l f p u b l i s h i n g r e v i e w. com.

Get your exclusive Olive Press discount code for SPR’s author services, valid until May! www.selfpublishingreview.com/OP

GREEN

www.theolivepress.es

Brexit, Franco et al From previous page

dining rooms. People mostly shopped at their local markets back when they still contained butchers, fishmongers and vegetable stalls, not collections of food outlets offering exotic international fare from arepas to poke bowls.

Then the recession struck and suddenly news from Spain became less a distraction from the weighty world issues of the day and more an ominous threat that could destabilise the Euro.

I started to write about bank bailouts and debt restructuring, construction company crashes and home repossessions … followed by corruption scandal after corruption scandal.

A powerful indignado movement led to the birth of Podemos and an end to Spain’s two-party system, bringing with it political instability and the rise of the far right.

The Basque separatist cause waned and was replaced in Spain’s narrative with the struggle

NOWADAYS: Fiona with pet Rufus

4 14

for an independent Catalonia.

Then Brexit busted the European project entirely – at least for Brits, upending rights taken for granted when we made the move to Spain.

The last year has been overwhelmingly dominated by the pandemic, presaging an economic crisis that threatens to run deeper and longer than any previous one.

But at least they finally dug up Franco!

drive for change Cordoba correspondent Cristina Hodgson, reflects on 15 years of dodgy driving, quaint customs and vegetarian liberation in Ole Ole Land

March 25th - April 7th 2021

FIFTEEN YEARS ago today I was living in sleepysville Extremadura and Rafa Nadal was the new national hero.

The Spaniard won his second French Open in 2006 and he’s taken home The Musketeers' Trophy 11 more times since.

Almost as impressive as Nadal’s serving has been the improvement in the nation’s driving.

An eye-watering 4,101 lives were lost on Spanish roads in 2006, compared to 870 last year.

Back in the day, before better roads and speed cameras, it seemed that every hot-blooded Spaniard was a frustrated F1 driver … or maybe it was just me getting used to driving on the right hand side.

The queuing etiquette also took some getting used to. No one forms an orderly one here, everyone mills around. Either you take a numbered ticket or you have to memorise the face of the person who arrived before you. It’s a time-honoured tradition that has served generations of Spaniards perfectly well and finally I know my place.

Like everyone else when joining a queue I now dutifully utter the sacred words: ‘Quien es el ultimo?’

But if we think that’s weird, it’s nothing compared to how the

meat-living Spanish saw vegetarianism. When I first arrived no one seemed to understand the concept of the word as I was invariably offered jamon.

Jamon is a source of great pride among Spaniards. Not to eat it is practically a criminal offense.

But we vegetarians have been liberated. Today most supermarkets stock a good range of plant-based foods and no one bats an eyelid when I pass on the pata negra.

In fact my only regret after 15 years in the sunny land of Ole Ole is that HP Sauce hasn’t made it to local shops inland yet. That and the super-helpful nature of Spanish shopkeepers as they embark on an entire stock audit in search of this magical condiment, refusing to let me leave til they’ve finished!

Costa Blanca reporter Alex Trelinski looks back on a change for the better I'M still a newbie compared to the Olive Press with just a dozen years of Spanish life under my belt. Those 12 years have whizzed by faster than the number of lawsuits filed against Emeritus King Juan Carlos. There's been bursting property bubbles, depression, recession, a recovery, and something called coronavirus to round things off....for now!

At local level there's a far greater multinational flavour on the Costas and I like that a lot. In 2009 every house on my street was British-owned; today it’s like the United Nations with a nice mix of Dutch, Belgians, Danes and even Spanish in my quiet cul-de-sac. The Brits left for a variety of reasons though none down to Brexit. My only regret is that many of the 'newcomers' spend just a few weeks a year over here - quite a change for our community, which now has more of a 'holiday home' feel about it.

Infrastructure that we now take for granted has been revolutionised with high-speed internet and cheap mobile phones that were all at a premium when I first arrived. You can shop around to get the best value energy provider as well. Back in the Noughties it was just Telefonica and Iberdrola, like it or lump it.

Supermarkets have sprouted out of nowhere (although the check-out queues are still painful) and there's been a revolution in the number of footpaths and cycleways that have popped up to spare me the old ritual of 'dicing with death' when I fancied stretching my legs on the local roads.

Exercise was very un-Spanish back then but the nation has come on in leaps and bounds since 2006 and every paseo has become a Nike catwalk.

So no 'good old days' stuff from yours truly, Spain is a country mile better than it was in so many ways.

GREEN

www.theolivepress.es SPANISH airline Air Nostrum is in line to receive €42 million of European Union COVID recovery funds to convert its fleet to electric.

With car companies gradually making the switch from petrol and diesel to electric, planes would be the next logical step, as they are responsible for a huge percentage of

PLUG AND FLY carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Air Nostrum, part of the Iberia Regional fleet, announced this week that it has teamed

up with fellow Spanish airline Volotea – based in Asturias, northern Spain – and new start-up Dante Aeronautical to electrify their short and medium-range planes.

The goal is to reach zero emissions by 2026, with the first functional electric plane scheduled to enter service as early as 2024.

Green matters

By Martin Tye

March 25th - April 7th 2021

15

In a new green column, Martin Tye asks are you aware that Spain is the Dirty Man of Europe?

WHO GIVES A S**T?

Beach sweep T AT only 17-years-old, Nikki Wegloop is already president of a charitable foundation and is convinced that she has the power to save the world, or at least clean up her corner of it.

“It’s extraordinary how much you can achieve with a group of volunteers in just a few hours,” she tells the Olive Press by phone as she rides the school bus home to Mijas Costa.

“When you first get to the beach you think ‘oh it’s quite clean’ but then you look closer and you start to see all the waste. It renders you speechless really. We collect anything between 300 and 800 kilos of plastic rubbish in one session, it really is amazing.”

The Costas have their very own Greta Thunberg. Fiona Govan chats to a teenage environmentalist from Mijas who is encouraging locals to help her rid the seas of plastic pollution

HOW DO WE INFLUENCE BEHAVIOUR CHANGE?

Plastic

Nikki and her mother Natasha are the Dutch pair behind Mi Moana which works with town halls to organise beach clean ups that take place on a different playa across the Costa del Sol each month.

Volunteers comb the beach collecting detritus and divers scour the marine floor, bagging up the rubbish for recycling.

“We recently picked up 800kg of wet wipes that came through a sewage pipe and collected around the galleon, a popular dive site off the beach in Marbella,” explained Natasha, who has been working as an estate agent after arriving in Spain 14 years ago.

“People don’t seem to realise

HE theme of this week’s column is not about cleaning up dog poop, but more about the indifference of the human race.

My inspiration did, however, come from the amount of dog waste left outside my office in San Pedro de Alcantara, where every morning I have to navigate a street littered with dog poo.

The owners of dogs live in the immediate neighbourhood … so why don’t they clean up after their treasured pet?

Do they all have bad backs? No ... put simply, they can’t be bothered.

The apathy of the human race really is a tragic worldwide pandemic.

Did you know it is easy to calculate the time it takes to eat a Big Mac? Approximately 1.8 kilometres. The discarded wrappers appear then by the side of the road. How sad.

ALTRUISTIC: Volunteers hard at work that wet wipes aren’t biodegradable, whatever the packet says, and they float around for years and years.

“We also find a lot of q-tips and endless cigarette butts littered across the beach – sometimes 600 to 700 butts on one stretch of beach. And these contain plastics.” The pandemic has also brought new challenges.

“When lockdown first happened there was obvious improvement, the beaches were cleaner because people couldn’t go.

“But now we find discarded masks, plastic gloves and small

Zpeeding along SPAIN’S National Police has added 300 environmentally-friendly ‘Z cars’ to its fleet of vehicles. The plug-in hybrids will be rolled out along with the installation of another 200 charging points at police buildings nationwide.

Known as ‘Type Z’ radio patrol cars, they are modified Peugeot 3008s that use electric power in urban areas and switch to petrol on the open road.

plastic bottles used to contain hand sanitizer,” said Nikki who admits she feels different from most people her age, who are more interested in taking selfies to post on social media.

“When I go to a place and look around I don’t see the beauty anymore, I see the rubbish.

When I dive, it’s not the fish I notice first but the plastic floating around them,” she says.

But there are still reasons to be optimistic.

“I feel like we can make a difference. As a society we are improving slowly, there is still a lot of work to do but more and more people are joining in and adopting the right mindset. We just organise the event, it’s the volunteers that come and do all the hard work.”

The next beach clear up event takes place at Mistral Beach, Puerto Banus on Saturday March 20. For more information and to sign up to future events visit MiMoana Facebook page.

In the 1960’s, an organisation called Keep Britain Tidy was launched. Through the use of high profile celebrities like Abba (below), the government backed charity spread the message well.

Numerous endeavours to reduce litter, improve local places and prevent waste were instigated.

Has it worked? To a point yes, but looking at the litter issue in the UK and around the world, you could be forgiven for thinking the end result is the same.

Switch to our cheaper, 100% green energy tariffs today

It’s easy for me to write and moan about this issue.

I can, however, offer a solution. One that the very people this article is written about would largely support.

Until they receive punishment.

I believe that actions should have consequences.

Take Singapore as an example. Singapore has a habit of banning what it sees as undesirable behaviour and enforcing each ban with financial penalties.

So they issued tens of thousands of fines a year for littering. The minimum fine was 200 euros.

The 1960s Keep Singapore Clean campaign was solid. It believed that improved environmental conditions would not only enhance quality of life but it would cultivate national pride AND also attract foreign investors and tourists.

Isn’t that what Spain wants?

Singapore started a ‘broom brigade’ of 7000 day labourers, alongside the litter campaign, in the 1960s.

By 1990, only 2000 people were needed. Now it’s fewer.

Spain has massive unemployment, particularly in the under 30 age group. Follow my thought process?

I believe Spain’s regions have an abundance of labour resources. Use them better.

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16

BUSINESS

March 25th - April 7th 2021

Put your feet up!

SPAIN is on the verge of launching a €50 million trial of the four-day working week.

The national government has reportedly informally agreed to a pilot project

Four-day working week trial on the cards proposed by left wing political party Mas Pais.

Discussions are still taking

Pay back time

SPAIN’S two football giants – Real Madrid and Barcelona – will have to pay back millions of euros in illegal state aid.

Tax breaks that the two clubs have enjoyed for the past quarter of a century had been declared illegal by the European Commission, a decision that has now been confirmed by the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

The EU’s competitions chief, Margrethe Vestager, ordered four Spanish football clubs to pay back tens of million of euros back in 2016.

The cash had come from overpriced property deals, cheap loans and tax breaks – the costs of which all fell at the taxpayers’ door.

The other two clubs were CA Osasuna and Athletic Bilbao.

FC Barcelona had won an appeal to the EU’s General Court, but the ECJ has now affirmed the original decision.

place with the next meeting due in the coming weeks, Iñigo Errejon of Mas Pais said: “With the four-day work week (32 hours), we’re launching into the real debate of our times.”

He added: “Spain is one of the countries where workers put in more hours than the European average. But we’re not among the most productive countries.

I maintain that working more hours does not mean working better.”

Details of the plan are still

unders discussion, but Mas Pais has proposed a threeyear, €50 million scheme under which the government would help cover extra expenses run up by participating companies.

Mas Pais has suggested that these costs should be paid 100% in the first year, 50% in the second and 33% in the third.

Trial

The party’s Hector Tejero said: that he expects 200 businesses to sign up to a trial, with between 3,000 and 6,000 workers affected. He said: “The only red lines are that we want to see a true reduction of working hours and no loss of salary or jobs.”

He added that the project could be launched this autumn, saying: “Spain will be the first country to undertake a trial of this magnitude. A pilot project like this hasn’t been undertaken anywhere in the DETERMINED: Iñigo Errejon world.”

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INCENSED: The hotel chain wants compensation

Melia’s Moan SPAIN’S biggest hotel chain, Melia Hotels, is suing the government for €116 million in damages due to their enforced closure during last year’s first State of Alarm. Melia has over a hundred hotels in the country with 12 establishments on the Costa del Sol and nine on the Costa Blanca, including five in the Benidorm area.

The chain was founded in 1956 and is the world’s 17th biggest with hotels in 40 countries. A Melia spokesperson said: “Our claim is related to losses suffered as a result of the government-imposed lockdown between mid-March and late June of 2020.”

rescue Almost 15% of Spain’s total Gross Domestic Product relies on tourism, which has been severely curtailed over the last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. That percentage is far higher in regions which have tourism as one of their economic mainstays. The national government has recently approved rescue packages for airline Air Europa and travel operator Avoris.

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18

FOOD,DRINK & TRAVEL

Best of both DON’T mix grape with grain has long been the refrain of drinkers in the know trying to avoid a hangover.

But Spanish brewers Cruzcampo have decided they want no truck with the saying and have brewed up a cross between wine and beer.

They describe Cruzcampo Grape Beer as a ‘refreshing mix between red wine and traditional hops’.

Grape Beer is the brainchild of Juan Jimenez and Jorge Varela, master brewers.

Utilising Spain’s tempranillo grape, a variety known for its full body and rich taste, and combining it with Nelson Sauvin hops, Varela hopes that their new recipe pays homage to two of Spain’s best loved drinks.

“We have used a special blend of pilsner malt, wheat malt and oats to create a refreshing yet hearty drink that can be enjoyed any time of year,” said Jimenez.

THE Spanish Minister for Tourism, Maria Reyes Maroto has announced that vaccine passports could be introduced in May. “We could be in a position to start implementing the digital passport on May 19”, she told Antena 3 TV station.

The news comes just a day after Maroto said that Spain plans to reopen tourism

Ready for takeoff

German influx as air corridors open

SPAIN’S regions may have agreed to keep their borders closed within the country for Easter, but it seems that international travel is about to take off.

Ryanair has announced that it is putting on 200 extra flights from Germany to Mallorca and Alicante over the holiday period.

This will mean an increase in capacity of almost 40,000 seats on 22 routes from March 28 to mid-April.

Full steam when 30-40% of the nation’s population has been immunised against COVID-19.

Grievously affected by the pandemic due to its reliance on tourism, Spain is eager to see its beaches filled in summer and has described itself as ‘the most active champion of digital

March 25th - April 7th 2021

€20m makeover THE owners of one of Spain’s most luxurious hotels that hosted Princess Diana and the Rolling Stonesare to be handed a €20 MILLION grant to reopen its doors.

The Junta de Andalucia and the European Regional Development fund has pledged to support the reconstruction and reopening of the Hotel Byblos in Mijas, which has been closed since 2010.

The hotel will be managed by Grupo Marugal under a franchise agreement with international hotel group Hyatt.

Its previous owner, UK business tycoon Lord Alan Sugar, had been embroiled in a lengthy legal wrangle with troubled developer Aifos.

Princess Diana stayed no less than three times at the leafy enclave behind Fuengirola, where she was famously photographed topless by paparazzi.

Makes a difference

By Dilip Kuner

In addition, many of these routes will continue to operate for the rest of the sumvaccine passports’.

Countries around the world are keen to implement similar schemes, and the EU has published draft legislation on a ‘green digital pass’.

The Spanish Secretary for Tourism, Fernando Valdes, has also said that a bilateral travel plan could be struck with the UK.

mer with flights available for booking until March 2022.

A Ryanair spokesman said: “Following the announcement of the opening of the corridor between Germany and some of Spain’s most popular tourist destinations, Ryanair is delighted to play a part in the recovery of Spain’s tourism industry.

“Thus, Ryanair will offer an increase in the number of frequencies that will help both better connectivity with the cities of Palma de Mallorca and Alicante and further economic growth of these destinations.”

We have been working with the Olive Press for over 10 years. And the dedication given from Jon Clarke and his investigative team to uncovering important news is what makes the difference between the Olive Press and other English language news sources in Andalucia.

The newspaper has also made the Costa de la Luz more visible to readers from all over Andalucia and we have seen the difference this makes to our business.

We look forward to carry on working with the Olive Press for the foreseeable future.

James Stuart The Califa Group, Cadiz

FOOD,DRINK & TRAVEL

March 25th - April 7th 2021

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19

Money Matters

with Tracy Storer, Senior Partner, Chorus Financial.

FALLING INVESTMENTS Money Matters answers all your questions on finance, tax, pensions, investments and more

This week we received the following question from Mr Robert C, in Altea.

Why have my investments been dropping?

Hi Tracy, I’ve only just become Spanish resident and have kept my UK investment platform running. I’ve had it for over two years now and have noticed a significant drop in its value since the beginning of February. As I’m no longer in touch with my UK adviser, I hoped that you might be able to shed some light on this and give me some reassurance.

Hi Robert,

FOOD & DRINK March 24th - April 6th 2021

RICH PICKINGS W Ten of the most desirable (and expensive) delicacies produced in Spain

e all know Spain has good food. But look beyond the paella and tapas and you can discover some of the most expensive culinary delicacies the world has to offer, made right here in Spain. From an ethical foie gras produced without cruelty in

Jamon Iberico

If you have any questions about finance, tax or money matters here in Spain, call +34 965 641 163 or please email them to me on t.storer@chorusfinancial.es with subject ‘Money Matters’.

All emails will get a response, and some may even appear in our column!

Money Matters answers all your questions on finance, tax, pensions, investments and more here in Spain.

remote Extremadura to an organic caviar harvested from the loins of a sturgeon native to the Iberian Peninsula, if you have deep pockets and taste-buds that crave adventure, here’s the bucket-list for you, writes Fiona Govan Cured ham is a serious business in Spain. In fact it’s a national obsession and while you can find it everywhere, from a slice offered as a free tapa with a chilled glass of sherry to a whole leg given as a gift at Christmas, the very best tasting and most expensive is Jamon Iberico de Bellota.

Produced from Spain’s very own variety of black pig, a darkskinned black hoofed breed that roams free across the dehesa, gorging itself on acorns, it is a luxuriant tasting fat-marbled ham hung naturally to cure in dry mountain air for up to four years.

The most expensive ham leg on record sold for €11,881 at auction in Japan in September 2020 but Cinco Jotas, recognised as one of the best brands in Spain, sells ready-sliced packs for €27.95 for 80g while a whole jamon leg will set you back €589.

Photo by Thomas Vogel

The markets started well in February, and all of the main indexes were strong for the first half of the month. From mid-February we started to see some large pull backs. To put that into perspective, the FTSE’s high was 6748 on February 16 and it reached its lowest point of 6483 on February 26, loosing nearly 4%. The S&P 500 had a similar story, dropping by 8% and the market which had the most significant pull back was the NASDAQ. This index is made up of nearly 50% technology stocks and has dropped by over 11%. Most investors who hold technology, medical, financial funds will no doubt have experienced some losses since the middle of February.

The main driving force behind the market volatility was the rise in the US 10 Year Treasury yield, which has increased sharply. It would take another page or two to fully explain this, but in essence, this movement has led to inflation fears, which have shaken both the bond and equity markets. It has been interesting to see how concentrated that has been, mainly affecting the technology sector, because typically when there are inflation/interest rate worries, it is often more focused on economically sensitive sectors. This time, we’re seeing it in the growth area where some stocks are potentially a little bit overvalued and maybe this means they are simply more vulnerable from that standpoint.

I think that the little bit of volatility that we’ve had in stocks is a reminder to take a look at your portfolio’s asset allocation, and check it to see whether you’re in line with your target. It’s been too easy over many years of strong markets to simply let a portfolio run its course, but it’s always important to seek ongoing, professional advice.

20

Queso Payoyo Discerning cheese connoisseurs have long been familiar with Queso Payoyo, an artisan cheese made from the milk of a goat breed unique to the Cadiz province mixed with milk from Moreno sheep grazed in the hills around Grazalema.

The rich and tangy flavour with hints of herbs and a buttery texture regularly scoops Best Cheese Awards and is the ideal accompaniment to a glass of sherry.

A 1kg cheese sells for around €18

Photo from payoyo. com

FOOD,DRINK & TRAVEL Caviar Riofrio

Spain has its very own native species of sturgeon and at a fish farm in the Andalucian village of Riofrio, where natural pools are fed by snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada, the world’s first certified organic caviar has been produced since 2001.

Made without preservatives, these rich creamy ebony pearls rival those of traditional producers in Iran and Russia. Perfect on a blini with a squeeze of lemon and shot of vodka. www.caviarderiofrio.com/en/classic-organic-caviar/ €132 for 50 grams

Photo: Caviar Riofrio

Ethical foie gras For many this buttery, rich delicacy is one of the most desired luxury food items in the culinary world, but for others it’s method of manufacture represents the ultimate in cruelty.

Traditionally, foie gras is produced by a method perfected in France known as ‘gavage’ in which geese are force fed by sticking a tube down the throat and stuffing it with more grain than the bird would naturally eat in a lifetime.

But at a remote farm in Extremadura, foie gras is produced ethically by allowing migratory wild geese to gorge themselves with olives and acorns to naturally swell their livers with large fatty deposits doubling their bodyweight in preparation for flying south for the winter.

March 24th 25th - April 6th 7th 2021

B

rought to Spain by the Arabs over a millennia ago, today around 70 percent of the world’s saffron production is grown on the wind-swept plateaus of central Spain where fields of purple crocus flowers are plucked for their pungent red stigmas.

The delicate harvest lasts no more than ten days each year at the end of October and is done entirely by hand.

Dubbed ‘red gold’ and known as the most expensive spice in the world, only a few of the vivid crimson threads are needed to flavour a dish, and are an essential part of many Spanish culinary creations not least paella.

One gram of the highest quality azafrán (as it is known in Spanish) costs around €9.

Percebes

€176 for a small 125gram pot

F

or most people Cava has earned a reputation as a good value bubbly, a cheaper version of French Champagne that is affordable enough to mean you don’t need a celebration to pop a cork.

But the downscale fizz is

T

Cava going upmarket with a drive

by Catalan vintners to produce top-end reservas to rival the finest Champagne.

And the best may not even have Cava written on the

bottle in a deliberate marketing ploy to distance themselves from the good value brand.

Codorniu Ars Collecta Gran Reserva Bruts can come with a price tag above €100.

BIZARRE: Gooseneck barnacles

21

Saffron

F

ound clinging to the rocky outcrops along the coast of Galicia, this bizarre looking seafood known as gooseneck barnacles in English - resembles a dragon claw on a wrinkled leathery sleeve and is little eaten beyond Spain.

But here it is one of the most-prized culinary delicacies with dedicated fishermen risking their lives to harvest them in time for Christmas Eve feasts.

Be brave enough to overlook their frankly alarming external appearance and crack open the stem to reveal a delicate pink flesh that has an oyster-like texture and briny sweetness They can cost up to €200 a kilo.

ANGULAS

hey may not look too appetising but baby eels, known as angulas in Spanish and elvers in English come with a hefty price tag.

The pale 3-inch-long worm-like seafood is a Basque delicacy traditionally served on feast days around Christmas.

But their exorbitant cost comes not as a result of their flavour, which is considered rather bland – but because of their scarcity brought on by decades of overfishing, Once a peasant food, the eels are now a rare gourmet treat reserved for only the most high-end table, costing up to €1,000 a kilo.

Black truffles Photo

by Fiona Govan

Photo: Pim Techamuanvivit/flickr

A

forgotten corner of eastern Spain has remarkably become the capital of the global black truffle industry and few but those in the business are aware of it.

The arid landscape of Gudar Javalambre, situated between the mountains of Teruel in Aragon and the Valencia coast provides the ideal conditions to cultivate the sought-after culinary treasure known as black diamonds, but most are destined for export to France where they are sold on to chefs from Italy, the UK and the USA at an inflated price.

With its crinkled black exterior and pungent earthy smell, a fist-sized truffle weighs in at around 350 grams and has a price tag of €295 if you buy it from source at a market in the region.

Denia’s Red Prawns

N

ot all prawns were created equal. Visitors to the Costa Blanca town of Denia must seek out what is widely considered as the jewel in Mediterranean cuisine. Known in Spanish as Gamba Roja or Rayada de Denia for its deep red appearance and stripy tail.

This crustacean has won international acclaim thanks to its intense flavour and the fact that it can only be found in a very limited habitat.

It is fished from a deep marine trench stretching between Cape San Antonio and Ibiza where it lives as a depth of 600 metres.

Photo: City Foodsters/flickr

It commands a high price of up to €8 for a single prawn.

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COLUMNISTS

The age of print!

I

T’S great that any newspaper is still being of the die-hards printed in our age of the internet and it’s who refused to Terenia Taras something we should always try to supown a Kindle Telling it like it is port and maintain. and love nothBefore the birth of the internet, Sunday ing more than mornings for many people consisted of a trip to Waterreading the papers. stones (when in the UK) to select a new book, prefI always used to buy a News of the World, erably hard backed. not only because I worked for the paper, A lot of things have changed since I started my cabut also, like many people, to catch up on reer as a journalist in my early twenties. Back then the latest scandal or expose, which the bigthere was no internet so we used books for factual gest selling tabloid in Britain was famous research, a dictionary or thesaurus, as and when for. required, and we carried pagers with us Alongside the News of the instead of mobile phones.

E OLIV Screws (as it was known) Writing this I feel like I was born in the PRESS age of the dinosaur because since the I’d buy the Sunday Telegraph for international internet became a global network in the news and a more high1990s, technology has possessed everything. More and more people communibrow read.

There’s still something nice SKY HIGH cate solely online, how many teenagers actually use their phone as a telephone? about reading a newspaHOPES per with a morning coffee, More people shop online, especially which was often a prelude since the pandemic, and nearly every to your working day or whilst business has migrated to an online prestravelling on the train or ence.

So after 20 years in the media industry tube. But then I’m still one 834 A Sierra Nevada ll about

February

2021

www.theolivepress.es

Slide away

The

100th Edition

363 Vol. 14 Issue

FREE

MALLORCA

slope off to You can finally skiing heaven, Andalucia’s Smith writes Charlie

Your expat

voice in Spain

.es February 26th - March Vol. 4 Issue 100 www.theolivepress

There is ILENCE. peep not a single upwards as I climb valley to through the maker. meet my head out of the I poke my window and the fresh alcable car Sierra Nevada’s my lungs. pine air hits it – a sweeping Then I hear the crisp white crunch downa snowboarder piste, as below. whizzes past through, and Another tears all weaving at then a third, mountainside down the speed. blistering more terriSpanish I’m definitely the three carriage fied than the guys sharing with me. left behind the We have and restaurants cosy bars the main only ski in Pradollano, town of Andalucia’s resort. at Borreguiles, We step outsome 2,700 mewhich sits sea level. tres above basecamp for runs, This is the the Sierra’s the many of from which range ‘muy facil’ lagreen-coloured those in black, pistes to dificil’. belled ‘muy overleaf

S

Continues

HEALTH

UBER is committing free or discounted rides to help make sure that transportation is not a barrier to getting the vaccine The ridesharing giant has said it will offer free rides to vulnerable people making travel to vaccination hubs easier and safer.

According to Juan Galiardo, general manager of Uber in Spain, an estimated 20,000 free rides will be programmed to and from vacci-

Lockdown has led to fall in the birth rate

LONG TIME IN COMING: But residents of Mallorca can hopefully soon hit the slopes

See page 11

11th 2021

EX PIC CLUTU R SIV E E

Model patient

has had A POPULAR expat centenarian her 101st year. her first COVID jab in on the Costa Peggy Bloomfield, based dose of the Pfizer Blanca, got her first Centre this vaccine at Teulada Medical week. to go, according to And she’s now raring Young. her neighbour Shirley to bits to get “She is amazing! Thrilled great!” she told the the jab and feeling permitting I’m Olive Press. “Lockdown to visit for her hoping to get the Mayor second jab is in two next birthday.” Her will be celebratweeks’ time and Peggyin April. birthday ing her 101st right) shows nurse Our photograph (far the first dose of Juanjo administering while right she the vaccine to Peggy, received a visit was all smiles as she and cake with balloons, champagne when she from Olive Press reporters hit the big 100 last year.

Island could soon be back in business as UK travel ban to be lifted in May

Brits are only permitted abroad. At the moment purposes. to travel for essential workSpain from South AfBy Kirsty McKenzie gearing up for an avaNo one is allowed to enterair or sea until 6pm on MALLORCA could be shores in May. the UK via lanche of tourists to its have seen the numthem rica, Brazil or the current restrictions. friends and family or take he March 2 under first introduced in December Airlines and travel agents abroad soar this to reconnect holiday to remember,” The ban was ber of Brits booking holidays its roadmap out on a long-awaited a more-transmisscientists first detected added. week after the UK announced traffic to its web- whenvariant of the virus in the UK. firm Thomas Cook said sible to of lockdown. were originally supposed be able to leave the Travel day after the Prime MinisUK tourists should finally May 17, the govern- site doubled in the Ryanair confirmed there Tight restrictions19 but the ban has now been end on January ter’s statement, while in bookings. country for holidays from with restrictions curextended multiple times, 2. had been a ‘large surge’ ment announced on Monday.

Johnson revealed the However, Health Secretary Matt Hancock rently in place until March Prime Minister Boris plan for graduthat the effectiveness of urged caution, warning move as part of his four-step in England, with all so- vaccines will dictate whether international travOpinion Page 6 ally lifting restrictions lifted by June 21. go ahead. cial contact rules finally said bookings el can “We have to protect against these new He said: Airlines, including easyJet, were more than four a for the summer season with the same period variants, and that is big challenge.” times higher compared Hancock added that last week. ‘we can be much more relaxed about Confidence travel’ most popular destina- international the of one well was work Palma budget holiday giant if vaccinesthe South tions, according to the busiest month. against easyJet, with August its described by chief ex- Africa and Brazil The announcement was as a ‘much-needed strains. vaccine ecutive, Johan Lundgren, the “If boost in confidence’. seen a pent-up demand doesn’t work against that will “We have consistently in bookings shows them, then for travel and this surgewhat UK consumers be much, much more that this signal has beenhe said. difficult,” he said. the govhave been waiting for,” up by 630% and It comes as Holiday bookings were ernment confirmed at the flights by 337%. be a little while off, it was looking pass“While the summer may the clock to en- idea of vaccine travel allow we will be working around to ramp up our flights ports to sure we will be ready

* O f f e r

v a l i d

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s c u s t o m e r

o n l y .

S u b j e c t

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834 Tel: 952 147page 16 See

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n s . c o n d i t i o

E n d s

I’m prouder than ever to go full circle and be able to write for the Olive Press.

The newspaper serves vast communities in Spain and the islands providing real news, which again may become something from the past if left solely in the hands of unscrupulous and self-serving organisations or individuals.

Newspapers should always remain the beacon of truth and shine a light into the deepest, darkest corners of the web. I am proud as a journalist to do my job because I feel it’s crucial to have an independent and objective group of professionals who share the same goal, which is to hold the powers that be to account.

.

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21/6/19 13:30

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TheOlivePress-256x170-HOME02.

MENSA OR DENSA?

A

RE you a digital doer or a real-life print reader? The Olive Press alternates weekly OLD HAC K IN publication of my columns THE SUN between actual print and ether-conBenny Davis trolled messages beamed from outer space. But if you are one of Ramblings of an 80-something expat the 75% of over 65’s who do not access so called digital platforms, you are safe in my hands. However, those who have managed to stretch their little grey cells to master the art of accessing digital information are more likely to be high Mensa achievers who do crosswords with a pen, and say, moi, instead of me.

Personally, I am of the Densa brigade. I find reading a real newspaper, especially while lying in the sun, very relaxing, and it has the added advantage of acting as an umbrella over the face when getting some extra ZZZZ’s in. Laptops tend to be uncomfortable and difficult to balance on the nose.

Worship

Devotees who worship at the altar of the God of ethernet culture will also tell you that you can compare news items quickly by surfing the net, to establish real or fake news. But before you don your wetsuit, may I point out that fake news happens far less frequently in print, and if on the rare occasion the unthinkable happens, lawsuits leap into action far more quickly than on the web, encouraging extreme caution on the part of newspaper editors and owners.

I understand that instant information is available in seconds through sites such as Google, Bing, etc. Call me old fashioned, but that method doesn’t give me the same satisfaction as finally coming up trumps with answers after spending hours, even days, of searching through old files and reference libraries.

At the moment, I am writing an article about a serial killer who wrought havoc back in the Victorian era and am running barefooted through my enormous collection of information, amassed over countless years as a writer. If I cannot find the answers, I will have to revert to my fail-safe solution, ‘Gertrude,’ grandmother of Amazon’s virtual assistant ‘Alexa.’

Although she answers in a shaky voice with the occasional additional sound effect of flatulence, she never lets me down and fits into my lifestyle far more comfortably than the pre-mentioned Miss Smoothy-Pants.

Xxx Love him, or loathe him, Piers Morgan still champions old school journalism and I’m glad he doesn’t let politicians off lightly because they should be held accountable - although it must be said he has managed to get himself into a little hot water now over Meghan!

The media always had the little person’s interest at heart, despite the need to rely on advertising to survive.

Which is why businesses should support their local, regional and national press, because without the integrity and guardians of the truth being able to continue commercially we may have nothing left but controlled, fake news.

YOU CAN FOLLOW ME

nation centres in the five Spanish cities where they operate; Malaga, Madrid, Sevilla, Granada and Bilbao.

“We want to continue contributing to the fight against the pandemic by offering free travel to those who most need it,” Galiardo said.

Bye Bye Baby

Dear Jennifer: Does medical insurance or Spain’s health service cover accidents?

A

N accident policy is the best protection for your daily life, which is always full of surprises. We run the risk of having an accident every day, wherever we are, so to avoid additional medical costs, the accident policy is tailor-made cover to protect you and your family, no matter what happens.

If you think that accidents at home are not so common, a fact to think about is that throughout the year more domestic accidents occur than sports and traffic accidents. More than 3% of the population suffered some type of injury at home or in their free time, with women being the most affected, representing 57% of the cases.

Every 24 seconds a domestic accident occurs in Spain, the most frequent being due to falls (44.20%).

The main scenarios where accidents occur in the home are the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedroom, the living room and the garden and, of course, all of these rooms are used frequently.

So the chances of having an accident that requires medical care is quite high.

You may be of the opinion that accidents would be covered by your private medical cover or the state national health.

Let me assure you that this is not always the case. So instead of assuming that everything will be automatically covered by the national health system, you could be in for a shock when you discover that your accident may incur medical costs, because not everything is covered.

This would be a financial shock.

There will be many of you who will be feeling very comfortable in your assumption. Please do not wait to discover, far too late, that you personally will be responsible for any medical costs. If you want to enjoy security and protection, for you and your family, there are four different options to choose from at as little as €50 per annum, which will cover any financial consequences of an accident.

For more information or a quotation, call us on 966 461 690, email info@jennifercunningham.net or visit the website www.jennifercunningham.net.

@tereniataras

OP Puzzle solutions

Down: 2 Up to the minute, 3 Exhales, 4 Pant, 5 Pastrami, 6 Led in, 7 Nationalities, 12 Sympathy, 15 Marxist, 17 Hazel, 19 Kind.

SUDOKU

Quick Crossword Across: 1 Fuse, 4 Pipeline, 8 Etchings, 9 Date, 10 Stalk, 11 Broncos, 13 Hers, 14 Yam, 15 Ma’am, 16 High-ups, 18 Braid, 20 Fuzz, 21 This is it, 22 Deployed, 23 Test.

23

Free rides

THE birth rate in Spain has fallen to the lowest on record.

Official figures show there were 23,226 babies born in December, down 20.4% from December 2019, matching similar signs of decline elsewhere in Europe.

It is the lowest rate in Spain since records began in 1941, making Spain the second least fertile country in Eu-

receives her ALL ROUND: Peggy recent 100th birthday in Spain to get the Is she the oldest expat anyone older, con- CELEBRATIONS following her COVID jab (inset right) COVID jab? If you know ss.es tact us at newsdesk@theolivepre

952 147

March 25th April 7th 2021

FREE ASSESSMENT WEEK

rope behind Malta.

The National Statistics Institute (INE) said the fall has been driven by the pandemic, with Spain completing one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe.

“Even though the number of births has been in a constant decline trend for several years, the fall has been accentuated nine months after the lockdown during the first state of (coronavirus) emergency,” an INE statement said.

Though Spain’s initial coronavirus lockdown remained in effect for the whole of April 2020, the number of babies born in January 2021, nine months later, edged up a little to 24,061.

Researchers blame the cornavisus crisis for deepening fears of political and economic uncertainty in Spain.

It is exaggerated by an ageing population, with a larger proportion unable to have children.

The total fertility rate — the average number of children a woman will have throughout her childbearing years — fell to 1.23 children per woman, compared to 2.8 in 1975.

Vaccine setback HOPES of a large batch of single-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines arriving in Spain next month have been dashed.

The company has promised to deliver 5.5 million doses between April and June, but the bulk will come towards the end of the second-quarter of 2021.

Johnson’s have told Spain’s Health Ministry that only 300,000 doses will be supplied next month, going up to 1.3 million in May and peaking at 3.9 million in June. As fears of a fourth wave of COVID-19 rise across Europe, the single-shot inoculation was seen as an important counter-measure.

The Public Health Commission says that 300,000 doses will not be enough to help repel a possible fourth wave, which based on previous cycles of the pandemic might appear in mid-April and be fuelled by people meeting over Easter.

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Dog’s day FIREFIGHTERS in the Alicante region have rescued a dog that fell into a snow well in the Sierra de Carrasqueta on Saturday due to slippery conditions.

voice in Spain

Now that’s zippy

Snap to attention

A LAW has been passed to phase out fluorescent warning triangles and instead oblige drivers to use flashing beacons à la Starsky and Hutch to indicate if they have broken down.

POPULAR designer Rosa Montesa from Valencia has crafted a beautiful Fallas outfit entirely from other people’s crisp packets, cleaning products, cola bottles and other litter.

expat

Vol. 2 Issue 52 www.theolivepress.es March 25th - April 7th 2021

Flash me, please

Junk dress

Your

How an ancient war photo has finally led to a brand new Spanish museum, writes Fiona Govan

A RUN down slum building in Madrid is finally about to become a key museum - all thanks to an 85-year-old photo!

The one-story block was inhabited by 13 families when it was A MAN has gained the dubious distinction of setting a new speed record on Spain’s public roads.

Instead of a trophy he could end up with an unwanted prize - a jail term - after he was clocked at 256 kph on a motorway - more than double the 120 kph limit and the fastest ever recorded by the police.

identified as being the location of a famous snap by legendary war photographer Robert Capa, a decade ago.

Now 10 Peironcely Street, in the southern suburb of Vallecas, is

It’s a Record A drugs test found the Barcelona man, 48, was driving along the AP-7 near Tarragona under the influence of cocaine. His BMW M2 CS was designed more for the racetrack than the

to become the Robert Capa centre for the interpretation of the aerial bombing.

It comes after Madrid City Council expropriated the building and rehoused all the fampublic highway.

It has a six-cylinder twin-turbocharged engine, blasting out 450 horsepower, with a price tag starting at €103,900.

He faces a €600 speeding fine and between €500 and €1,000 for driving on drugs.

If he is charged with reckless driving he could end up with a two-year sentence.

ilies in larger modern flats in other parts of the city.

They had all been crammed into the warren-like slum home, which had 15 tiny apartments measuring between 17 and 28m2.

The powerful image, taken by the Hungarian photojournalist in the winter of 1936, shows a woman smiling from a doorway while three children play amid the rubble outside.

The area had been the focus of sustained bombing by the fascist forces as they attempted - and failed - to force their way into the city.

They never did, in part thanks to the famous slogan ‘no pasaran’.

A NEW zip wire has opened where adrenaline junkies can soar through a valley at speeds up between 130 and 160kph.

The ride promises thrill seekers the buzz of flying through the air for over two km (2,036 metres to be exact) secured in a harness 1,200 metres above sea level for unrivalled views across the Parque Nacional de Ordesa and Monte Perdido in the Pyrenees.

Those with the stomach to try the experience are promised a bird’s eye view of the Ordea mountain range, the Ara valley and Bujaruelo river soaring over the villages of Sarvise, Torla, Buesa and Janovas, The zip-line which has been installed near the town of Fiscal in the Aragonses province of Huesca drops by 400metres from start to finish over a gradient of 20%.

The new attraction has been funded by local businessman Jorge Rabal with an investment of €800,000 with hopes of boosting the area as a tourist destination.

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