Category Archives: Blog
Robert Kee (5th October 1919- Jan 11th 2013)
Remembering Robert Kee: 1919-2013 I owe a personal tribute to Robert Kee, the writer and broadcaster, who has died aged 93. It was Robert who gave me my first real break in journalism and taught me much about what I came to admire about the profession. The year was 1977. Robert was planning a documentary for the excellent Yorkshire TV on Spain after Franco. Born in Madrid, and bilingual in English and Spanish, I had been juggling with Marxism , Spain and Latin America as a student , and …
Tito’s cancer: the enemy at the gates
This was not something the Mayan calendar predicted but the news that Tito Vilanova’s cancer has returned has a fateful element to it. Cancer has a terrible unpredictability about it. It is likely that Tito, under medical advice, would have taken on the job of Barca manager, knowing that he was on borrowed on time, keeping the big enemy at a sufficient distance not just to live but to create. We will never know how the sheer stress of succeeding Pep Guardiola and putting up with the pressure of keeping …
The Litvinenko case: Truth must prevail
My old newspaper the FT with a typical understatement of a ‘non-core’ news story relegates the Litvinenko pre-inquest review hearing story to a page 2 read-through today. Others were rather bolder. The Times splashed on it, and the Spanish media have got pretty excited too. Whichever way you look at it, the Litvinenko case , which the FT gave me both time and column inches to cover back in 2006 , is one that certainly needs revisiting, however much sectors of the UK and Russian governments would like it to …
Flamenco meets the Subsaharan migrant
A lot of water has passed under the Spanish cultural bridge since I first saw the flamenco guitarist Paco Peña in the late 1960’s playing his guitar in a charity fund-raising event for London’s Spanish immigrant community. Half a century ago, Peña was slowly building up a following after moving as a teenager to the UK from Spain, and playing for diners at the since defunct Antonio’s Restaurant in Covent Garden. His fan base initially grew among the new British mass tourism to Spain, and other previously uninitiated in traditional …
Politicos poco transparentes, periodismo sin rigor
Cuando amigos me preguntan qué ventajas veo en ser hijo de madre Española y padre Anglo-Sajón/ Escocés, respondo, citando a Valle Inclán, que es el privilegio de ver las cosas con la perceptiva de la otra ribera. Ser bi-cultural no provoca trastornos bipolares sino al contrario puede, en un buen día, facilitar cierta claridad de perspectiva basada en la experiencia de lo bueno y lo malo de una cultura y la otra. Pues bien, doy gracias a dios que la profesión de periodista la aprendí en el Reino Unido, con …
The difference between Stamford Bridge and the Nou Camp
As anyone who reads some of the comments on my blogs will know, I have an obsessive follower. He follows me continuously so as to conduct an unrelenting campaign of criticism verging on defamation whenever I write anything positive about FC Barcelona- which is quite often, I admit. I can reveal that ‘Captain Terry’ –for that is the alias under which he pursues me on the web- is known to me as a good friend from childhood on any other subject but football- otherwise I would have set the dogs …
Keeping the BBC in perspective
Looking back over the thirty years I worked for the FT, I still cannot believe how lucky I was to have worked for an organisation that believed there was such a thing as journalistic integrity. It meant that however difficult the assignment we were expected to get our facts right, and on stories of particularly sensitivity, there were hierarchical checks and balances in place that went via down-table sub-editor to the editor, as well as legal ones, with a lawyer at the end of a phone, or if needs be, …
Love-in at Celtic Park
Its rare to recall a football game in which your team’s defeat doesn’t leave you with a bitter after-taste. But few Barca supporters looked dejected last night as they emerged into the Scottish rain after seeing their team lose 2-1 to Celtic in their Champion’s league tie. From earlier in the day Barca and Celtic supporters had been sharing pints, swapping travelers tales, previous match anecdotes, and shared good memories of a Swede. When the match was almost upon them , the 1,000 cules who had scraped their spare …
Radio vibes
There was no TV coverage of last night´s World Cup qualifier between Belarus and Spain. The price of TV rights was pitched too high by some greedy company and Spanish TV collectively refused to buy. So I along with thousands of other La Roja fans were left with the only option of listening to the game live on Spanish radio. I tuned in , driving back to Barcelona from Madrid, across Castile and Aragon, over terrain that held together in its diversity, like a patchwork-delighted to hear the commentary praising …
Radical Politics in the Camp Nou
Whatever last night´s El Clasico is remembered for, it won´t necessarily be for its football. The game was not so much a battle between two teams, but a series of individual encounters focused on a duel for supremacy between players of different nationalities, neither of the two Spanish -Messi and Ronaldo. Brilliant as their goals were, each have scored better ones, and their involvement in the collective efforts of their colleagues insufficient to determine the supremacy of one side or the other. As for the teams, Tito Vilanova´s Barca …
