Category Archives: Misc
A Vital European Bridge
A true story I owe to my late Spanish mother, a post-war immigrant to the UK , involves a state visit of the the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, to the UK in October 1954. I was a young child then and with one my first life-time passions that of watching the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. The precision of the proud British soldiers in red coats and the uplifting music of their band stirred my imagination, making me feel one of them, as if I’ve stepped into …
Anglo-Spanish Royals
The Spanish Royal visit to the UK An Enduring Relationship Revived Ask your average English schoolboy what he knows about the relations between the Spanish and British Royal families, and the likelihood is that he will mention Spain’s Philip 11nd, and the heroic defeat of his Armada by Queen Elizabeth Ist. A less selective and superficial history will show that relations between British and Spanish royals have been mutually respectful, if not immune to occasional crisis, for over five centuries. As the recent biography of Spain’s great Queen Isabella …
Time for Uk to win back hearts and minds
The United Kingdom has hardly found the world at its feet this last year. The Brexit vote last summer, which was supported by over half of the population, but not by me and the rest of the population, left not only the UK’s European partners, but most of its democratic and accountable allies wondering just what kind of madness had gripped the English and Welsh (for the Scots voted against) who by a slim majority had voted to leave the European Union without really thinking how this could be done …
A Spanish hero in London: Ignacio Echeverria
A Spanish hero in London: Ignacio Echeverria As part of a former imperial power that has punched above its weight for most of its history, there are some British who do not easily look outside their own people for heroes. Ask your average Anglo-Saxon English primary school pupil about iconic heroes they have heard about and they are likely to mention two warrior Queens-Boadicea and Elizabeth I -, two warrior prime-ministers Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher, among an assortment of military icons from Wellington and Nelson to Montgomery, and James …
Remembering Hugh Thomas
Hugh Thomas, who has died aged 85,was a historian with an enduring interest in and passion for the Hispanic world straddling epochs, continents and empires. He also played an active part as a policy adviser to Margaret Thatcher, and in his later years served in the House of Lords as a life peer, never seeing this as place of patronage let alone retirement but as an integral part of an effective and accountable parliamentary democracy. .. He had developed an interest in Spain after a first visit in the …
Messi’s Number 10
Of the several images of a memorable El Clasico last Sunday few will endure with such iconographic intensity as that of Lionel Messi, holding up his number 10 Barca shirt to the Bernabeu stadium after scoring the defining goal against Real Madrid in the last minute of extra time. Real Madrid fans who occupied the bulk of the stadium are an exacting crowd. They expect and demand the best from their star players as they do in the city’s nearby bullring of the country’s best matadors, not least in the …
El ejemplo de Churchill
A pocos pasos del terrorismo que ayer sacudió la ciudad de Londres esta una estatua de Winston Churchill, corpulento en su abrigo de trinchera, y con una mirada enfocada y resuelta, toda una imagen de un pueblo que ha conocido y sobrevivido, con orgullo y victorioso , momentos más amenazadores de su historia. En el momento que el terrorista empezó su paseo endemoniado a través de Westminster Bridge, camino del Parlamento, me encontraba a cuatro cuadras después de haber almorzado en mi club cerca de Trafalgar Square con un amigo …
La Sra May: Entre patriotismo y nacionalismo
La perspectiva de la otra ribera escribe Jimmy Burns Marañón Escribo declarando al principio mi ‘status’ de ciudadano Europeo, nacionalidad británica, nacido en Madrid de una madre española y padre británico, educado en el Reino Unido, que desde 1953, cuando naci, he pasado la vida compartiendo culturas,a nivel personal, profesional y políticamente. Por lo tanto, desde esta posición por lo menos híbrida, permítanme intentar formular algunos pensamientos personales sobre el discurso de la señora May, y lo que podría producirse para el futuro de las relaciones entre …
