spirit of franco alive & well & discovered living deep in the soul of the spanish justice dept.

vale

"Spanish woman given jail term for tweeting jokes about Franco-era assassination

Cassandra Vera founded guilty of glorifying terrorism in her posts about 1973 killing of prime minister Luis Carrero Blanco".

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/30/spanish-woman-given-jail-term-for-tweeting-jokes-about-franco-era-assassination

this is kind of surreal. and in spain of all places. that's the shocker. apart from the eastern bloc countries that came back into the orbit of europe with the fall of the wall, spain was one of the very last major european countries to come out from the shadow of the right-wing fascism that haunted europe throughout most of the 20th century. barely forty years ago.

you'd think they could remember the bad old days. there will be people alive now who suffered all kinds of persecution & illegal monitoring & summary imprisonment etc. podemos were looking like they could make an impact last year. i know spain stuck with the conservatives at christmas, but this goes beyond the pale. surprised face.

btw a nice little short from the franco days for anyone who likes their satire dark dark.

Sambostar

I don't trust David Pemsel.  Excellent I'II watch that later.

Evilmags

Law in Spain is non existent.  Napoleonic codes are a long way from the UK system and it's much closer to guilty until proven innocent. I would trust a Spanish judges integrity about as far as I could throw him. 

Teyeplayer

I've a Spanish mate at work who like me is in his mid thirties, so I trust his judgement as having a reasonable amount of life experience and to not be too idealistic (not that idealism is a bad thing, but I'm aware of a growing sense of rational with age). He tells me Spain is still dominated by an extreme embarrassed discomfort with its history and a certain bipartisan attitude dependent in part on past family actions -though no one will admit it of course. It's pretty sad for a country to exist like that if you ask me, though my Italian family still hold grudges that are 70+ years old so I really can't comment.

ICBM

That's nothing - the Scots and Irish hold grudges that are over 300 years old...

Teyeplayer

True I have an Irish uncle who you don't mention Cromwell in front of...he has a fair point though when pushed.  

The next thing though ends up being the whole Collins/Dev thing and well his father was in Collins' side and that still splits parts of the south.

What a pity the 60s didn't give us that tolerant wipe the slate clean attitude and start again shit we all needed (oh dear I sound idealistic again...wonder if I can get my hair back too)...

KKJale

I spoke to a Serb once who felt quite genuinely peeved about something that happened in 1389. 

Wanker. 

Most Spanish police are evil scum, and the recent anti-protest laws are terrifying. They can nick you for virtually anything.

Teyeplayer

KKJale said:

I spoke to a Serb once who felt quite genuinely peeved about something that happened in 1389. 

Wanker. 

Most Spanish police are evil scum, and the recent anti-protest laws are terrifying. They can nick you for virtually anything.

First off I play devils advocate when I ask does that really make the man a wanker? Despite that level of national pride being alien to us in the U.K. I can't help but wonder if it would be lovely to feel that strongly about your country?

Wouldn't it be great to love the crumbling facades of Georgian buildings across the land? Or to hold a flag in such respect?

I don't, maybe I should? Infact I'm still infected by 70s/80s shame that associates the national flag with thugs and skin head heads (despite also being a baldy).

There is no doubt though that the Spanish police are corrupt as hell and back-handers are the norm, in other words only Northern Europe's got that particular policing protocol.

VimFuego

nope. anyone who holds a grudge about something that happened 700 odd years ago is a wanker. Anyone who holds a grudge about something that has happened to someone who died decades or centurues before anyone you know was even fuckin born, is a wanker.

KKJale

Understand your point Teyeplayer... but I was in the former Yugoslavia as part of an NGO during the war and I saw how politicians and nationalists on both the Croat and Serb sides used these ancient grudges to justify mass slaughter, and 'wanker' really is quite a light word for that. 

I should have put it in context... it wasn't something said to me last week down the pub. It was said to me at the time, in 1994, when I was in some bombed-out town putting on gigs for kids. 

Evilmags

The civil war is exploited ruthlessly by politicians, who always bring it up. The Spanish equivalent of the BBC is the same. If the left are in power the TV is basically bringing up the civil war every half hour. Voters are about 80% decided by where your family fought in the civil war. 

Sporky

Evilmags said:

If the left are in power the TV is basically bringing up the civil war every half hour.

If the right are in power, it's every 20 minutes.

Evilmags

Sporky said:

Evilmags said:

If the left are in power the TV is basically bringing up the civil war every half hour.

If the right are in power, it's every 20 minutes.

Nah, the right in Spain would be best described as "National Catholicism". Deeply corrupt and no keener on less state than any other party. (Spain has 2X the politicians of Germany and more civil servants than the US). If you want a good idea of what the Spanish right is like Google "Casa Pepe, restaurant francista". I used to have a franquist boss. He was a cunt and bent as a three pounds note. 

Jeremiah

The Neanderthal side of my family has never forgiven Homo Sapiens

TheBlueWolf

I'm not convinced anyone who holds animosity or a grudge over something that happened centuries ago has much time for *anything* never mind a hand shandy

TheBlueWolf

I'm not convinced anyone who holds animosity or a grudge over something that happened centuries ago has much time for *anything* never mind a hand shandy

mudslide73

You can say that again.