Not in our name, by a Spaniard.

They started by lying, They continued with the lies and still now, after all the facts have been confirmed and witnessed by the whole world with skeptical eyes, they are still lying. They carry on with their self-deluded impression that they can decide what's right, and what's wrong, as if  reality should obey the rules of their deluded minds.

The Spanish political class, born during the so-called  “Political transition” that came about  after the death of Franco the dictator, has just put Spain at its lowest point in its modern history. Some voices even consider it deeper that the national crisis that occurred in the aftermath of the Spanish-American war in 1898, that marked the end of its overseas domination.

Until five years ago, Spain looked like a new power, rebuilding itself with  massive real estate development, within a year  more houses were built than in Germany, France and Italy put together. It was a fever fuelled by cheap money pumped in from Germany and France with few controls that helped to develop not only the real states in the Costa??, but also infrastructure projects such as airports with no planes. The biggest high speed network in the world was also  built, but what grew the most was the megalomania of the political class, a class that used to be austere by default, but that soon started to feel in the "Champions League" when it came to spending.

By this time, the critics were not welcome in the discussions. The whole society preferred to live in a world based on fiction.  The philosopher Hans Vaihinger called it “Fictionalism” in his book “Philosophy of As If” (1911), Its central message was that   people often prefer to believe in fantasy than confront the truth. At this time, the economical model looked as if it was prosperous and sustainable. The political powers looked as if  they had introduced checks and balances. The electoral system looked as if it was representative despite, having lists dictated by the party leaders. Moroever, the “European Project”  looked as if it  was the best creation in the long history of the continent, with the euro greatest icon, something that almost all the country believe to be so good that only an utterly euroskeptic could stay out of it.

There have been five necessary years of tough recession, with 24 per cent unemployment and a horrific 51 per cent of youth unemployment to make the people wake up from that illusion. Slowly the population is coming to understand that our economy is uncompetitive, there is no separation of political powers and no control whatsoever of the huge state power that now lays in the fearful hands of Mr. Rajoy. He has been the head of the executive, deciding which laws have to be voted in the parliament and which judges should apply them. He does make himself available to a press that is far from free and independent.. Luckliy for him, there is not such a thing in Spain, despite of some minority media. The vast majority of the media keeps repeating the same lies of the political class "This is not a bailout", "It is a great success for Mr. Rajoy" "A victory against Europe".

It is easy to understand why the local media share the same self delusion knowing that they share the same ideological and financial roots. The public is a heavy investor in advertising in all the traditional media and  only a small part of the internet media can escape of its tentacles. And it is not only the media where the public uses its control via subsidies. Workers' unions and NGOs are heavily funded by the government, sharing then a strong bond that sometimes can make them to obedient to their paymasters , and if can get worst there is also state money for the political parties themselves, so the taxpayers have to pay for the parties that have not even voted for! In this vicious circle only the parties with enough money and media support can survive. They are always the same big ones, even if his entire manifesto is a bunch of lies, or if they have no manifesto as in last November elections. However it doesn't really matter in this oligarchy of parties since power is the key, even in a sinking boat. Being captain is the sole objective of Ms Rajoy, after reaching it he can go back to his siesta and to watch the national football selection or any sport he wants. He can even be in Poland for the European Championship football rather than stay in Spain to explain to the people why the country's banks need recusing. After all, nobody can control his powers even if he takes decisions against 95 per cent  of the population, as his master Aznar did in the past.

Some may ask how is possible to have such an oligarchic system such as the one that was set up in Spain. This can only be understood  with a thorough knowledge  of the Spanish Transition, when the leader of Falange, the Spanish fascist party, made a deal with the socialist Felipe Gonzalez, backed and financed by the German SPD and the Communist leader Santiago Carrillo.  This created a truly bizarre situation whereby fascists, socialists and communists agreed on looting the old authoritarian state. also In addition, they introduced  a proportional electoral system  as the new leaders had no popular support. The only way to guarantee being elected was to get yourself top of the party list (which you had a major role in devising)  Secrecy was the key in creating the new constitution, that was supervised by Franco´s sucessor, granting then the No separation of powers and No representation. Only  a few civil liberties kidnapped after the war were granted and the Spanish population started to feel less subjugated, a feeling that improved when Spain  joined the EEC, and later became enthusiastic partners in the European Single Currency.

The actual crisis is not only economical but political as well, and marks the end of the political regime. The economy has failed, politics has also  failed. Even the judiciary and the monarchy are under public scrutiny owing to their recent corruption scandals, linked again to the lack of controls in public life.

Now that Spain has almost hit rock bottom, and the populations is suffering the biggest pain  is time for solutions, for a new beginning in which the people must decide what they couldn't in the Transition, namely the form of State and form of Government. This must be done without ideological pressure and with the support of the Western Democracies, as their populations are being asked to pay that bill. It is time to tell the to the British taxpayer: Stop bailing out Spanish political class. Don't do that in the name of the Spaniards, because they just represent themselves

Only when that corrupted ones lost the support of the eurocrats, Spain will be deciding his fate again in a different way closer to Britain and France and far from Germany´s state of parties. Then the sunny paradise where the northern europeans enjoy their rest will be flourishing again and its people will not need to emigrate as it happened in the past.


Jesus Murciego

Mercados Cautivos

Para cualquiera que haya sido o sea usuario de telefonía móvil en España el siguiente escenario le va a resultar muy familiar,  en la era de las liberalizaciones de los mercados de alto valor estregico, cuando distintas compañias de distintas procedencias entran en un mercado a competir, la situación de la mayoría de los mercados españoles es la siguiente:

1. La calidad del servicio siendo pesima ocupa los últimos lugares de los ranking europeos del sector.
2. Los precios de los servicios están entre los mas caros de Europa, a veces incluso doblando la media.
3. Sin embargo el poder adquisitivo del consumidor español es de los mas bajos de Europa.

Ante estos tres factores, una postura con con sentido común nos diría que la libre competencia entre estas empresas haría que la calidad subiera, el precio bajara y se adaptara a la capacidad de consumo del español medio, pero como esto no pasa nos tenemos que preguntar el porque, no solo para el sector de las telecomunicaciones sino también otros sectores estrategicos como las eléctricas, los hidrocarburos.....

Analizando los orígenes de estos sectores del poder economico, veremos que vienen de antiguos monopolios,  donde el poder político fijaba los precios de los servicios y los estándares de calidad, aun tenemos recuerdos de la cantidad de meses que había que esperar para que te instalasen una linea en los 70 y 80, lo cual convertía a un servicio de gran utilidad en un lujo y una pesada carga para la renta familiar.

Con el paso de los años y la llegada de las nuevas tecnologías como internet y las corrientes políticas de privatizacion "sugeridas" o mas bien teledirigidas desde la UE, se rompió el gran monopolio y se abrió el camino para grandes empresas extranjeras y otras nacionales que posteriormente serian vendidas fuera entrasen a participar del mercado español.  Pero aun así, este cambio en lugar de traernos una libre competencia nos llevo del monopolio, al duopolio y posteriormente a una oligarquía donde estas empresas en lugar de competir para dar los mejores servicios al mejor precio simplemente se ponen de acuerdo para repartirse el pastel, que antes constaba de una unica parte y ahora tocan mas a repartir, con pedazos mas pequeños si, pero de un pastel que ha aumentado espectacularmente desde la entrada de España en el euro lo que multiplico la capacidad de consumo de los españoles gracias a una increíble capacidad de endeudamiento jamas vista hasta entonces por el españolito de a pie, y que por ello le parecío algo positivo, hasta que la crisis nos recordó que no lo es tanto.

Nos podemos preguntar, que hacían y hacen las autoridades regulatorias ante este oligopolio y esta manipulacion descarada de los precios, esta intervencion de facto del mercado, la respuesta es obvia, NADA, de hecho no es que no defendieran al consumidor, mas aun, defendian a las empresas que abusaban en precios y en calidad de servicios, tanto es asi que la comision europea multaba a empresas españolas y el estado se ponia del lado de los intereses de los abusadores en lugar de los intereses del consumidor español, demostrando asi a quien representa, que no es al ciudadano español sino a los oligarcas españoles.

Es fácil de que entender este escenario de grandes compañias con el apoyo de los políticos que las representan y les hacen las leyes a su medida y que después de pasar por los puestos públicos continúan sirviendo a dichas empresas desde los mismísimos consejos de administración, como es el caso de dos vicepresidentes del gobierno, en este escenario los consumidores están indefensos, pueden cambiar de compañía, si, pero sera igual o peor, de Malaga para Malagon porque ellos ya se han puesto de acuerdo con el apoyo de la clase política para tomar de rehén a los ciudadanos en un MERCADO CAUTIVO, donde la competencia ya ha consensuado lo que es mejor para el sector y los políticos lo han bendecido.

Este escenario económico no es mas que el espejo del escenario político que vivimos en España, donde también el antiguo monopolio del partido único se convirtió en un oligopolio de varios partidos que carecían y siguen careciendo de representacion de la ciudadania, ellos mismos hacen sus listas que llenan de lo mas mediocre e incapaz de la casta política, ya que también dentro de estas asociaciones políticas la competencia esta prohibida y la sumisión y obediencia conviven con las traiciones mas espúreas en las sombras. Al igual que los mercados económicos donde no gana la libre competencia, en la política solo las opciones mas serviles tienen éxito.

Por eso, el único camino para conseguir que tengamos unos servicios de calidad en sectores estrategicos como el mercado de las telecomunicaciones y energía necesitamos necesitamos que el poder económico este regulado por un poder político con instituciones separadas en origen, para que se vigilen entre ellas compitiendo en honradez y unas leyes votadas por los representantes mayoritarios de cada uno de las circunscripciones electorales. Solo después de un cambio en la naturaleza del poder político podremos empezar a competir con los primeros países de Europa y saldremos del furgón de cola.