Gibraltar

At last there seems to be some concrete evidence of Spanish, Gibraltarian and UK pragmatism over the 300-year-old running sore on sovereignty.

According to the FCO press release there were four main outcomes of the series of meetings started in Feb 2005:

1. An agreement on the use of Gibraltar airport [though only Spaniards will benefit to start with as the airport will be treated as part of Spanish airspace, so Spaniards will not have to go through border controls to fly to or from there from other Spanish airports - flight from Madrid are due to start in December]
2. An agreement on the setting up of red and green channels [though I can't see the chavs from Gibraltar paying much attention for moving their fags]
3. An agreement on telecomms [possibly, Spaniards will have to make an international call to reach Gibraltar]
4. An agreement on pensions to pay the Spanish dockyard workers who lost their jobs as a result of the border closure [1969-1984 - the UK government will stump up the backlog of 4 million euro (about 6,000 euro per pensioner), starting with a first payment in April 2007 to retired workers or their families if deceased]

All this should be good news for the people who contribute to the 7 million crossings each year.

Interestingly, none of the UK versions carried the history of the border movements which have taken place, and Spain still does not recognize the current border. The orginal Utrecht treaty was rather vague, referring to the 'rock' of Gibraltar which may or may not include the isthmus connecting it to the mainland. Over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries the British moved their 'border' five times; in 1810 to slight the forts of Santa Barbara and San Felipe, in 1815 and 1854 following outbreaks of yellow fever to set up isolation camps, again in 1909 to construct a new border fence, and finally in 1935 to construct the runway.

Día de los piratas

A hearty thank you to an old 'shipmate' of mine, The Grumpy Goat for this one. Now all I need to do is get my wench to say "Avast behind!" or some such next Tuesday.

Brilliant, utterly brilliant

The age of horrorism by Matrin Amis in The Observer

Uno de cada tres agentes pedidos por la Guardia Civil se destinará a tareas de tráfico

One in three officers requested by the Guardia Civil will be destined for traffic duty.

MADRID, 29 (EUROPA PRESS)

One in three officers requested by the Guardia Civil will be destined for traffic duty, according to the director general of the Benemérita, Joan Mesquida, who will ask the government to increase the force by 1.500 of which 500 will be for the traffic group.

Mesquida declared so to Cadena Ser [radio], on being asked about complaints on the scarcity of traffic patrols on the road. According to him, the low number of officers is a problem that affects the whole corps [The Guardia Civil is a military organisation but under civilian control] and he blamed the previous [Partido Popular] government.

He stated "Surprisingly, eight years of PP government left less guardia civil than when they came to power. There were [in 1996] 72,000 guardias and in 2004, 69,000." He added, "this means having to now make an enourmous effort to recover posts at a rate of 4,000 a year, double the recruitment of previous years".

He stated that already "on the table is an approval for the cabinet to increase front-line strength by 1,500, of which 500 will be for the traffic group" and they will be for policing of the new points-based licences.

By this means deaths on the road can be reduced, Mesquida said. "[the points-based licence] is a good initiative against accidents" and he trusted that in this battle there will be seen "day by day improvements" owing to drivers taking more care and "because with time there will be more technology to allow the detection of offences".

I can report that I see a traffic patrol about once a month. Bear in mind that in the province of Málaga there are only six fixed radar traps (all on main roads) and I have yet to see a mobile radar trap anywhere in Spain.

Taking the figures above we can expect that out of the current 70,000-odd guardia civil total strength about 30,000 will be front-line, and of these about 10,000 in traffic. Divide this by the number of provinces and you get about 250 active traffic officers for the whole of Málaga province (pop. over 1,000,000) patrolling 1,379 km of road on which are approximately 500,000 vehicles.

No es rentable comprar puntos: te lo explicamos

This story came up on the Spanish motoring press, prompted by a report from Germany.

" The entry into force of the points-based licence in Spain (1 July) has not only made the roads safer, but also given rise to a black market. Points are for sale" “Auto Motor und Sport”.

Spain is European news, because the licence is one of the most strict, and has led to a barely believable business - the buying and selling of licence points.

In other countries with a similar licence, if the driver is not identified, the owner of the vehicle is responsible for the penalty for the offence. Now when a radar trap takes a photo it only catches the vehicle, not the driver.

In Spain, the owner of the vehicle must identify the driver (Article 72.3 of the Traffic and road safety law) [aimed mainly at car hire businesses]. If not, the owner is subject to a fine of between 300 and 1,500 euro.

Therefore, it is possible to identify another driver and make them liable for the fine and loss of points. It's this which has prompted a number of Spaniards to sell their points online. Because the driving offence is 'civil' and not 'criminal', the selling of points constitutes no offence. 25% of all driving offences in Spain are speeding. It already appears that some mothers and grandmothers have stepped in to take the blame for their son or grandson's addiction to speed. After all, they don't need the licence.

This is not the only loophole in the law.

At the moment, the most expensive driving offence has been 520 euro, and also led to 6 points and loss of licence for a couple of months. The guy was booked doing 219kph by radar.

This guy also has a get-out. According to Mario Arnaldo, president of Automovilistas Europeos Asociados (AEA) , Tráfico almost never reaches the 1,500 euro fine for failure to identify the driver by doubling the original fine for the offence.

In the above example, for 219kph we would pay 1,040 euro for failure to disclose. However, there's a discount for early payment of 30% (312 euro) bringing this down to 728 euro. Furthermore, this offence carries no points penalty, nor loss of licence. In other words, each points is worth no more than 60 euro. Much more is being asked on the internet, typically 250 euro, and up to almost 3,000 PER POINT. Given that offences totalling over 200,000 points have been reported so far, that makes an average market of 50 million euro.

Moral: Don't buy points.