FREE SPEECH OR INSULT?

I return today to the subject of the Spanish Royal Family and the public’s right to free speech.

I should first state that whilst in Britain I would now describe myself as a Republican as a foreign resident in Spain I have a positive view of this country’s royal family although I accept that some Spaniards do not.

Recently the co-ordinator general of far-left Izquierda Unida, Cayo Lara, pointed the finger at the Royal Family accusing it of being a fiscal paradise. He argued that in recent years the Royal Family has operated as “an opaque fiscal paradise” with a lack of absolute transparency. He added that this has a very negative impact especially at this time of financial crisis.

In an interview with Europa Press the far left politician viewed positively the recent High Court ruling by Santiago Pedraz on the insults that were shouted at King Juan Carlos at the final of the Copa del Rey in Valencia. The judge viewed them as no more than a freedom of expression.

This contrasts with the case of the IU mayor of Puerto Real, José Antonio Barroso, who was fined 6,840 euros in June by judge José María Vázquez Honrubia in the High Court in Madrid. Barroso was answering a case brought by the Ministerio Fiscal that in April last year at a Republican Rally in Los Barrios he had made statements in his speech that were injurious to the king – Juan Carlos I.

So if a soccer crowd shouts insults at the King and boos the Spanish national anthem it is displaying freedom of speech and expression. However if Barroso states his clearly held views on the Spanish Royal Family and the King’s father that is deemed as slandering the monarch.

I am sorry there is something wrong here. Freedom of speech is not something you can turn on or off. Whilst I broadly support the Spanish Royal Family I accept the rights of others to voice their genuinely held views without fear of prosecution. Or if the King felt Barroso had gone too far then he should have gone to court to seek remedy and not the public prosecutor at our expense. After all if Lara is correct, Juan Carlos can well afford it!

GOD SAVE THE ANTHEM
http://tiltingatwindmillsblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/god-save-our-anthem.html

DEAR KING PLEASE SEND US 6848 EUROS
http://tiltingatwindmillsblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/dear-king-please-send-us-6848-euros.html

TIGHTENING ONE’S ROYAL BELT

I had been vaguely aware that the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth, had recently complained that she needed more money to make ends meet.

The news raised a laugh from the crowd in a recent edition of Jay Leno’s ‘Late Show’ on NBC when he suggested that she needed the dosh to buy another “dowdy handbag”.

I wasn’t aware till now that the Spanish Royal Family is also to receive more money in the State budget for 2009.

Now I have to say I am a great fan of the Spanish Royals who I think compare more than favourable with the members of the House of Windsor. I also have to admit to having a schoolboy type crush on the Reina Sofía who is actually Greek by birth.

Of course the suggestion that the Royal households in Britain or Spain use the cash to buy another “dowdy handbag” or a fine “pata negra jamón’ is far from the mark. The “households” are little more than government departments with buildings, staff and expenses.

None-the-less when all about them are feeling the “credit crunch” it doesn’t do to be caught nibbling at the luxury chocolate of the same name currently being flogged by Selfridges.

During the World War II Blitz the British King and Queen endeared themselves to Londoners by staying at Buck House whilst the bombs fell about them and indeed even scored a hit. That was in the days before spin doctors or image makers but George and Elizabeth got it spot on.

A little of their savvy wouldn’t go amiss in these troubled times with both the British and Spanish Royal households.

It is an age old truism that at times of crisis those at the top have to align themselves with those at the bottom. Not to do so invariably ends in tears. 1792 and the guillotine comes to mind.