“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation, even among people who should and do know better.” –George Orwell, ‘Politics and the English Language’. He’s back. Spain’s former prime minister,...

“In the Spaniard’s heart is a great yearning for freedom, but only his own. A great love of truth and honor in all its forms, but not in its substance.” Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses I stumbled upon this quote recently as the tributes poured in for Cormac...

Welcome, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to the big-time. The new leader of the conservative Popular Party (PP) has gone from the relative safety of his native Galicia to the lion’s den of national politics in Madrid. He took over the leadership of the PP in April, widely...

Ireland's Kinahan clan has recently been in the news after moves by authorities in the United States to close the net on them for alleged crimes linked to drug trafficking, a development which appears likely to affect their involvement in the boxing industry. For a...

On the morning of 11th of March 2004 I didn’t hear the bombs that blew apart three carriages of a commuter train in Madrid’s Atocha station, even though I was living nearby. I’d just had soundproof new windows installed in my flat and the noise of the blasts didn’t...

“A real politician…never betrays his country to an outsider. He betrays it to himself. He is the enemy within.” Guy Endore, ‘The Werewolf of Paris.’ Pablo Casado: belligerent and uncertain. Photo: PP The seemingly never-ending stream of national opinion polls in the...

I recently stumbled upon an article in which a Mexican psychologist warned that reggaeton is bad for children’s cognitive growth, fuelling anxiety, confusion and low self-esteem. I found this heartening, not because I delight in the stunted development of the younger...

About three years ago, when I was on the board of Spain’s association of foreign correspondents, I suggested to my fellow members that we should try to organise a meeting with Iván Redondo. By then, he had already become something of a legendary figure. A former...

“If I want to knock a story off the front page, I just change my hairstyle.” Hillary Clinton Retirement can take many forms. For some, it means the purchase of a cherry wood pipe and some grade-A shag tobacco. For others, it might be that longed-for yacht and a trip...

Here he comes, loping over the hills, handsome and unstoppable, gliding across Spain’s political landscape, from somewhere near its centre towards an unspecified place somewhere on the right. Yes, Toni Cantó is Spain’s own Forrest Gump. A witness of calamity. Always...