I have just visited EU member states Spain, France and Malta and I have much to report.

Well, when I say Spain, France and Malta I really mean Catalonia, Monaco and Malta. Europe is complicated, this much we have discovered in our little ongoing adventure. But Europe it is, no matter how complex. The tensions are not just between the UK and the EU. There are new alliances and old accommodations all over the place. Why am I so surprised? Europe is large, diverse and complex. The EU project is fraught with challenges and those challenges are manifest in these various tensions.

Maybe I can encapsulate some of these tensions in an anecdote, based on a number of encounters experienced on this trip:

An Irishman, a Englishman and an Scotsman walk into a bar in Barcelona. The barman says, ‘Is this some sort of joke?’

But it’s no joke my friends. I encounter a range of opinions about the vexed question of Brexit as I travel around Europe.

The Irishman (long chat on a minibus returning from a day trip visiting Salvador Dali related sites) was unequivocal in his criticism of the way the Irish backstop issue was being handled. He felt that Eire had been rescued by the EU and that the strong globally interconnected businesses that drove their economy would suffer as a result of the UK leaving the EU. He understood Just-In-Time manufacturing and the critical supply chains big businesses require to thrive. He was particularly scathing about the politicians in Northern Ireland. This was a young man with a lot of experience, having worked all over the world. He had a good job and a good grasp on the real world.

The Englishman was a Leaver, as were most of his South Yorkshire based family. He was a retired policeman (his final working life had been at a reasonably senior level). He justified his desire to leave the EU on the single issue of the problems caused by the huge increases of (mainly Romanian) migrants – his arguments were based on his professional experience. However, he did admit that the effects of Brexit were mainly negative so far – especially issues to do with the collapse of the value of Sterling on his travel costs. His son had voted to Leave (as a member of the British armed forces he didn’t want some Euro ‘surrender monkey’ being in charge of Britain’s defense). His son, having seen the reality of Brexit (among other things, his partner had lost her job), said he would now vote to Remain.

I’m the Scotsman in this anecdote, obvs, and, if you’ve been paying attention you will know I’m seeking clarity not writing a polemic. I just inserted myself here for the sake of the ‘joke’!

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Being in Catalonia is different to ‘just’ being in Spain. This province is an economic engine for the rest of the country. No wonder Madrid wants to keep them in the fold. The tensions between regions are intense here, it exemplifies the imbalance’s in modern Europe. Much has changed since the early days of the EEC and perhaps this is part of the problem. Maybe if the post WWII Labour government in Britain had been part of the early formation of the union (as Churchill had desired), maybe if the sudden expansion of the early two thousands had been resisted, maybe if the initial optimism of the ‘New Europe’ created in the aftermath of the collapse of the old USSR could have been realized … so many ‘maybes’, so many missteps, so much to repair.

Anyway, maybe I will dedicate a whole chapter to this issue at some point. For now, back to my recent trip …

In terms of the other countries visited. I can’t count France as I was in Monte Carlo (and that is a whole other regional story) and I’m going to have to go back to Malta because I wasn’t there long enough to form a safe impression (I never got any further than the dock area).

PS: As I type this Post the new Westminster administration has made, what I consider, a bold move. I will add in an extra Post dedicated to this event – but I’ll need some time to think about it (my ears and eyes will be peeled for further news bulletins).

PPS: I also have some information to Post to the Cane Yet Able side of my latest travels.

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Hello, my little euro-chums. We have a new Prime Minister, we have a new team on the front bench of the houses of parliament, and I have a new trip planned.

So, it’s exciting times all round.

Whilst Mr Johnson and his team implement their plan, I will be visiting a few more of the wonderful 27 EU member states. I will be in Spain, France and Malta.

Who knows what I will find there – will they have something to offer in terms of Brexit advice?

I’ve been reading about the Great Siege of Malta (1565) and am looking forward to seeing how they have moved on since then, and whether they remember my visit of 1955. My Bradshaw’s International Air Guide (November 1934) tells me that a plane ticket to Barcelona, from London, would cost me sixteen pounds three shillings and four pence and that I would need to fly via Paris, Basle, Zurich, Milan, Rome, Naples and Syracuse to get to Malta!

I will be taking a more direct route and will be flying with Ryan Air for the first time as a passenger with a visual disability. So, I will have much to say on my return – I will be taking notes.

Unfortunately, Barcelona doesn’t merit a detailed entry in my 1979 Europe on $10 a Day. Although it’s hard to believe these days, it wasn’t such a major tourist destination back then. Still, there is a small entry in chapter XX (‘A Tale of Many Cities; low-cost living in one hundred towns’). ‘A trip to Spain,’ the trusty old guide informs me, ‘is like an intense session of daydreaming – except that it’s real’. So, I should be at home in this quasi landscape, with it’s Gaudi designed buildings, and Dali and Picasso hangouts.

Hasta pronto.

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