My Spanish adventure
Sunday, February 13, 2011 at 0:20 I think I'd like to move to Spain.
This week was only my second visit but the weather alone was enough to give it serious thought. Bright sunshine, clear blue sky, crisp, clean air and a mild temperature. Perfect.
The first time I went to Spain, eleven years ago, I attended a smokers' rights conference in Seville. Those four days did more than anything to convince me that working for Forest had a purpose, contrary to what some people might think.
I met people from right across Europe - Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Spain itself. Most of them smoked but they didn't make a big deal of it. It was as natural to them as breathing.
They were smokers' rights activists but, more important, they were ordinary, considerate people who knew the health risks and couldn't understand why they were being lectured and marginalised for having a perfectly legal habit. They were prepared to take a stand but they didn't rant. They were thoughtful and charming.
I liked them very much and I have harboured an ambition ever since to organise a similar event in London, if only to demonstrate the "normality" of smokers and their habit which doesn't, I'm sorry to say, come across on some online forums where many activists sound as shrill, obsessive and intolerant as the opposition.
Anyway, on Tuesday I flew to Madrid where I was met at the airport by Alvaro Garrido who runs Club Fumadores por la Tolerancia, the Spanish equivalent of Forest. Alvaro also organised the conference in Seville. We have kept in touch and I was delighted to see him again after all these years.
After I checked in to my hotel Alvaro introduced me to his colleague Javier Blanco. We had lunch at Casa Lucio, a traditional tasca in old Madrid, and afterwards they took me on a tour of the city - on foot and, later, by car.
The smoking ban, they told me, is generally being observed in Spain and there is little or no opposition to the new law among mainstream politicians. If I understood correctly, bar owners are waiting to judge the effect of the ban before taking any further steps. By then, of course, it will be too late for some.
Some bar owners, it was suggested, will draw a curtain or usher someone they know into a separate room to allow them to smoke indoors, but customers fear getting the owner into trouble. Sound familiar?
Interestingly, the law in Spain exempts private smokers' clubs. In truth there are only a handful of clubs in Madrid and not a lot more nationwide. They can't sell food and drink and they can't make a profit so don't expect smokers' clubs to pop up all over Spain any time soon.
Anyway, it was a very productive - and enjoyable - couple of days and I am meeting Alvaro again in Brussels tomorrow. We are working on a joint project but I won't tempt fate by saying what it is. Not yet anyway.
See also: Meet the Spaniards fighting to stub out authoritarianism (spiked), and Prohibido prohibir – Ban the bans (euobserver.com)
PS. At my hotel in Madrid I ordered an "All-Spanish" breakfast. According to the menu this consists of churros (water and flour batter sticks, deep fried in oil), torrija (milk soaked bread dipped in egg), mini-tortilla (potato omelette), cured ham on tomato, rubbed toast, slices of butifarra sausage, fruit salad, orange juice, jam, honey and butter.
It was delivered to my room at 7.00am and it won't surprise you to learn that I returned home a little heavier than when I left. (Thankfully, Ryanair didn't charge me for excess baggage but it's only a matter of time.)
Which reminds me, I don't think I saw anyone in Madrid who could be described as overweight, and none who might be called obese. Not one. How is this? If you know the secret please let me know!
Reader Comments (11)
" [Private clubs] can't sell food and drink and they can't make a profit so don't expect smokers' clubs to pop up all over Spain any time soon."
Until their takings start to drop off very sharply. Then, expect to see loads of them appearing!
I am sure it won't take long to asses the damage done, it's having an effect already. Losses in Bavarian turnover is 12% down in the first 6 months since their smoking ban, so Spain,. is just following the usual trends.
"Spanish bars report plunging sales since smoking ban.
The losses, reported by the Spanish Hotel and Catering Association (FEHR), were far above those it had projected prior to the imposition of the law on January 2.
"As an exclusive result of the impact of the anti-smoking ban" sales at bars and cafes fell 19.14 percent in January, in restaurants by 14.35 percent and in night clubs by 19.88 percent, it said in a statement.
The estimate, reached from a study of 1,200 establishments in the sector, was the first of its kind since the law was imposed.
Some 85 percent of the establishments reported losses and only 1.5 percent said their sales had increased, which the FEHR said belied statements from the government that the measure would boost business."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hVTbZrSc_DnQYWA5YZg4BnnlT9oQ?docId=CNG.f2f46ee09510d3feffcf56f324917f92.341
The same pattern of closure - losses may well ensue in Spain but I suspect that as the rates of private ownership are higher they may go Dutch.
'I don't think I saw anyone in Madrid who could be described as overweight, and none who might be called obese. Not one. How is this? If you know the secret please let me know!'
As the relentless onslaught on smokers continues, I suspect that obesity will gradually become a major problem.....
The mediteranenan diet ,more adults smoke and nicer weather tends to make you step out more, hence more walking.
"...if only to demonstrate the "normality" of smokers and their habit..."
There's an American site set up for that very purpose but I'm afraid I can't remember its name.
Disgraceful that ordinary people have to set out to show that they're not some sub-species because they smoke.
Your article really brought back some fond memories of Madrid for me Simon. I know I was bemoaning, just a week or so ago, the fact that Spain has now lost a great chunk of its freedom to the smoking-ban, not to mention a whole raft of other equally oppressive measures, just reading about the weather, and the food made me forget all that for a few brief moments.
I certainly remember Casa Lucio, and the marvellous meal I had there, also a little jazz club just around the corner from there, where my wife and I relaxed in a great smoky - jazzy, atmosphere, whilst watching some great live jazz. (this was about 5 years ago).
Regarding your breakfast, which consisted of churros (among other things). I love churros, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to have the same feelings for me; it gives me terrible indigestion. A couple of years back, my wife and I took a couple of friends to Granada, where we went into a churros cafe, and I (alone) had just toast. We got to speaking about the fat content of churros, and I (exactly like you) said "well you don't seem to see any obese people here do you?". As if in answer to my statement, two enormous women came into the cafe at that very moment, so large that they could hardly squeeze through the door.
I tried to make the excuse that they were probably German, but I am sorry to say that they wasn't; they were 100% Spanish, and 100% obese. So there you go Simon, another myth dispelled.
I think the reason why Americans and the British are so obese is that society no longer looks upon being fat as a social stigma. Because my parents were brought up during the war, food was scarce and was told to eat everything on my plate which I still do. It is also why my BMI at the age of 50 is 24. Anyway the selected stats on obesity for those with a BMI of =/> 30 are:
1. USA 30.6%
3. UK 23%
12. Spain 13.1%
13. Ireland 13%
28. Japan 3.2%
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-health-obesity
XX Losses in Bavarian turnover is 12% down in the first 6 months since their smoking ban,XX
Which as I said on a Berlin radio interview a week or two back, means that the people who complain that they can nopt go to pubs because of all that nasty smoke, arte not pub goers ANY way. If they were, the figures would remain constant.
The comment was, of course cut out of the programme that was aired.
I asked my friend in Palmera, Valencia, how the ban was going. He said it was being adherred to, and he had to admit that it was nice not to have the blue haze in the bar. He is not an anti smoker, and enjoys an occasional pipe. He also thinks there should be allowance for smoking venues. As an author and jazz enthusiast, he also mentions Marion Montgommery, a regular singer at Ronnie Scotts, a never smoker who contracted lung cancer, which she blamed on passive smoking. Unlike Roy Castle, she slipped under the radar.
I am a regular visitor to Benidorm, a mixture of pleasure and work, as I am a contributor to espana-resort.com. Benidorm is like smoking, seen as a hell hole by those who have never been there, based on bad press back in the 1970's. Anyway, I am there for a week at the end of March. I am intrigued to find out what is happening on the Levante side. This is known as the entertainment capital of Europe. In a square mile, or should that be square kilometer, there are nearly twenty large cabaret clubs, even more Karaoke bars, and other bars with entertainment. If there is anywhere in Spain where the ban is being outright ignored, it is here.
If there is anything significant to report back, I will submit my report to interested parties.
Timbone.
I was in touch with the customer services manager at the hotel that we go to in Majorca only a couple of days ago. I asked him if the new smoking law would stop my wife and I smoking in our rooms. In theory, the hotel has been non-smoking for several years, but there was a good smoking room.
his reply was interesting.
""Jxxxxx. there is the smoking "ban" in the hotel and the rooms of the hotel but the balcony is not inside the building.
Things are the same as in 2010.
Hope this information will help for your future bookings.""
The interesting sentence is the second one, since, in theory, the rooms have been non-smoking for several years. "Same as 2010". IE - Don't worry, but it will be interesting to see whether the smoking room still exists. I doubt it, but we shall see. there is always the possibility of an 'at your own risk' scenario, I suppose. If there is not a smoking room, then I will spend no money there. Simple really.