Current Affairs: Could this be the next Queen of Scotland? As independence looms, will Stuart crown return?

Could this be the next Queen of Scotland? As independence looms, will Stuart crown return?

A YES vote in September’s referendum on independence for Scotland could reawaken centuries old claims to the Scottish crown from members of the House of Stuart.

 

By: The Daily Express

And an 87-year-old billionaire from Spain might argue she has the strongest claim.

For the Duchess of Alba is said to be one of two main contenders from the Stuart dynasty, whose Scottish monarchs transformed the country during their time in power.

While First Minister Alex Salmond insists Queen Elizabeth II would remain as head of state after a Yes vote, others are not so sure.

Some Scots look back fondly in the history books to their Stuart kings, the first of whom was Robert II in 1371.

By the 17th century, they ruled all of England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland.

In 1603, James VI of Scotland became James I in London, unifying the two crowns. His son Charles I was executed and Charles II ascended to the thrones after Oliver Cromwell’s inter-regnum.

Charles II’s brother, Roman Catholic James II, then ruled until the Glorious Revolution saw him depart the British Isles.

The last Stuart monarch was Queen Anne, who died childless in 1714.

The Crown passed to the House of Hanover, but the Stuart line continued abroad.

Respected Telegraph commentator Peter Oborne wrote yesterday that David Cameron might throw a spanner in Scotalnd’s constitutional works.

He wrote: “Will the Queen be allowed to remain as Scottish monarch? “I have no doubt that the Queen herself would strongly prefer that she did.

“But it is not simply a matter for her. She is constitutionally obliged to take the advice of the Prime Minister, David Cameron.

“Cameron has already denied Scotland the pound sterling. He is entitled to deny the Scots the House of Windsor, especially since the Scots had their own separate monarch before James the VI and I unified the crowns of England and Scotland in 1603.”

 

 

He said the closest in line is Franz, Duke of Bavaria, descended from Charles I’s youngest daughter Henrietta.

However, Franz, 81, who suffered at the hands of the Nazis, has always downplayed his interest in making any claims on the British or Scottish thrones.

Mr Oborne said that would leave the door open to the most titled woman in the world, the Duchess of Alba, whose official name is Doña María del Rosario Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart y Silva, 18th Duchess of Alba de Tormes, Grandee of Spain.

As part of her name suggests, she too can trace her line back to the Stuart dynasty.

The Duchess of Alba is the most titled nobleman or woman in the world, with more than 40 honours to her name according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

The head of the 539-year-old House of Alba has been a duchess seven times over and enjoys the privilege of not having to kneel before the Pope.

The Duchess married in 2011 for the third time to a civil servant 24 years her junior.

The aristocrat is one of Spain's most famous and richest people, with her wealth estimated to be worth up to around £2.9 billion pounds.

The Duchess of Alba's wealth includes thousands of acres of land and hundreds of paintings and historical artefacts.

Among them are Christopher Columbus' first map of America and a first edition of classic novel Don Quixote.

 
Prior to her most recent marriage the Duchess of Alba's children tried to block her plans to wed Alfonso Díez.

It was reported that her claims to the House of Alba wealth would be lost if she managed the civil servant.

However, the Duchess of Alba bypassed her children's concerns by giving them their inheritance in advance.

She later claimed that she was still in control of her fortune.

She said: "I made the shareout because I wanted to. Nobody pressured me.

"Anyway, as long as I am alive everything remains in my hands."

Reflecting on her wealth, Mr Oborne joked: “If she became queen of an independent Scotland she would be in a position to bail out the Scottish government financially.”

Current Affairs: Spain's crash landlords: empty homes spawn black housing market

Spain's crash landlords: empty homes spawn black housing market

In Madrid you can rent a repossessed home from an unscrupulous squatter – or even 'buy' one for €1,000

The hundreds of thousands of empty homes across Madrid has spawned a black market for cheap housing in which groups illegally break into, and then let, repossessed properties.

Almost all the cases involving the properties, most of which now belong to Spanish banks, are identical, said Vicente Pérez, from a residents group, the Federación Regional de Asociaciones de Vecinos de Madrid: "Somebody goes and kicks in the door. Once he's in, the others come – and they sell the place."

While prices vary greatly, it generally costs from €1,000 (£830) to €2,000 to "buy" a repossessed property, El País reports. Those who cannot afford the fee can instead choose to rent for a few hundred euros a month. The price often includes electricity, gas and water, and sometimes even heating.

The homes are guaranteed until a judicial process issues an eviction order, said Pérez. That process that could take up to two years.

Exact figures on how many people are taking part in such arrangements were hard to come by, he said. "People are scared and they don't want to talk."

Nearly 15,000 households in Madrid were served eviction notices in 2012, according to official figures from the courts. Coupled with sky-high unemployment rates, this has led to "infinitely long" waiting times for subsidised housing, said Pérez. It has left families, immigrants and others desperate for affordable housing in the capital region.

"A few shameless people are taking advantage of the needs of the most poor to make a business out of it," he said.

The "landlords" of this black market range from people just looking to make some extra money to groups with criminal connections. "Some of them are mafia," said Pérez. "I wouldn't call them the Italian mafia, but they are highly organised groups."

Spain's Guardia Civil police force was forced to acknowledge the problem last month when it responded to neighbours' complaints about an illegally occupied flat. Police arrived at the building as a prospective tenant was being shown around the foreclosed flat.

Two siblings, aged 33 and 28, were arrested for breaking and entering foreclosed properties and illegally renting them out. They targeted immigrants, who were charged €400 a month for flats in the south of the city.

Manuel San Pastor, a lawyer for the group Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca, said the root of the problem was Spain's "hundreds of thousands of empty properties". His group provides support to Spaniards facing eviction, be it by negotiating with the banks or backing movements to occupy empty houses.

Just 10 years ago Spain was in the throes of a construction boom, with developers building hundreds of thousands of homes a year. The bubble burst in 2007, leaving its relics scattered across the country, including more than 300,000 empty homes in Madrid.

Last year, in an effort to convey the staggering size of Spain's construction bubble, a group of civil engineers and an architect created Nación Rotonda (Roundabout Nation).

Their website uses satellite imagery to show aerial pictures of dozens of Spanish neighbourhoods, before and after the boom. Where forests and farmland stood 10 years ago, now there are half-built homes, elaborate roundabouts and roads leading nowhere.

"It's mind-blowing," said Rafael Trapiello, co-founder of Nación Rotonda. "These were developments that were thrown together with little consideration of social needs, just big expectations of making money."

The aim of their project is not to editorialise the changes, but rather to inform Spaniards of the dramatic changes to the landscape in the past 15 years. Particularly powerful, he said, were the rows and rows of empty houses across Spain. "

"What we've ended up with are ghost towns," said Trapiello. "There's not much to compare it to across Europe. It's pretty shocking to see."

San Pastor said: "They're still evicting people from their houses. They're leaving no other alternative but for people in need to enter these houses."

The lawyer condemned those whom he believed were taking advantage of the situation to make a profit.

Neighbourhood associations in Madrid have urged the owners of these empty properties to take responsibility. "If you own a home that's sitting empty, what's stopping you from renting it?" asked Pérez.

Instead of trying to let or sell the properties at the current market value, which had dropped an average of 45% in the Madrid region since 2007, he said, banks were holding on to the properties, hoping to sell when the market recovered. In the meantime, entire communities were paying the price. "It degrades the neighbourhood."

The latest census data indicate a total of 3.4m houses sitting empty in Spain alongside another nearly half a million properties that were abandoned part way through construction.

Other municipalities have launched initiatives to penalise the owners of empty properties in high-demand areas; in Barcelona threatening fines of up to €100,000, and in San Sebastián, in the Basque country, a 50% surcharge on property taxes.

Current Affairs: Spain, Land of 10 P.M. Dinners, Asks if It’s Time to Reset Clock

Spain, Land of 10 P.M. Dinners, Asks if It’s Time to Reset Clock

MADRID — Dipping into a bucket filled with Mahou beers, Jorge Rodríguez and his friends hunkered down on a recent Wednesday night to watch soccer at Mesón Viña, a local bar. At a nearby table a couple were cuddling, oblivious to others, as a waitress brought out potato omelets and other dinner orders. Then the game began. At 10 p.m.

Which is not unusual. Even as people in some countries are preparing for bed, the Spanish evening is usually beginning at 10, with dinner often being served and prime-time television shows starting (and not ending until after 1 a.m.). Surveys show that nearly a quarter of Spain’s population is watching television between midnight and 1 a.m.

“It is the Spanish identity, to eat in another time, to sleep in another time,” said Mr. Rodríguez, 36, who had to get up the next morning for his bank job.

Spain still operates on its own clock and rhythms. But now that it is trying to recover from a devastating economic crisis — in the absence of easy solutions — a pro-efficiency movement contends that the country can become more productive, more in sync with the rest of Europe, if it adopts a more regular schedule.

Yet what might sound logical to many non-Spaniards would represent a fundamental change to Spanish life. For decades, many Spaniards have taken a long midday siesta break for lunch and a nap. Under a new schedule, that would be truncated to an hour or less. Television programs would be scheduled an hour earlier. And the elastic Spanish working day would be replaced by something closer to a 9-to-5 timetable.

Underpinning the proposed changes is a recommendation to change time itself by turning back the clocks an hour, which would move Spain out of the time zone that includes France, Germany and Italy. Instead, Spain would join its natural geographical slot with Portugal and Britain in Coordinated Universal Time, the modern successor to Greenwich Mean Time.

“We want to see a more efficient culture,” said Ignacio Buqueras, the most outspoken advocate of changing the Spanish schedule. “Spain has to break the bad habits it has accumulated over the past 40 or 50 years.”

For the moment, Spain’s government is treating the campaign seriously. In September, a parliamentary commission recommended that the government turn back the clocks an hour and introduce a regular eight-hour workday. As yet, the government has not taken any action.

A workday abbreviated by siestas is a Spanish cliché, yet it is not necessarily rooted in reality. Instead, many urban Spaniards complain of a never-ending workday that begins in the morning but is interrupted by a traditional late-morning break and then interrupted again by the midday lunch. If workers return to their desks at 4 p.m. (lunch starts at 2), many people say, they end up working well into the evening, especially if the boss takes a long break and then works late.

“These working hours are not good for families,” said Paula Del Pino, 37, a lawyer and the mother of two children, who said an 8-to-5 workday would ease the pressure. “Spanish society is still old-fashioned. The ones who rule are old-fashioned, and here, they like it like it is.”

The national schedule can be traced to World War II, when the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco moved the clocks forward to align with Nazi Germany, as also happened in neighboring Portugal. After the defeat of Hitler, Portugal returned to Greenwich Mean Time, but Spain did not.

At the time, Spain was a largely agrarian nation, and many farmers set their schedules by the sun, not by clocks. Farmers ate lunch and dinner as before, even if the clocks declared it was an hour later. But as Spain industrialized and urbanized, the schedule gradually pushed the country away from the European norm.

“People got stuck in that time,” said Javier Díaz-Giménez, an economist. “Eventually, the clocks took over.”

In the early decades of his rule, Franco ordered radio stations to broadcast reports of news and propaganda twice a day to coincide with mealtimes at about 2:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Television arrived in the 1950s and followed the same mandate, with daily programming on the lone government channel ending at midnight with the national anthem and a portrait of Franco.

“Then everyone would go to bed and procreate,” said Ricardo Vaca, chief executive of Barlovento Communications, a media consultancy in Madrid.

By the 1990s, with Spain’s post-Franco transition to democracy underway, television also began evolving. Mr. Vaca said new private networks, eager for profits on popular shows, made programs longer and pushed prime time into the early morning hours. Now, he added, surveys show that 12 million people are still watching television at 1 a.m. in Spain.

Changing the prime-time schedule is one of the recommendations bundled together by Mr. Buqueras, president of the Association for the Rationalization of Spanish Working Hours. At his office in Madrid, Mr. Buqueras burst into a conference room and immediately checked his watch.

“Thank you for being on time!” he declared.

Mr. Buqueras argues that changing the Spanish schedule would be a boon to working mothers, allow families more free time together and help Spain’s economic recovery. “If Spain had a rational timetable, the country would be more productive,” he said.

Whether an earlier, more regimented schedule will translate into higher productivity is a matter of dispute. Mr. Buqueras’s group says Spanish workers are on the job longer than German workers but complete only 59 percent of their daily tasks. Measuring productivity is an imprecise science, and while many experts say Spanish productivity is too low, Spain actually outperforms many European countries in some calculations, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical agency.

“These three-hour siestas don’t exist,” said Carlos Angulo Martín, who oversees social analysis at the National Statistics Institute in Madrid. Nor are habits uniform across the country, he said, noting that in the Catalonia region, mealtimes and work schedules are aligned more with those of other European countries.

María Ángeles Durán, a leading sociologist with the Spanish National Research Council, is skeptical that changing the time zone will reverse low productivity, which she attributes more to the structure of the service-oriented economy and a lag in technology. But she agreed that normalizing the work schedule would help women: She cited a survey she conducted of female lawmakers in Europe, who complained that men deliberately scheduled important meetings in the early evening when women were under pressure to return home.

“For men, this is perfect,” Ms. Durán said. “They arrive home and the children have already had their baths! Timetables can be used as a sort of weapon.”

At the Mesón Viña bar, Mr. Rodríguez and his friends contemplated the Spanish clock. One friend, Miguel Carbayo, 26, was appalled at the notion of a nap-free lunch. He had worked as an intern in the Netherlands, where his co-workers arrived at 8 and left at 5, with a half-hour to munch on a sandwich for lunch, a regimen he found shocking.

“Reduce lunchtime?” he said. “No, I’m completely against that. It is one thing to eat. It is another thing to nourish oneself. Our culture and customs are our way of living.”

But, he admitted, a shorter nap might be acceptable. “They say 20 minutes is enough to boost productivity,” he said.

Business&Finance: 9 great ways to always remain inspired in business

9 great ways to always remain inspired in business

It isn't easy to stay inspired all the time. Ex-Apprentice contestant Raj Dhonota gives his nine top tips for staying on the ball at all times.

Staying inspired in business isn't always easy, especially if your business is just "ticking over", feels like it’s going under or maybe you've been successful for some time now but no longer feel challenged.

So how do you stay inspired? Here are some tips to get you fired up again. They are ones that I use myself on a regular basis if I feel my batteries need recharging or my motivation slipping a little and believe me - they really do work:

1. Networking. But with particular groups of people – those that are already more successful than you are. Meeting up with successful individuals will give you that extra little push to forge forward with your own business ideas.

2. Vision. I'm not talking about your business here, but your own personal vision. Knowing that your business will allow you to retire early and spend more quality time with your family in the long run, travel or take up that hobby you love full time is a perfect way to get fired up again.

3. Coaching. This can be a great way of not just inspiring yourself, but others too. In going over the basics and seeing the enthusiasm of your class, it reminds you of the reasons why you went in to business in the first place. Enthusiasm can be incredibly infectious, I've found. This method of inspiring yourself can also prove to be another income stream too, of course.

4. Compartmentalise. Break down projects into milestones and celebrate little achievements along the way rather than hanging on for an ultimate goal (i.e. reaching a certain amount of sales, etc). That way you'll be continually reminded of how well you're doing and it will give you the inspiration you need to continue.

5. Spread the word. Richard Branson's way of motivating himself may seem a little weird –it's to spill the beans, as it were (i.e. to tell others about his latest idea). The more he talks about it, he reckons, the more it becomes a reality to him. This method also has the added bonus of attracting potential investors.

6. Get feedback. With so many social media channels around today (Facebook, Twitter, etc) it's easy to get direct and honest feedback from customers. Appreciative customers can always inspire you to improve the business to make them even more delighted. Social media is also a great marketing tool for your brand.

7. Friendship. Befriend a competitor if you can (or at least someone in the same industry) and have a weekly chat about what you've both achieved that week, how the industry itself is faring and what you can both do together to improve it. It's a form of accountability where you're both inspiring each other.

8. New opportunities. This is best way to avoid complacency and inspire yourself at the same time.

9. Reminders. Keep a file of all those inspiring entrepreneurial quotes you come across and read it every now and again to remind you of why you went in to business for yourself in the first place.

The above all worth putting into practice and are certainly ideas I've used from time to time. What about you? How do you remain inspired on a day to day basis?

Raj Dhonota is a serial entrepreneur and investor in start-up businesses. Raj first came to the public eye as a candidate on the first series of The Apprentice in 2009 but has essentially been self-employed and involved in starting and growing businesses for over 15 years.

 

 

Current Affairs: Car smoking: MPs set to vote on ban when children present

Car smoking: MPs set to vote on ban when children present

Smoking could be banned if under-18s are in the car  

BBC

MPs are set to vote later on whether to back a ban on smoking in cars when children are present.

If the Commons backs the amendment to the Children and Families Bill, it will give the health secretary the power to bring in a ban in England.

But it would not immediately mean a change in the law.

Last week, more than 700 health experts wrote an open letter to MPs urging them to back the measure. But critics say legislation is "unnecessary".

The amendment empowers, but does not compel, the government to make it a criminal offence for drivers to fail to prevent smoking in their vehicles when children are present.

The government has told its MPs that they can have a free vote on the issue. Downing Street confirmed that Mr Cameron would miss the vote, as he is staying in the South West overnight to visit areas affected by flooding.

Labour has said that if the measure does not become law before the next election, it will be included in its manifesto.

'Line the state shouldn't cross'

In their letter, published in the British Medical Journal last week, the respiratory health experts argued that exposure to second-hand smoke is a "major cause of ill-health in children", particularly among the most disadvantaged groups.

It says smoking in cars exposes children to particularly "high amounts of tobacco smoke" and there is now a consensus that children should be protected from such unnecessary hazards.

It also says there are precedents to a ban, including laws to require people to wear seatbelts and, more recently, the ban on mobile phones while driving.

Bans on smoking in cars carrying children already exist in countries including Australia, Canada, South Africa and the US.

Simon Clark, director of smokers' lobby group Forest, said smoking in cars with children was "inconsiderate", but there was "a line the state shouldn't cross when it comes to dictating how people behave in private places".

He urged MPs to reject the amendment.

In Wales, the government has said it would consider a ban if an awareness campaign did not lead to a drop in children's exposure to second-hand smoke.

In Scotland, Liberal Democrat MSP Jim Hume has indicated he will be presenting a bill this year to bring in a ban, while Northern Ireland's health minister has announced plans for a consultation on the issue.

 

Smoking in cars

• Smoke can stay in the air for up to two and a half hours even with a window open.
• Second-hand smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, some of which are known to cause cancer.
• Exposure has been strongly linked to chest infections, asthma, ear problems and cot death in children.
• Research indicates that 300,000 children in the UK visit a GP each year because of the effects of second-hand smoke, with 9,500 going to hospital.
• Smoking in a car creates a higher concentration of toxins than in a bar. Some research has put it at 11 times higher.
• Bans on smoking in cars when children are present already exist in some US states, including California, as well as in parts of Canada and Australia.

Business&Finance: A new Partido Té?

A new Partido Té?

By shifting to the right, Spain’s prime minister risks losing votes to the centre

UNEMPLOYMENT is sky-high and growth is at best anaemic. Yet Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, has at last seen off his country’s worst recession in decades, and can now start thinking about how best to recover lost votes before the general election that is due late next year. So why is he kicking things off by proposing a bill sharply to restrict abortion, an idea that is opposed by the vast majority of Spaniards?

The abortion bill, passed through cabinet during the Christmas period, is a reminder that, although Mr Rajoy's Popular Party (PP) claims to be liberal on economic issues, it is socially conservative. The bill would replace a woman’s right to abortion on demand during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy with a system requiring proof of potential damage to a mother’s mental or physical health. Four out of five Spaniards dislike the proposal. Even most PP voters think it unnecessary. And it comes with another new piece of legislation, a law-and-order bill giving the police extraordinary powers to fine people who are deemed to have insulted them, Spain or their local town halls. Fines for these last two can reach €30,000.

José Pablo Ferrándiz of Metroscopia, a pollster, says that PP voters see themselves as more moderate than their party. The abortion law may please half a million diehard conservative voters, but it will cost votes in the centre where elections are won—and the upstart Union for Progress and Democracy (UPyD) is growing fast. The abortion bill is a gift to the opposition Socialists, boosting their otherwise lacklustre performance in the polls. It may give the party the lift it needs to win European elections in May. Many PP bigwigs know that, and are angry that Mr Rajoy has dusted off an election pledge to “reinforce protection of the right to life” and turned it into a hard-hitting proposed law.

A party that occupies most of the spectrum to the right of centre is bound to have internal conflicts. Mr Rajoy’s most vocal critics are social conservatives and those on the right who see tax rises as a sell-out. Jaime Mayor Oreja, a conservative former interior minister, has declined to lead the PP into the next European elections. Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a former party boss in Catalonia and now vice-president of the European Parliament, has also quit.

He has joined the newly created Vox, a Spanish-style Tea Party backed by PP malcontents who think Mr Rajoy has gone soft and betrayed the party’s liberal economic principles. They accuse him of tinkering rather than unleashing radical reforms to cut the regions’ powers, slim the administration and squash separatist sentiment in Catalonia and the Basque country. Jorge San Miguel, an analyst at the Politikon blog, says Vox may have trouble winning parliamentary seats, but can still damage the PP by splitting off some of its voters.

Prominent among Mr Rajoy’s critics is a former PP prime minister, José María Aznar. He stayed away from a recent PP convention, even though he is honorary president. Esperanza Aguirre, the Madrid party boss, is leading criticism of tax rises as the government struggles with a budget deficit that some say was still stuck at 7% of GDP last year. Ms Aguirre, an on-off rival of Mr Rajoy, says lower rates would boost tax revenue and accuses the budget minister, Cristóbal Montoro, of behaving like a social democrat.

Mr Rajoy has pledged to cut taxes next year. But loopholes and cheating mean that even high nominal rates still do not produce enough income. The top income-tax rate in the cash-strapped north-eastern region of Catalonia is 56%, one of the world’s highest, according to KPMG, a consulting firm. Yet Spain’s income from tax and social contributions is well below the EU average. Fiscal reform will have to be far-reaching if Mr Rajoy is to balance the books.

The economy, along with 26% unemployment, remains Spaniards’ chief worry. If Mr Rajoy concentrated on that, he could yet beat the Socialists in the European elections. Going backwards on abortion can only damage his party’s chances.