Free-D

While the British seemed insatiable in their need for salacious gossip about their Royals, the Spanish seem uncharacteristically subdued and controlled. But perhaps this is changing…

A couple of weeks ago I saw The Queen, which deals with the aftermath of Princess Diana’s death ten years ago. The film reflects on something that my mother instilled in me from an early age: that history is massively important for us to give context to contemporary events. Time passes and heroes turn into villains and figures of hatred become rehabilitated. The Queen was publicly vilified for her response to Diana’s death, while Tony Blair, recent incumbent into Downing Street, was lauded for articulating the public’s grief for the People’s Princess. Fast forward to 2007 and Blair is seen as a charlatan, a liar and a warmonger, while the Queen has found her way back into the nation’s hearts. Even the recent fiasco when she was purported – incorrectly - to have stormed out of a photo shoot, only served to endear her more to the public. But back in 1997 it seemed that the British psyche had seen a radical change, with healthy, open displays of grief, or mass hysteria, depending on your point of view. Diana’s funeral occurred 3 months after that of Miguel Angel Blanco, murdered by ETA. At the time, I had commented that the spontaneous mass protests in Spain would never have taken place in Britain, but I was proven wrong with Diana’s funeral. Lorca said that in Spain when someone dies, the curtains open, and maybe ten years ago, the British actually raised the curtain too – though it was quickly drawn shut again.

Of course, the treatment of our respective royal families is another aspect in which the Spanish and the British part company. This week a tabloid editor finally publicised his guilt at what surely amounted to the implicit hand that the tabloids and their agents, the paparazzi, played in Diana’s death. In stark contrast, a satirical magazine here is raided by Spanish police for actually daring to suggest that the Principe de Asturias a) has sex with his wife, and b) doesn’t do a lot of work. In the light of Zapatero’s introduction of child allowance of 2.500 euros per child, the picture depicts the Prince taking Leticia from behind, declaring that if she becomes pregnant it will be the nearest he’s ever come to working. Can I get into trouble for describing the picture? Charles must look enviously at the kid gloves that are used when dealing with his Spanish counterparts. But the measures taken against El Jueves have severely backfired and inadvertently herald their own sea-change in public opinion. New generations are no longer as generous to the saviour of Spanish democracy; the news blackout on scandals or even simple satire when it comes to the royal family may soon be lifted. If so, it could make even more fascinating reading than Diana’s affairs and Charles’ tampax fantasies.