Britain faces a winter of discontent
By Bill Gallacher November 21, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Driving into suburban London from Heathrow airport, I am quickly reminded of what an eccentric country this can be. For native English speakers from around the globe, some of the United Kingdom’s road signs can be downright puzzling.

For “real” foreigners, they must be downright unfathomable. It is well known, of course, that Britain is a land of avid gardeners and fanatical animal lovers, but what is one to make of “Heavy Plant Crossing,” or the even stranger “Humped Pelican Crossing”? Oddly enough, no one here seems to find much humour in these odd combinations. Maybe it has something to do with the rotten economy.

A scant 20 months ago, I arrived in London to find it in the midst of a frantic housing boom, the likes of which has rarely been seen before. At that time, I wrote in Atención that Britain was rapidly splitting into a nation of “’aves” and “’ave nots”: those who owned property and those who did not. And, to a lesser extent, those who owned shares and those who did not. That winter, the stock market was at an all-time high and the job market buoyant. Property speculators were buying up flats with almost no money down, hoping to rent (“let,” as it’s called here) and cover their mortgages from rental income. But with the stock market currently in a swoon and unemployment on the rise, new renters are hard to come by.

Now great swaths of these buildings lie empty, owners are forfeiting their skimpy down-payments and banks and building societies are being left with assets that cannot be liquidated. So, now that the bubbles have burst, the “’ave nots” do finally have something to cheer about, if only the misfortunes of the “’aves.” (After all, when you ain’t got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose … and the state is committed to looking after those at the bottom of the ladder.) Schadenfreude (delight in the misfortune of others) is alive and well.

It is now late September and the current global slump in property values, commodities and stocks is beginning to hit the asset-owning classes of Britain very hard indeed.

To be sure, the slump is hitting the entire world very hard, though it is probably being reported locally in very different ways. The British tabloids, never known for understatement or to be at a loss for lurid prose, may have overplayed their hands this time, for not only is the financial crisis causing havoc in domestic households, it is also straining the credibility of those who report on it. While the rest of us are merely running out of money, Fleet Street is running out of vocabulary.

As crises go, this one is proving to be extraordinarily protracted. No sooner is one financial shock digested than another potentially more destructive one erupts. All of these revelations have to be reported in a shocking, yet still fresh and non-repetitive, style. But, after the markets have nose-dived, plunged, plummeted, collapsed and disintegrated, after investors have been decimated by hammer blows, drowned in tsunamis, melted down in nuclear catastrophes and buried under avalanches of manic selling, what more can happen to them, and where does a reporter turn for an unsullied metaphor? 

Yet, one has to concede that despite this surfeit of overwrought disaster-speak, a new and colorful financial vocabulary is emerging into popular culture. Too bad it has had to be delivered with such wrenching birth pains. A couple of years back, who had heard of a “sub-prime mortgage” or a “toxic asset”? Not so long ago, “derivatives” were associated with drug addicts and “de-leveraging” with (if anything) mechanical engineering. Stock markets used to explode, not implode. And negative equity? Unthought of then, but a grim reality for many now.

The speed at which the downward spiral has developed has taken everyone by surprise. No one in business or government has any idea of how and where it will end.

As the public’s bafflement has given way to anger over financial loss, the search for the guilty is intensifying. The extreme left, not surprisingly, is in raptures: “Bonfire of the Billionaires,” gloats the Daily Mirror, and not to be bested, the Evening Standard is out with “2000 Bankers Axed in City Bloodbath.” The television channels, naturally, can’t get enough of it, and we are treated to a steady parade of mutually contradicting “experts” who tell us we are either on the threshhold of the second Great Depression or that we are being presented with the buying opportunity of a lifetime. 

Tonight, a documentary featuring Pamela Wright was aired on the telly. Never heard of her? Neither had I, until today. But I do remember her live-in partner, Steven Wright (they are unmarried but share the same surname). He is the pub landlord accused of murdering and sodomizing five prostitutes in a provincial town just outside London. When I last reported from London in December 2006, the entire country was transfixed with the hunt for the serial killer. Steven Wright was subsequently arrested, convicted and sentenced to life for the crimes. Now Pam Wright is getting her 30 minutes of fame in a documentary called A Day in the Life of a Serial Killer’s Partner, or something like that. Pointless as the program promised to be (and it was), I have to admit that like millions of others I tuned in. There was Pam, a sad, shuffling, prematurely aged spectre of a woman, breakfasting on “a fag and a can of beer” (her words) and showing us where Steve ate his dinner, hung his jacket and brushed his teeth. “People hate me,” she said gloomily, failing to add that her ludicrous protestations over Wright’s innocence have only served to infuriate the public. “It’s true,” she said, “’E couldn’t ’ave done it.” As if on cue—but obviously staged and later heavily edited—Steve called in from his jail cell for a chat with his missus. Mercifully, we did not have to listen to his side of the conversation. “Really such a lovely man,” added Pam later. “It’s such a shame.” Give us a break, BBC!

Meanwhile, the markets are giving no one a break. Now, in October, the financial situation has gone from bad to worse. Initially, the damage from the credit crisis was borne mainly by property speculators and by investment bankers and their unfortunate employees and shareholders. But, as asset values have continued to decline, a self-perpetuating downward spiral has developed, dragging more and more institutions into insolvency. The public has become suspicious of the very integrity of savings bank deposits, let alone share values. People are wondering what “money” really is, and how it can vanish so suddenly. The mattress is becoming the cash repository of choice.

In an attempt to counter this madness, the Irish government has taken the unheard-of step of guaranteeing, one hundred percent, all deposits in Irish savings banks. The British government so far is refusing to follow suit, which is leading to massive transfers of capital out of the country and across the Irish Sea. The prime minister, Gordon Brown, who as chancellor was the éminence gris behind Tony Blair, is turning out in office to be more gray than eminent. Refusing to be pinned down on any specific policy, he seems only able to utter ad nauseum: “We will take all necessary steps to stabilize the financial situation.” The public interprets Brown’s vagueness as: “We don’t have any idea how to get out of this bloody mess,” and the prime minister’s message is further weakened by his leaden-faced delivery and an unfortunate glottal spasm he has developed that gives one the impression of a man with a chicken bone stuck in his throat. 

What fresh hell is this? The latest battleground in what appears to be a coming internecine global financial war is Iceland. We were greeted this morning with the news that Icelandic banks may not be able to make good on their commitments to UK depositors. We are learning that a large number of Brits (city councilors as well as individuals) have been speculating unwittingly in Icelandic banks, attracted by the unusually high rates of interest being offered there. Prime Minister Brown is trying to talk tough, but the Icelandic government, once perceived as a pillar of financial rectitude but now apparently broke, seems in no mood to bail out the desperate Britons.

It’s hard to see how a winter of discontent can be averted now, not to mention a winter of very bad punning. Recalling the Icelandic fishing disputes of the sixties, the Daily Express has fired off the first salvo: What Cod-Given Right Do These Geysers Have to….” You can just imagine what’s coming.

Bill Gallacher, long-time San Miguel resident, is a regular contributor of ironic works to Atención.

Travel News You Can Use
By Judy Newell

Mexico Travel News

Mexico City sprucing up 

Mexico City plans to make traditional tourism areas more attractive. The Zona Rosa (Pink Zone), once a favorite nightlife area and now somewhat disreputable, will be made reputable again. Plaza Garibaldi, famous for its mariachis, will benefit from more attentive policing, and Xochimilco, with its legendary Floating Gardens, once again will become a tourist attraction.

Although more tourists fly to Mexico City than anywhere else in the country, the majority arrive only to change planes. Those who stay usually are business travelers, leaving lush luxury hotels almost empty on weekends. Fear of crime, crushing traffic and frequent political protest demonstrations have discouraged tourism in the Mexican capital.

Tulum hotels may be demolished 

The federal Environmental Protection Secretariat is threatening to demolish more than a dozen hotels that it claims were built illegally in Tulum. The structures supposedly are a danger to the environment.

Hoteliers, for their part, argue that the properties all met existing regulations when they were built. They say that local authorities approved everything back before the secretariat was created. These hoteliers, supported by local officials, have kept their properties open in spite of federal requirements that they be closed.

More Hiltons planned 

Hilton, whose presence in Mexico at the moment is minimal, intends to open 60 hotels around the country during the next five years. Another 100 are planned for the rest of Latin America.

The existing portfolio of 19 properties in Mexico spans most of the Hilton family of brands.

Hilton will expand in prime resort areas, capital and large industrial cities, as well as develop “focused-service” brands, such as Hampton Inns and Homewood Suites, in border locations, interior commercial cities and resort areas.

The company currently has 20 hotels in the Mexico pipeline including Homewood Suites in Puebla and Monterrey, as well as Hampton Inns in Guadalajara, Ciudad Victoria, Centro Historico Ciudad de Mexico, Toluca, Querétaro, Los Cabos, Cancún, Guadalajara and Tulum.

St. Regis Punta Mita Resort debuts in Mexico 

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide announced the debut of its St. Regis brand in Latin America with the opening of the St. Regis Punta Mita Resort. A joint venture between Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Ideurban Consultores, the new destination resort is located in Bahía de Banderas, one of the world’s most alluring private beaches in the state of Nayarit, Mexico.

The property features 120 guest rooms and suites, three world-class restaurants, three infinity pools with private cabana service, a state-of-the-art fitness center, private beach club, tennis courts, a luxurious Remède Spa and two Jack Nicklaus signature golf courses.

The design for the St. Regis Punta Mita Resort combines stylistic elements from Mexico and Provence, France, and is based on “barefoot elegance.” The resort features work by renowned Mexican artists, including murals by Tatiana Montoya.



International News

Discounted rail passes on Amtrak

Europe ahs been doing it for years, but now Amtrak is offering the USA Rail Pass. It is available for 15, 30, and 45 days of travel, but you can space out that travel over six months. As the AP reports, “the 15-day pass offers eight segments of travel for US$389.” A “segment” starts whenever you board a train. There are no restrictions or blackout dates, so you can travel during peak times—assuming a train has not sold out. Some exceptions apply. You can’t redeem the passes for travel on Amtrak’s high-end services, such as Auto Train and Acela Express. 

New Ramada in Mecca

Ramada Worldwide will open its largest hotel, a 998-room property in the holy district of the Haram in Mecca, less than a quarter of a mile from the Holy Mosque. The 29-story Ramada Makkah caters to guests making the Mecca pilgrimage during the Hajj and Umrah seasons.

Cher returns to Caesar’s Palace 

Cher returns to The Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace in 2009, with tickets for the first series shows going on sale November 3 for 35 performances from February 21 through March 21 and April 25 through May 24. Ticket prices are US$95, $140, $175 and $250 plus taxes and fees. The 90-minute, concert-style shows begin at 7:30pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. 



Airline News

Aeromexico’s new Salt Lake/Seattle service 

Aeromexico began nonstop service between Seattle/Tacoma and Los Cabos this month. Twice-weekly flights depart Seattle/Tacoma on Thursdays and Sundays. Return flights depart Los Cabos every Friday and Sunday. Aeromexico also launched twice-weekly, nonstop flights between Salt Lake City, Utah, and Mexico City on November 16. 

Mexicana spreads its wings 

Mexicana Airlines will begin service from Mexico City to London (Gatwick), São Paulo and Orlando when it receives new Boeing aircraft early in 2009. The company is shifting more domestic service to Click, its low-fare subsidiary, while the parent concentrates on international routes. Mexico’s airlines, like those around the world, benefit from lower fuel costs as oil prices drop, but now find aircraft rental costs are soaring as the value of the peso declines. International revenues provide compensation in this respect.

New airline boarding rules

The US announced that starting next year airline passengers will be barred from boarding planes if they refuse to provide full name and birth date. Travelers will be asked to provide this information when they book flights originating or ending in the US, as well as flights traveling over US territory, such as trips from Canada or Mexico.

That data will be compared to federal terrorism watch lists and will supposedly prevent false matches that have caused problems for some travelers, including Senator Ted Kennedy and several children. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the rule will “dramatically reduce” the number of people hassled at airports because their name resembles a terrorist’s on a government watch list, Technically, the new rules start in July 2009, but some airlines may begin using the rules as early as January. Travelers who book flights and do not give required information will not be able to print a boarding pass at home or at an airport kiosk. They will have to go to an airline counter and show an ID card with the required information.

Sources: Mexico Tourism News, Travel Agent, Travel Pulse Daily, OSSN, Travel Agent Central, USA Today.

Judy Newell heads the travel company Perfect Journeys that specializes in discounted rates for airfare, hotels, tours and cruises worldwide, as well as in luxury and adventure travel. Contact her with comments or suggestions at JudyNewell_03@msn.com  or go to her website www.PerfectJourneys.net.