Well, we shouldn’t be worried about Brexit or the ongoing crisis in Catalonia because both the British and Spanish governments have gone on holiday. So problems on hold until the New Year: well that’s alright then. Now I suppose and hope that plenty of work is being done behind the scenes. On Brexit, prime minister Theresa May was defeated in parliament with the help of her own MPs, and all is not well even though alleged progress appears to have been made. But we are still on the Brexit first course and this will be a Brexit banquet, so there is plenty of work to be done.
And on Catalonia, well the problem has just got much worse after the victory of the independents in the local elections but prime minister Rajoy and his crew; well went away on holiday for the festive season. Now, I don’t have a problem with politicians taking a nice long break at Christmas but surely if you want to be PM or a minister you put the national interest first. The national interest of Britain at the moment is Brexit because the clock is ticking and a deal has to be done. In Spain it is obviously Catalonia. There is much to do. Prime ministers should lead by example.
Now, the official view is that if there is a crisis they will return to their desks at once but I would describe Brexit and Catalonia as quite big issues. The electorate in Britain and Spain will want answers sooner or later and ‘sorry I have been away for Christmas’ is a rather lame excuse.