Palabras pronunciadas ante la British-Spanish Society de Londres

8/12/2019 Palabras pronunciadas ante la British-Spanish Society de Londres

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ADDRESS BY GUEST OF

HONOUR ESPERANZA AGUIRRE

AT THE BRITISH-SPANISH

SOCIETY GALA DINNER 2014

(London, House of Commons, 13th

March 2014)

Excmo. Sr. Embajador de

Espaa en el Reino Unido,

The former British Ambassadors

to Madrid,

Dear Chairman of the British-Spanish Society, querido Jimmy

Burns Maran,

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Dear sponsors of this Gala

D i n n e r , I B E R I C A F O O D &

CULTURE,

And last but not least, the

principal supporters of the British-

S p a n i s h S o c i e t y s g r a n t s

programme: Ferrovial, Santander

Groups, BBVA, Telefnica and

BUPA/Sanitas,

Dear friends of the British-

Spanish Society,

Speaking here, at Westminster

Palace, is truly impressive.

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It is indeed very impressive to

know that the leading figures in the

History of Great Britain during the

past thousand years have spoken in

this very same place.

The place impresses and so does

all the history concentrated here,

from the last Anglo-Saxon kings of

England in the 11th century to Her

Majesty Queen Elizabeth the

Second, may God bless Her.

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The weight of history is so great

that I believe that any attempt to

measure up to this extraordinary

setting is bound to fail.

That is why, I would rather begin

by asking you all to do your best to

forget we are in Westminster, so that

you may listen to me for what I am,

simply a friend of the British-Spanish

Society, who is here to speak to you

about Great Britain and Spain.

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Therefore, first, I would like to

thank the British-Spanish Society for

inviting me to participate in their

annual Gala Dinner.

And, most particularly, I would

like to thank its President, my friend

Jimmy Burns Maran, and to

congratu late h im for having

organised this Gala Dinner in this

House.

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This gives me the opportunity of

speaking under the same roof under

which some of the politicians that I

most admire in all History have

spoken, such as Sir Winston

Churchill and Lady Thatcher.

Dear friends,

In 1998, the brilliant British-Dutch

essayist Ian Buruma published an

extremely c lever book t i t led V o l t a i r e s C o c o n u t s o r

Anglomania in Europe.

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In this interesting book, Buruma

describes how, for the past three

hundred years, Great Britain has

exerted an intriguing attraction on

some important European writers,

philosophers, artists and politicians.

And he analyses the causes of that

fascination.

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I feel that the title of Burumas

book needs to be explained. And the

reason is that Voltaire, at a certain

time in his life, was forced into exile

in England, and came to know how

English institutions worked here, and

was fascinated by them.

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That is why, in his cr its

Politiques, he is in favour of

transplanting the British political

system, the English democracy, to

the European continent, just like

coconut trees are transplanted.

Which explains why Buruma plays

with the concept of Voltaires

coconuts in the books title.

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From Voltaire to the German

composer Felix Mendelssohn, in

Burumas book we come across

some very prominent figures of

European politics, culture and

thought, which, at some point of

their professional life, were seduced

by some aspects of the particular

way that the British have of thinking,

creating, behaving or of being in

politics.

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However, among the figures

picked by this half-British essayist,

there is not one single Spanish

name.

I will not take into consideration

that Buruma knows next to nothing

about Spanish culture, but the truth

is that, in the past three hundred

years, Spanish people have looked

too little towards Great Britain and

too much towards France.

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I will not bore you with a list of

Spaniards who in the past three

centuries have professed their love

and fascination for Great Britain,

though the truth is that these have

not been many.

Let me say it this way: We have

not been many.

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In the nineteenth century, Blanco

White, Alcal Galiano, Argelles,

Espronceda or, two of my husbands

ancestors, the Duke of Rivas and

Admiral Cayetano Valds, sought

refuge in England during the years

in which the Spanish King Fernando

the 7th persecuted the Spanish

liberals.

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Indeed, the Duke of Rivas

compared the weather of his native

Crdoba with that of London, where

he lived as a refugee, with some

sonorous and curious verses that I

cannot resist the temptation of

reciting to you in Spanish:

Y en vez del blsamo

del aura plcida

del cielo btico

que tanto am,

las nieblas hrridasdel fro Tmesis

con pecho msero

respirar.14


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All of them, whom Vicente

Llorns named the romantic exiles,

when they returned, could have

spread in Spain their love for Great

Britain, and they could have

transferred some of British political

customs and traditions to Spain.

In short, they could have

transplanted to our country those

coconuts which Voltaire spoke of.

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But what they learned under Lord

Hollands wing, their greatest

protector here, in London, either

they soon forgot it, or their Spanish

compatriots did not pay them too

much attention when, back in their

Homeland, they had the opportunity

of putting it into practice.

Oddly enough, the nineteenth

century Spanish politician who I

think is the most British, never setfoot on this island.

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I am referring to Cnovas, who,

in 1876, sensed that copying the

E n g l i s h p o l i t i c a l s y s t e m ,

parliamentarian and monarchic,

could be the best solution to provide

stability to a Spain that had spent

the previous sixty years in unrest,

coups, wars and civil wars.

And that is what he then tried to

do, when he helped restore the

Borbonic dynasty in the person ofyoung King Alfonso the 12th.

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His admiration for all things

British had led him to recommend to

Queen Isabel II, then in exile, that

her son, the future King Alfonso the

12th, should finish his education at

Sandhurst, and not in Austria where

he was studying.

L a t e r , C n o v a s h a d t h e

intelligence and the skill of creating

a political system based on two

parties, that tried to be like the onein England.

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Cnovas was fascinated by

British political stability and wanted

Spanish politics to work in a similar

manner: a parliamentary monarchy,

and two large parties that agreed on

the essentials and sportingly took

turns in power.

It is a pity that it only worked out

for 47 years.

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The truth is that after Cnovas,

those of us who continue to believe

that we Spaniards would do better in

politics if we imitated the English are

few.

As everyone knows, I am one of

those happy few who think that

Spanish politics would benefit from a

British touch. I am, in Ian Burumas

sense, a true Anglomaniac.

F o r e x a m p l e , I l i k e

constituencies.

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And I like that every MP is proud

to have gained the confidence of his

fellow citizens.

And I like the majority system.

And I like the independence it

grants each MP.

Just as I like that political parties

are not monolithic.

I like that British people do not

tolerate lies in public life.

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I like fair play. This means that I

like discussions, like those that MPs

have in this House of Commons.

Indeed, I even like that Great

Britain does not have a written

Const i tu t ion . I t i s the best

demons t ra t ion tha t nobody ,

absolutely nobody, in this country,

doubts what their Nation is, what

their rights are, and what their

responsibilities are.

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I like Question Time in the

Commons, which is much more

effective and direct than our

government control system.

I like that all British Institutions

are centenary: schools, universities,

a c a d e m i e s , t h e H o u s e s o f

Parliament, military regiments, social

and sports clubs, etc.

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I like the competitive spirit of the

British. That spirit that has led British

people to invent all imaginable

sports, from football, today the most

universal of sports, to cricket, the

most difficult to understand for those

not English. To golf and bridge, to

which I am addicted.

I like that Wellington came to

Spain to throw Napoleon out. And

that we Spaniards decided to namehim Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo.

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I like English people because

they value individualism and mistrust

collectivisms. That explains why they

have always defended freedom, and

why, when some fall into the

temptation of being Socialists, they

become Fabianists, which is a very

light form of socialism.

I like that in England, people

v a l u e o r i g i n a l i t y a n d e v e n

eccentricity. Because I do not likeeveryone to think the same, be the

same, and act the same.

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For that reason, because English

people like cultivating that originality,

there have been many who have

become Hispanomaniacs. That is to

say, lovers and admirers of Spanish

things and of that wonderful country,

from which many of us come.

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Some even come to love our

bullfights. Like my friend Lord Garel-

Jones who is one of the best

bullfight writers of our times. He

writes so well about bullfights that

Boris Johnson, my predecessor at

this stand, and current mayor of

London, when he was editor of The

Spectator, made him bullfighting

critic of that prestigious publication.

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It will never cease to surprise me

that the Club Taurino of London has

335 members (I do not think there is

a larger bullfighting club in the

world). Each member pays forty

pounds per annum, and the club

publishes six times a year a

magazine called La Divisa, full of

knowledgeable taurine information.

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I like English Hispanomaniacs,

so well studied, in a delightful book,

by my good friend Tom Burns

Maran, who has the good fortune

of being the elder brother of your

Chairman.

I also like British patriotism.

That patriotism that the British

express, and not only when singing

at the top of their lungs before afootball or rugby match.

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That patriotism that makes them

fight and die without protest when

their government decides they must

go into battle.

That patriotism that makes them

always defend the interests of their

Homeland. Making them hard and

difficult opponents to beat in real

battle fields, and in all dialectic

battles. Maybe this is why it is said

that the last words of our King Phillipthe 2nd on his death bed in 1598

were: Paz con Inglaterra, con los

dems, guerra30


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This patriotism, taken to the

extreme, drives the English to

defend English cuisine as if it were

the best in the world.

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Maybe my Anglomania reached

Her Majesty the Queen, and maybe

that explains why She granted me

the distinction of appointing me

Honorary Dame Commander of the

Order of the British Empire, which is,

I must say, much more than I could

have ever dreamed of when, as a

child, I attended the British School in

Madrid.

I must say that, in Spain, it is noteasy being an Anglomaniac.

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A few days ago, my friend Jos

Pedro Prez Llorca, former Minister

of Foreign Affairs and now one of

our most prominent lawyers in

Spain, was telling me that he had

met a local man in his native Cdiz

who in his typical accent had said to

him:

(chiste en espaol)

well, you know, English people

are very bad, so bad that they call

bishops bishos. The Spanishequivalent for bugs.

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Even though I admire and love

England and the English people and

many of their customs and way of

life, this does not mean that I want

Spain to be like England.

Because I also love Spain and

Spanish customs and traditions.

As is the case of the great

romantic travellers, who discovered

Spain for the nineteenth centuryEnglish public: the great George

Borrow (known in Spain as Don

Jorgito) or Richard Ford.34


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Or those extraordinary hispanists

who dedicate their lives to the study

of Spanish History, Literature or Art.

From Sir Raymond Carr to Paul

Preston and Gerald Brenan, Sir

John Elliott, Lord Thomas, Henry

Kamen or Ian Gibson.

We, the Spanish, owe these

hispanists a great deal because they

have helped us to gain a betterunderstanding of ourselves and to

know our history and our culture

better.35


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I feel like the millions of British

tourists who have travelled to Spain

in the past decades and have loved

my country.

Or like the thousands of British

who have stayed to live among us.

Like them, I also like that the

Spanish are quite Quixotes, that is,

we are idealists.

I like that we are generous and

disinterested.36


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I like that we are proud, and that

we are proud of being Spanish, of

our History and our culture, which

can indeed be on par with the

British.

I like that in Spain there are still

many gentlemen that place honour

before any economic interests. And

these gentlemen are not necessarily

persons of means. They are oftenpeople from small villages without a

penny in their pocket.

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I like that Spanish people like to

go out, drink some wine with friends,

and spend a bit more money than

we should.

Deep down, Anglomaniacs like

me, and Hispanomaniacs like many

of you, have the same problem: we

miss from the other country what we

lack in our own.

That is why I think it is good tocultivate a mixture of the two

cultures and two ways of being. Like

this British-Spanish Society does.38


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I truly believe that a good mixture

of these two ways of understanding

life, the British and the Spanish,

could be an ideal formula for

everything.

Ladies and gentlemen, dear

friends,

I must confess that I was very

excited when in August last year,Jimmy Burns Maran invited me to

this Gala Dinner.

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And I must also confess that,

from that very moment, I have been

very worried with the responsibility of

speaking in this House. And of

speaking to an audience that I know

possesses the best of the British

and the best of the Spanish people.

Although some might find it hard

to believe, I must say that this has

been the speech that I have found

most daunting. And in my politicallife, I may have given several

thousand speeches.

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I will be happy if my words have

managed to express two things:

First, my admiration and gratitude

for everything I have received from

the English culture, since I was a

child.

And second, my pride in being

Spanish and my conviction that with

a few drops of Anglomania,

everything in Spain would workbetter. And that with a few drops of

Hispanomania everything in Britain

would also work better.41


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Dear friends,

Before I come to an end, I want

to pay tribute to the British Spanish

Society.

I am very aware of the great work

that the Society does to build

cultural and educational bridges

between Britain and Spain.

And as a Spaniard, I am very and

sincerely grateful: Keep it up!

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I can't wait to get back to Madrid

to t e l l eve rybody wha t an

extraordinary bunch of people you

all are and what a wonderful Gala

Dinner you have organised.

Thank you very much

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Palabras pronunciadas ante la British-Spanish Society de Londres