Will Britsville turn into Rusoville

Interesting to discover that General Francisco Franco; former Spanish dictator was something of a movie buff.

Sunday afternoons were put aside for such occasions and researchers have discovered his taste in pictures was not that much different from the rest of us.

Particular favourites included James Bond movies; Ben Hur, The Godfather and Cabaret. Alfred Hitchcock was not a favourite.

Surprisingly, the movie Raza was based on a text penned by Franco using the nom de plume Jaime de Andrade. In it the good guys are Franco’s troops and the clergy; the ugly ones wearing the black hats and scowls are the republican militias.

The Spanish ambassador to the Vatican says Pope Pius V11 was fascinated by the emotional scenes in it but wanted that kept to himself.

The thrust of the current Berlin exhibition campaign in promoting the Costa del Sol is to distance itself from stereotypical Spain. Focused on attracting the prosperous German market the dwindling number of Brits on the Costas could soon find themselves, or rather their sun beds, outnumbered and outmanoeuvred.

A sharp leap in Russian visitors to the region is also changing the cosmopolitan landscape; which has got to be a good thing. In fact it might be just what Mediterranean Spain needs; a worldlier more broad based and sophisticated society. Fresh blood: Will Britsville morph into Rusoville?

I do find that the Costa del Sol, in common with Barcelona, boasts an eclectic, broad-based sophisticated multi-national society infrastructure that is penetrated by just a few tourists.

The Costa del Sol should be held up as a model of European togetherness, or should I say entente cordiale. Sol society is in effect two lifestyles and economies operating side by side. Tourists really don’t know what they are missing.