Homage to Catalonia

The town of Salou, on the Spanish Mediterranean coast near Barcelona, has decreed that it will be illegal to wear a bikini on the street, following appalling behaviour by British tourists. Drinking alcohol on the streets and having sex on the beach will also be illegal.

Of course the Spanish can't just ban British tourists, because we are all in the EU.

The reason I mention it, though, is that when I first went to Spain in the 1960s bikinis were illegal. Then it was because of the prudery of the Fascist Franco regime.

The reason the Brits are there, though, is not for the Hemingway trail, nor for the weather, it is because their own government thinks that alcohol is a sin and taxes it heavily.

So they take it out on the poor Spanish