“Walls in Spain”, c.1892, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Yesterday the drunken British tourists
Buying golf villas as investments,
Starting Irish bars on a wing and prayer.
Yesterday the line dancing and the karaoke.
Yesterday the high-priced British supermarkets
Full of brown sauce, Marmite and Tetley’s teabags,
Nescafe, Mr Kipling’s cakes, Ribena.
Yesterday the rat’s piss coffee in the English caffs
Yesterday the Brits who won’t learn Spanish
And think every Spaniard is an orange-picker
Who has been done a favour by their presence here.
Yesterday those who could sell have already gone.
Yesterday the UK’s papers tell the usual lies
Exaggerate to bring the euro further down.
No one is in need of a Dunkirk-style bail-out.
And most other countries have similar problems.
Today police violence, but only in some spots.
Rather less rioting than the UK has seen.
Unusual for Spain where the right to demonstrate is enshrined in law.
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