This 2008 generation have grown up in a country now free of the shadow of Fascism

That was written in 2008 -
And written from Britain. Now in Spain, in an area well away from tourism I recognize the inaccuracy of that assertion - much is hidden behind politeness and euphemism. For the middle-aged and the elderly the Fascist past clings like a cankerous slime, and its sickly thrall corrupts and diminishes the body politic.

When the Fascist general José Millán Astray screamed "Death to the intelligentsia!" at the the venerable poet and philosopher Manuel Unamuno he defined the nature of Fascism. Right wing attitudes appeal to the less intelligent and Fascism appeals to the most thuggish section of the not very bright.

The brutal Fascist dictator Francisco Franco used torture, rape and murder to impose the military mindset on the civilian population.

William Shirer in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich observed that 'No one who has not lived for years in a totalitarian state can possibly conceive how difficult it is to escape the dread consequences of a regime's calculated and incessant propaganda'.

In Nazi Germany the Fascists had control for twelve years, at the end of which they were comprehensively defeated, their country occupied and an extensive programme of re-education applied. In Spain the Fascists had control for three times as long, and when a limited form of democracy was restored following the death of Franco the Fascists were allowed to continue life as normal. There was no Spanish equivalent of the Nuremberg Trials.

The inheritors of the Fascists are still to be found active and influential in the right wing Partido Popular, in the judiciary, in big business, in the various police forces and in the military.

The statement 'This 2008 generation have grown up in a country now free of the shadow of Fascism' should perhaps be reworded 'This 2008 generation has grown up less aware and less influenced by the shadow of Fascism' - after all with television, the internet and mobile phones their sources of information are not limited to the Fascist propaganda machine.

That the young have a saying 'Only in Spain' to describe any form of (usually) official idiocy is a clear indication that they fully understand the mores of a brainwashed population are abnormal. Hopefully in time they will recognise that they are also unacceptable, and then change the saying to 'No more in Spain!'.

At the moment however the statement that 'This 2008 generation have grown up in a country now free of the shadow of Fascism' is sadly incorrect.