Emma watson, fully clothed, at the UN on Saturday by James Tweedie What Happened? A funny thing happened on the internet this week that has left many commentators extremely confused and unsure of how to react. Last Saturday (September 20), Harry Potter star and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson gave a speech at the UN to launch a new gender equality campaign named 'HeForShe'. The video of Ms Watson's speech immediately went 'viral' on the internet, popping up all over Facebook, twitter and other social media websites. It's worth pointing out here that videos like this don't just 'go viral' on their own. There are specialised firms of internet marketers who are paid to promote these things using a variety of underhand methods. The relevance of this will become clear later on. The next day (Sunday September 21) a new website, 'EmmaYouAreNext.com', appeared, which consisted only of a picture of Emma Watson and...

Tierra de Perros pale ale from Tenerife By James Tweedie in Tenerife Herle Haggard might have sung that they don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA, but it turns out they DO drink real ale in Realejos, Tenerife, Spain.  Tierra de Perros (land of the dogs), a new pale ale from a micro-brewery founded in the north Tenerife town last year, is now on the menu in several of the bars and restaurants in La laguna, the trendy former capital of the island. The name 'Tierra de Perros' harks back to the origin of the name of the Canary Islands. Explorers sent by King Juba II, the vassal king of Numidia (a kingdom that spanned parts of modern Algeria and Tunisia) and later Mauretania (present-day Morocco) named the seven-isle archipelago for the fierce wild dogs (Latin canis ) that lived there. The Canary islands are best known for pilsner brands such as Dorada (from Tenerife) and Reina (from Gran Canaria), but several small, independent breweries have...

Actor and Activist Willy Toledo By James Tweedie in Tenerife Spanish actor and veteran left-wing political campaigner Guillermo 'Willy' Toledo has responded to 'insults' hurled at him after he criticised new political party Podemos. Podemos,which translates as 'we can', is an ostensibly left-wing party led by charismatic academic Pablo Iglesias. Although only formed in January, Podemos has enjoyed close media coverage and won eight per cent of the vote in the European Parliament elections in May, gaining five seats. Podemos came fourth behind the Conservative Peoples' Party (PP), the centre-left Socialist Worker's Party of Spain (PSOE) and the Plural Left (IP) alliance, which includes the Spanish Communist Party.  Mr Toledo was variously disparaged as the middle class son of a doctor and a drunkard, after publicly criticising Podemos on Tuesday as being "devoid of content and ideology", "lacking power and effectiveness...

Results show major swing to the left by James Tweedie, Tenerife, Monday May 26 2014 European Parliament election results from the Canary Islands showed a marked swing to the left on Monday, with the big two parties unable to garner half the votes between them. The conservative People's Party (PP), in government nationally, 'won' the May 25 elections with a mere 23 per cent of the vote on a 37 per cent turnout, while the social-democratic Socialist Workers' Party of Spain (PSOE) came a close second with 22 per cent. The pro-business Canarian Coalition (CC), the largest party in the regional parliament, managed a paltry 12 per cent. Left-wing parties made large gains. The United Left (IU, which includes the Communist Party of Spain), in alliance with the Greens, increased its total vote from almost 10,000 in 2009 to 59,000, a share of 10.5 per cent.  But the big surprise was Podemos ('We Can'), a new left-wing party only formed in January 2014 and ...