Summary: SPAIN'S car manufacturers expect to produce 3 million vehicles in 2018, at level last seen ten years ago, just before the 2008 financial crisis in Europe hit the sector. Overall, 2017 has seen significant improvement in the Spanish job market with the number of people signed on with the country’s social security scheme – a key indicator of net job creation – up by over 630,000, a rise of 3.58%. And the unemployment rate is down more than 10 percentage points since the peak of the country’s economic crisis. Spain welcomed 4.4 million foreign tourists in November, 7.4% up on last year. Though December figures are not yet available, the 2016 record of 75.3 million was already broken by mid-November. By the end of November, a total of 77.8 million foreign tourists had arrived, 9.1% more than in the first eleven months of 2016, according to figures from the Spanish statistics office (INE). “Freedom for Tabarnia. Catalonia robs Tabarnia. Catalonia has never done anything to win Tabarnia over. The corruption of Catalan politicians has left Tabarnia in misery. That’s why the citizens of Tabarnia have the right to decide their future. The people of Tabarnia just want to vote. Tabarnia is not pro-independence, Tabarnia is pro-democracy. If Tabarnia declared itself independent, it would be assured its place in the European Union. Tabarnia, Catalonia’s Crimea.” Theresa May's defiant New Year message was undermined by reports that David Davis told a private meeting it was still possible the decision to leave the EU could be reversed. MPs have raged over the decision to hand Nick Clegg a knighthood for his time in government, as confirmed by the honours list released tonight. The former Lib Dem leader was recognised for his time as deputy prime minister in the Coalition Government from 2010 to 2015. But a Labour MP quipped the honour must be for 'services to breaking up communities', while Brexiteers claimed he only received the gong for 'services to the European Union'. UK aid to corrupt countries soared by 10 per cent last year. Almost £1.39billion was sent to the world's 20 most crooked states last year – up from £1.26billion in 2015. The money was handed over despite warnings that some of it would be wasted, stolen or even handed to terrorists. The Department for International Development insists it operates a 'zero tolerance' approach to corruption. Thousands more police officers would still not be enough to stem the epidemic of child sexual abuse, Britain's top officer on child protection warned yesterday. Chief Constable Simon Bailey, who leads the National Police Chiefs' Council on child protection, admitted that officers would never have enough capacity to solve what he described as the 'wicked problem' as he estimated that the number of British men interested in sexually abusing children stands more than 20,000. That figure is comparable to the total number of all current and former terrorism suspects in the UK, he said. A ‘Dad's Army’ of unpaid border guards is set to be Britain’s first line of defence against terrorists, people smugglers and organised crime gangs at hundreds of vulnerable air and sea ports
