Implications and History
The term is viewed by some as pejorative or politically incorrect, but remains in common use in the media when labour disputes occur.
According to BBC Radio 4 presenter Nigel Rees, the terms have been used since the 1970s to describe malpractices among the trades unions, especially the print unions in Fleet Street. Speaking on Radio 4’s Broadcasting House current affairs programme on Sunday 7 October 2007, Rees said: “As one knows, Spanish people are very hard-working, upright people. But I suppose one or two of them may tend to take the 'mañana' attitude.”
Citing the origin of the terms, Rees said usage goes back to the Elizabethan era. William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, described Sir Thomas Tresham II as being “not given to Spanish practices”, meaning Roman Catholic practices, which at the time were censured in England. In 1584 another secretary of Queen Elizabeth I, Francis Walsingham, referred to Spanish practices in a way that meant they were "deceitful, perfidious and treacherous”. This may well help to give the current meaning of the term.
Since the days of strong unions in the 1960s and 1970s through the Thatcherite reforms of the 1980s Spanish practices have been increasingly removed from the workplace.
Read more about this topic: Spanish Practices
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