"the Spanish people changed government and announded a withdrawal from the allied forces in Iraq soon after their trains were horribly bombed.

That invites people to misunderstand what actually happened in Spain. It's a lot more complicated than people being stampeded into panic voting by the bombing.

Immediately following the bombing in Madrid there was an attempt by the then government to put the blame on Eta and to pretend that the bombing had been carried out by Eta rather than by the jihadists, as an electoral ploy. Rather as if the British government were pretending this week's bombing had been carried out by Irish terrorists, regardless of the evidence, simply because they saw that as more electorally helpful.

This was so transparently a cynical attempt to swing the vote that it backfired, and caused a lot of people to vote for the opposition. There was also a far higher turnout of voters, largely because voting was seen as a way of defying the terrorists, and as in most elections, a larger turnout helps the left.

The outcome was that the Socialists were elected - and they had already made a firm commitment to pull out of Iraq if they won, in line with their consistent opposition to the war.