Tenerife has certainly had its problems with its Carnaval this year. First, the whole thing was threatened by residents wanting it cancelled because of excess noise. Then, when the show finally got on the road, it was received with boos, catcalls and jeers - doing nothing for the reputation of the famous Flamenco dancer who'd conceived it. Apparently it was too heavy on ‘celebrities’ and too light on the groups who perform satirical songs aimed at local dignitaries. To add injury to insult, the council has said it’ll not only withhold some of the choreographer’s fee but also sue him for damages. In a country in which having fun ranks far above most other purposes in life, these are serious matters.

A year or so ago, I was rightly taken to task for labelling Spain’s anti-smoking law ‘draconian’. You only have to go into almost any bar in Spain to see how wrong this was. Over in the UK, however – where having fun is merely something to be taxed – the government is taking a far more aggressive approach to the implementation of its own imminent ban. According to today’s Telegraph - “Thousands of anti-smoking inspectors are being trained up at a cost of £30 million, to be sent out to mingle with pub-goers or diners. The snoopers will take undercover photos or, if brave enough, slap a £50 fine on anyone with a lighted gasper.” In a satirical editorial, the paper asks – “Why stop there? A new arm of government must be set up to combat smoking, under the direction of the quango Offag. We need a smoking tsar. All cars will be fitted with tobacco smoke detectors. No child will be left in the care of anyone on the national Registered Smoke Offender database. New laws will be brought in against behaviour likely to provoke smoking, such as selling matches, screening old films or indulging in sexual intercourse. Council tax and stamp duty on the homes of smokers will be doubled. If one needless death can be saved, who could begrudge the cost?” . . . Well, I have never smoked in my life and regard myself as pretty virulent in my disregard for the habit but I am completely at one with the Telegraph at finding the plans deplorable. Surely there’s a middle way between Spain’s laxity and Britain’s expensive, quasi-religious zeal which will result in even more interfering petty bureaucrats in a society already overflowing with them. If I lived there, I’d move. Even to a country where the bars are filled with smoke.

On the other hand . . Events in the prettily-located Pontevedran town of Gondomar, make it a good candidate for microcosm of modern Spain. For years, there’ve been allegations of construction irregularities on the part of the [PP] authority. In fact, several developments have been declared illegal by judicial authorities. But the council has carried on regardless, handing out building licences like sweets in a [non-Tenerife] Mardi Gras procession. But this week two of the mayor’s closest aides were caught red-handed, taking cash from a developer. As is routine in the daily cases of this sort, the mayor has proclaimed the innocence of his lieutenants and insisted the whole affair is driven by the ‘personal interests’ of the opposition party. What happens next is anyone’s guess but I, for one, wouldn’t be surprised to see the mayor retaining power in May’s municipal elections. There’s a far-too-widespread attitude here that corruption is to be expected of politicians. As if we were in Africa - the traditional insult aimed at Spain by the French.

Galicia Facts

Archaeologists excavating in Pontevedra say there’s evidence of temporary global warming a couple of hundred years BC, when the level of our local rivers rose and then fell back. It seems we survived it.

Galicia has 14 dog pounds and they are taxed by the challenge of dealing with the ‘more than 14,000’ dogs abandoned here each year. But now they say they’re about to be overwhelmed by a need to cater for the growing interest in buying and then quickly dumping exotic creatures such as iguanas, ferrets, dwarf rabbits and Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs. I’ve long said we need more international cuisine here. Perhaps this presents a possible solution. Except, perhaps, for the ferrets. Unless there's a sizeable Korean community somewhere in the region.


Finally, could I ask whoever it was who wrote to me recently after arriving to live in Pontevedra to contact me again as the message was deleted when I was retrieving it from the SPAM folder. The subject was ‘Hello’, which my computer treats as highly suspicious.