More lovely Liverpool ladies; Nasty nationalists; & Navigation problems.

There's a lovely comment from the estimable Simon Barnes in Today's Times:- Women make the best female impersonators - Ladies Day at Aintree is an annual celebration of joyous feminine self-caricature. Here's the ladies being referred to.

And here's a lot more.

Here in the UK, a senior government minister with the Spanish first name of Maria, is in some trouble for, shall we say, not getting her expense claims quite right. The sums are chickenfeed by Spanish standards, but her career is increasingly at risk, as politicians of all parties demand her sacking. Of course, there aren't many critics in her own party who are prepared to go on the record but there are some. Plus several more who are willing to criticise her anonymously. 

This, to say the least, is rare in Spain, where a more tribal form of politics means that few, if any, from one's own side are prepared to stick their heads above the parapet. Which is why Sr Rajoy can drive through a regressive ant-abortion bill that many of his party disagree with. In fact, other than members of Opus Dei, it's hard to know what his constituency is with this bill.

A reader has asked whether I was including Spanish nationalists in yesterday's comment about nationalists playing dirty. Well, yes. I said that all nationalists are guilty of this sin. That said, I wonder whether there are any English nationalists playing dirty against the Scots. If not, I guess it's because many English people are relaxed about the quarrelsome (and expensive) Caledonians buggering off to their own destiny. Though not the British government, of course.

Finally . . . As I may have mentioned, I'm having trouble with my satnav(GPS). I managed to squeeze out of it a route back from Merseyside to Pontevedra but was surprised this took me through France, Germany, Luxembourg and France again and then via Barcelona, Zaragoza and Valladolid to Pontevedra. Or 3,909km. Fearing this was because I'd said 'No motorways', I checked on the settings and found I'd asked for the Quickest Route. So, I changed this to "Shortest Route" and it came up with a mere 3,834km, via Bilbao. Something not quite right, then.