Elections Nonsense: A columnist in one of the national papers has forecast today that the March general election will see the end of the PP party, to be replaced by a coalition of the PSOE, PNV, ER, IU, CIU, BNG, UPA and, er.., BMW. I think he is making the same point I made a few days ago about alphabet soup.

Meanwhile – and very much closer to home – hats off to the students at Vigo University. They have been fingered by the police as the most prolific downloaders of songs and films from the internet. As if this wasn’t enough, they have hacked into the university’s computer to do it. It fair makes one proud of our local talent.

In a separate - but not entirely unrelated - report today, we were told that a higher proportion of Spanish homes have a CD recorder than access to the internet. I wonder why.

Crime rates in Spain in 2003 fell not just 3% or even 3.2%. But 3.18%. The two places of decimal points certainly assure me, at least, that the statistic is accurate. Who on earth would go to so much trouble to fabricate a misleading number?

This weekend the national fox-hunting championships will be held in the hills near here. More than 600 hunters are expected to arrive and my guess is that the number of saboteurs will be well below the 3.18% level. This is because the chances of them surviving the weekend would be less than those of a passing fox. A different world.