The Vigo council has astonished us by announcing that a survey shows that the widespread double and triple parking in the city increases travel times by 60 per cent. Who’d have thought it?

Talking of surveys, the latest raft of speciously accurate, local statistics show that 42.62 per cent of Galicians speak only Galician at home, against merely 19.75 per cent who speak only Castilian Spanish. The rest – to two decimal points, of course – speak a mixture.

The Spanish government has said that it may issue papers to a large chunk of illegal immigrants, allowing them to work as domestic servants. This points up one of the fascinating aspects of Spanish society – viz. that, although per capita income is not high up the EU list, most people here employ a cleaner or maid, even when here is only one salary coming into the house. Perhaps things will change if the illegals become legit, start paying tax and price themselves out of business.