Here in Spain you can go onto the roads either on a small motor-bike or in a micro-car without any theoretical or practical training whatsoever. You might have thought this area of high risk was a prime candidate for EU harmonisation. But apparently not. One can’t help wondering what sort of mind reserves this for, say, the rather less dangerous practice of selling your potatoes in pounds instead of kilos. I guess it’s the kind of mind cognisant of where people won’t unduly react and endanger your job.

My mother tells me that, when she is 80 in April, her UK basic pension will go up by 25 pence a week, exactly the same amount as for my grandmother 30 years ago. In advising her of this, the DSS have warned her not to get too excited as her Pension Credit will be reduced by the same amount. I would guess that the stamp on the letter cost more than 25p. So bureaucratic madness is not confined to Spain, then? As if any of us ever thought it was.

Has everyone noticed how spam emails have rocketed up since they brought in tough new regulations designed to eradicate it?

With apologies to my regular reader[s], here is the running commercial – If you have arrived at this blog because of an interest in Galicia, you might find my web page [colindavies.net] to be of interest. I wish I could say it would profit me if you do.