This is not well known but it was the Spanish fleet, not the French, which suffered most at the battle of Trafalgar. Despite this, yesterdays’ commemorative celebrations were well covered by the Spanish media and the tone was generally positive. But one writer felt that she needed to finish with this gratuitous little flourish - But the bitter aftertaste of the defeats of 200 years ago contrasts with the joy of the British, who always considered themselves better than their vulgar colleagues. And still do. I wonder who or what got under her skin.

Talking of Nelson, I was intrigued to see a British columnist had raised the question of whether he would have survived tabloid interest in his private life. As the answer is obviously No, this rather points up the malign influence these rags have had on British society. As if this was really necessary.

In terms of votes, the big losers in the Galician elections were the Nationalist party, which lost a significant number of seats. But, in a hung parliament, they have a share of power for the first time. And they’ve wasted no time in flexing their muscles. Within 24 hours of the final count, their leader demanded a tripling of the central budget for the region and the recognition that Galicia, ‘like Catalunia’, is a nation. One wonders how much of this the Socialists will take before deciding they’d be better off in a coalition with a post-Fraga PP party.

Cherie Blair was in Santiago de Compostela earlier this week. Not to open a shopping mall but to attend a cultural event. The local papers were delighted to report her astonishment at finding that Zara - that modern cultural icon - had originated in Galicia. Anyway, she just had time to shake Fraga’s hand before he departed the scene.

Every year, the Pontevedra council erects temporary tourism kiosks in a couple of the town’s squares. They did this on Monday. Yesterday the workmen returned to one of them and rotated it, so that the door and window now faced the street and not the brick wall the kiosk was up against.