Spain last night had the equivalent of the Oscars for its own cinema industry. The consensus in the press was that the ceremony was unprofessional, overlong and tediously boring. And these were the good reviews. In fact, the premier award – for the best film – was made at 2am, which gives you something of an insight into the Spanish timetable. And everybody smoked like chimneys, apparently. As did the spokesman at a press conference of the Galician Nationalist Party yesterday. He was, he said, merely showing solidarity with President Zapatero and the leader of the Catalan coalition, who apparently smoked all the way through the Constitution negotiations. But then I think I might even have taken up the obnoxious habit myself, if I’d had to take part in these.

In contrast to the national police [the Guardia Civil], Spain’s local police are not well-regarded. A woman driver in Pontevedra probably spoke for many recently when she accused two traffic cops of being ‘cocky clowns’. Unfortunately for her, she had neglected to put on her safety belt before opening her mouth and ended up in court, where she was fined 120 euros. This, though, was less than the 160 euros I had to pay when my elder daughter parked my car on some nearby waste land. On balance, I think the woman with the big gob got more value for her money.

Talking of the Oscars, the Spanish media is naturally giving a lot of attention to the American film about the gay cowboys. Or ‘Brookbackmontéyn’ as it’s called here. Perhaps there’ll be a Spanish version, featuring two gay local policemen, called Chulo and Payaso.

Hardly a great surprise but the EU is reported to have decided against the Spanish proposal to give the status of Working Language to Catalan, Basque and Galician. They say it would significantly complicate things in Brussels and open the floodgates to all the other minority languages in Europe. And there are far more of these than you’d think. Apart from the [to me] obvious ones of Welsh and Gaelic, there is Serbian, Frisian, Corsican, Armenian and Sardinian, to name but a few.

Finally, a couple of Gallegos have gently taken issue with me for my comments yesterday about Franco’s repression in the Basque Country and Catalunia. I should make it clear that, as my friend Portorosa had guessed, I was talking only about suppression of local cultures/languages. I wasn’t making any comment at all on the differing degrees of appalling atrocity visited by Franco’s rebel army on the cities that resisted it. Nor on the post-war industrial policies of Franco’s totalitarian regime.

Still a few puppies left.