Well, the Spanish government decided to go the whole hog to prevent the takeover of Endesa by the German utilities giant, Eon. Not only have they introduced measures to reduce the profitability of Spanish companies [to lessen their attraction] but, by Royal Decree, have changed the remit of the relevant monitoring body so as to give it the power to judge transnational mergers. The EU has pronounced this illegal and said ‘measures will be taken’ if Spain continues along the path towards the ‘protectionism of the 1930s’. But this is not a country where much notice is taken of laws which are personally inconvenient, so this threat is unlikely to butter many parsnips, even if Spain has been the greatest beneficiary todate of EU largesse. Unsurprisingly, the initial reply has been that what is sauce for the French and German goose is also sauce for the Spanish gander. It will be interesting to see whether the British government joins the throng and starts barring the acquisition of UK companies, freely permitted in the past. To ‘level the playing field’, of course.

Meanwhile, down at a more mundane level, the bank which took 4 months to supply me with a credit card has sent me my first statement. I’m not sure I believe this myself but accompanying it is a note saying they don’t have a copy of my identity card on file so could I please send one. If I do, this will be the FIFTH time this has been done. More seriously, I see they’ve chosen to charge only 4% of the total to my account and levy an interest rate of 25% on the balance. This is totally contrary to my instruction that they deduct the whole amount each month. After 5 years here, I now concur with all my Spanish friends that this sort of ‘error’ is dishonest. No wonder the banks are called ‘thieves in white gloves’ here. Which reminds me, BBVA charged me a ‘commission’ of more than 800 euros simply to transfer my savings to another bank. As I’ve said before, this would be illegal in countries where there is more consumer protection than here. Fortunately, my new bank gives me marginally more just for depositing it with them. Well, they have to, don’t they? What madness.

It seems to me Galician women tend to become very square after the age of 50. They then top off this look, literally, with a short-cropped hairstyle which resembles a German military helmet of the Second World War. So I think I’ll look elsewhere for my third wife. And, in the meantime, try to post a few photos that prove my point.

To end on a positive – the EU is taking legal action against Telefonica for abusing its position as monopoly supplier of ADSL connections. Couldn’t happen to a nicer company. If anything does.