There’s an expression in Spanish - Hecha la ley, hecha la trampa. Literally translated, it means Come the law, come the deceit. My Spanish friends are a little divided about its meaning. Some feel it suggests laws are never what they seem. While others think it refers to the inevitability of loopholes. El Mundo quoted the expression yesterday with rather more emphasis, I believe, on the first option. They advised us that the text of the new law giving the government power to stop the German takeover of Endesa was different in the version published in the Official Bulletin from that in the prior version placed before the Council of Ministers. Initially, the new powers were restricted to this particular takeover but, finally, they are unfettered. Is it any surprise that Spaniards are a cynical lot?

If you come to Galicia, you’ll eventually encounter percebes. ‘Goose barnacles’ in English. They look and taste – to me at least – as repulsive as they sound. But in Spain they are a delicacy. And expensive, costing over 120 euros a kilo in restaurants here and even more in Madrid. One reason for this must be their alleged aphrodisiacal powers. But another is that it’s hard to collect them, as they grow only on rocks constantly thrashed by Atlantic waves. There are regular fatalities and the latest were two youths, drowned this week along the north west coast. This sounds callous but it does make a change from reading about road fatalities amongst this benighted age group.

Here is positively the last picture of bloody Ravachol, taken shortly before his death last night. The contentious political slogan – A pure Lerez – is written around the diplomatically furled umbrella.