The night train is, for me at least, a wonderful way to get to and from Madrid. It may take 10 hours but for most of these I’m asleep and the early part of the trip from Pontevedra takes you right along the edge of one of the prettiest bays in the world. So much better than all the hassle and inconvenience of flying. Ironically, when I got off the train this morning I read in one of the local papers that Galicia is the worst served region in Spain as regards railways. And things are not scheduled to get much better for several years.

Talking of Galicia, I wonder whether the nationalists would be prepared to take a leaf out of Prince’s book and call it The Region That Used To Be Called The Kingdom Of Galicia. Perhaps Trubecalkog in the English acronym. And something like Lareqsollekedegal in Spanish/Gallego. I imagine not.

An editorial in Mundo yesterday on the subject of the negotiations with ETA opined that “Peace won’t be possible until the murderers seek forgiveness from the victims and time is allowed to heal the scars of the wounds. We are still a long way from this.” Maybe but there is, as the British government knows, another way to peace and this is to give the terrorists more or less everything they want. A sort of peace, anyway.

The Catalan government’s language policy took another step forward last week, when it was announced that Spanish in schools is to be reduced to the same level of importance as that other useful but not essential foreign tongue, English. As they well know, the current government lacks the will and the clout to do much about this strategy of creeping secession. Even though it contravenes the Constitution. More work for the lawyers, I suppose.