Well, our friend The Galician Gadfly seems to have got one thing right, viz. that modern Spaniards are very keen to demonstrate their progressive credentials. This thought struck me after reading today that ‘Under a law proposed by members of the ruling Socialist government, Spain would become the first country in the world to give chimpanzees, gorillas, orang-utans and other great apes some of the fundamental rights granted to human beings’. Needless to say, this has not been met with universal acclaim. At least not among human apes. No one really knows what the gorillas etc. think about it.

The Bank of Spain has expressed concern about the growth in personal credit. On daytime TV here – as in the UK – most of the advertising now relates to easy loans. In an article on this, I read there are actually 400 consumer protection companies in Spain – which came as something of a [pleasant] surprise. The oldest and biggest still goes under the name of The Housewives Association, which shows perhaps just how far feminism hasn’t gone in Spain.

To the reader who asked for my defence to the accusation of constant negativity about Spain, I offer the first two paragraphs of my blog of 2nd Feb. this year. And my thanks for the nice comments about my writing.

Even more thanks go to Alex for supporting my approach. At times like this I’m reminded of the Hungarian writer, George Mikes, whose 1946 book ‘How to be an Alien’ was welcomed by the British, despite being a trenchant criticism of their entire culture. And became a best seller.

I agree wholeheartedly the Spanish are a hospitable, warm people who know how to enjoy the simple things of life. This makes them fabulous companions for an evening out. As I’ve said before, probably the best in the world. But these qualities alone do not make for good neighbours, friends, students, employees, civil servants, citizens, etc., etc. So why do I live here? Because – with all its faults – Spanish society is decidedly more sane than any of today’s Anglo-Saxon societies. And, at my time of life, I can easily enjoy the positive aspects of life here and live with the faults, even if I do rant on about them. Would that it made me as rich as it did George Mikes!

Finally . . . Aleksu. What can I say? This is a man who believes he can intuit my views on Israel from nil mentions of the place in 3 years of writing. And who thinks that, if I say the same thing or ask the same question as someone else, I become that person. By this logic, if I say ‘God bless you’, I am the Pope. And I suppose becoming a vegetarian would make me Hitler. To state the blindingly obvious, Aleksu, what the professor was talking about was differing philosophical notions/definitions of ‘nationhood’. He was saying, I suppose, it would be more convincing if the Basques made their case on the basis of modern concepts. Here, for example, is a discredited notion of nationhood – ‘Sabino Arana, like many Europeans of his time, believed that the essence of a country was defined by its blood’. As did Hitler, of course. But not that other ‘mass murderer’, Winston Churchill. As far as I know.

Finally, finally – just in case there’s any doubt, the women who offered me the characteristics of Spanish men I quoted yesterday were all Spanish. Not disenchanted British ladies.