Just as the dust settled after President Zapatero’s partisan remarks about the Mid East conflict, another senior member of the governing party accused the Israelis of deliberately targeting civilians in Lebanon. This was quickly apologised for and excused but we await the next diplomatic gaffe with some interest.

Spain’s population at the start of this year was around 43m, 3.5% up on 2005. Foreigners now comprise almost 9% of the total, with the Moroccans - at 535k - representing the largest group. After these come the Ecuadorians [400k], the Rumanians [382k] and then the sun-seeking Brits [274k]. But almost a quarter of the Rumanians are here illegally and seem to spend most of their time roaming around Madrid and Barcelona picking pockets. Or perhaps this is just an urban myth.

Of these 43m Spaniards, a good 70% - we're told - are very concerned about the environment. This is a tad surprising, given that 60% don’t know what the Kyoto Protocol is about and 63% aren’t aware that petroleum is the principal source of energy. Somewhat less surprising is the finding that very few of them are prepared to see taxes rise in order to safeguard the environment, even though they regard it as the government’s responsibility to do this. Words are always cheap.

Today’s good news is that the President of the Government of Castile y La Mancha will veto the construction of the housing development on the site of the Visigoth findings outside Toledo.

But the really good news is that my ADSL speed has doubled and is now almost a tenth of what I'm paying for. And my supplier called today and confirmed what I told them 3 weeks ago, viz. that the modem doesn’t work in any of the phone sockets in my house. So they're sending a technician ‘mañana’. I will sleep soundly tonight.