Dawn

Dawn

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Following the French example, the Spanish government is considering a tax on both the dubbing of foreign [i. e. English] language films and also on the entrance ticket for these. With luck, then, the Law of Unintended Consequences will mean this results in the showing of more films with subtitles.

As it addresses its growing immigration problem, Spain is lucky enough to be able to weigh up the pros and cons of both the struggling British and French models. As regards the former, food for thought is provided by this statistic from a recent survey – 81 per cent of British Muslims consider themselves Muslim first and British second. This is a higher proportion than in Jordan, Egypt and Turkey and is only exceeded by Pakistan.

Another surprising statistic from the UK - 25% of Brits would prefer to be French. This is said to reflect the popularity of such people as Thierry Henry of Arsenal. Even if so, I suspect the vast majority of this 10 million[?] Brits would prefer to be French but white.

I came across a new Spanish forename today - Peregrina. Or 'Pilgrim'. On reflection, there is the English masculine form 'Peregrine'. Though I can't recall ever hearing a feminine version of this.

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