A nice comment on the recent ETA announcement in one of the major papers today - Spain must be the only country in the world in which the delusions of a terrorist group are publicly analysed in the same minute detail as a philosophical treatise.

In a survey of Spanish cultural attitudes, 33% said they thought bullfighting should be banned and 46% opined that the bulls should not be killed. At least not in the ring. 61% felt that illegal immigration led to higher levels of delinquency but I don’t think they were asked whether global warming kept them awake at night. Not close enough to home, I suspect.

An American contender in the current Lisbon-Dakar road race [whatever happened to Paris?] was found bewildered outside the bus station in central Sevilla on Tuesday. I knew some sat-nav programs were unreliable but this surely takes the biscuit. I have this vision of confused local residents trying to board a filthy Hummer Monster as it drives round in circles.

Galicia Facts

The favoured money-laundering routes for Galicia’s drug barons are said to be construction, vineyards and hotels. Which should surprise no one. I mean, what else is there? Banks? El Banco de los Narcotraficos??

25% of our rural ‘nucleos’ have less than 10 inhabitants. And in 39 councils of the Lugo and Ourense provinces more than 40% of the residents are over 65. I wonder how the tide of Brits buying ruined houses up there will impact on these statistics over the coming years. They could well be the salvation of inland Galicia. But I doubt whether it’ll do much for the spread of Gallego.