The Spanish president, Mr Zapatero, appeared in parliament yesterday to defend his policy of talking to ETA terrorists. Ignoring opposition demands that he apologise for his mistakes and return to a bipartisan hard line, he did at least say he was sorry for being optimistic on the day before ETA exploded its bomb at Madrid airport, killing two Ecuadorians. If he expected magnanimity for this rare act of political chest-beating, he’ll have been sorely disappointed. The opposition’s line continues to be that Zapatero is a naïve idiot who has put the future of Spain at grave risk. Not to mention his own political career.

Tomorrow is the 300th anniversary of the Union of the English and Scottish nations. In keeping with British tradition, celebrations will be – to say the least - low key. Ahead of the day, there’ve been several polls on the current attitude of the English and Scottish populaces. These suggest growing support in both countries for Scottish independence and so the May elections for the Scottish parliament will surely be pored over meticulously. From a Spanish perspective – unless you live in the Basque Country, Catalunia or even Galicia – the break up of the British union would be an alarming precedent.

Generally speaking, I’m an admirer of the Spanish refusal to create temples to the great god of Safety but I do occasionally wonder whether there shouldn’t be a bit of a move in that direction. Today I watched as a couple of men and a crane levered massive blocks of granite onto the top of a wall already 6 metres [18 feet] high. Not only were neither of the men wearing anything as sissy as a hard hat but the work was taking place directly above cars and pedestrians passing below. So I wasn’t too surprised to see a chunk of granite fall down into the road. I guess it’s easy to understand why the Spanish death-at-work rate is one of the highest in Europe. A macho thing?

A couple in Italy has been arrested for killing their next door neighbours because of excessive noise. If this were to catch on in Spain, the population would be decimated within a decade. At least, around here it would.