There are conflicting numbers in the press but all of them endorse my fear that the reduction in road deaths in Galicia – very welcome as it is – was at the tail end of the national list. In Spain as a whole, they fell by around 10% but here in Galicia the number was nearer 6%, with ‘mortal accidents’ falling by only 2%. Let’s hope for better luck this year. Meanwhile, El Pais has rightly pointed out Spain’s 2006 total of 3,019 is still shocking.

There was a comment yesterday about my poor grasp of Galician. The writer’s main achievement was to demonstrate the confusion that exists among the language’s protagonists. The harsh truth is that the only thing they agree on is that, despite its international irrelevance, Galician should be favoured over Spanish. This they dismiss as ‘Castellano’ and a feature of Castilian imperialism. After that, they can’t even agree on what to call their language. Nor on the word for ‘thanks’. Most amusingly, I’ve seen at least 3 words for a word that crops up a lot in Galician news reports – rain. From memory, these are chova, chovia and chuvia. And possibly chuva. Given the widespread confusion between ‘v’ and ‘b’, it wouldn’t surprise me if there were also choba, chobia, chubia and chuba. At the most ‘purist’ extreme, there is even a group – called ‘reintegrationists’ – who demand that Galego/Galiza/Galiz have its spelling harmonised with that of its sister language, Portuguese. Imagine what life would be like if these nutters got into power. It’s bad enough having to contend with the rag-bag of Trotskyites, Marxists, Socialists and ‘interpendistas’ who form the Galician Nationalist Party, the BNG. The good news is they lost votes at the last election. The bad news is that the socialist party – as in Catalunia – needed to bring them into a coalition in order to take over the government. But that’s Continental politics for you. So, roll on the next elections.

Isn’t capitalism a wonderful thing? You can already buy a plastic doll of Saddam Hussein with a noose around its neck. Though I fear the sartorial details are not exactly right. I wonder if you can buy dolls of Galician nationalists to stick pins into. Or maybe I could make more money selling them a likeness of me. I could give it three different names, to make them even happier.

Galicia Facts

Over the last 20 years, Galicia’s economy has grown steadily but has reduced as a percentage of the national total. The region has similarly lost weight [as the report puts in] when it comes to population. Doubtless the interpendistas would see secession from the Spanish imperial state as the answer to this. With Galician becoming an equal language to English, French and German in Brussels.