Earlier in the week, there was a bit of rumpus around the remarks of the president of a French company about the directors of the Spanish minority shareholders. As I recall, he dismissed them as ‘golfers and orange-sellers’. I was reminded of this when I read last night that Spanish company directors are the best paid in the EU, despite having the lowest attendance record at board meetings. This was attributed to the Spanish custom of giving directorships to members of the family which had previously owned a taken-over company. I can understand why this would explain the low attendance but am struggling with why this would account for Spanish directors being so well paid, earning on average 96,000 euros a year, against the EU-wide figure of 66,000.

I regularly say the Spanish can be the politest people in the world, provided only they have their antennae on and recognise that you are on their radar. If not, well . . . Below is a photo of a rehearsal taking place on the stage of the Roman amphitheatre in Mérida. The couple in white baseball caps in the middle of the noisy thespian throng have wandered on from stage right and are now returning from stage left. This is either the greatest bit of insouciance I’ve ever seen or a perfect instance of Spanish unawareness of others. Judge for yourselves.