The EU spends vast amounts on translating the 23 languages used in the Brussels Tower of Babel. So it’s not surprising some people feel something should be done to reduce this expenditure. Few, though, have gone as far as a young man from Estremadura here in Spain. Along with a few friends, he's re-invented what they claim is the source of all these languages – Indo-European. All very impressive. But sad. Even though they may well get the verbal support of those in Brussels whom El Mundo refers to as the ‘victims of English’, they’ve surely got as much chance of success as I have of becoming the next Pope. But what an heroic failure. And perhaps they can form a strategic alliance with Esperanto speakers.

Flicking through El Mundo’s magazine section yesterday, I was brought to a sudden halt by the sight of something I thought I’d never see in Spain – a young mother telling her child to be quiet because he was disturbing someone else’s tranquillity. But it turned out to be one of a fascinating series of macho, politically-incorrect ads from the Franco era. Besides, the episode was taking place within a home, not in the street. Or in a restaurant, theatre, cinema, etc., etc.

I’ve said more than once that I view Rupert Murdoch and his tabloid empire as the 20th century equivalent of the Vandals who sacked Rome. And Tony Blair’s alliance with him as equal to Faustus’s pact with the Devil. Indeed, I’ve been known to refer to the consequence of this as a modern form of mob rule. These thoughts rose again when I heard the released British sailors were to be allowed to sell their shameful stories to the tabloid press. So it’s not terribly surprising I found myself in full agreement with an article today by Janet Daley which begins:–

So it comes to this: not a threat of action or even a diplomatic showdown with Iran over its criminal act of seizing hostages, but a PR war. In their disgust at the decision to permit the Inglorious Fifteen to sell their stories to the press, some senior military people have proclaimed themselves shocked by the "media circus" that the Ministry of Defence appears to be condoning. What did they expect? Unprecedented, bizarre, shaming - yes, all of that. But scarcely surprising. Once Iran's lunatic of a president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was perceived to have pulled off what a procession of commentators decreed to be a "public relations coup", the Blair Government knew that it had to mobilise its most terrifying forces. Never mind UN resolutions. No more messing about in boats trying to block Iranian arms being shipped into Iraq. There was only one source of power in the world that could rescue us from this humiliation - the tabloid newspapers. What could possibly cancel out the memory of Mr Ahmadinejad's beaming triumph as the grinning British personnel received their goody bags and their "gift" of freedom? Why, the deeply human stories ("the private torment") of each of those captives, of course - as told to a tabloid reporter more accustomed to retailing the agonies of footballers' girlfriends. Iran may always have been the most important supplier of the insurgency in Iraq that is murdering British troops and Iraqi civilians - we could live with that, apparently. But once it had won the Battle of the Media, it was time to get serious.

There are at least two stupendously good things about Spain, both of which have been highlighted by this latest evidence of Britain’s decline. Firstly, there is no Murdoch-type, scurrilous tabloid press here. Secondly, the Spanish people retain a well-developed sense of nobility. Doubtless there’s a connection.