Following hard on the heels of the UK elections and the French presidential contest come the local elections here in Spain. The serious papers are now not so much heavy as ponderous. One can certainly have too much politics.

Nonetheless . . . The general Spanish take on the events in France seems to be they’ve proved how much more participative, democratic, civil and mature they are across the Pyrenees. In particular, the Spanish are clearly impressed by the high turnout. But no one has hinted this might be because:- 1. the French are very much more worried about the state of their country than the Spanish are, and 2. last time round voter abstentions allowed Le Pen to go into the second round and so assured the detested Chirac of victory, merely so long as he was still breathing on the following Sunday evening.

Of course, one does have to suspend belief ahead of elections in Spain. This is the time, for example, when the incumbent party makes predictions for the introduction of the high speed train which look fatuous compared with progress todate. Here in Pontevedra, the BNG mayor’s theme is ‘1,000 more ideas’. I hope these include:- 1. How to get out of the town in a car if you’re foolish enough to drive into it, and 2. How to stop the drains in the old quarter smelling like they haven’t been cleaned since Teucrus sailed from Greece to found the place just after the Trojan Wars.

Which reminds me – I regular say British society is now insane. So here’s a little bit of evidence for this extravagant claim: Walking the streets of British towns is hazard enough thanks to the irresponsibility of owners who allow their dogs to foul the pavement. Now Cheltenham has added an element of the surreal to tiptoeing through the canine minefield. Council workers are spraying red rings round offending evidence. A week later a yellow ring is added. If anything remains after a fortnight a white ring is added. It is meant to shame the owners. This bizarre scheme leaves the good pedestrians of Cheltenham hopscotching around the sinister bullseyes of pavement archery targets. The most shameless dog owners remain unshamed. This is an abdication of council duty. If local councils do anything, they should at least keep the pavements clean. Otherwise they deserve to be kicked out. There is such a thing as voting with one's feet.

The Supreme Court has upheld a 4-year gaol sentence given to a Barcelona restaurant owner for breaching noise regulations. “This may seem severe”, says El Mundo, “but cases like this highlight just how lax implementation of the law is in this area”. Quite. The gentleman in question had opened the business without a licence, flouted the city’s noise ordinances, re-opened the place three times after closure by the authorities and completely ignored the several judicial orders served on him to reduce noise levels to those permitted. Not surprisingly, then, on top of his time inside he will have to compensate neighbours for damage to their physical and mental health. But will he be the first of many? Or just another Catalan martyr?