In the UK, Mr Brown says he’ll somehow increase the annual number of new houses from 200,000 to 250,000. Britain’s population is 60m, against 40m in Spain. Yet here the reported number for new properties for 2006 was a staggering 800,000. It’s doubtful that immigrants bought many of these, so this means an awful lot of foreigners still piling into the costas or, more likely, profit-hungry Spaniards buying second and third properties. Support for this conclusion came yesterday in a report that Spain’s “accumulated productive wealth” had grown 50% in 10 years, to 4.4bn euros. Of this, just over half is represented by ‘property’ and 39% by ‘construction’, which includes the country’s infrastructure. ‘Eggs’, ‘basket’ and ‘all’ are words which spring to mind.

Actually, although 800,000 properties were built last year, less than half were sold, meaning the excess of supply over demand increased significantly. Given the starts in 2005 and 2006, the same will surely happen this year and even in 2008. So watch out for some revaluation of Spain’s wealth.

The Conservative Euro-MP, Daniel Hannan, made some interesting observations on Spanish politics in his blog yesterday. Even if you're not inclined to read the whole thing, you might appreciate the cited comment of the Basque philosopher Miguel de Unamuno. Speaking before the civil war, he noted that “Spain is divided between the Anti-Exers, who favour Z, and the Anti-Zedders, who favour X”. Provocatively, Hannan says this still holds true. As I read – or ignore – the insults directed at me from some Spanish readers, it comforts me to know it’s not just me they don’t like. The probably can’t stand each other either. I was reminded of these deep divisions in Spanish society when reading yesterday of different attitudes towards the commemoration of the murder, 10 years ago this week, of a politician in the Basque town of Ermua.

Hannan touches on the bull-running in Pamplona. Yesterday, one of the condemned titans separated from the herd and justified his name of Universal by goring men from a wide range of nationalities. Steinbeck would surely have seen this is a cosmic joke. Which is not so say there’s anything funny about it.

Talking of names . . . Those most popular in Galicia last year were Pablo and Lucía. Nationwide, they were Alexandro and, again, Lucía. The former had to contend with Daniel and Marc but, for some reason, Lucía swept the board in 13 of the 17 regions. Down in Murcia, parents seem to be stuck in the 20^th century, or possibly even the 19^th, as they again plumped for María. We look to Murcian for an explanation of this. Or his wife, whose name we probably already know.

When they want to portray a greedy capitalist, Spanish cartoonists invariably show a fat, middle-aged man, smoking a cigar and sporting the sort of stovepipe hat not worn for at least a hundred years. This is a suspiciously American image, though possibly the addition of sunglasses is an attempt to Hispanicise it. Either way, it’s surely time for some innovation here, amigos. Perhaps a property developer. Or a middle-class family with three homes, two of which are kept empty when young people are desperate to rent.