To be a full-blooded Nationalist party, you must pursue two fundamental goals:- 1. Secession from an ‘imperial’ etc. state, and 2. Suppression of an oppressor’s language. If you’re not committed to either of these aims, there’s no real point to your existence. And, if you embrace only the latter, you can only be a ‘nationalist’ [or, say, ‘Galicianist’] party. So . . . In Scotland, the [‘Nationalist’] SNP must concentrate on independence as things have gone too far with English for them to have any chance of suppression. In contrast, here in Galicia, the [‘nationalist] BNG gave up on independence a decade or more ago and so is compelled to concentrate on language. Take this away and they’re just another loose federation of unelectable Leftists, ranging all the way down to Trotskyites. It’s no great surprise, then, to see even some socialists are finding the BNG drive to suppress Spanish too much to take. As one PSOE party member put it at the start of a letter in El Pais yesterday – Under Franco, the law on language normalisation was an idiocy mitigated by non-compliance. Today, we have a law on language normalisation which is an anti-democratic stupidity aspiring to compliance. Which is my big beef with the BNG. And with the PSOE party for letting them get away with it. But perhaps the tide is turning. This is not, by the way, a cue for all those ‘Nationalists’ who weren’t even born then to write to tell me just how bad things were in Galicia [or Catalunia or the Basque Country] between 1939 and 1976. Even if they’re right, it’s irrelevant now. Revanchist attitudes have no place in a democracy.

On a lighter note, I’m indebted to reader David Carr for the citation of a web portal which allows me to randomly hit humorous sites. I will try to avoid the temptation to post those which really amuse me, so this is my first and last. It will appeal to those who have no great affection for MSN or Norton.

Oh alright, here’s the best extract from a list of court exchanges I saw yesterday:-
Lawyer: "Have you lived in this town all your life?"
Witness: "Not yet."

Having spent 30 years flying around the world – starting when it was almost a pleasure – I now eschew it like the plague. As of the end of this year, I’ll be giving it up altogether. For it’s from then that airlines will allow passengers to use mobile phones. I imagine it will actually be compulsory on Iberia and Click.

If you’d like an analysis which shows just how much the new EU ‘Treaty’ is like the rejected ‘Constitution’, try this.

Logic demands the UK Labour party now delivers the referendum they promised on this development. But, of course, it won’t as defeat is virtually certain. As one commentator put it:- What is really disappointing about Mr Brown's constitutional proposals is that they simply do not address the two most pressing issues facing the country. The Prime Minister will not admit that devolution has created an English democratic deficit that has to be remedied. And he still refuses to give the people a vote on the new constitutional treaty that fundamentally changes our relationship with the EU, despite an explicit manifesto pledge to do so.

Finally, a meteorological note – Here in southern Galicia, the sun is shining brilliantly today, in a cloudless sky. And it’s forecast to hang around for a while. Which is just as well as yesterday was the dankest* summer day I’ve seen anytime, anywhere in the world. Nationalist readers will be disappointed to know I only just managed to save myself from suicide. By drowning, of course.

* El mas húmedo y frío