The first day of August and the Atlantic blanket has put in an early appearance. Happily, it’s forecast to disappear by tomorrow, having reminded us who’s boss around here.

Spain’s telecommunications watchdog is trumpeting that this year’s increase in Telefónica’s monthly charges will be small and fixed for a couple of years. It’s funny but I don’t recall them telling us these have risen by 90% over the last 6 years. No great surprise to read that profits this year have increased by 66%. If I didn’t hate the company – and wasn’t so stupid – I’d have been a shareholder for some time now. The CEO’s task of delivering dividends must be the easiest in the world. Though he might be a tad worried about an EU report this week that Telefónica would have had 500m euros less income if it had applied the correct wholesale ADSL prices to its competitors. But probably not. He has friends in high places. I can’t see this being a resignation matter; fleecing your captive customers is a Spanish tradition.

Down in Castile, environmentalists prevented the poisoning of voles when numbers were seen to be high early in the summer. As a result, there are now many millions of the voracious little buggers rampaging their way through the crops. Allegedly, one female can have 400 grandchildren within 15 weeks. Which is a lot of names to remember. And a quick route to a plague.

Talking of foodstuffs and the dilemma I’ve noted, the Voz de Galicia tells us this morning that “More evidence that the movement of cereal crops into the area of biofuel production will cost consumers more for food has emerged today; analysts say basic foodstuff prices - for bread, milk and eggs - are set to increase by 20%”. I blame it on global warming.

The federation of construction companies and estate agents has met with the government and asked for help in “cleaning up its image”. Call me an old cynic but I suspect this is centred on requests for financial help, now that the unprecedented building boom is over and life is not so easy for the ‘kings of brick”.

Finally, some good news. Spain has seen – in progressive Barcelona – the first jailing of a bar owner for flagrantly flouting the noise regulations and making life hell for his neighbours. There will surely be more of these judgements as affected citizens get more and more fed up with the growth in Spain’s raucous nightlife.