Over at Notes in Spain, young Ben Curtis expresses his dismay and disgust at how he found Gibraltar to be on his recent visit there. I recall experiencing the very same sentiments about 25 years ago. He thinks its salvation lies in being absorbed into Spain and I agree. And so does the British government, as it has done for decades. Unfortunately, neither the feisty inhabitants nor the sensationalist British tabloid press agree. But that’s democracy for you.

Talking about other bits of the Iberian peninsula, I sometimes get the impression the Spanish regard Portugal as very like Britain, only even duller. They may be right. I had thought the UK’s tabloid press was the worst in the world but I now read that Portugal’s Diario de Noticias is alleging the police there are convinced that the McCanns and their friends are all implicated in the death of Madeleine, the 4 year old who disappeared in the Algarve a few weeks ago. The evidence is said to be phone intercepts between them. I suppose anything is possible but I suspect even the most scurrilous elements of the British yellow press would baulk at this. Perhaps it’s revenge for the allegations in the UK that the Portuguese police have been incompetent throughout the investigation. The feelings of the McCanns apparently counting for nothing.

Talking of the UK, it’s reported this morning that “A homeowner has been arrested and questioned by police after an intruder he confronted during an alleged burglary fell out of a fourth floor window. Officers arrested the 56-year-old occupant of the flat on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm with intent”. As no one witnessed the incident and the burglar is unconscious, one wonders at the thought processes of the police. Not to mention their basic attitudes. But it’s long been established in the UK there’s little you can do to a burglar that doesn’t infringe his human rights. Possibly you can, with impunity, give him a good tongue lashing. But that’s about it. And, if he’s very sensitive, even this might land you in court. Burglary rates, of course, increase annually.

According to a report from the European Commission, the price hikes in Spanish bars and restaurants when the Euro was introduced were higher than anywhere else in Europe. Prices are said to have risen 40% since the end of ’98. I’ve always assumed the owners saw it as too good an opportunity to miss, given that fierce competition in an over-supplied market normally tends to keep both prices and profits down. Hard to blame them if the customers kept coming. As we did. And do.

Down in New Zealand, a couple were refused registration of their son’s name as 4Real. So they compensated by calling him Superman instead. They’d have had a tougher time in Spain. Here, I believe, names can be rejected if they’re unusual or not indicative of gender. Though I suppose their final choice met the second requirement.

Although I saw it in Japan 15 years ago, I had thought recycling was relatively new to Europe. But I read last night it was enforced in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, as part of the strategy of making the country self-sufficient ahead of Hitler’s planned military escapades. It was rigorously enforced and it’s possible you faced execution for putting things in the wrong container. Such a policy would at least decimate my neighbourhood, where a certain amount of confusion seems to reign. Though I guess it could be another example of Spanish aversion to rules.