Well, that didn’t last long. Within less than 24 hours, the Economy Minister slapped down the Housing Minister, saying her plans for tax incentives to boost the rental market were ‘just thoughts’ at this stage. Could this be evidence of the lack of experience I cited yesterday? Though, of course, she’s not now as wet behind the ears as she was 48 hours ago.

I see a hefty fine has been imposed on BAA for its failure to achieve targets for moving passengers through security checks. Several Spanish readers have taken rather badly the complaints against BAA and insisted they’ve arisen only because the company is Spanish-owned. I even saw an article in one of the heavy papers suggesting it was indicative of British commercial chauvinism, though the author rather undermined his case by failing to cite any similarly ‘unjustified’ criticism of the American, German, French, etc. companies which own huge swathes of British industry. So his real accusation was, presumably, anti-Spanish attitudes. Personally, I think this is nonsense and evidence of victimist thinking. Heathrow and Gatwick have been hellholes for ages and it’s impossible to believe Ferrovial weren’t aware of this and didn’t know what they were getting into. If the imminent inquiry proves they really did cut investment in passenger services, then they’ll have no one to blame but themselves. And anti-Spanish attitudes will have had nothing to do with it. Vamos a ver. Meanwhile, BAA has said their new chief operating officer’s task will be to “bring substantial improvements to our operational performance.” Which sounds like a bit of an admission to me. Click here for more on the Spanish connection. As the article says, “Why Ferrovial chose to take on BAA and in particular Heathrow - one of the world's least favourite airports - remains a mystery”.

I also read that in the UK “Energy companies are cashing in on Government subsidies by building wind farms that will never make any money because they are being constructed on sites with not enough wind”. I have to admit this is a suspicion which crosses my mind every time I drive up into the hills and see yet more of these ugly giants disfiguring the skyline. In the UK, it’s reported that “To meet EU targets for renewable energy, the Government has subsidised the wind turbine industry by half a billion pounds. Yet companies have not managed to deliver even 0.5 per cent of Britain's electricity needs”. I wonder what the numbers are for Spain.

I’ve become aware this week that the Google ads on my screen are not the same as those on other readers' screens. So I guess Google is using all the data they have on me to target what the computer says are my interests or needs. But how on earth does it know I’m considering buying a horse? All very eerie. I think I’ll test the theory by writing numerous emails to myself about, say, buying a penguin.

Talking of emails and eeriness, there’s been a massive drop in spam messages to my Terra address over recent days. But I await the storm after the calm. Perhaps the first sign was a message this morning offering me a job with a Latvian company, signed by their CEO, Dik Stain. Which is not a name I’d be proud of.

An article in the August edition of Prospect magazine says that the USA and the UK may end up getting none of Iraq’s oil, once it is flowing again. I wonder what the war-for-oil conspiracy thinkers will come up with then.

Finally, a better-than-average list of odd arrival routes for this month:-
is ‘queered’ valid in scrabble?
E.U. babel whore
Doomed to be Stoned in Sludge Swamp
spaniards white socks
Riot nacionalidad The Brethren Of The Long House
spain running of the midgets
why are galician people different than the spanish people
spanish holiday sardines in a casket
gay policeman porn