The Spanish government has announced new rules for self-employed people. These include the right to a longer holiday if your income comes from one client and the freedom to employ your own children if they’re under 30 and live at home. I find this rather odd since, to me, the concept of being self-employed means you take your own decisions and reap the consequences. I mean, if you’re self-employed in the UK you’re free to do whatever you like and it’s then up to the tax authorities to decide whether your expenses are allowable and your accounts reliable. Perhaps the [over?]regulated Spanish approach is just another way at arriving at the same result. Still on this subject of self-employment in Spain, it’s always struck me as odd that one is obliged to pay a hefty monthly social security contribution [c. 300 euros, I think] from the day you start operating, regardless of whether you have any income. Needless to say, this law is honoured more in the breach than in the observance, with what appears to be a nod and a wink from the tax authorities. Basically, you just don’t tell anyone you’re in business until it suits you.

A reader in Russia suggests the perception of the British as dirty is pretty universal and not just confined to Spain. Possibly so but - contrary to what some Spanish readers seem to think - I find this far more amusing than irritating. But I am left wondering just how people arrive at this conclusion, especially if they've never visited the country, let alone a British home. Could it be they only ever see Brits vomiting in Ibiza? Or could it be extrapolation from the fact that the British dress so shabbily and inhabit streets that are not exactly the cleanest in the world? As to where the fault lies for the latter, I couldn’t say. For years, of course, the threat of bombs from the IRA deprived the public of bins for their litter but I believe things are back to normal now. Might it be that the municipal councils prefer to spend taxpayers' money on things other than efficient litter collection? Outreach officers, for example? Or literature in 5 to 10 languages? This final thought was prompted by the sight of an electoral registration leaflet for my daughter, printed in at least 5 languages. Just to annoy my easily-upset reader, El Lusitano, I‘ll mention that one of these was Arabic. Much the same motivation lies behind my citation of this article, entitled “A lesson in humanity for the smug West”. Though it certainly merits reading in its own right.

Talking of litter . . . The Sunday Times I bought yesterday had 14 sections and weighed - even without the advertising material that cascaded from it - a mere 5 pounds, or 2.3 kilos. I suspect things have been as bad as this - possibly even worse - in the USA for some time now but thank God it’s still possible to carry El Mundo or El Pais home on a Sunday without risking a hernia.

Tune in tomorrow for the first of my two-part mini-dissertation on what I find positive and negative, good and bad, impressive and unimpressive about Spain . . .