The judge in the case of the cartoon alleged to have been overly disrespectful of the Spanish royal family pronounced that it had ‘crossed the thin line that separates satire from insult’ and so was illegal. The man has the wisdom of Solomon. Or at least he must think he has.

As if they didn’t have enough to worry about, our local estate agents are now facing a bombing campaign. The primary candidates for the latest incident are reported to be a small – and unknown to me - revolutionary group of Galician nationalists. These are followed by the usual local suspects of ‘people settling accounts’. In difficult times, though, there’s surely room for a suspicion of an insurance job. Albeit drastically executed.

Spanish politics: I see my vote for the next Socialist president - Deputy Prime Minister, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega – has now been given the additional challenge of ‘supervising foreign policy’. Which must have gone down well with the Minister responsible. In other circumstances, this would have afforded the lady even more chances for photo-ops but, given the existing one-a-day frequency, this will surely be impossible. At least in El Pais. My guess is that she alone is responsible for Spain overtaking Britain in the top ten list of countries where there’s some degree of male-female equality. A development which may have raised a few eyebrows. Especially female ones.

I see the Catalan government plans to impose a special tax on plastic bags, a turn of events with which I am decidedly sympathetic. Opening the box of a new phone I bought yesterday, I found each and every one of its contents to be encased in its own bag, including the bloody instructions. Something has to be done to stop this nonsense. But at least they’d put the Spanish and Portuguese leaflets in the same bag. And for such small mercies . .

A British columnists asks this morning “Where on the planet can't you get a Starbucks decaf latte these days?”. Well, here in Pontevedra, for a start. Thank God.

Which reminds me . . . I passed a police car parked in the old quarter last night with its engine running. Nothing too strange about that, of course, but there was no one in it. Resisting the temptation to move it round the corner, I commented to my colleague it must be because of things like this that the municipal police here are dismissed as clowns or country bumpkins. Unlike, I should stress, the fine officers of the Guardia Civil, who come very quickly and in droves if you tell them someone is in your garden.

Finally – Could there be a better example of Google search specificity than this?:-
Large photos of beautiful women scantily dressed
I suspect he wasn’t disappointed. Other than by ending up at my blog.