Addressing parliament yesterday, President Zapatero studiously avoided the word ‘crisis’ and blamed whatever it is that Spain’s passing through on financial irregularities in the USA and on world commodity prices. Spain, he asserted, was better placed to deal with current problems than Italy, France and even Germany. To the chagrin of all the other parties – large and small – he asserted his government would face up to things by implementing only ‘social democratic’ measures. For all of which he was roundly roasted by the rejuvenated president of the PP party, Sr. Rajoy. Who did use the word ‘crisis’. Sixteen times, I think.

Echoing the queries I raised the other day, a columnist in the right-of-centre El Mundo today stresses that ‘The room for manoeuvre is small. Spain cannot devalue its currency or raise its interest rates. The only area left open is that of taxation policy and – in a very decentralised state – even this is less and less an option’. Summing up the President’s rather relaxed approach, the writer commented:- ‘Sr Zapatero’s ignorant arrogance has now reached heights that are almost artistic. He denies there is a crisis and blames whatever there is on a capitalism that has neither frontiers nor ethics’. Well, if, indeed, lower taxes are the only possible answer and if it’s true that there’s usually a lag of 18 to 24 months before these have a real effect, then we are surely in for a tough two years. Meanwhile, though, we’ve been beaten to the forecasted recession by, of all countries, Denmark. Apparently there was an even greater construction bubble there.

Switching to our northern neighbour, France – The question arises as to whether President Sarkozy has implemented any of the major reforms he promised/threatened en route to power last year. If not, this may explain why – only two days into France’s presidency of the EU – he’s chosen to demand that Europe moves towards more of the protectionism always favoured by Paris. Sadly for him, the EU Commission has immediately slapped him down. Worse, it has sided with the detested British Commissioner for Trade, seen in France (and possibly Spain) as an outrider for more Anglo-Saxon red-in-tooth-and-claw ‘liberalism’. As if this weren’t bad enough, the Polish President has joined his Czechoslovakian colleague in pronouncing the Treaty of Lisbon dead. It can only be up for Sarko from here on in. Let’s hope that at least his spectacular marriage survives his travails.

Searching for good news, I alighted on a report that the Spanish Foreign Minister will visit Gibraltar next year. This will be a first and it’s surely another major step in the right direction - after decades of stupidly counterproductive rhetoric which was of no help at all to successive British governments determined to get shut of the place.

Spain’s Language Wars continue apace. The Basque government has announced that all shops above a certain size must employ Euskara-speaking assistants within a couple of years. On the face of it, this is surely reasonable but, of course, it has to be taken with other measures – e. g. the cancellation of the option of education in Spanish – which are all part and parcel of achieving – as in Cataluña, Valencia, the Balearic Islands and Galicia - the total supremacy of the local language over Spanish. As I’ve said before, I can’t see how this can be stopped other than by a revolt of the local voters/taxpayers. Personally, I’d let them all get on with it so that time – and international commerce – passes a verdict as to whether it was sensible or not. Or until local support evaporates.

On this, I’ve seen several comments in the last week – against the background of the response to Spain’s footballing success - to the effect that nationalism is dying in the regions, in favour of a growing sense of Spanish solidarity. Well, maybe. Galicia’s nationalists usually get just under 20% of the vote, allowing them to play a pivotal role in a coalition with the socialists. So it will be very interesting to see whether they do better or worse than this in next year’s regional elections. Of course, it’s very possible they could lose support but still stay in government, continuing to wag the socialist dog.

My daughter’s wonderful barrio of Malasaña in Madrid is plagued by graffiti sprayers. One of these benighted idiots seems to think he displays his creative genius by simply disfiguring the entrances to each block of flats with inane squiggles. Another interesting thing about my daughter’s front door is that it’s had its lock changed since my last visit. Which would have been nice to know before I spent 15 minutes trying to get the key to work.

Said daughter has recently had her flat completely refurbished. Or ‘reformed’ as they say here. It looks great but still lacks one or two essentials for a man of my age. Like a mirror above the bathroom sink, for example. Which explains why – for the first time in my life - I had to shave kneeling down this morning. She needs a husband. All you need to know is that she’s young and beautiful and owns her own flat. Though perhaps you should also know she’s very bright and doesn’t suffer fools. Even her father. Especially her father.