President Sarkozy - currently de facto president of the EU during France's six-month tenure - has congratulated European athletes on beating both China and the USA by winning 87 gold medals in Beijing. This, he added, is a victory for sport and for the fundamental and common values of the peoples of the union. Like what, for example? I wonder if any of them realised they were competing for 'Europe'. And that they'll probably be expected to mouth some words to Beethoven's Ode to Joy next time round.

It's all tosh, of course, but this is what happens when politicians seize on sport for their own narrow benefit. The leader of the Scottish Nationalists - Alex Salmond - jumped on the bandwagon, to say he hoped the Scottish medal winners would be competing in a purely Scottish team in 2012. Only for the greatest of these - the cyclist Chris Hoy - to immediately tell him he was talking rubbish. It's at times like this you realise the dream of Scottish independence may have to wait a while. Whether or not the English want to get shut of the uppity and expensive Scots.

On a wider front, the besieged British Prime Minister - Gordon Brown - grabbed at the opportunity to stress the Britishness of the UK's achievements and to to endorse the suggestion of a British football [soccer] team in the next Olympics. This was music to the ears of Sepp Blatter, President of FIFA, who desperately wants to see the end of separate Scottish, Irish, Welsh and English teams in major competitions. It will, as I often say, all end in tears.

To finish on the subject of sport - I rather liked this view from Times columnist Matt Rudd this morning on what Britain's unexpected success actually means:-- Now we are a sporting nation, we’ve lost the one thing that kept our fragile society together: being rubbish at sport - and being able to laugh about it. We have lost the tearful, nonviolent group pub hugs. We have lost the communal shrugs of derision on the morning- after-national-humiliation train. So, another nail in the coffin of British society. On which . . .

I'm indebted to Private Eye for this text from a job advertisement in the UK:-
The following competencies have been identified as key to success . . . 1. Communication: Able to get one's message understood clearly by adopting a range of styles etc. etc. 2. Resilience: Managing personal effectiveness by managing emotions in the face of pressure, setbacks , etc. etc. 3. Flexibility: Adapts and works effectively with a variety of situations, individuals or groups. Able to understand and appreciate different and opposing perspectives etc. etc. etc.
What you have to decide is whether the company is 1. A major international commercial operator; 2. A major domestic commercial operator; or 3. The BBC. And whether the job is for 1. Chief Executive; 2. Finance Director, or 3. A Gardener. If you're really foxed, click here.

This sort of stuff was garbage when it was introduced into British commercial life 20 years or more ago, giving control of business to Personnel [sorry, Human Resource] clerks. To see it invade the rest of society is profoundly depressing. Or would be if I still lived there. I suppose it was inevitable that my elder daughter's application for a promotion at the British Council in Madrid earlier this year meant wading through reams of the stuff.

But on to lighter things . . .

Telefonica have been criticised by the Spanish Consumers' Group FACUA for announcing a hidden tariff increase in the form of a charge for the previously free call identity service. This will net them a mere €42m for doing nothing. The company president cynically replied that it was simply the ending of a promotional campaign. Possibly the world's longest and most secret as it's been going for at least the eight years I've been here and this is the first public mention of it. Now to test whether one has any choice about retaining the service!

The Catalan Socialist Party [the PSC] is 'confederated' to the national party, the PSOE. But, on the matter of shekels to be retained in the region/nation, it has nailed its colours to the nationalist mast. Unless Madrid gives way, it will not - it says - vote with the PSOE on the national budget debate. One of the minor ironies of this situation is that the PSC president is from Andalucia. And it wouldn't be Spain if the president of one of the minor nationalist parties hadn't criticised him for his poor grasp of Catalan. A colourful place.

Galicia

We will get the announcement about the date of our regional elections this week, when President Z flies in to inspect the AVE works and to re-assure us everything in on track [sorry] for inauguration in 2012. For which the Martians will be invited. The opposition PP party is making a big fuss about tenders for new wind farms, claiming that, as the nationalist BNG politicians and the companies likely to win the tenders are 'interested' parties, adjudication should not take place before the [advanced?] elections. If true, this would be very shocking. And one could understand the PP wanting to be able to take this decision themselves. Impartially. As they surely did with the big white elephant of a new complex outside Santiago.

It's one of the conventional wisdoms of Galicia that the high road mortality figures have little to do with the quality of driving but owe far more to the topography, the 'dispersion of people' and to the 'inadequate roads'. So the BNG is up in arms about the fact that fines collected for motoring offences outstrip investment in road safety by a factor of ten. I would have though this said something about dangerous driving habits but no comment has been made about this.

Finally - A plea for horticultural help. We have 15-25 bushes in our new place in the hills, courtesy of the unusual [for Galicia] fondness for gardening of the original owners. I've been able identify one - Malva rosa [Malvarrosa] or hollyhock. This is the first photo below. The second photo is the first in a series. If anyone can help me out by identifying it, there will be more!




Oh, yes. I can also recognise the lavender. And the fuschia[?] hiding in this photo.