Having dealt the death blow to the Spanish empire, Americans are always going to be more unpopular here than the English who set the ball rolling. And the recent confusion of Senator McCain between Spain and the countries of Latin America is probably not going to help shift Spain from the top spot in the list of European anti-American attitudes. Even among those who are quite amused President Zapatero was apparently thought to be just another tin-pot South American dictator. Which, of course, he certainly isn't. Even in his own country.

The recent crash of a Spanair plane at Madrid airport is being investigated by a special commission of inquiry. Or at least it was. There have been so many leaks from its proceedings, the pilot representatives on it have resigned in understandable disgust. No one knows what motive lies behind these leaks - possibly just money - but the Opposition's claim is that the government's own Development Ministry is the guilty party. Which, I guess, is plausible but unlikely. The courts have now stepped in to prevent further dissemination of a video of the crash but El País has complained this is regrettable as there is 'nothing offensive or morbid' in providing access to this. As if these were the only considerations in a delicate semi-judicial process.

I've seen the word crack used here to mean both 'star' and something like the Irish 'craic'. But I struggled to understand its use today in the context of the financial events of the early twentieth century. As in El crack de 1929. Until I realised it was just a mistake for crash. .

In an El País article today on the different forms nationalism takes in the Basque Country, Cataluña and Galicia, the writer ended with the observation that, at least in the first two cases, although the models might be different, they nonetheless still dictated the destabilisation of the Spanish state. Which is a nice prospect.

I may have got this very wrong but the Spanish banking industry looks like it took a big step into the 21st century this week. For Caja Madrid are offering the same attractive rates to not only new customers but also to its existing [rather captive] customers. Which seems pretty revolutionary to me. But, as I say, I might be doing the industry an injustice here.

For those of you with an interest in the majority British view of the EU, here's one man's view of how things have progressed over the last 20 years.

Galicia

One or two readers have kindly suggested that the correct translation of jodechinchos would have been mackerel-fuckers and not just fish-fuckers. In fact, the most accurate rendition would, I believe, have been horse-mackerel-fuckers. All of which is a lead into my point that, whereas I - and possibly you - think the mackerel is a great little fish, the Galicians don't rate it at all. I was reminded of this when reading the prices of various fish in yesterday's market. Mackerel was in so little demand, it didn't even make an appearance. Which is good, as it certainly keeps the price down for us mackerel-eaters.