It’s been announced that - from 2010 perhaps – the Spanish tax office, the Hacienda, will try to get to get to grips with the black economy by checking all transactions over 3,000 euros. The odd thing is this is what I was told the situation was when I came here in 2000. Perhaps they were just thinking about it back then.

Prostitution in the UK is far less a feature of the culture than it is here in Spain. Nonetheless, the British Minister responsible for domestic affairs has announced a new measure aimed at reducing it further. Most commentators – particularly women columnists – think the new law is well-intended but unworkable. I agree but at least it reflects the political will to tackle the issue of trafficked and abused women. Something which seems years – if not decades – away in this [nominally Catholic] country. Even with a government in which more than half the cabinet are women. Shame.

When times were good, Spain’s construction companies amassed cash at such a pace they scarcely knew what to do with it. But, luckily, acquisition consultants were on hand to help them. As they always are. So, Ferrovial bought the British Airways Authority [BAA], for example. And Sacyr bought a large stake in the major Spanish oil company, Repsol. Well, times have changed and both the surviving construction companies and their banks are now desperate for liquidity. So it is that Sacyr comes to be selling its Repsol shares to the Russian company, Lukoil. The funny thing is a week or so ago there was universal outrage here when it seemed these would go to the Russian government. As of now, there’s still almost a consensus that the government should - if it can - stop this deal. But there’s one key voice in favour and that belongs to the president, Señor Zapatero. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I’d say this is because he’s doing favours to friends in the major Catalan bank, La Caixa. But this is surely nonsense.

The La Manga Club down in the south - the favourite watering-hole of celebrity footballers – is another operation in deep financial trouble. As Mark Stucklin says over at Spanish Property Insight, “Problems at La Manga Club herald trouble for tourist businesses in other parts of Spain. That means more bad news for the Spanish economy, and ultimately the Spanish holiday home market.” Oh, dear. Just when Spain needs more drunk or sober Brits than ever, the plummeting pound means they can’t afford to come here.

If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if you responded to one of those scam emails from Nigeria, take a look at this amusing account.

Galicia

I mentioned the other day the works taking place outside the HQ of the Rias Baixas tourist board. I later read that they’d found a stone ball there which they thought must have been fired into the city by a medieval siege catapult. So I went to get a picture today. It looked vast in the Diario de Pontevedra but it must have been a deceptive close-up as all I could find was the blue-shrouded sphere in this photo. Though I guess they might have taken it to the museum.


On reflection, it might well be smaller than I expected but I still wouldn't have liked to be hit on the head by it.