Courtesy of taxpayers in Germany, Holland and the UK, every time I make a long trip in Spain I bump into a new motorway stretch. Between here and Salamanca last weekend, there were actually two. One at the Ourense end of the new road to Santiago and one between Zamora and Salamanca. Though the latter is really only a continuation of the Ruta de la Plata, which comes up from Sevilla. Or possibly even Cádiz. I wonder if people in the three countries mentioned can look forward to Spanish taxpayers contributing to their highways once Spain becomes a net contributor to the EU in 2013 and the Spanish, per President Zapaptero’s prediction of only last year, will be richer than the French and possibly even the Germans. And squadrons of pigs will be executing a fly-past at the Constitution Day ceremonies.

This article shows why it’s important to Spain which way currencies move and why publicity about corruption and abuses in the south of Spain are not as irrelevant as many folk down there seem to think. In a nutshell, the Brits utterly dominate the market for expat homes. Perhaps one day they’ll be allowed to vote in both local and national elections. Not just those of the unimportant EU variety. Meanwhile, Mark’s conclusions are hard to quarrel with. It will be interesting to see whether Spain does, in fact, ‘clean up its act’ in the face of what will surely be dismissed as “arrogant British” demands. No one can be more short-sighted than an insulted and angry Spaniard. A bit of tautology for you there.

So, according to a new book, Aznar really is the father of Rachida Dati's baby. Will this mean fewer threats of libel suits? Or more?

Finally, in the interests of fairness and balance but integrity not being what it was, I’ll just sneak this positive news about Santander into my blog on a public holiday.

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