Corruption: You know that the something-must-be-done point really has arrived when you read a headline saying “Mayor was killed for opposing a real estate deal”. And you start to wonder how long it will be before Spain isn’t just used for Western movies but actually transmutes into the Wild West. Or simply becomes Italy Mark2.

Recession (and corruption) notwithstanding, foreigners continue to come to live in Spain in large numbers. Last year, there was a 10% increase in our numbers. The latest rankings and rough totals are:-
1. Morocco 0.8m
2. Romania 0.7m
3. Ecuador 0.4m
4. Colombia 0.3m
5. Britain 0.2m – Followed by folk from China, Italy, Peru, Bulgaria and Portugal.

There are, course, probably far more than 200,000 Brits living in Spain, as not all of them register as residents. And, when you’ve got personal possessions to protect, there can seem to be more than 700,000 Rumanians in Madrid alone. Which is a very unfair thing to say. Unless you’ve had your laptop snaffled by one of them.

Still on this theme . . . I blame Ben of Notes from Spain for this. He recently posted advice how to avoid having your valuables stolen in Madrid. The only one new to me was separating your credit cards from your cash. So I did this last night before boarding the train and, when I woke up this morning, couldn’t find the bloody cards. Only the wallet in which they would have been but for bloody Ben. After a mildly frantic search of everywhere else, I finally looked in my case and found them in a side pocket. I have nil memory of putting them there and, sadly, have to put this down to age.

The same applies to my inability to recall the name of the reintegrista Galician nationalist who used to post abusive comments to my blog. Which is a shame as he appears to have been single-handedly responsible for a large increase in my readership.

Which reminds me . . . I must reject out-of-hand the claim that our friend is really me, playing a convoluted game. However, I am inclined to go with the suggestion that, such is the abysmal image of Galician nationalists he creates, he’s actually a rabid Spanish nationalist who’s succeeding only too well in undermining his opponents. Those of you still reading his blog should perhaps bear this theory in mind when you recoil in incredulity - and possibly disgust - at its content. All might not be what it seems . . .