In a statement with which my friend Alfie B. Mittington would surely agree, M. Trichet, the (French) president of the European Central Bank, has rejected the commonplace European view that (Anglo) currency dealers and speculators are responsible for the travails of the euro. It’s the poor state of Europe's public sector, he says, which is to blame for the Continent's troubles. And the fault lies with the European governments themselves. “It is not a question of an attack on the euro. It is to do with the public sector and hence to do with financial stability in the euro area,” This being so, what’s needed, he adds, is a “quantum leap” in peer-to-peer budget monitoring by European governments, and sanctions on those countries failing to meet those terms of the Stability and Growth Pact widely ignored by governments to date. Funny but I seem to recall the Spanish president, Sr Zapatero, calling for such measures earlier this year but being shot down in flames. Perhaps because his standing on matters economic is not awfully high.

I read an interesting report on attitudes to smoking in Spain today, in which it was claimed a sizeable majority are against it. Mind you, it also said that only 30% of people here indulge in the habit, which strikes me as highly questionable. Perhaps when Spaniards are asked whether they are a smoker or not they answer the question “Are you what you would consider to be a very heavy smoker?”

Tonight I had the dubious pleasure of watching an hour of the Spanish version of the BBC’s Celebrity Come Dancing. I’d quite forgotten how Spanish TV can be. In the hour which my visitor and I could stomach, at least twenty minutes were taken up by advertising and possibly more by chat between the hostess of the show, the contestants and the five judges. Of actual dancing there was not a great deal. And then there were the product testimonials given to camera by the hostess! I came away thinking what a blessing it is I can’t get reception from the aerial in my community.

Finally . . . Private Eye this month has a cartoon poking gentle fun at the multiplicity of applications (apps) available for the i-phone. Catflapp, Bathtapp, Handicapp, etc. And then there was Mishapp, illustrated by a broken screen. Very appt in my case, I thought.