By and large, Spaniards have one first name and two surnames. The latter are acquired one from your father and one from your mother. A Spanish woman normally retains her surnames on marriage. The result is that the parents have a set of surnames different from both each other and also the children. Example:-

Father: Antonio García Lino

Mother: Amparo Rodríguez Begoña

Son: Luis García Rodríguez

Daughter: María García Rodríguez.

All of these details – and many others – are contained in the 'Family Book', which is essential in Spain and which Spaniards find hard to believe isn't a legal requirement in every other country as well. Mind you, they also think their complicated system of surnames is universal too. All of this is a prelude to mentioning my discovery that the husband of my lovely neighbour, Ester, has the name Jacobo García-Durán García-Durán. This repetition arises from the fact that his parents were first cousins and both had the same two surnames. Or something like that. And the King is called Borbón y Borbón. To his face. And mujeriego behind his back. Inter alia.

Today I had the pleasure of lunching with Los Porcos Bravos, a group of Pontevedrans who compete twice a year for a 7-a-side trophy called the Anglo-Galician Cup. You may recall that the last game ended 14-1 in favour of my local friends. As you'd expect, the meal today was of wild boar stew and there was so much of it I might not eat again for a day or two. The venue was a bar called El Gato Cheshire, or The Cheshire Cat. I'm not sure why – as it had a different name last time I was there - but, as it's my home county, there's no complaint from me. After lunch, the Porcos Bravos got down to planning their next UK trip and it quickly became obvious that the driving force of the organisation – Fran – had visited more towns and cities in the UK than I either have or ever will. And he even knows more about the pubs of my hometown than I do.

I'm assuming these Spanish words will be as new to many readers as they are to me:-

• Ups: 'Oops'
• Escote: 'Cleavage'
• Pagar a escote: 'To go Dutch'. [Why??]

Well, today's papers were full of what they're calling the biggest corruption scandal yet – the use of offshore funds by the Treasurer of the governing PP party to slip extra monthly payments to at least the top echelon of the party. Now, 22m euros goes a long way so it's reasonable to assume that the money was ending up in the pockets of non-politicians as well. The suggestion has been made today that some of these funds were used to finance the Hollywood-style wedding of the daughter of ex-President Aznar a few years ago. The Spanish, by the way, use the quaint term 'B money' for black money. Not sure why. A(blanco) and B(negro), perhaps. One question, of course, is where the money came from and, as yet, I've seen no comment or conjecture on this.

Anyway, here's a relevant article. I'm not sure I agree with the author that the scandal might bring down the government but it's certainly serious. People close to but below President Rajoy have all been protesting their innocence today, if not their penury. But the president himself is sticking to his normal policy of saying little. Which obviously can't continue. As of now, all he's said is that he thinks it unlikely that the party Treasurer was slipping envelopes of B money to his colleagues. Which doesn't quite fit with the report that he put an end to this in 2009. But an investigation has been launched and so we'll know the truth soon. Maybe.

Meanwhile, the president of a major accountancy firm in Spain has commented:- I believe that the level of corruption we’re now uncovering is well beyond anything that we've had, at least in living memory. This corruption is sending the message that anything goes in this country, which could also really hurt Spain’s image around the world. How very true. So it can't be this which is attracting the increasing foreign investment that was being trumpeted yesterday.

Spain is different. Do you think Brussels understands this yet?