Constitutional change?; Gib again; Noise again; Cecil the lion; & Tiffintown awards.

The governing PP party has announced it'll be looking hard at the constitutional change everyone agrees is vital for modern Spain. Needless to say, this will allow it to stress the division between it and the opposition PSOE party on the question of greater devolution for Cataluña. So, more of a political expedient ahead of the elections later this year than a serious intent to address a critical issue. Which is no more than to be expected.

Needless to say - ahead of said elections - the Gib confrontation has been cranked up further. Witness this headline yesterday: Gibraltar hits back at Spain's claim its waters are haven for drug smugglers. Reader Mike commented yesterday on this issue, making the correct point that the British government would love to get shut of The Rock, something well evidenced by Cabinet papers released in the last few years. But you'd never get a Spaniard to believe this. And not many would accept Mike's other correct point that it'd be wiser for Spain to treat Gibraltarians well, rather than alienate them. But, with a PP government, Hell is likely to freeze over before this is even contemplated. The price of having an ultra-right wing. The last PSOE gvernment was far more conciliatory, and got mercilessly lambasted for it.

Back to noise: I was taking an early coffee in the Savoy café yesterday when a group of street performers arrived and switched on their speakers. The cacophony would've been deafening half a bloody kilometre away. So I left, after explaining why to the staff - who admitted they couldn't tolerate it either but had to. I passed the (mime) performers en route to my regular bar and noted they were crap. So, in effect, ultra-loud music was all they had to offer. Spain is different. Unnecessarily and unwelcomingly so in this case.

A query: Why do people tautologously say "At that moment in time"? Thoughtlessness?

Cecil the dead lion: This is Private Eye's take, from the point of view of the US National Rifle Association:

Finally . . . I was impressed to see that the owner of my favourite tapas bar had been given the award of Friend of Pontevedra, along with luminaries such as the dean of the College of Lawyers, a film director, and Los Black Stones - a 'rock and pop' group. I was even more impressed to see him wearing a suit in the foto, given that a less-than-pristine T-shirt is all he normally manages.

And here are the lucky Black Stones. They appear to be rather on the aged side to me. So have presumably had a long wait for this signal honour.