Thoughts from Galicia: 24.10.17

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.

- Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain. 

If you've arrived here because of an interest in Galicia or Pontevedra, see my web page here.

Life in Spain

• Cataluña 1: One commentator's opinion: The situation is becoming fractured beyond belief.
• Cataluña 2: The news no one wants to hear: A senior Spanish cabinet minister has warned that Madrid is prepared to use force to restore order in Catalonia as separatists vowed to resist direct rule.
• Cataluña 3: Equally bad news:- Spain's Deputy Prime Minister told radio station Onda Cero on Monday that the Madrid government's "intention is to return public media outlets to neutrality". The move has provoked concern and significant criticism from media bodies and workers across the country. Given the Spanish government's abject failure to promote 'neutrality' in the Spanish state-controlled media, this is Newspeak at its very best. [Why do I think of Donald Trump when reading that this is “characterised by a continually diminishing vocabulary; complete thoughts reduced to simple terms of simplistic meaning”?] But at least Trump is probably unaware that he's lying. And incapable of appreciating irony. Whereas Spain's politicians surely aren't. Especially when the subject is corruption.
• Cataluña 4: And a snippet that was unexpected.
• Cataluña 5: HT to my friend Richard for this video in which a young Catalan speaks of the nationalists and explains why the PP party should never have put so much wind in their twisted sails.
• Cataluña 6: Nice attempts at humour . . .
• Spain: An insight into the minds of those who think certain numbers will increase their chances of winning one or both of the huge national lotteries, against all the odds. Not to mention logic.
• Brits in Spain: Here's good - if not entirely unexpected - news for us.

Finally . . . German is a language that was developed solely to afford the speaker the opportunity to spit at strangers under the guise of polite conversation: P J O'Rourke.

Today's Cartoon:-

Of all the nerve! Making us sit through the whole of their Bayeux tapestry!