Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly
loveable.
-
Christopher
Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain.
Cataluña
- The left wing parties there are trying to establish a united front that cuts across pro and anti secessionist sentiments. Details here.
- Meanwhile, polls are suggesting a very hung parliament. God only knows what this will mean in practice in the coming months.
- Fearing trouble, Madrid is said by to be planning to send lots of 'Spanish' civil guards to the region for election day, 21 December. Might well be counter-productive.
Spain
- Corruption with the Spanish Football Association is threatening Spain's involvement in the next World Cup. Something which is hard to believe will really happen.
- Brits are said to he the most frequent inquirers about purchasing entire Spanish villages. North Americans prefer vineyards and the Germans castles. Wonder what that suggests.
- Madrid, like other cities in the EU, is hoping to benefit from the UK's post-Brexit losses. No poverty of ambition, it seems.
- In sharp contrast, Madrid seems very determined to stop foreign companies buying that it thinks are strategic Spanish assets. Don Quijones here confirms what we've all known for years - that different rules apply for different EU members, most obviously Germany and France. Might is right, as some German once said.
The USA
- An amusing(?) insight into American judicial appointments under Fart.
The UK
- Richard North's verdict on the Brexit negotiations yesterday: The UK has been shafted – the only thing we don't get is the orange jump suit. The stupidity of Mrs May and her advisors and all those precious little groups of intellectual pygmies who eschewed the "Norway option" have led us down the path to perdition, the very outcome we could have avoided by re-joining Efta and staying in the EEA. In the annals of stupidity, this ranks alongside the Charge of the Light Brigade, even if the survivors are going to walk away alive. By the time this has finished, they may well wish the Russian guns had mown them down. If that's not clear enough for you, here's today's post of his, on Mrs May's delusions.
Galicia
- X and his partner fell in love with Galicia when they were touring Spain. “We felt we could breathe, and the coastline was wonderful - like Cornwall on steroids.” [Well, not so much steroids as cocaine, perhaps]. In 2016, the couple bought Vilacha, a hamlet 30 minutes inland from Galicia’s north coast. For “the price of an average British semi”, they got 12½ acres of forested land, two water springs, one liveable house, three half-renovated houses and three further roofless ruins. Please don't all rush. Try Asturias, next door. Even more rural. And with fewer drug barons and addicts. And summer fires.
Pontevedra
- The Spanish RAC says that - per their criteria - the most dangerous spot in the whole of Spain is a crossing just outside the city on the 'old road' to Ourense. This astonished me, as I've passed it many times over the years and never seen an accident there.
- I left my flat cap in my watering hole on Friday evening. Need I say that, when I went back yesterday morning, it hadn't been handed in. As with several umbrellas over the years. This is what 'a low ethics society' means. I recall the guy at the Prado desk in Madrid years ago, smiling at the suggestion they might have a Lost Property Office where my expensive pen would surely be found.
Today's Cartoon
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