Thoughts from Galicia: 20.3.18

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.

Spain

• In the preliminary rounds of the Rugby World Cup, it was down to Spain and Rumania as to which team would have the last automatic place. Spain's final game was against Belgium, for which the referee and the 2 linesmen were . . .  Rumanian. Guess what happened. Click here to find out.
• Talking of no-shows . . . . Spain, with its concerns re Catalan independence, has always refused to recognise Kosovo. So, Spanish representatives won't attend any summit meeting at which there'll be Kosovans. At least that's consistent. Madrid doesn't care much for self-determination on Gibraltar either. Its solution - Imposition of Spanish sovereignty. Just as in Cataluña, in fact. Though with perhaps more logic in the latter case.

Life in Spain

• Yesterday, I went for a mid-morning coffee in a place close to a secondary school. As usual at this time, there were maybe 15 teachers there, male and female. And it was bedlam. An hour later, it was like a morgue. And I could finally get hold of the local papers to read.
• This was just before I got a lawyer friend to sign – for nothing – a document similar to the one which – after 7 fruitless visits to 2 notaries – I finally got signed in Vigo, at a cost of almost €70. Plus the train fares . . .
• Just as I was last night congratulating myself on completing a 6-point reversal into a tight, diagonal parking space, there was a tap on the passenger window, from a woman indicating I should open it. Her spiel was that she was from Ourense – 110km away – and needed petrol money. At least that's more inventive than any of this month's new crew of panhandlers in Pontevedra. Except perhaps the one with the big plaster of Paris boot and walking stick.

The EU

• Financial engineering cannot stabilise a financial system that is fundamentally unstable. Click here if you're seriously interested in this issue. Italy and Greece aren't the only countries regretting that they fell for the politically driven madness of the euro.

Germany

• The new coalition government. Another caustic view: Put simply, the agreement is chock-full of the policy waffling that has frustrated Washington and a number of Berlin’s other allies for years. And this is the government driving the EU forward. Though nowhere near as fast as M Macron says he'd like.

The UK and Brexit

• Click here for Richard North's caustic view of yesterday's stage-managed 'breakthrough'. The sound of cans being kicked down the road. An EU speciality, of course.

Nutters Corner

• Mike Shoesmith, the executive editor of conservative website PNN News: I believe Stephen Hawking was kept alive by demonic forces. I believe that it was the demonic realm that kept this man alive as a virtual vegetable his entire life just so he could spread this message that there is no God. Evidence? Hawking was born the year Billy Braham began his mission. . . .

Finally

• Another excellent podcast from Adam Gopnik for you, on the Irrationality of Nations. Well, the USA, France and the UK.

Today's Video

Footnote: Could I just advise who arrive via Google + that I plan to quite that site very soon. But . . . There's now a option to get posts automatically via your email. See the box on the top right.

Colin Davies, Pontevedra: 20.3.18