Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain
Spain- I forgot to watch the first Pamplona bull-run live this morning but caught up with it here. I'm always surprised there aren't more injuries and deaths but I suspect that, statistically, it's actually more of a risk to venture onto a zebra crossing in Pontevedra city.
- For anti-taurinos, there's more on the Pamplona protests, unappreciated by the aficionados, of course.
- Only in Spain?
- The latest developments in the saga of traffic restrictions in central Madrid.
- I've talked of the rapacity of Spanish banks. . . Using an ATM in France is mostly free but charges in Spain soon rack up. On a recent trip, withdrawing €20 in San Sebastian cost as much as £24.34, compared with just £17.95 in Biarritz. Spanish banks want to recoup their costs of the transactions, plus pocket a little bit extra on top.
- Which reminds me . . . As I've said before, don't fall for the dynamic currency conversion scam. This is when a bank or shop offers you the chance to be charged in your home currency. This is merely to hit you with a lower conversion rate than that of your own bank or credit card company. Just say No to the ATM or 'In Euros' to the shop or restaurant staff.
- Which reminds me 2: The recent changes in the mortgage laws and the banks' reaction to them appear to have led to 'chaos'.
- It's not normal in Spain for dinner guests to offer to stay and help you 'wash up', though it does happen. I'm going to check on why this might be but my initial theory is that it's connected to the fact that most(all?) Spanish middle-class families have a chica who comes in quite often, or even a full-time maid. Complete with uniform in some cases.
- A very relevant article on the dreadful Modelo 7
- Prime Minister Boris Johnson is a done deal. The real question is what he will do when, not if, he gets the keys to Downing Street in just over a fortnight. Of course, no one really knows. And even BJ's keenest supporters seem willing to believe he's capable of a huge U-turn. On anything and everything. Which might well be good news
- The dragged-out election of the next Commission President isn't over yet; there's still some shouting to be done . . . Ursula von der Leyen emerged last week as the surprise choice of EU leaders after a backroom deal fixed up by Emmanuel Macron and backed by an unlikely ally, Hungary’s deeply Eurosceptic prime minister. However, the German defence minister may still have to fight to win the support she needs from MEPs, who will vote on her candidacy next week. The ballot is secret, which will leave scope for her to be knifed by the disgruntled.
- You might well think there are no border problems between EU member states, and certainly not between those in the Schengen Area. If so, think again. Not for the first and only time, the French take a . . . well, French view of things.
- Possibly good news. . . Britons abandon Facebook as usage plummets by more than a third in 2019.
The Way of the World
- “Left-modernism”: An intolerant new ideology hellbent on driving from universities anyone who dissents from the progressive orthodoxy on race, sexuality and gender. See the letter to the Times below
- I was unfair to my curry-lunch guests yesterday; 11 of the 12 turned up, and pretty much on time, in fact. When I wasn't ready to receive them! Plus 2 a couple of hours later.
- The sparrows appear to be making a comeback in my garden, complete with babies.
- But my neighbours tell me I have 'huge' rats in my palm tree, possibly attracted by the bird feeding station that brings the sparrows, green finches, yellow-hammers, collared doves and wood pigeons. But not the robin, which disdains seeds.
Matthew Goodwin’s account of the movement to shut down debate in our universities (“Mob rule is crushing the campus”, News Review, last week) highlights the case of Noah Carl, a promising young researcher whose academic career has probably been killed by his wrongful dismissal from St Edmund’s College, Cambridge.
To deliver this blow against free inquiry, Noah’s radical critics created an elaborate narrative of “race scientist assisting the far right”, splicing together superficial images from various activities to confirm their prejudices.
Noah did not do research on race and intelligence or withhold publications from his CV. The conference he spoke at and the journals he published in did not focus on race, and they featured a global, multiracial set of contributors.
This is another example of what, in my book Whiteshift, I term “left-modernism”: an intolerant new ideology hellbent on driving from universities anyone who dissents from the progressive orthodoxy on race, sexuality and gender. The aim is to produce a safe space presided over by progressive virtue police among staff and students. It must be resisted.
Eric Kaufmann, Professor of politics, Birkbeck, University of London
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