Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain
Spanish Politics- The general election couldn't have led to a worse scenario, says someone here. And will mean - as on this boat - a bumpy ride ahead.
- Sic transit . . . So, it's Goodbye to the leader of the (f)ailing Ciudadanos party and Hello to his even prettier successor. Who might or might not turn round its fortunes. But I suspect not.
- Meanwhile, all eyes are now on the latest upstart, the neo-Francoist Vox party.
- The VP of the European Commission is said to be perplexed at the small amount of solar energy installed in Spain, given its potential. Aren't we all. Except we know that the last PP government reversed its policies and cut subsidies, leaving many investors high and dry. And perhaps a bit cautious when the policy was reversed again.
- You might expect otherwise but the Spanish have long been excessive users of water. Which is possibly why they're contravening international treaties and denying some of it to poor Portugal. Not very neighbourly.
- The national debate on defence policy is 'brain-dead', says Político here.
- There's said to be a 'factional rift' among Trump-supporting conservatives that's been growing rapidly in recent weeks. Some, it seems, are further to the Right of others and accuse their Ffartist fellow-travellers of being, effectively, traitors. I'm sure, though, there are good people on both sides . . .
- It’s difficult to imagine a more tone-deaf group than the Trump family. Born with silver spoons in their mouths, each and every one of them, they view themselves as the ultimate victims of every dark conspiracy they can conjure. More here.
- Passing through the countryside near Winchester, I noticed that several small villages had 'Worthy' in their name. This turns out to have originally meant a single-family farm. It's said to be rather common in North Devon.
- This Brittany Ferries boat is rather smaller than the one I've usually been on at least once a year for the last 19 years. But at least it has a Reading Room, with wifi that works. Annoyingly, there's a woman disturbing the peace in it by having a long and loud phone conversation. Surprisingly, she's British, not Spanish. Perhaps a Devonian descendant of a shipwrecked sailor from the 1588 Armada . . .
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