Thoughts from Hoylake, England: 20.12.18

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. Garish but informative.

England

• There's news this morning of drones causing the complete closure of a UK airport. Needless to say, there were TV interviews with disgruntled (non)travellers. One woman, understandably upset that she and her family couldn't get to Tenerife for the 7th year in a row, bemoaned the fact there was nothing they could do. Adding, wistfully but quite wrongly: “It's all up in the air” . . .
• A TV reporter, commenting on the mayhem caused by the imbecile controlling the drones, opined that flights had been 'majorly disrupted'. A Fartesque addition to the English Language, on par with 'bigly'? The wonder of the English language.
• Talking of the TV . . . Among all the stomach-turning ads of this time of year, there's one which strikes an odd note - for a company called Simplicity. Which does cremations. Is there a higher incidence of death at Xmas? Or is it a traditional time for people to ponder their future? Or, rather, the end of it. Or perhaps it's about saving money so that you can spend more on yourself on having a good time.
• BTW . . . The by-line of Simplicity's ad is: Less of an undertaking. Which is quite nice.
• Sometimes you just have to suspend belief . . . The headline news in all the UK media last night and this morning is not that all knowledgable parties are warning in detail of a disaster if there's no Brexit deal but that Mr Corbyn might well have called Mrs May 'a stupid woman' during the daily pantomime that is PM's Question Time in parliament. As Richard North puts it this morning: The fourth estate is no longer in the business of doing news. We are in the world of panto journalism to match the politics of the madhouse. We are headed for the most important vote of the century and the memory of the moment when the EU set out its stall will be of whether the leader of the opposition called the prime minister a "stupid woman". When future historians come to write this up, will anyone believe them?

Spain

• Time for the traditional Catalan Xmas news.
• Rather more shocking news.
• To my not very great surprise I read recently that, while smoking in Spain has reduced for men, it's increasing for women. Here's the logical but depressing consequence: The cancer that causes most deaths among women is breast cancer, while lung cancer climbed to second place for the first time last year.

The UK and Brexit

• There's an interesting article below from one of the very few people who've changed their mind on Brexit. Or at least on the merits of Mrs May's deal.

Spanish

• Word of the Day: Chaval

English

• The new buzz word: Have you pivoted recently? I only ask because if media reporting is to be believed, everyone in politics is pivoting madly. We’re witnessing a lexicographic explosion in the use of the term. Theresa May is refusing to pivot to a referendum on Brexit but cabinet colleagues are whispered to be pivoting in that direction. Labour, meanwhile, may pivot to a proposal for a half-customs union. On Monday Jacob Rees-Mogg pivoted from last Thursday’s demand that Mrs May resign to a pledge of support. Others may pivot to Norway. Such gymnastics! You don’t switch position, you pivot. Switching position implies admitting defeat but to say “I’m pivoting!” sounds bold, adventurous. I’m waiting now to hear, not of a failed marriage, but of pivoting to a new partner.

Finally . . .

• The wife of a couple I know well told me of this conversation with her husband(H) yesterday:-

H: I have a terrible problem!

W: Yes??

H. I'm serious, it’s very important!

W: OK, what is it?

H: I can't remember where I've hidden your birthday gift

W: That's easy; it’s in your secret hiding place

H: Well, where's that?

W: In the dinning room, second book shelf on the right and behind the third book along.

H: Right.

© [David] Colin Davies

THE ARTICLE

Why I’ve changed my mind about Theresa May’s deal: Alison Pearson

Did you see that letter in the Telegraph yesterday from the Great and the Good calling on the Prime Minister to “take her deal to the British people”. Ah, yes, a second referendum in which people who were too stupid to tell the difference between Stay and Go will now be required to understand a 500-page Withdrawal Agreement.

Anyone spot the logical flaw there?

It goes without saying that the signatories to that letter (some 53 City bosses and business leaders) despise Leave voters, or “extremists” as the Chancellor of the Exchequer charmingly called us last week. What these ‘We Know Betters’ want is a People’s Vote which, or so they blithely assume, will keep us in the EU because “it’s good for enterprise and good for jobs”.

Never mind how shatteringly awful it would be for trust in the democratic process. Never mind that seven out of 10 Conservative MPs represent constituencies that voted for Brexit, as do six out of 10 Labour MPs. Never mind that a second referendum would be like peritonitis in the body politic, spreading poison throughout the system with unknown, possibly fatal, consequences. At least we would stay in the EU, see off those ghastly proles and continue to employ cheap foreign labour which is jolly good for business… oops, sorry, jobs!

Do not be deceived, dear reader, by the sweetly reasonable tone of all those blue-chip Remainers who only want to be helpful and “unblock the logjam in the House of Commons”. Of course they do. Like the orthodontist picking up his drill, they murmur: “Won’t feel a thing…”

Funnily enough, one of the main reasons I voted for the UK to leave the European Union is because I had read up a lot on previous referendums in which a member state had dared to vote against the treaties. In each case, Brussels managed to get them to vote again until they came up with the correct answer. Ireland, Denmark, even France; I could see how they might be manoeuvred into a second referendum, but Britain? Our country would never tolerate such a thing; too proud, too bloody-minded.

Yet, here we are. Powerful forces within and without Parliament, ministers close to  the Prime Minister herself, are plotting to follow the self-same ignominious EU script and re-run the referendum.

Well, I’ve done a lot of reading and thinking over the past few days and I’ve changed my mind. Not about Brexit. I still think that unprecedented vote, that primal roar from the people, sensing their country was being swallowed whole and wanting to claim her back, was right in a way we can scarcely begin to understand yet. But I don’t want it at any price. Thanks to a blundering negotiation, in which more was conceded in the first month than the EU could have hoped for in a year, the perfect purist’s Brexit is no longer within reach.

Theresa May warns us: “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” Well, I don’t think you could call the PM’s deal good, but it has several key elements that Leavers voted for. No more financial contributions, an end to freedom of movement, outside the jurisdiction of the ECJ, the ability to start forging our own trade deals.

I can already hear the machine-gun rattle of the below-the-line commenters shooting me down. Sorry to disappoint you, chaps. But what are we going to do when there’s no majority in the Commons for No Deal and no majority for  Norway Plus (or Turkey Minus Minus)?

I know exactly what hardcore Remainers are going to do. They’re going to leverage all their mighty mates who will present a People’s Vote as the only way out of the conundrum. Then some “independent” johnny will rig the ballot paper so the Leave vote is split. Then Brexit really will be dead and buried. 

Not only that, the bad blood which has set husband against wife, child against parent, which has made enemies of friends, will be even more toxic. There will be no closure, as they claim. There will be wounds and recriminations without end.

If we are as serious as we finally seem to be about at least pretending to prepare for no deal, then small tweaks to Mrs May’s deal may yet be won from the EU. Enough, maybe, to give some assurance on the backstop and satisfy the DUP. Enough to inch the WA through Parliament. Enough to get us to a shoddy, halfway house from which experienced, resolute negotiators can at least have the chance to make a decent trade deal. Then, the PM can step aside with some dignity. 

If Tory MPs allow it (and they’d better, if they know what’s good for them), a true Brexiteer will be put to party members for a leadership vote, followed by certain victory. We may have conceded Round One, but this gives us a fighting chance in Round Two. And if that doesn’t work, we can always do what the Italians do: sign up to everything, then ignore it. Che bello!

You know, I would dearly love to stick with the “No deal? Bring it on!” crowd. But the risk of a second referendum outweighs everything else for me now.

Britain cannot and must not join the list of countries that the EU has humiliated into another vote. We’re better than that. One day they will find out how much better we are. Just you wait.

Thoughts from Hoylake, England: 19.12.18

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. Garish but informative.

England

• Am back briefly in Hoylake, whose high street still has quite a few shops which aren't charity outlets. One place is sub-titled: A Traditional Turkish Barber. I wonder what the hell that is. And how many traditional Turks there are in Hoylake. Or even on The Wirral. 
• A few years ago, when I was studying law, 2-3% of the year got Firsts, the highest degree grade in the UK. Then there came a smattering of 2-1s, quite a lot of 2-2s and a few 3rds. Now, the University of Surrey awards a First to 50% of its undergrads, and a couple of London colleges come in at 43% and 39%. Even Oxford and Cambridge are up as high as 34%. Almost everyone else, it's said, is given a 2-1, and the 2-2 and 3rd awards of yester-years have virtually disappeared. Dare one say it, this is something one might expect of Huddersfield University (38% Firsts), but of elite London and Oxbridge colleges??

Spain

• White villages to visit?
• There are severe problems, says El País here, with meeting the ambitions for teaching in English in multi-language state schools. Not exactly unpredictable but the Spanish are generally optimists. Who dislike detailed planning. Preferring 'spontaneity'. Which does sometimes work. Impresively, even.

The UK and Brexit

• Some/many readers will be delighted to know I've gone into hibernation on this issue. Nothing one reads makes any sense anymore – with the exception of the view that only lunatics – from the far Left as well as the far Right – want the UK to crash out of the EU without a deal in 100 days' time. Oh, and the ancillary view that – while precious few want it – this might well happen.

The USA

• Far more interesting/amusing is this news.
• As is this.

Spanish

• Word of the Day: Majo.

© [David] Colin Davies

Thoughts from Heald Green, England: 18.12.18

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. Garish but informative.

England

• I've moved from dry but cold Leeds back to wet but less-cold south Manchester. At a café in Headingley yesterday morning, I found myself sitting next to a table of 6 young Spaniards, 4 female and 2 male. I assumed they were all students at one or other of Leeds' universities. But, no. They said they were in the UK to work. Which was a tad depressing.

Spain

• The estimable Guy Hedgecoe reviews Spain's People of the Year here.
• Some thought provoking comments on Spain's current political scene here, which is not as un-right-wing as some have liked to believe.
• What the long-living Spaniards eat around Yuletide, allegedly.
• Changes to the rental laws, important for some to know.
• A Galician town goes rather mad. In black and white.

The UK and Brexit

• We didn't have to do Brexit in this damn silly way, says this observer. But, even now – he says - it's not too late to stop being silly. Or rather, 'he said', as this was written a decade ago, back in early November.
• A nice, more-recent comment: Theresa May was unequivocal. She would not, repeat not, permit a second referendum. No way. No chance. Forget it. Not happening. Not a prayer. Not on her watch. Which I suppose leaves only one question. What date will the second referendum be held?

© [David] Colin Davies

Thoughts from Headingley, England: 17.12.18

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. Garish but informative.

England

• Me to younger daughter:-

- I really think both you and your husband need to go on a time management course. Together.

• YD to me:-

- Great idea, Dad. Can we have it as an Xmas present?

• Me to elder daughter in Madrid:-

- I can't find my bloody phone in this café

• ED to me:-

- Dad, you're talking to me on it!

Spain

• According to the Voz de Galicia - in Spanish here - corruption costs each Spaniard around in €2,000 a year. Less than in Italy, though.
• Just as I'm planning to motor to Madrid in January.
• The worst insult a Spanish nationalist can level at a Catalan?
• Something to please Lenox of Business Over Tapas.
• More good toll road news.
• Banksy Banksied in Madrid. But takes it well.

The UK and Brexit

• All seems to be moving smoothly towards a second referendum, master-minded by Mr Smoothy himself, Tony Blair. It'll be fascinating – maybe – to see what the questions are. And how soon Mrs May seeks an extension of the notice period to allow it to happen. Mid January?
• A contrary view: A second referendum would be wrong. It would be by far the biggest attempt to overthrow a democratic mandate ever attempted in this country. Leavers must boycott the vote to save democracy. I can't say I'm persuaded by this. If - as all lawyers know - the 'sovereign parliament' can change its mind and can never bind its successors, why can't the theoretically even more sovereign People have the same right and non-right?
• Boris Johnson has an article today in the UK press arguing against a second referendum. As usual, I can't be bothered to read what The National Oaf has to say. For one thing, I doubt it'll be what he really thinks.

The EU

• It's an ill wind . . . Eurosceptic fantasies of breaking free have been brutally exposed by the reality of Brexit. Day after day, European voters have been schooled in how messy and humiliating the process of leaving can be. They have learnt (as if the Greek tragedy a few years ago wasn’t enough) that the EU will always come out on top. This warning to other nations that have flirted with leaving is incredibly valuable to the EU. Imagine how vulnerable the bloc would be right now were it not for Brexit. Anti-establishment anger is surging, embodied in the 'gilets jaunes' of France. Italian rage against the Brussels machine is being stoked by their populist government. The migration crisis continues to inflame voters from the Continent’s liberal northwest to its hardline southeast. Against this backdrop, support for the EU should be plummeting. Instead, a major pan-European survey this summer found that backing for the organisation is at a 35-year high. This boost in popularity may partly be explained by the fact that (in contrast to the UK’s bumbling) the European Union has come out of this looking as smooth as caramel. In short: Brexit will make Europe stronger than ever. So, the law of unintended consequences in operation. Or was it really unintended??

Germany

• A nice article on the city I recently spent a very pleasant month in.

Spanish

• Word of the Day: Llorica.

Social Media

• It's been a terrible year for Facebook, apparently. Anyone really care?

© [David] Colin Davies

Thoughts from Headingley, England: 16.12.18

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. Garish but informative.

England

• I'm beginning to understand why Spaniards get irritated by British politeness/civility towards strangers. It really can be too bloody much. In a shop early this morning, another customer and I almost came to blows as to who should go ahead to the counter first. But, of course, we'd never have managed to fight because we'd be arguing for days about who'd have the first punch.
• Neither of my regular magazines – Prospect and Private Eye – has managed to get recent issues to me at the addresses I've nominated on my travels. In fact, Prospect haven't managed to get copies even to my home address for 8 months now. They keep extending my subscription to compensate me. But I pointed out to them yesterday – rather robustly, I admit – that they could do this until eternity but, if the magazines never managed to arrive, I'd never actually get anything to read.
• My sister was complaining yesterday that her husband's planning is often unrealistic, making him rather unreliable. I said it might be his 'plans' could be better described as 'intentions', and suggested she check for Spanish blood in his (Irish) family. Perhaps a survivor of the Armada shipwrecks of 1588 along the western Irish coast.
• As I left my grandchildren's play centre yesterday, I saw this odd sign on the gatepost:-

And then I realised I was standing next to this . . . 

Which presumably passes for a sculpture these days.

• A comment on the case of the comedian being asked to contractually bar himself from offending anyone at all:- The government, corporations and media are terrified of causing offence and will succumb to any complaint made by people with skin as thin as the surface tension of blood. This censoriousness infects society and shuts down debate, even though most people consider such fastidiousness both undemocratic and ludicrous. Hear, hear.

Spain

• Good news re some toll roads.
• And possibly good news if you're optimistic enough to buy lottery tickets this Xmas.
• The Olive Press's view of why there's been an outbreak of narco violence down on the south coast.
• Winter-orientated info for the better off.

The UK and Brexit

• A couple of pertinent comments:-

1. We are seemingly stuck in purgatory, where we had been for the last two years, circling pointlessly with no end in sight. Even hell might be preferable.
2. Rebuffed in both Westminster and Brussels, May is coming to resemble a figure from a medieval morality play, scorned and rejected wherever she turns.

• As for the next crazy developments . . . For what it's worth, my own guess is that the notice period will be extended to allow the British and EU establishments to put in place a second referendum, with or without loaded questions.
• But maybe the folk who comprise these power centres should read these comments:- 

1. The probability of a second referendum, once the quixotic goal of a handful of unreconciled Remainers, is increasing with each passing day. It’s not just Brexiteers, fearful of losing the prize they won against the odds two and a half years ago, who dislike that possibility. Plenty of Remainers, too, are nervous about a contest they fear they could lose, thereby closing the door for good on a close relationship with Europe. And others, many of them Labour MPs in pro-leave seats, tremble at the sheer hostility the prospect of a second vote arouses in the people they represent.
2. The challenge will be: to make the referendum exercise itself both legitimate in the eyes of leavers and substantively different to the first one. On the first count, it will help if the ballot is seen as a move by May, rather than a demand successfully pressed by the People’s Vote campaign. It will also help if the two competing propositions on the ballot – and let’s make the hopeful assumption that no parliament would present a no-deal crash-out as if it were a viable option, since that would be criminally irresponsible – are both significantly different from the leave v. remain choices of 2016. It’s easy to see how leave would differ this time around. In place of the abstract, wishful idea of leave – which Brexiteers cast as a pain-free cash bonanza and panacea for all Britain’s ills – would be a concrete, detailed plan for leaving: May’s plan, more or less.
3. Some are talking of a “reformed remain” option, an alternative to leave that does not smack of a complacent desire to pretend Brexit never happened. For those Labour MPs in leave seats, their chief hope is that they can signal to their voters that both they and the EU itself have heard their concerns on one issue especially: immigration. [But see 'The EU' below]

• I had a horrible realisation yesterday that I might not be fully aware what the critical but troublesome Northern Ireland Backstop might be. So I consulted this.
• Finally on Brexit . . . A valiant – and fascinating – attempt to explain the inexplicable stance(s) of the Labour party on the issue of a generation.

France

• Good question: If Macron can’t reform his country, how can he hope to save the EU? Macron has put himself forward as the saviour of a faltering EU. To be credible he needs to reform France first. But now its financial weakness, aggravated by the 'gilet jaunes’s' derailing of Macron’s economic programme, is patent. Its budget deficit is sure to remain or worsen. It will need to borrow large amounts from the EU, and this will create dangerous financial and political strains for the whole system. Revolutions are intoxicating: “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive!” They bring purpose, hope and optimism. But they rarely end happily.

The EU

• Flexibility has never been the EU’s forté. This is unavoidable: such a massive international co-operative effort can hardly work cohesively unless there is a robust legal framework to keep things ticking along. The thing is, that inflexibility is one of the reasons that Britons chose to leave in the first place. The EU would be doing itself, as well as us, a favour if it recognised that pragmatism and flexibility can, on occasion, lead to the kind of solutions that strict interpretation of the rulebook cannot. I can't see much chance of that happening, though in an Irish newspaper this morning I saw the astonishing headline that Ireland might have to give up the backstop in its own interests. That would be a turn up for the books.

Spanish

• Word of the Day: Racano

© [David] Colin Davies

Thoughts from Headingley, England: 15.12.18

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. Garish but informative.

England

• My younger daughter took her kids away from the play centre yesterday by car, and asked me to wheel the double buggy home. Which is how - after the supermarket - I came to walk a kilometre with a bottle of red wine in one seat and a bottle of white in the other. The odd thing is that no one commented, thus depriving me of the chance to give my witty pre-prepared impromptu response.
• My daughters don't read my blog – serpent's teeth and all that – but I sent my (Madrid-based, pregnant) elder daughter the bit about her niece in yesterday's post. Cue outrage that I didn't include this comment she'd told me she'd had during a scan the previous day:- “And that’s the penis. And the testicles. It’s a boy, without a doubt.” I suspect she felt this was a very Spanish approach. Blunt. Sin pelos en la lengua.

Spain

• This is about one of Spain's remaining gems. Another is ironmongers.
• Spain is again in the social van.
• More precious/insular nonsense re 'stolen/traduced' Spanish dishes.
• Good news for some, I guess.
• Bad news for Galician businessmen: Antwerp is now the biggest entry point for cocaine into Europe.

The UK and Brexit

• British politics is now so farcical, it’s like watching 'The Apprentice'.
• One of the unique properties of the Brexit spectacle is its capacity to be boring and frightening at the same time. It is grindingly technical and predictable, which are characteristics of a dull thing. But watching something precious – the stability and prosperity of a nation – move on a slow conveyor belt into a grinding machine is also alarming. 
• With so little time left, there are now three places to go:-

- Option one: exit with a deal almost exactly like the one May has negotiated. By deal here, I mean the withdrawal agreement – the legal text that serves as safe passage to a transition period from where other options for the long term can be developed. The withdrawal agreement can be ratified or not. Its many deficiencies, including the notorious backstop, are intrinsic to Brexit and would be the same for any party under any leader. Changing the prime minister doesn’t change EU law.
- Option two: membership of the EU – the best available outcome in strategic and economic terms, but one that incurs serious political cost by enraging already furious leavers. 
- Option three: exit with no deal. An appalling idea recommended only by fools, liars and vandals who relish chaos for perverse ideological reasons.

• The Brexiteers’ best route to victory was closed off this week after months of dithering ended up handing the Prime Minister another year in office. Now, the Brexit faction is firmly out of the driving seat for the coming crucial months. They waited too long and strategised too little. At the other extreme . . . The diehard Remainers who will stop at nothing to reverse the referendum result. Their ranks are growing along with their confidence, but in their desperation to annul Brexit, they will overplay their hand. These MPs will hold out for nothing less than a re-staging of the vote with a “remain” option on the ballot paper, for which the EU would likely agree to an Article 50 extension. This could backfire spectacularly. Remainers are very likely to lose a second referendum. British voters will not like being asked the same question twice and the arrogance of the refusal to accept an authentic, democratic result will be deservedly punished. [Perhaps it's not only EU politicians who don't really understand British plebs.]
• This battle over Brexit is showing the political class at its most un-British: doctrinaire, rigid, kamikaze. When the vast majority of voters — Leave or Remain — just long for a rapid and pragmatic end. I hope this Christmas will provide a firebreak in our political inferno. We should speak to — and actually try to understand — someone who voted a different way. Time to get off social media, whose harsh staccato arguments have degraded political discourse, and talk.

Life in the UK

• A stand-up comedian has pulled out of a gig at London university after being presented with a list of subjects not to joke about. He was asked to sign a contract “agreeing to our no-tolerance policy with regards to racism, sexism, classism, ageism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, xenophobia and Islamophobia”. According to “student leaders”, this was to ensure the event was a “safe space” providing “joy, love and acceptance”. As someone has said, this was to completely and utterly misunderstand the whole basis of modern stand-up comedy. What a humourless generation will be in charge of the country in 20 years' time. Not exactly the Cambridge Footlights, is it?

The USA

• So, it's not to be his son-in-law but his golf buddy. President Trump has named his next chief of staff as Mick Mulvaney, a hardline conservative now serving as his budget director, after a chaotic selection process during which several candidates ruled themselves out. Mulvaney is a regular golfing partner of the president and is known for his aggressive attempts to cut back the welfare state.
• I wonder what the Essentials and Nice to Have elements of Fart's Perfect Bride Spec were. Apart from being a golf mate, I mean. I guess Willing/stupid enough to take on the job was high on the Essentials section.

Spanish

• Word of the Day: Guaperas

© [David] Colin Davies

Thoughts from Headingley, England: 14.12.18

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. Garish but informative.

England

• I walked into the village centre this morning behind 4 young people. Three were clearly male – 2 in fashionable drainpipe jeans and 1 in loose trousers that ended just above his ankles. The 4th was wearing tights and so it wasn't until I'd passed them that I could identify his gender as male. Well, his sex, anyway. God knows about gender these days. Assuming I've got that the right way round.
• I spent much of the morning watching my 2 young grandchildren in a play place. It was very enjoyable. At times. My 3 year old granddaughter - presumably hungry - pointed 4 times to a door and said "The cafe´s through there." What the Spanish call an indirecta. She clearly needs to be more assertive. . .

Spain

• I think it was Noel Coward who said the Costa del Sol was 'a sunny place for shady people'. No, it was Somerset Maugham and he was talking about the French Riviera. No matter. Here's an article on the Spanish claimant.
• Here's something that'll ensure the already over-touristed city of Granada is infested with even more visitors. Soon you'll have to book a timed-ticket for the entire city, not just the Alhambra.
• And here's a video on Galicia, entitiled A Celtic paradise. Which is partly true.

France

• Professor Brigitte Granville, a French economist at Queen Mary University of London: The biggest danger for monetary union is not Greece, or Italy, it is France. The European Commission is in a serious bind. Any demand for harsh budget cuts in France in this volatile political mood could spin out of control. If they make the French too angry, it’s the end of the euro. And that's to ignore the impact of not doing so on the Italians. Still, you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs. . . .

Italy

• So, it's not Spain or Greece . . .

The UK and Brexit

• Just how much pain, punishment and humiliation can Mrs May take? She's now a duck lacking the basic requirements for lameness - a single leg - after the wind-in-their-sales EU leaders not just rejected her pleas for (legalisitc) help but hardened their demands and conditions. As I've said, why not? They're in the saddle, with 27 whips. In so far as they can be in a boat and on 27 horses at the same time. Which they clearly are.
• And yet, there's a strong view in the UK media that the developments of the last week have increased the chances of Mrs May's universally disliked deal being accepted, in January if not in December. But you'd have to be chess grandmaster to understand the logic.
• A couple of fundamental points/questions about the EU from one Brexiteer's perspective:-

- Given the way the EU has behaved during the Brexit negotiations, Remainers can hardly portray the bloc as a body which respects the views of its peoples. Indeed, the bruising experience of the past few years has exposed the central reason why many voted to leave: the gaping democratic deficit at the EU’s very heart. It is this lacuna which has manifested itself in the rise of populist parties across Europe, from the Front National in France to the Five Star movement in Italy and the AfD in Germany.

- Why would we lock ourselves for the next 40 years into an institution that we don’t like?

- Remainers in a second referendum will have to answer this last question. They will have to say why they support moves to deepen the structures of the EU as outlined by Jean-Claude Juncker, the outgoing EU Commission president, in his “road map”. Yes, we might remain for a while outside the eurozone and the Schengen area, the cornerstones of nascent European statehood. But it will become increasingly hard to do so if we decide to remain. And, presumably, those who want to stay will make the case for us to join both. After all, if they think the EU is a good thing, why not commit to it fully?

Meanwhile . . .

Said EU

• Siren voices continue to warn that, economically, things are going to get very bad very quickly. Which will make the consequences for EU states of a Brexit even worse than they fear. A couple of views:-

1. Ambrose Evans Pritchard: The balance of economic terror over Brexit has shifted over the last year. The eurozone is more vulnerable to the shock of no-deal rupture on punitive Macronesque terms than it was at the point of peak hubris in December 2017, when EU negotiators set the trap of the Irish backstop.
2. Jeremy Warner: Throughout Europe, the UK included, economic growth has slowed to a snail’s pace. Business investment is on hold, and sentiment almost everywhere is turning down. Outside Germany and its satellite states, Europe remains an unmitigated disaster area. In withdrawing monetary support, the European Central Bank answers to the supposed needs of the Eurozone’s German core, but in so doing further threatens economic recovery and therefore political stability in the still severely compromised periphery. . . . Inbuilt contradictions at the heart of Europe’s single currency are again coming back to haunt it.
3. Ambrose Evans Pritchard again: The ECB is to halt its €2.6 trillion programme of bond purchases this month despite the deepening economic slowdown in the eurozone and the lack of any safety buffer against a deflation shock. The 4-year blitz of emergency stimulus saved the European banking system and helped lift Europe out of an economic slump but has failed to generate self-sustaining momentum. Core inflation remains nailed to the floor at 1.1%. Such a low level at this late stage of the cycle raises the risk of deflation and poisonous debt dynamics in the next recession.   . . .Mario Draghi, the ECB’s president, said quantitative easing had been a resounding success given the impossible circumstances. It was the “only driver of this recovery” at crucial moments. . . . Critics say the ECB waited too long before launching QE in early 2015 - 6 years after the US Federal Reserve - and allowed the deflationary forces to become lodged in parts of the system. It may now be trapped. The window is closing as the ageing global expansion fades. Mr Draghi warned of “downside risks” to the economy but stuck to his line that the sudden slowdown over recent months is a hiccup caused by one-off factors and disruption in the car industry. The ECB tweaked its forecast slightly but is still banking on growth of 1.7% next year. . . .“It is the usual soothing babble from the ECB,” said Ashoka Mody, a former bail-out chief for the International Monetary Fund in Europe. “They are seriously underestimating the pace of the slowdown. China’s stimulus has run out and this is causing a world trade slowdown, with cascading effects through the global economy.” Professor Mody, now at Princeton University, called it a grave policy error to declare ‘mission accomplished’ and cut off stimulus when it has failed to meet its inflation target and while growth is crumbling.  . . . Italy has one foot in recession. It faces an incipient credit crunch. Germany contracted in the third quarter. The Sentix index of business expectations for the eurozone has fallen to minus 18.8, the lowest since the EMU banking crisis in 2012.  . . . Gilles Moec, from Bank of America, said his tracking model shows that growth has stalled to an annual rate of 0.55 and that core inflation is trapped in a range of 0.7% to 1.1%. “We believe the ECB is well aware of this, and its repeated messages of optimism have more to do with the political need to do away with QE than with its actual assessment of the current situation.” This is a polite way of saying that the ECB has hit a host of political constraints and is being forced to abandon stimulus too early. Bank of America suggested that the ECB is knowingly issuing inflated growth estimates in order to justify its actions. Some might deem this an astonishing situation.

Hey ho . . . For amusement . . . 

The USA

• Of course it's credible . . . Trump says he's considering his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as his next Chief of Staff.

Spanish

• Word of the Day: Jaleo.

© [David] Colin Davies

Thoughts from Headingley, England: 13.12.18

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. Garish but informative.

England

• The hipster movement is so entrenched here now that most barmen look like they've come from a shack in the Ukrainian outback. Given the accents of some of them, this might well be the case.
• I detest painting and avoid it like the plague. So, it's something of an irony - not to mention an exaggeration - that I nearly froze to death early this morning putting an undercoat on the doors of my daughter's garage and shed here in Headingley. Of a flat she really should sell!

Spain

• Spanish stereoptypes. Accurate or not? See this video for the answers of an Anglo-Spanish couple.
• Excellent news for Spain's poor. Not so good for the deficit target. So Brussels won't be pleased. But see France below.
• For readers of Spanish, a review of Spain's malfunctioning tax system.
• The Guardian's take on the eruption onto the political scene of Vox.

France and the EU

• M Macron's concessions will massively impact on France's budget and her abiity to end the 11 year run of above-3% deficits. Will France be warned about this? Or, god forbid, punished like Greece and Italy? Here's a few comments on this:-

- Emmanuel Macron’s bid to buy off France’s “gilets jaunes” protesters with instant budget handouts threatens to blast through eurozone’s fiscal limits, fatally damaging his credibility as the champion of the European project and the guardian of French public accounts.
- The package of short-term measures announced in a theatrical mea culpa on Monday night leaves Macron’s putative “grand bargain” with Germany in tatters.
- [From Rome] France should face the normal (disciplinary) procedure from the Commission. It would be quite wrong if Italy is subjected to all this criticism while the French do what they want.
- The new measures will leave France with a bigger budget deficit than Italy’s on every key measure, putting Brussels in a delicate position as it prepares sanctions against the rebel Lega-Five Star coalition in Rome.

The UK and Brexit

• As we near the end of this momentous week, here are Richard North's perspicacious observations as of this morning:-

- Against all expectations of a week ago, she Mrs May  come away with 63% of the vote of the parliamentary party. 

- The "ultras" have been left without their moment of glory. Now, they're too late. The ERG have shot their bolt - the best they had to offer was not nearly enough. Its leader, Mr Rees-Mogg, has nowhere to go, but back to his constituency. His brief reign is over – his capacity to rain on Mrs May's parade is seriously curtailed. Yet, even now, he lacks the self-awareness to realise that, as far as he is concerned, it is "game over".
- Mr "Oaf" Johnson's leadership ambitions are also over.
- None of the other contenders are going to get a look in either. This is the palace coup that failed – organised by a bunch of political second-raters who have been outsmarted by the vicar's daughter so comprehensively that they didn't even see her coming.
- Nor is the game-play over. We'll have to wait to see whether Mrs May brings back a piece of paper from Brussels to wave at the crowd
- By the time the MPs get back from their Xmas break, they will be a more subdued lot. And, no doubt, businesses and others will have been working hard to point up the dire consequences of a "no deal" Brexit 

- With the ERG effectively silenced, reality may well start to focus minds. By mid-January, therefore, the scene will be set for the deferred vote to be re-instated. That Mrs May might win it no longer looks impossible
- But, needless to say, Mrs May has a long way to go before she makes her version of Brexit happen, if at all.
- The truth is that she has staged a miraculous recovery that puts Lazarus to shame. She is still there, in Downing Street. Others - notably Mr Johnson – are not. And now, they never will be. If she never achieves anything else, to have kept the oaf out of office is an achievement indeed.

- But the greater prize is yet to come. It will be Mrs May who will be leading us out of the EU.

North even goes so far as to say: Given the way the events have played out, a cynic might even suggest that Mrs May set all this up herself.  Could well be.

The EU and Facism

• An overheated view?:- Things are spiralling out of control in Europe, faster than many predicted. Outside of Brexit, there is strong anti-EU feeling in Hungary, Spain, Italy, Greece and France. The EU is in danger of crumbling, and people afraid of losing power are prone to extreme acts of dictatorial control. How long before the EU truly becomes the authoritarian force that people from both ends of the political spectrum have always feared. Full article here. 
• The Empire strike back?

The USA

• Brilliant:-

Finally . . .

• Alfie Mittington writes again on the surname theme. I nearly fainted when reading the last sentence:- The useful criterion would be to ignore every word in the name which is, or resembles, a preposition or an article. As you do yourself quite adequately by not starting those minor words with a capital letter. Laurens van der Post (the 'van' is not a Christian name as in Van Morrison, but the simple Dutch for 'of', i.e. a genitive preposition) therefore would have to go under 'P' of 'Post'. I do admit that 'Le' in 'Le Carré' poses something of a challenge. One would need a French historical linguistic to enlighten us if such 'Le's' (Bar Le Duque for instance) are perhaps older forms of the genitive. By this logic, though, should we ignore O' and Mac, filing O'Reilly under R and MacAdam under A??

© [David] Colin Davies

Thoughts from Headingley, England: 12.12.18

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. Garish but informative.

England

• I'm penning this in a café where there are at least 30 customers. The table next to me comprises 10 women and 1 man. And yet I can still hear myself think. And, if I really wanted to, I could follow each table's chatter. How different from Spain. Where simultateous shouting is obligatory. Or at least essential, as everyone else is doing it. A nice change.

Spain

• The 'shameful' extent of corruption in Spain, at least among the political and commercial classes, if not among the general populace.
• A topical article. Which you might recall from last year.
• Let's hear it for Sevilla . . . The Top 10 cities in the world as voted by readers of Telegraph Travel:

1. Cape Town

2. Tokyo

3. Vancouver

4. Seville - having risen streadily in recent years.

5. Sydney

6. New York

7. Venice

8. Florence

9. Rome

10. San Francisco

When I was there recently, the city was overrun with tourists. This accolade will surely make things worse. Or better, if you like to be in (a lot of) company. If I ever go for a 4th time, it'll be in mid winter.

• A fascinating - and quite possibly accurate - comment from Lenox of Business Over Tapas: In Spain, the titles on the spines of books are always 'upside-down'. Irritating indeed, especially when the book is flat on the table. This is down, apparently, to the Moors, who understandably started their books at the back. The Spanish followed the tradition as far as the spines went. I should add, it's not always 'down' . . . 

Germany

• How an obscure German group cornered global trade in endangered parrots.
• From my friend in Hamburg . . . 

Google translates the caption as: It's already bubbling; the rebellion begins.

The UK and Brexit

• As an 'Xmas Special' of a Conservative party leadership election looms ever larger, Richard North warns us here that game-playing politicians who are ignoring - or at least are ignorant of – vital facts will be making the next few weeks a 'turgid exercise in applied tedium'. To which he adds the self-evident truth: 'We will all be be glad when it's over'. But it's not as bad as a nuclear war, I guess. One has to be grateful for (very) small mercies. And the amusement of Fart in (Twitter) action.

Spanish

• Word of the Day: Lucir.

Finally . . .

• Always ready to be an irritant, Alfie Mittington asks whether I would file the author Daphne du Maurier under D. Well, yes, I probably would. But - unusually for him - it's a good question. I suspect I wouldn't put a book by, say, the Earl of Arran under E or O. But we don't have many surnames in English of the Le/De/Du/Von/Van form, so I don't really know what the norm would be for foreign (sounding) surnames. Of Brittanic equivalents . . .  O'Reilly would go under O, I believe, and MacAdan under M. As for truly foreign names . . . A (different) Dutch friend says that 'van Dinter' would appear as 'Dinter, van' in their phone directory. But I checked on the brand name Le Creuset and at least that one is 'filed' under L. Opinions welcome. Where would you put a book by Laurens Van de Post, for example? V, D or P??

© [David] Colin Davies

Thoughts from Headingley, England: 11.12.18

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. Garish but informative.

England

• I've been searching in charity shops for copies of John Le Carré novels. This is a commission from a strange Dutch friend back in Galicia who prefers to read them in English. That's not why he's strange, by the way, but – anyway - my purpose here is to note that all English books have their titles running in the same way, from top to bottom. You do have to incline your head when running along a shelf and this is a bit of a nuisance. But it's nothing compared with the same task in Spain, where there's no standardisation. So, you can imagine what a real pain in the neck such an exercise is there.
• There's an endless supply of charity shops in England, of course. One sometimes has the impression hollowed-out High Streets have been entirely given over to them.
• By the way . . . Le Carré's novels are invariably to be found under C. I eventually discovered. Maybe his forename really is John Le . . .

Spain

• A warning to ignorant – not to say stupid – drivers on Spanish roads this Xmas. Well, any Xmas, in fact.
• And one for all drivers.
• The Independent yesterday labelled Ciudadanos a 'far right party'. One wonders what term they's come up for these resurrected Francoists.

The UK and Brexit

• Richard North here asks – after yesterday's bizarre events – who is going to blink first. The bed-blocking, intellectually inflexible Mrs May or the buffoonish, discourteous, cretinous MPs who harangued her in the kindergarten of Parliament yesterday. His final comments: Whether Mrs May's deal survives, nobody can even guess. But if it's her deal or no deal, she still has the whip hand. Apart from the brain-dead "ultras" and the increasingly pathetic Ukip rump, the message that a "no deal" Brexit is bad news has generally sunk in. And the person standing between a deal and disaster is Mrs May. I just wonder how many loud-mouthed MPs are going to take it to the wire and beyond, when the reward for caving in is the status quo, i.e. the interim period, for a couple of years, compared with the certain disaster of a "no deal" Brexit.
• Meanwhile, yet another vast non-surprise from across the Channel: The EU rebuffs Mrs May's plea for help. Why on earth would they go along with it? Everything is going swimmingly for them. They are technocratic civil servants with huge power and no electorate to answer to. As they always have been. And they've had lots or practice in thwarting the popular will - France, Ireland, the Netherlands and, most obviously, Greece. Oh, and Italy right now. They have, it's said, a higher purpose. As demonstrated by the introduction of the euro and all the economic consequences such a blatantly political initiative was bound to bring in its wake. Happily for Germany, as it turned out. As some said it would.
• Anyway, an apt cartoon from the Times:-

Spanish

• Word of the day: Villancicos

Finally . . .

• I snapped Boris Johnson hiding from the consequences of his recklessly vainglorious contribution to Brexit opposite Sainsbury's supermarket in Headingley this morning:-

© [David] Colin Davies

Thoughts from Headingley, England: 10.12.18

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. Garish but informative.

England

• If any reader is put out by later-than-usual posting these days, the explanation is that I'm on grandfather duty for a few weeks. To be followed by father-of-the-new-mother duty in Madrid in mid January. Plus there's no wifi in this flat. And, of course, there's an hour's time difference. As if all that weren't enough, I'm supervising the laying of a kitchen floor today. After a fashion.
• In line with what I wrote yesterday morning, at a lunchtime bar yesterday I was offered only the medium and large glasses of Chilean sauvignon blanc. But at least the price was a tad more reasonable, at £4.50(€5.04) for the former. 
• The bar featured something new to me – 2 impressive shufleboards(?), which fascinated not only me but also my 1 year old grandson. Who squealed in delight as each puck(?) sped down the board and smashed into another one. Talk about testosterone . . .

Spain

• Rather bad news for Spain's monarchs – Almost half of their people would like to see the back of them. Quite unimaginable here in the UK. But that might change once Liz gives way to Chas.
• Talking of very privileged folk . . . President Sanchez's government wants to seriously reduce the 'judicial protection rights' of as many as 250,000 national and regional politicians – one of the country's hangovers from the Franco era. Other countries, by the way, make do with 1 or 2 aforados. Or even none. See El País on the issue here, in Spanish.
• Here's something on the charming white towns of Guadalhorce, with thanks to Lenox of Business Over Tapas for the citation. 
• Should you want to, here's how to make octopus Galician style – Pulpo a la Gallega/Polbo Galego. Not my favourite dish, I have to admit.
• More enticing, perhaps, is this new mango-vodka liqueur . . .

The UK and Brexit

• As totally expected, the day before the UK parliament votes on the dead duck of 'the only deal in town', the European Court of Justice – an institution not famous for being independent or apolitical – has handed down its much-trailed judgment that the UK is free to unilaterally withdraw its notice to quit the EU. Thus further muddying the already turbulent waters. Quite possibly by accident of timing. As if.
• Talking of misjudgements . . . For those who didn't read yesterday's article, here's the bit on the attitude towards the voters of both the British establishment and the EU technocracy, and the failure to pay due regard to the real underlying issues:- Didn’t it occur to anybody in the sublimely vain Remain camp, which was deeply embedded with the odiously self-regarding EU “negotiating” team, that the Referendum, having gone the way it did, meant that their entire strategy for dealing with British national opinion was drastically misjudged? Then again, maybe it did occur to them, but how were they to counter the more profound, principled arguments for Brexit – the defence of Britain’s democratic institutions and the basic concept of accountable government? Perhaps there was a quite cynical decision to ignore the big questions and concentrate on the small ones because that not only got you off the thornier philosophical hook but also implied that Leave voters were basically small-minded people.
• For Brexit geeks, here's Richard North today on how his original Efta/EEA plan (Flexcit) has, in the last 2 years, been transmogrified into the various pious and unachievable versions of the 'Norway Option' now floating around the British ether. As ever, he doesn't pull his punches.
• As we watch - stupefied - the endless unedifying circus that is the Brexit 'dialogue', is it any wonder that trust in politicians is reported to be less than 10% in the UK? That's in British politicians, of course. It's probably less for the Brussels mob. 
• No wonder even some Remainers – perhaps the more thoughtful ones – are terrified of a second referendum. Or The People's Vote as it's ludicrously but cynically called. As if the first one only involved, say, border collies. If it does take place, I'm sure quite a few folk will vote against remaining in the EU only because the whole shooting match will be tarnished by association with one Anthony – Call me Tony – Blair. Who's just been discovered to have tried to hide from his beloved People the millions he made after leaving office. Is there a level above Champagne Socialist? Grand Cru Socialist??

© [David] Colin Davies

Thoughts from Leeds, England: 9.12.18

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. Garish but informative.

England

• It's common in British bars/pubs to be asked what size glass of wine you want, out of a choice of 3. Of course, they never say “Small, medium or large?”. It's invariably “Medium or large?”. So I was surprised not to be asked anything in a Headingley bar/restaurant yesterday, when I ordered a glass of New Zealand white. I was even more surprised when asked to pay£8.30(€9.30) for what I assumed ranked as a large glass. Of 250ml. I had thought this was a student barrio. Perhaps today's students are a lot better off than those of my generation. Or are already seduced by easy credit.
• Two ocurrences last week left me wondering what would've happened in Spain in the same circumstances:-

1. My car passed its annual check in Spain in September and was serviced shortly after that, at the end of which I was told there might be a suspension problem. So I took it to a garage in Hoylake for a check and an estimate of the repair cost. They looked at the suspension, advised me there was nothing wrong that they could see and then told me there was no charge for the check.
2. Telecónica-owned O2 has said they'll compensate all their clients for Thursday's total loss of 4G service. So . . . As I'm a customer of Telefónica in Spain and am on O2 here, surely I will have a successful claim back in Spain . . .

• Nice to have my opinion endorsed: The misery of driving in Britain could fuel our own yellow vest movement.

Spain

• I must say that, for a proud people, it takes some believing that only 20% of Spaniards think their culture is superior to everyone else's. At the other end of the spectrum, the number for Greeks is a staggering 89%, while Portugal and the UK come in at 47% and 46%. Why this cultural cringe? Not proud of the Arabic contribution of 700 years??
• A propos – Here is something to be very proud of, per Lenox of Business Over Tapas:- With 47 places to its credit, Spain ranks 3rd of the countries in the world with the most World Heritage sites. See them here.
• But here's something not to be at all proud of.

The UK and Brexit

• There's an unfortunate tendency for Remainers to see all Leavers as ignorant, swivel-eyed bigots, only interested in stopping immigration. Of course, they aren't. Below is an article from a Remainer columnist whom I've admired for almost 30 years, long before Brexit, of course. Like me, she takes the longer term, macro view. One related to the real issues. At least as we see them. It'd be salutary for all Remainers to read it. If I had my way, I'd torture them until they did . . .
• Nice to see another opinion of mine endorsed in that article - Viz. that the EU technocrats simply don't understand Brits. 

The EU and Brexit

• Another non-surprise . . . President Juncker's predecessor, Romanor Prodi, says the EU will come back to the negotiating table if [when] parliament votes down Mrs May’s deal with Brussels and stressed that the EU needed to do everything it could to avoid the “economic catastrophe” of a no-deal Brexit. This is despite Juncker averring last month that the withdrawal treaty and accompanying political declaration on the future relationship amounted to “the only deal possible”.

The USA

• President Fart has criticised one of his key staff as 'Dumb as a rock and lazy'. Not for the first time one's compelled to endorse the view that every Fart criticism is a confession.

Finally . . .

• I'm with my daughter and her kids in a flat she rents out in Headingley, Leeds. We have water, a kettle, ground coffee and filter papers. But no filter machine, or even a cone. So, necessity being the mother of invention and all that, I'm proud to present . . . 

In case you haven't worked it out, it's a small milk container, upended and opened up. Works perfectly. Almost.

© [David] Colin Davies

THE ARTICLE

The vile snobs who wrecked Brexit will answer to an insulted people: Janet Daley

The belief that Leavers are bigoted know-nothings doomed Brexit from the start. 

Yes, boys and girls, this is really happening. Your government is actually collapsing into intractable chaos while the integrity of your country is being offered up for a handful of indulgences from a ruling body over which you will have no control.

Like everybody else I have absolutely no idea where this is going to end but I do have a pretty clear idea of how we got here. Given that the catastrophic place at which we now find ourselves was rooted in the earliest assumptions with which this misadventure began, it is not simply an exercise in melancholy to review the history. Sometimes re-watching the collapse of a monument in slow motion can provide insights that the simple fact of its implosion does not provide.

So let’s remind ourselves of what it was like in the Age of Innocence when we all thought we were being given a say in what everybody now agrees is the most important national decision since the war. The Referendum was going to precipitate a public debate in which the two sides would confront one another with reasoned argument, both evidential and philosophical, on the great question. Both sides would accept the rationality and conscientiousness of the other’s position.

Well, that’s what I thought was supposed to happen; didn’t you? As you may recall, it wasn’t quite like that. One side – now known as Continuity Remain – simply decided that the opposition consisted of bigoted know-nothings being deceived by self-serving opportunists who were using the Leave cause as a vehicle for their Machiavellian purposes.

There was only one way to treat this threat – or rather two ways which formed a kind of psychological pincer to achieve the same end: first, a terrifying series of threats involving economic collapse, food shortages and planes falling out of the sky and then a systematic campaign of vicious abuse, the vileness and shameless snobbery of which I have never witnessed before in Britain. And guess what? To the eternal, magnificent, staggering credit of the people of this country, it didn’t work.

Even I who, as a besotted emigrant to this land have almost unlimited faith in the character of its population, was taken aback by this utter refusal to be bullied or deceived. I have written of this before but now that we are reaching the endgame, it is worth repeating: the British will not be intimidated.

They are not frightened by threats. They are insulted (and eventually enraged) by them. And as for being traduced by their “betters”, they are used to that: they know how to martial their own communal solidarity to stand up to it. (This may be, ironically, a useful consequence of the class system: the very same insularity which Remainers decry in the post-industrial proletariat inures them to the derision of contemptuous metropolitans.)

How could the country’s elites have got it so wrong? How could they have so disastrously misunderstood the nature of their own electorate and fallen so stupidly into the “them-and-us” model which is embedded in the consciousness of almost all ordinary British people? From the early days of Project Fear to its final spluttering stage last week in which a six-week delay at our ports had suddenly transmogrified into a six-month one, the whole thing has been so crassly idiotic.

So purblind and arrogant in fact that it even got some of the most basic premises wrong. There was that endlessly chanted refrain (repeated by Philip Hammond in the Commons debate just last Thursday) that Leave voters, in their benighted naivety, did not realise the economic consequences that Brexit would bring: nobody, it was said, had voted “to become poorer.” Really? But if those voters had believed half, or even a tenth, of what they were told by the Government’s Project Fear prognostications, then that is exactly what they were voting for – or, at the very least, it was what they were prepared to risk.

Simple deduction: if they were ready to vote Leave in spite of all the hokum (sorry, experts’ warnings), either they were ready to accept becoming “poorer” for the sake of something they valued, or they did not trust a word they were being told by their governing elites. Didn’t it occur to anybody in the sublimely vain Remain camp, which was deeply embedded with the odiously self-regarding EU “negotiating” team, that the Referendum, having gone the way it did, meant that their entire strategy for dealing with British national opinion was drastically misjudged?

Then again, maybe it did occur to them, but how were they to counter the more profound, principled arguments for Brexit – the defence of Britain’s democratic institutions and the basic concept of accountable government? Perhaps there was a quite cynical decision to ignore the big questions and concentrate on the small ones because that not only got you off the thornier philosophical hook but also implied that Leave voters were basically small-minded people.

Ultimately it would be that belief – that Leaving was not about principles but practicalities – that would be the Government’s undoing. Theresa May had one brief glorious moment during the Lancaster House era, when she actually seemed interested in the larger, more edifying sense that leaving the EU could be a moral mission.

Then she lost an election and the advisor who had been scripting that incarnation, Nick Timothy, after which she handed the whole matter over to the tacticians in the civil service who regard every problem as practical. To be fair, it is not the proper business of the civil service to be driven by political conviction. It was now just a matter, as Mrs May loves to say, of “getting the job done”. So the pass was sold.

From the outset, the Brexit project was doomed by a disastrous failure perhaps understandably on the part of the European Union – but unforgivably by most of the British governing class as well – to understand this country and what drove it to depart from the EU in spite of all the risks and calumny that might invite. But this is still the same country – and the same people. It’s not over yet.