Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
– Christopher Howse: ‘A Pilgrim in Spain’
Cosas de España/Galiza
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition to still matter today – but it does. See here for the rationale of this claim. Which, I suspect, not everyone will find convincing.
British students are increasingly choosing Spain over France as a place to spend a year or more. But, post Brexit, they face formidable visa problems, especially as the process can’t begin until 90 days before the start of their course and this covers the holiday months of July and August. Requirements include:-
– a medical certificate
– proof of income
– a criminal-record check
– proof of acceptance at a Spanish university
– translation of all documents
– approval of the translated documents via the ‘Hague apostille’ legal process
Needless to say, there are delays and a high degree of frustration. Not to mention considerable cost. At least this year. Maybe not next year, if something is put in place.
More than a decade ago, the then Spanish government encouraged truly massive investment in solar power. A subsequent government – influenced by traditional energy suppliers? – did an astonishing 180 degree turn, leaving investors (and some consumers) high and dry. Now the chickens are coming home to roost, as: An ICSID tribunal has ordered Spain to pay c.€28M to a German investor, after finding that changes to the renewable energy subsidy regime frustrated the claimant’s legitimate expectations. I wonder how long it will be before this is paid. Assuming it is.
The EU
News here of the 4th edition of the “eurosceptics’ bible”. Some quotes from the author, Richard North:
– As a story, The Great Deception is now complete. It covers for the first time the most audacious political project of modern times, from its intellectual beginnings in the 1920s, when the blueprint for the European Union was first conceived by a British civil servant, right up to the point when the UK resumed its path at as an independent sovereign nation after 47 years of membership of the European project in its various guises.
– The process of our leaving could hardly have been worse managed and the problems attendant on our newly-restored status have yet to be resolved,
– Anyone remotely concerned with this hugely important subject might find it both startling and illuminating.
The USA
As predicted, the USA, at 1930 Covid deaths per million, has overtaken the UK at 1924.
Unimaginable in Europe, even in Catholic Poland?
Afghanistan
Richard North on British pie in the sky.
Religious Nutters/Crooks Corner
For years now, self-proclaimed Christian “prophetess” Kat Kerr has been making up stories about what Heaven is like. There are, she says, volcanoes you can ride down, as if in an amusement park. And there’s football in Heaven. And God keeps a warehouse in Heaven for anyone who needs a new kidney. Denying that she’s merely making it up as she goes along, she’s insisted that her truths exist in a spiritual realm that some mortals just can’t understand with just ‘head knowledge’.
The Way of the World
A tissue used by Leo Messi during his emotional departure from FC Barcelona has been put up for auction for US$1 million. I’ve put in a bid of one dollar, in case of nil other interest. If successful, I plan to clone the guy.
English
There’s said to be an ‘underground movement’ whose aim is to rid English of the word whom – because it’s “archaic” and “sounds forced and false”. But, as someone has asked: Does anyone really want to live in a world that contains a book entitled ‘For Who The Bell Tolls’?
Finally . . .
My daughter visiting from Madrid is surprised at the very high level of mask-wearing on Galician streets. Perhaps we are less ‘cosmopolitan’.
Note: If you’ve landed here looking for info on Galicia or Pontevedra, try here.
Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain 