Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight.

And, lo, has caught the sultan’s turret in a noose of light!

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable: Christopher Howse: ‘A Pilgrim in Spain’

Cosas de España

Post-election Politics

• María takes a look back at the election results. In Normal Times 8 here or here.
• The Corner confirms the PP strategy, not that it has any other option.
• The PP leader down in Madrid – Sra Ayuso – continues in the Spanish tradition of political hyperbole in claiming that the leader of the PSOE party has ‘a project to destroy Spain’. For which there is nil evidence, of course. But scaremongering plays well on the Right. As it has done very recently on the Left – in keeping with the voter’s dilemma of Which party is not the best for me – or the country – but which has the worst extremists in it?

I wrote that last para before just reading this fine FT article which makes that point in different words: Spanish elections, as elsewhere, tend to be more about “Who am I and who do I hate?” than “How should we change our country?”And there’s quite a lot of hatred in Spain, below the amiable surface. The writer also make a point I’ve made many times over the years . . . Spain is lucky enough to be a low-productivity economy that can monetise its natural endowment in the form of agriculture and tourism. But the article – entitled The red-hot issue in the Spanish elections should be climate, not culture wars – stresses that this can’t/won’t continue.

Here in Galicia . . . Slow justice: Today’s main item in the VdG: The sentence, next spring: The hearing for Galicia’s biggest railway disaster, which occurred 10 years ago, has ended. The sentence of the trial will be known in spring. It is a very complex case, which required hard legal work, with more than 700,000 pages of documentation. The defences of the driver and the accused ADIF director both request acquittal. The greatest difficulty will be establishing compensation for each victim. I’ll bet!

Nice to able to report that my gas boiler was fixed quickly and competently by a company which didn’t try to rip me off. Unlike a previous one which insisted I needed a new valve costing more than €500. And that my daughters have stopped complaining about tepid water now that the burner(quemador) has been cleaned. Wish I’d realised this sooner . . .

Shame about the clouds, the drizzle and a temperature of only 19 . . . But I’d much rather be ‘suffering’ this than the 40 degrees of Down South.

The USA

Oh, dear . . . Music is the latest front in the US culture wars, it’s claimed here.

(A)GW/Energy/Net Zero

In a statement of what Brits call ‘the bleedin’ obvious’, ex-PM Tony Blair has said that the climate change problem can’t be solved without China, and that Britain shouldn’t be asked to do a “huge amount” when only China’s emissions really matter. And he warned the Labour party – shortly to return to power – about espousing ‘green’ policies which impose extra costs on voters in these circumstances. All of which is rather heretical these days and one wonders how his counsel will be received. Maybe he’ll be exiled for apostasy.

Meanwhile, Richard North asks here whether the ‘boiling’ really is ‘global’. As I’ve said, it isn’t in the UK nor here in Galicia right now, for example. But, of course, that’s ‘the weather’ not ‘the climate’ and doesn’t negate the view that the earth – or parts of it, at least – are warming up.

Quote of the Day

The Saudi bid of £259m for Mbappé bid shows the game is losing its grip on reality. It’s a warning that can’t [shouldn’t?] be ignored. But probably will be, human greed being what it is. More here, for those interested.

The Way of the World

Click here for a UN development which the writer claims puts us on the slippery slope of adopting Islamic concepts of blasphemy as something the entire world must adopt. Which surely must be unacceptable to non-theists. As a priest of the Church of Dudeism, I’m left wondering if I could take action against anyone burning my Holy Book. Once I’ve written it.

Spanish

Wasaap: Whatsapp. At least according to one of my Spanish friends. Possibly should have been wasap or wassap. . .

Did you know?

Some odd things come up in my Spain feed. Witness this one, about ‘the greatest scam’ ever perpetrated on the gullible masses. Here’s something in Spanish about it.

Finally . . .

Another song about death from Tempus Quartet . . .

For new readers:– If you’ve landed here looking for info on Galicia or Pontevedra, try here. If you’re passing through Pontevedra on the Camino, you’ll find a guide to the city there – updated a bit in early July 2023.