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 development: The VdG today: Vox’s unconditional ‘yes’ gives Feijoo some breathing space: A twist in the investiture negotiations. Vox announced yesterday that it’s willing to give its 33 votes to the PP candidate, Alberto Feijoo, without demanding their entry into government in exchange, as they have in the communities, where their support was key to the PP’s access to presidencies there. Following this change in the script, the PP leader has proposed forming a government on his own, although the fate of his investiture remains in the hands of the PNV, which has so far refused to sit down to negotiate, as it understands that even outside the Executive, Vox’s support would be key and would condition the entire legislative agenda. The PSOE, for its part, warns that “the problem is not Vox, it is that the PP has taken on Vox’s policies”, which is why they say they feel obliged to form an alternative majority. The Catalan independence movement warned yesterday that it would not accept a new round of “coffee for all” and demanded bilateral negotiations on regional funding and possible debt relief, which in Catalonia exceeds 33% of GDP. Fun times.

Not a good image . . . Spain is the 2nd nation in the world when it comes to non-compliance with arbitration awards, joined in the top 3 by Venezuela and Russia, it says here. Who’d want to be in that group but, that said, membership is possibly without real negative consequences. I don’t think Spain has every paid a humungous fine imposed by Brussels in the early 2000s in relation to a massive fraud here around the growth of flax.

If you didn’t read that FT article, it relates to decisions taken by the right-of-centre PP party – several years ago – to brutally reverse the solar energy policies of the previous socialist government and – in favour of friends in the large energy companies – to hit both individual and corporate investors in solar power. The latter didn’t take kindly to this and sued the Spanish government. Years later, they’ve now won their case but it’s doubtful they’ll ever see their monetary compensation.

More recently, the reversal on solar energy policy has itself been reversed. Undoubtedly a good thing. And not just for investors.

A friend commented yesterday that nearly every retail outlet in Pv city that closes then becomes another tapas bar or restaurant. Or, I’d add, yet another hostel for camino ‘pilgrims’. Or a jewellery shop. Being a natural cynic, I always wonder if these are really money-laundering places for our ever-growing narco-economy.

Talking of camino walkers. . . . There are, of course, hordes of them passing through Pv city these days, some of them even setting off for Caldas de Reis or Cambados in the midday sun. The most noticeable, perhaps, are the Asians swathed in headwear and skin-covering clothes and gloves.

The USA

The country’s fate depends, says this columnist – a Trump-despiser – on feeble Joe Biden being pushed from power.

(A)GW/Energy/Net Zero

This is a significant moment. For the first time in decades, an actual debate has broken out in [UK] mainstream politics about the wisdom of sacrificing living standards in the name of tackling climate change. So much so that even that bastion of establishment thinking, the Financial Times this week declared ‘the beginning of the end of Britain’s Net Zero consensus’.

That quote is taken from this article – Environmentalism: Where democracy goes to die.

Roll on the debate based on both the science and the (global) economic realities.

Quote of the Day

Greenism, the master category in which veganism is a subset, is misleading, mendacious and deranged. And it is harming us, destroying our bodies and societies.

Covid

With the benefit of 20:20 hindsight, the universal lockdowns are now seen by many as a panic response, with these downsides:

• Increases of inequality in income distribution and wealth
• Widespread loss of employment
• Substantive declines in spending
• General deterioration in economic conditions
• Serious declines in mental wellbeing
• Delayed and diminished access to healthcare
• Record high levels of domestic violence, and
• A massive impact on the education of children: school closures on average robbed children of more than 7 months of education, which could end up costing $17 trillion in lifetime earnings.

Enough, surely, to make one hope that things are different next time round.

Incidentally, it’s suggested here that children ‘almost never’ transmitted Covid to each other or teachers.

English

Generation Alpha: Those born after 2010.

Finally . . .

At an event I attended last night I was first asked if I was French and, then, German. I wonder if it says anything about my accent in Spanish and will have to check. Or is it because hardly ever came here until quite recently and the Spanish only watch films that have been dubbed into Spanish, whether the actors are American or British.

Welcome to new subscriber: Pgalejo

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.