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

Based on current developments in the North East and the South, the Spain correspondent of The Guardian tells us here what the entire country will experience when it gets even hotter, and drier.

The farmers’ revolt . . . The VdG today: Bureaucratic relief is not enough: After hours of waiting, the long-awaited meeting took place between the representatives of Spanish farmers and ranchers and the Agriculture Secretary. The latter promised to eliminate bureaucratic obstacles, to create a state food information and a control agency to supervise prices and the maintenance of agricultural diesel profits, among other measures. They were all well received, but the protests continue, as proposals from Brussels are awaited.

Good to see that Pv city’s parador doesn’t rate a mention in this Times review of the 25 best of these around the country. We have quite enough guiri visitors already . . . But Santiago de Compostela’s parador is described as Possibly the most famous parador, if not hotel, in all Spain, being the oldest accommodation in the country. Pilgrims first laid their weary limbs here in 1511.

The EU

The European Commission has significantly lowered its forecasts for EU growth for 2024 and now expects GDP to grow by 0.9%, against its autumn forecast of 1.3%. USA growth is forecast to be significantly higher, expanding the gap between these leading economies.

The UK

As with the EU, forecasts differ but growth could well be as low as 0.5%. That said: Despite weak projected growth, the UK will still outperform France, Japan and Germany. It’s alleged.

The USA

Gerard Baker is a Brit with excellent US connections. He is one of the few who try to get beyond Trump’s word-salads to understand why they play so well with a huge proportion of the US populace. Trump’s rhetoric, he avers, is crazy but isn’t just hot air. The task of parsing it, he says, is so complicated that much of the media doesn’t even try.  This Times article makes the following points:-

• The truth about Trump’s enduring appeal to so many [North]Americans is that, beyond the unsettling mix of Borscht-belt schtick and Munich-beerhall menace, beyond the verbal minefields of untruths, half-truths and narcissistic bombast, is a serious message channelling the reasonable fears and doubts of at least half the country.
• Trump’s greatest political asset has always been an almost animal-like ability to sniff out public sentiment, and then, in hyperbolic manner, to articulate it.
• Today, [North] Americans see themselves as a nation in decline, under siege from global forces . . . And they don’t see where Nato fits in.
• The media fails to see that he expresses this sense of precariousness and the view of Nato as a costly burden

Russia

Encouraging to hear that Russia denies that it plans to put a nuclear device in space. Well, it would be if you could believe anything that comes out of Moscow’s mouth. So, possibly better to rely on the US official view that the development is “significant but not a cause for panic”. Not that panicking would do any of us the slightest bit of good. After all, We will all go together when we go.

Iran

Interesting to hear in this podcast series – Episode 119 – that the current generation of Iranian historians play down the role of the USA in the coup d’état of 1953, when the PM was overthrown. The (now obsolete?) traditional view is that this was engineered and carried out by the CIA. In modern lingo, the Iranians themselves are now seen to have had significant ‘agency’ in this key event in Iranian history.

The Way of the World

Cyclists are the rudest, most entitled people in the UK today, says this Telegraph columnist. I’d certainly include the guy on his bike coming my way last night. Though I don’t recall him being draped in Lycra. I gave him the traditional British silent stare. So, he probably won’t do that again.

English

Bin blight: As per the foto in this Times article.

Did you know? . . .

I’m a big fan of Chaucer, of The Rest is History podcast and of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Which is quite possibly a sentence which will never be written again, even by an infinite number of monkeys tapping away for eternity on an infinite number of laptops. Anyway, they all come together in this lovely episode by 2 British historians, in which Chaucer is compared to Larry David of CUE. If you don’t get past the first few minutes, you will at least have heard a valiant attempt at Middle English – the opening lines of Chaucer’s marvellous Canterbury Tales of the late 14th century

Finally . . .

I’m currently living in a place called Heald Green on the South Manchester/North Cheshire border. It has a large Asian population, leading to local wits referring to is as Halal Green. The good news is that there are shops selling everything you could want by way of Asian food and spices. But last night I was called a ‘fat fuck’ by a young Asian motorist who seemed to think I was going to walk in front of his car, as I stood by the edge of the road. Which was upsetting, as I might well be a ‘fuck’ – whatever that means – but am certainly not fat. On reflection, perhaps he said ‘fucker’. Anyway, it’s good to see the uptake of colloquial English by immigrants.

I should, perhaps, add that the Asian chap in a business wrongly identified by Google as a mobile phone store was extremely helpful in telling me where I could get a UK SIM card for my old non-smart phone. And he didn’t call me either a fuck or a fucker for bothering him.

The Usual Links . . .

You can get my posts by email as soon as they’re published. With the added bonus that they’ll contain the typos I’ll discover later. I believe there’s a box for this at the bottom of each post. I guess it’s logical that this doesn’t appear on the version given to me . . .

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.

For those thinking of moving to Spain:- This is an extremely comprehensive and accurate guide to the challenge, written by a Brit who lives in both the North and the South and who’s very involved in helping Camino walkers.