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

I occasionally mention the good macro numbers and bad micro numbers in Spain. Here’s something on the latter, to set against the reports that Spain is having better GDP growth than other EU members. Does it reflect the significant increase in population via (South American) immigrants

Trouble in Trafalgar. Well, near it, anyway. An initiative that could well double visitor numbers from 10 a year to 20.

Lenox Napier of of Business Over Tapas reminds us that even expats resident in Spain (i.e. immigrants) can benefit from Spanish government largess, in the form of subsided trips – for seniors – under the aegis of Imserso. Says Lenox: Millions of older adults – both Spanish and foreigners living in Spain – are eligible for subsidised trips, costing as little as €115 for short breaks and €455 for longer holidays. One way to improve your Spanish.

The UK

The economic case for mass migration has finally collapsed . . . It was a delightful theory. Opening Britain’s borders would bring an influx of human capital that would leave the country richer, the tax burden lower, public services stronger and our culture enriched. And, as a theory, it had the great benefit of being all but impossible to falsify unless someone was daft enough to actually try it in practice. Unfortunately, thanks to the Conservatives, this has now happened. And the resulting confrontation with reality has demolished a truly beautiful idea. Report after report, dataset after dataset, is hammering home a simple message: mass migration is not making Britain better off.  More here. One is left wondering about the impact of more than one million immigrants allowed into Germany by Mrs Merkel.

The re-introduction of a blasphemy law, through an Islamic portal? Over the past few decades, the idea of Islamophobia has exerted an ever more stifling grip over public life in the UK. It has served to protect reactionary Islamic practices from challenge and, increasingly, to insulate the tyrannical theocratic creed of Islamism from any sort of criticism. Chilling.

The EU

Brussels is reported to be thinking of banning repairs on ICE cars older than 15 years. I can’t see the owner of my friendly taller in Pv city taking the slightest bit of notice of such a law.

The USA

An ex politician is now advising friends and former colleagues to make plans to escape to Europe in the event that Trump is re-elected and inflicts the vengeance he’s threatened. Might well be wise. Plenty of nice bolt-holes to chose from, of course. One of these being Nice.

Russia

Ukraine’s national security adviser claim that: Russia has developed an AI tool that Moscow is using to meddle in elections in Britain and the USA on a scale “exponentially greater” than ever before. Perhaps it’s Putin’s fault that all the politicians in these 2 countries seem of such poor quality.

Quote of the Day

Surely an incontrovertible statement, at least to someone of my age . . . Gen Z* need life lessons more than therapy. . . . Gen Z have increasingly been therapised. They know how to gatekeep their time, creating boundaries and promoting self-care and are triggered when their feelings have been invalidated or they aren’t given time to heal from toxic relationships. But I guess it’s easy for me to agree with the assertion cited, not having had my adolescence distorted by social media. Nor the other bad experiences – well, not all of them – mentioned here.

*Born 1997-2012

Social Media

No surprise to read in that article that Gen Z believe that social media is a major reason for their debilitating anxieties, followed by Covid and the cost of living.

A propos . . . A cri de coeur from a 14 year old: Help my generation to escape the social media vicious circle- But this seems to be beyond the wit of politicians.

English

Amusing examples of the Scouse accent here and here. Involving a lovely Liverpool lass, who are sung about by a Mancunian here

Did you know? . . .

Nothing in the supermarket is as evil as the bagged salad. It’s bland, wasteful and has limited nutritional value – yet no meal can seemingly be complete without a little bag of salad.

Finally . . .

The wit of Samuel Johnson No, 8: If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle.

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.