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

Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas reports that there’s going to be a tunnel between Spain and Morocco. No date seems to have been ventured. Which is probably just as well.

Talking of strained relationships . . . Britain and Spain have today held make-or-break talks in Brussels on the future of Gibraltar. Hopes are high that the meeting – the most significant since negotiations started over 2 years ago – will resolve the chief obstacle preventing an accord – UK objections to a Spanish proposal for Madrid to control Gibraltar’s airport. Joint sovereignty in the control tower?

You should be able to see here an Italian TV ad which has scandalised Catholics both there and around the world. Click on Watch on X. As you can see, with the ad being Italian, all the nuns are stunning to look at, except the shocking sinner. Who is presumably called Maria. I mention an Italian ad here only to make the point that I doubt that a lot of Spaniards would be scandalised these days . . .

The UK

Tomorrow is Grand National Day in Liverpool. And yesterday was Ladies Day at the Aintree racetrack. I was once on a train between the Wirral and Liverpool on a Ladies Day and was taken aback by the extravagant outfits of the ladies who boarded en route.

A reader has said that, while UK trains might well be good these days, they’re certainly expensive. Yes, indeed. My return trip to Manchester yesterday cost me – off-peak – a lot more than the anytime price of a return ticket between Pv city and Vigo.

I think we reached ‘peak expensive car’ yesterday, when the 3 cars in the front garden of a relatively modest house in Heald Green’s high street included a Bentley sports model.

The Way of the World

A strong – right-wing- view on the way things are going for democracy, in the UK at least:- Democracy is dying, and we are running out of time to save it. The theft of power and influence from ordinary citizens, and its transfer to unelected, unaccountable lawyers and technocrats is accelerating. The international Left-wing elites are well on their way to crushing democracy. The ECHR’s net zero judgment shows why the UK must now leave the court without delay.

(Related) Quote of the Day

The thing that most irks the modern establishment, the highly educated, technocratically accomplished elites who toil selflessly to save their inferiors from error, is the sheer ingratitude of the people they were born to lead. These sophisticates in the permanent bureaucracy, the universities and the media spend their days patiently explaining to the dumb masses the virtues of net zero, childhood gender selection, decarceration of criminals, global economic integration and open borders. But the ingrates just don’t appreciate it. Instead they insist on clinging selfishly to their belief in things like biological sex, law and order, good jobs, national identity, border security and gas stoves.

Net Zero

This is a 2nd citation of an at article from yesterday, essentially because of its last paragraph. By the way, Shriver’s latest novel – Mania – was published yesterday and I look forward to reading in on my e-reader one month soon.

Transgenderism

‘Gender confused’ children should be treated within a framework of childhood development and adolescent mental health, rather than as mini adults within a social-justice movement.

I wonder if future generations – or even current ones – will come to view ‘social justice’ as an utterly pernicious concept. As Shriver says: For a few years, recovered memories were even accepted as factual testimony in American courts. Only from a distance does the sordid psychological dowsing look barmy.

BTW . . . In case you feel I’m overdoing the transgenderism threat, I’m the father of a daughter who, at 15, decided she was a boy in a girl’s body. She was treated successfully for a ‘typical teenage identity crisis’ and is now a mother. I go cold at the thought of what would have happened if this had occurred in the last 10 years.

Social Media

Meta is accused of being ‘tone deaf’ to concerns re socia media in lowering the age for Whatsapp registration to 13. Sounds about right.

English

The (revived/continuing) benefit of speaking RP. At least outside the UK

BTW . . . You wouldn’t believe the wide range of guesses about the origin of my accent. Only Scousers detect the latent Merseysideness of it.

Did you know? . . .

They’ve discovered in Pompeii a lovely fresco of Helen of Troy. I say ‘lovely’ but I personally wouldn’t have thought the face portrayed would have launched a thousand ships. Anyway, you should be able to see it here, if not all the text.

Finally . . .

A claim to fame . . . I once lived in the village mentioned here: The celebrity of Harry Styles, Britain’s most desired potential son-in-law, has reached such a fever pitch that his childhood village has now had to hire an official Harry Styles tour guide. Holmes Chapel – a pleasant Cheshire enclave – is about to have a boost to its economy, as thousands of pop pilgrims will be offered tours of all the most significant locations of the young Styles’ life. Perhaps I’ll tell folk I knew him there. Or his parents, at least. As I do with The Beatles . . .

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. And this is something on the so-called Beckham Rule, which is beneficial – tax-wise – for folk who want to work here.