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

Spanish politics:-

• The Times: What does Pedro Sánchez’s decision to stay on mean for Spain? The prime minister is expected to put pressure on those in the judiciary and media he regards as his foes
• The FT:- The Spanish PM’s gambit revives the ‘Sanchismo’ barb. Pedro Sánchez widens the political chasm by blaming right-wing opposition for attacks on his wife
•  A Spanish commentator: I am very worried about Spain. If we did not have Europe, we would be falling into the Latin American populist ‘caudillo’ path. Which, ironically, came from Spain.

Lenox Napier comments on the Sánchez saga here.

I am confused . . . . Lenox refers to Sánchez as the President of Spain, as does the VdG this morning. And the PM’s office – ‘Moncloa ‘ – seems to sometimes use this term. But, per Wiki, there’s no such official position. There’s the head of State(the Monarch) and the Prime Minister/Head of the ‘government (Sánchez) but no President in between these two. And the PM is usually – always? – the leader of the party which won the last general election.

From the Guardian . . . The Pedro Sánchez crisis makes it clear: Spain’s politicians are playing with fire.

The EU

Pedro Sánchez is not alone in the EU in facing ‘harassment through the media and the courts’ aimed at forcing him out of politics, says a Guardian columnist here. Surreal claims, lawfare and abuse: toxic politics in Spain reflect the new Europe.

The UK

Scotland: Some fine invective from Effie Deans here this morning. Recent events, she says, have defied rationality.  I have discovered that we are not run by a Scottish Nationalist mafia, but by clowns. This is what you get when you elect flakes.

Speaking of inadequates . . .  Click here if you want to read Richard North’s take on the issue of how democratic the UK government UK really is. Spoiler alert: Not very.

Spain’s system seems very similar. Possibly even worse, as senior civil servant positions here  – as in the USA – are handed out to party supporters when a new government comes in. Which doesn’t happen in the UK. But only by ‘convention’. Which, as Boris Johnson showed, can be blithely ignored in the interests of the governing party if the PM lacks a few scruples. Which the Spanish Right would surely say of Sr Sánchez,

Ireland

Let’s see how this goes . . . We won’t take back asylum seekers from Ireland, the UK PM insists. He might well have added: You made your own open-border bed – at tremendous cost to us –  so now sleep in it. Maybe he did, privately.

The USA

Rather like Saddam Hussein, Donald Trump  will have his two sons vet would-be White House staff for their loyalty to him. But Ivanka might give this a pass.

Transgenderism

The turning tide swells . . . The UK’s NHS – hitherto seemingly as woke as you can get – is said to have decided that there is such a thing as biological sex after all.

Richard North on this . . . For normal human beings, perplexed at the adoption of a mental illness as a political ideology and its grip on the media and political classes, this is extremely good news. But it remains extraordinary that, in the 21st Century, front page news is when our national health service provider recognises that sex is a “thing”.

Quote of the Day

Scottish schools are said to dominate UK debating tournaments because an articulate Scottish accent is uniquely persuasive. You could hardly want for a more vivid demonstration of such a thing than to watch Scotland’s First Minister calmly, softly and reasonably articulating how he was having to resign for no real reason beyond having done something quite mesmerisingly stupid but hoped no one would really notice.

Net Zero

The fall of the Scottish First Minister exposes green pledges as hot air. The Scottish government promised hugely ambitious policies on net zero but with zero plans for actually carrying them out

Did You know?

I came across this unfamiliar-to-me verse from Edward Fitzgerald’s translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám. As it headed a chapter on Near Death Experiences and the Quest for Immortality, I guess it fitted the bill:-

I sent my soul through the invisible, 

some letter of that afterlife to spell.

And by and by my soul return’d to me and

answer’d ‘I am myself my Heav’n and Hell

What struck me was that this shows how English is a stress-based language, where it’s not necessary to pronounce every syllable and where stress can change. Which is said to be useful in song or, as here, in poetry. Handily, the 19th century apostrophes show where the E vowel isn’t pronounced

Finally . . .

Headline clickbait? Sinking to the low level of the competition from social media?
Russell Brand is baptised in the Thames
A mother defeats her son in a court case over a beloved Thai takeaway
A tale of two families: the world of Nicole Kidman.
An oligarch’s ex-wife sues her lawyers over their failure to seize his yacht

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.

If you’re thinking of moving to Spain, go to one of my early April posts to see a link to an excellent guide on this.