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 Galicia/España

A useful guide to the Prado in Madrid, an exhausting place to just wander around.

I think I’ve expressed surprise before that Spain ranks very high in the global list of incidence of male baldness. Bad genes, I guess. But I can’t say I’ve noticed.

The UK

Well, it seems massively inefficient government services can be turned round. We received a new passport for my grandson in less than 2 weeks, despite a mistake being made in the application. The Home Secretary Suella Braverman and her team at the Passport Office are credited with greatly improving passport processing times in 2023, after facing ‘difficulties’ in 2022. Rare praise. The next Conservative leader. In the Wilderness for 8 years?

Says Effie deans today: The significance of the General Election in Scotland is that it might finally give us the chance to move on from debating independence. We’ve had single issue politics since at least 2011. People have voted not on the basis of party policies or competence but on what stance the party took on independence. Voters continued to support the SNP even when it ruled badly because they cared more about Scottish nationalism than they did about good governance. Naturally, they were rewarded by bad governance. And corruption. You might say that the recent regional elections in Cataluña have shown that they’ve ‘moved on’ there too.

The EU

Has Europe already reached its demographic tipping point?, asks the FT. The EU’s population is shrinking faster than expected, putting a strain on government finances and on the bloc’s long-term prospects. Some worrying statements therein, if you’re young.

Germany

For my German reader, an interesting podcast on what Brits call The Hanseatic League but which other countries involved in it just call The Hansa. I always enjoy hearing foreign academics talking in perfect English, accents aside.

France

From the French woman who doesn’t think much of M. le President: Macron’s supreme arrogance is now tearing apart the French empire.

Turkey

Possibly the first time I’ve mentioned Turkey in 24 years. But the headline seems to merit this . . Turkey’s football season from hell points to a deeper societal malaise. The country’s dominant sport joins the ranks of those institutions in which the public has lost faith

English

The article above on EU demographics contains the word retainment. I thought it should have been retention, and a net search endorsed my belief retainment doesn’t exist. I’m all for neologisms but not when a perfectly good word already exists.

Finally . . .

More Cheadle Hulme news . . . The young rising star of Man United – and England – is Kobbie Mainoo, who went to my grandkids’ primary school there.

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.

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.