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/Galicia

There’s a good profile here from the Madrid correspondent of The Times of a woman who’s the bane of at least 2 men’s political life – the PSOE prime minister and the leader of her own PP party. . . A nice comment: There is no end to the war of Spanish politics, which appears increasingly as brutal and senseless as the scene depicted in Goya’s painting Duel with Cudgels, in which two men, up to their knees in mud, club each other. And a nice final sentence: Spaniards may take advantage of the summer break to withdraw from the noise of national politics and leave the politicians to the eternal ding-dong, for which Sánchez and Ayuso, it appears, are a match made in heaven.

Where to see the oldest wall in Spain.

Dear me . . . The headline to this article on a Galician food speciality should read Pulpo a la Gallega, not Pulp etc. But Pulpo or Pulp, I don’t like it. Many others do, of course. The funny thing is that the Galician for octopus is polbo, which in its Spanish homonym – polvo – means dust. But also, on the street, a bonk . . . So, you have to be careful when asking whether someone Spanish wants an octopus.

This fine old building is opposite the Parador’s gardens in Pv city’s old quarter.

I’ve watched it being renovated – intermittently – for a few years now it but the work might finally be nearing completion. For I took the foto yesterday morning and then, half an hour later, read an article on it in the Diario de Pontevedra. Inevitably, it’s going to house 6 tourist flats, with 6 beds each. I confess I’d foolishly thought it was going to be a lovely private home or a decent boutique hotel.

Portugal

Didn’t deserve to exit the Euros to a French team which is yet – after 5 matches – to score a goal in ’open play’. I felt sorry for Ronaldo. Almost.

Quite possibly a majority view, even in Portugal . . . Great writing.

The UK

More on a theme than most of you will want to read . . . If so move along the bus, please,

A few (more nuanced) comments on a truly bizarre election . . .

• Voters have rejected the Conservatives, but they failed to embrace the Labour party. Nevertheless, thanks to the [‘first past the post’]electoral system, it still won a landslide.
• Labour won just 35% of the vote, less than Jeremy Corbyn in 2017 and less than Tony Blair achieved in his 3 election victories. Indeed, never before has a party been able to form a majority government on so low a share of the [low turnout] vote. [Ibid]
• If he is to maintain the unusual coalition that brought him to power, the Labour reader will need to convince voters that he and his party really are now up to the daunting task that now confronts them. [Ibid]
• The Tories next big move will lead to either recovery or extinction.
• Keir Starmer is going to be a one-term prime minister. He may have won a big majority, but he has no plan or authority to fix Britain’s biggest problems.
• The truth as ugly as England’s bastardisation of the beautiful game right now is that more people voted for Jeremy Corbyn in 2019 than they did for Labour on Thursday. Moreover, millions didn’t bother voting at all in the lowest turnout for an election in decades. [Ibid]
• Starmer has promised big – now he must be bold and move quickly. Here’s how he should start.
• That Tory votes scattered in all directions on Thursday night, even as the SNP imploded in Scotland, suggests that what we have seen is less some great national shift to the left than an explosive howl of rage at 2 tired, failed incumbents presiding over a cost of living crisis. The nation is very clear about what it doesn’t want but divided over what it does, and faintly suspicious about any politician’s chances of achieving it.
• Mingled with the [left-of-centre] joy in this victory is a faint unease born of knowing that it’s only 5 years since Boris Johnson surfed into Downing Street on an equally unstoppable wave of glory, and that we are most probably entering a world where the mood of the crowd turns dizzyingly fast.
• Volatility might now be our defining electoral characteristic, and a rise in sectarian politics cannot and should not be ignored. [Ibid]   

Richard North here analyses the election results in his home city of Bradford and, for good reason, wonders if the city might – for the 2nd time – be spawning a different kind of politics.

I was wondering how Effie Deans would react to the quasi-slaughter of the SNP in Thursday’s general elections. No great surprises. She is perhaps a tad vindicative but who can blame her? There’s very little good – if any – that can be said about the SNP’s single-issue rule of the last 10+ years and Scotland has suffered greatly because of it. Time for the party to enter the dustbin of politics. Or at least re-name itself.

France

All eyes now turn to Sunday’s 2nd round of the parliamentary elections and the question of whether the yoking together of the heterogeneous elements of the Centre and the Left will keep out Madame Le Pen of the Right.

France’s 2nd city is seething with discontent about immigration and crime, as Sunday’s parliamentary election looks set to bring the National Rally to prominence. The article reminds me of what my French ex told me about the banlieues of Paris, where’s she’d lived – or, rather, endured life – with her poor, emigrant Galician parents.

The victory over Portugal last night was seen by one sports commentator as the apotheosis of a remorselessly nihilistic but undeniably successful approach to knockout football that France have perfected over the past several tournaments. And for which their manager refuses to apologise. Let’s hope Spain inflicts retribution in their semi-final next Tuesday. Anything else would be not just a tragedy but a crime. I bet I wasn’t the only viewer to fall asleep during the match last night.

Germany

Could have beaten Spain last night. But many will be glad they didn’t, and not just here in Spain.

The USA

Jill Biden stands by her man, but many wish she’d save his dignity. I’ll bet!

Iran

They couldn’t get enough of their cowed public to vote in the presidential elections, so ran them again. And someone who isn’t a hardliner won. I guess it would be very wrong to suggest he’s a sofliner.

Galician/Spanish

Polbo: See above in the article on Galician pulp/pulpo.

Did you know?

The phrase “heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together” comes from Samuel Johnson’s criticism of the ‘metaphysical poets’ that they brought together seemingly unrelated concepts.

St. Oran’s Cemetery on the small Scottish island of Iona is believed to be the final resting place of 48 Scottish, 8 Norwegian and 4 Irish kings. Though the exact locations of these 60 royal burials are no longer identifiable. 

Finally . .

Pop songs of the 60s were all about finding or losing love. Or Xanadu, Waterloo station or a Whiter Shade of Pale. As far as I can tell – and I can’t be a terribly reliable observer – today’s are about strong women getting revenge on their exes. If so, what does this tell us about the (Western) world? Is this what feminism has become? Women as nasty as men . . . But not my 2 daughters, of course.

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. Finally, some advice on getting a mortgage.