Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts
the stars to flight.

And, lo, the hunter of the east 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 writes on the campaign against the PM’s wife about which I cited yesterday, giving us the lowdown on the very low down activities of an infamously right-wing judge. Who gets – as they say – full marks for trying, if nowt else.

The right-of-centre PP party says it will emulate the UK points-based system for immigrants but will add the criterion of ‘cultural proximity’. This article suggest the British PM lacks an understanding of the importance of this to voters. I have stressed a few times that the cultural factor has been critical to Spain’s success in absorbing 4m South Americans – 10% of the population. Perhaps I should write to Mr Starmer . . .  

The main cause of work absenteeism in Spain between 2018 and 2023 was pain in the neck or the back. The second cause was mental health. In view of my own episodes of depression, I’d be the last person to downplay the latter. But UK research has confirmed these are the easiest things to fake. Or, putting it another way, the hardest things to disprove. Which might or might not explain the massive increase in related benefit claims in the UK since Covid. And any future rise in Spain. Just sayin’ . . .

Cousas de Galiza

For anyone on the Camino, this article on the history of Santiago de Compostela should be of particular interest.

That article uses the word ‘conch’. I did, too, last night when talking to some pilgrims from Atlanta. But I later wondered if I really should have used ‘scallop’. Yes, says an AI engine, as: conchshells are spiral, pointed at both ends, while scallop shells are flat, fan-shaped, and symmetric with radiating flutes, commonly seen as a symbol of pilgrimage. I’ll try harder in future.

The top 5 things – of 19 – that Galicians are concerned about are:-

• Housing (nominated by 16% of respondents – twice as much as the next 2)
• Health services
• Ageing of the population
• Employment insecurity
• The government, politicians and specific parties

And the bottom 5:-

• Social injustices, inequality
• Corruption and fraud (2.2)%)
• Immigration
• Education
• Citizen safety (1.5%)

Between these, in descending order are:-

• Inflation
• Politics and named politicians
• The abandonment of rural areas
• Unemployment
• The economy in generally
• Wildfires
• Depopulation
• Climate change
• The lack of industry

I wonder what it signifies that only 30% of tourists flats in Galicia are registered and, so, 70% are illegal. Slack law enforcement? Slow municipal authorities? Vested interests? Nothing much at all?

The UK and the EU

Someone has countered conventional wisdom with a book detailing 75 Brexit benefits. I’m not sure it’ll be a best-seller. I look forward to seeing the sceptical reviews.

Meanwhile, here’s a relevant AEP article of 10 days ago that I missed, headed: Trump’s big, beautiful tech pact is a watershed moment for Brexit Britain. The UK has seized its moment as an ‘AI superpower’, leaving Europe flagging in the dust.

ALICE IN MAGAWORLD

Trumpisms.

• Standing beside Benjamin Netanyahu after unveiling a peace plan for Gaza: This is one of the greatest days ever in civilisation. Possibly to put above the discovery of penicillin. Or that of DNA.

A man possibly even more evil that Trump, and his likely successor . . .

Hmm. In Hitler’s Germany, the People’s Court stood at the apex of a whole new system of ‘Special Courts’ established to deal with political offences, often of a fairly trivial nature, such as telling jokes about the Leader. 

One thing the Republicans are superb at is inventing reasons why so many Americans kill each other, almost always with the guns that are so freely available. Despite the apparent affiliations with the MAGA movement of one of last weekend’s crop of murderers, Steve Bannon blamed “psychotic drugs”. By which I guess he meant antipsychotic drugs used in cases of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. I think the last excuse from Trump and the NRA which (illegally) finances him was ‘a mental health condition’, raising the question of why sufferers of these in other countries don’t slaughter folk at random.

The Way of the World

Reading the gruesome details of Germany in the 1930s, it becomes clear that, as a country slips away from democracy, the most evil of humans rise to power at all levels and then cling to it. The USA seems to be learning this lesson now – witness the masked ICE agents – though even the most pessimistic won’t expect the country to end up like Nazi Germany. More like modern Hungary or Turkey. God forbid an oligopoly as bad as Russia’s.

Spanish

• Los perros ladran, la caravan pasa: The dogs bark, the caravan moves on.
• Inverosimil: Unlikely, implausible, far-fetched.
• Coartada: Alibi, cover story.

Did you know?

Until 1936, executions in Germany were still done with a medieval hand-held axe. It was banned by, of all folk, Adolf Hitler, the famous humanitarian.

Finally . . .

Pv city over the last 25 years . . .

Maybe the last few things we have more of (I did have others but seem to have lost the list):-

• Separations
• Divorces
• High-speed AVE trains
• Things we’re obliged to carry in our cars
• Radar traps
• Big ‘traffic information’ screens in the middle of roundabouts. Actually used for ads.

And here’s the first list of the things we have fewer/less of:-

• Retail outlets
• Fraudulent language schools
• Bank Offices.
• ATMs
• Street parking spaces
• Postal services
• Kids, generally and in classes
• Dog dirt on streets
• Smokers in bars and even on terraces
• Night clubs in both the old quarter and outside it
• Traffic: Reduced in the new quarter, almost none in the old quarter
• Paper mills – Down to 2 from 1
• The smell from the mill that remains
• Convents – down to 1
• Nuns – down to 3
• Priests
• Masses
• Catholics
• Mass attendants
• Brothels. No longer just outside the city on the old road to Vigo. Reduced from many to 1
• Book shops
• Car fumes
• Night trains – killed by Covid
• Electricity blackouts
• International flight options, eg Liverpool or Manchester
• Disorganised queues/lines in banks etc. Everyone takes a ticket now.

My thanks to those readers who take the trouble to Like my posts.

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. If you do this but don’t read the posts, I will delete your subscription. So perhaps don’t bother if you have other reasons for subscribing . . .

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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.

If you´re thinking of moving to Spain, this link should be useful to you.