Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Living La Vida Loca in Spain and Galicia

See the first article below for some (alleged) differences between the youth of Spain and the UK.

The Alhambra is an even great treasure trove than I thought.   

More on the squatting ‘plague’ and what’s behind it.   

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And blocked by useless bureaucrats? 

María's Dystopian Times, Day 16.   

The UK

Huge fines are now in place - belatedly - for breaching the no-party/raves rules. Up to ten thousand quid. Several were levied this weekend.

The EU

Germany wants to beef up the WHO but won't do it alone. As usual, though, France is alongside. If you can do that from the side . . .

The USA

There’s no doubt America’s in rough shape. It’s hard to look at the current presidential ding-dong — staged between two rambling old silverbacks — and not feel a sense of decline. And it’s frankly impossible to immerse yourself in the American public sphere without being troubled by the unending reel of distortion, resentment and rage.

But see the optimistm of the 2nd article below.

The Way of the World

See the 3rd article below on the moribund(?) full stop/period.

English

A new word for me: wokescold: The meaning is obvious, I guess.

English/Spanish  

Three more refranes:-  

- You could have heard a pin drop: No se oía ni (el vuelo de) una mosca.

- You have to suffer to be in fashion: Lo que es moda es incomoda. [One of the best]

- You have to strike while the iron is hot: A la ocasión la pintan calva. [Needs explanation]

Finally . . . 

I've no idea where they've  been but the sparrows certainly are back. Indeed, one of them yesterday managed to find its way into my (humane) rat trap that doesn't even have any bait in it - the 4th sparrow to do this in the last couple of months. The greenfinches don't seem to be so dumb/clever.

FWIW - Reader Perry used this in a recent comment. Short for For what it's worth, I believe. 

I particularly like this from minute 2.24 on.        

THE ARTICLES

 1.  Unhappy kids: Rod Liddle,. Sunday Times

I was thinking y'day that Spanish kids are not only not taught to think but also, relatedly, not to question either. Reminded by just reading this;  My dissecting daughter makes no bones about why our kids aren’t happy:  

Apparently British teenagers are the least happy in Europe, according to a less than comprehensive report from the Children’s Society. I asked my 14-year-old daughter why she thought this might be.

She was busy making a pendant from the scales of a decomposing slowworm that she had found in the forest at the bottom of our garden. The creature’s tiny bones had already been stored in a little glass vial, in formaldehyde. I don’t know where she got the chemicals. Teenagers are renowned for their love of chemicals, of course — but not these chemicals, surely.

I had always been proud of her love for and knowledge of nature, inculcated at a very early age — but it seems to have teetered into a kind of psychopathy. She even has a very sharp axe for dismembering larger dead animals, such as badgers or roe deer, and a kind of Black Museum in which she keeps the bleached skulls and reassembled torsos.

Perhaps this is it, I thought to myself: death. Our children have become obsessed with death and surround themselves with it. But her answer, once she had removed her rubber gloves, was different.

“We’re smarter than the other European kids. They are all gullible and deluded,” she said. “I’ve met some. They don’t have a clue what’s going on.”

I quite liked this as an answer and I suspect there is an iota of truth to it. I remembered — before lockdown — seeing a serpentine trail of Spanish adolescents being taken on a tour of my nearby city, Canterbury, and noting how they were all grinning broadly. There is a smugness and stupidity in telling people how happy you are. Some 82% of Spanish kids report themselves mindlessly, inanely cheerful — one of the highest levels in Europe — compared with 64% of our brats.

It certainly made more sense to me than the verdict of the chief executive of the Children’s Society, Mark Russell. Come on, you know what Marky thought was the cause of this abject misery among our children. “The increase in child poverty,” he said. Of course he did. This was published in The Grauniad.

But there hasn’t been an increase in child poverty in the UK. There has, instead, been a rise — slowing, admittedly — in general affluence. If Marky had looked at the European Commission’s Eurostat study of the subject, he would have seen that those Spanish kids were more likely to be at risk of poverty or social exclusion than were British children.

Further, what lies in wait for the Spanish kids is far more depressing than that which awaits the Brit brats: youth unemployment of 40.8%, compared with 12.7% over here. And if they do, somehow, manage to get a job, the average wage is miles below what it is in the UK.

Indeed, if Mr Russell had taken his study seriously, instead of simply parroting the usual right-on mantras, he would have noted a definite correlation, the opposite of the one he identified. Almost all the countries in which young people expressed the greatest mindless enthusiasm for life were those in which the average wage was the lowest in the continent: Lithuania, Croatia, Spain and Romania (the last of which was, in that other survey I mentioned, second-worst of all the European Union countries for child poverty and social exclusion).

I ought to point out that the Children’s Society survey did not include Bulgaria or Moldova or the former Yugoslavian microstates. But I will bet that if it had, those kids would have shown a similar level of happiness to those in Romania or Spain. It is clearly not child poverty that has anything to do with British kids being miserable. It may, instead, be affluence.

Or, if not simply affluence, then expectation and self-entitlement, which are, of course, handmaidens to affluence. A certain avarice, if you want to get Old Testament about it — and an expectation enhanced by the rather perfidious influence of social media, which has a stronger purchase in countries that use the English language. Dissatisfaction occasioned by envy.

And then there are the expectations we have of our own children, the weight we put on their young shoulders to succeed, to be better than the rest. It is not an absence of money that makes our children unhappy, but the very appurtenances of affluence

2. A minority that dares not speak its name. Atheism can be risky, especially in America, but change is coming: Matthew Syed

Pete Stark died earlier this year, but you may not have noticed. A congressman from California, he campaigned on healthcare and played a small role in allowing people to stay on their employers’ health insurance after leaving a job. But that is not why I’m mentioning him. I am mentioning him because he was a member of one of the most discriminated-against minority groups in America.

No, Stark was not gay; he was not in the trans community; nor was he black, Asian, Native American or any of the other labels that might have jumped into your mind. Rather, he was an atheist — in fact, the first person to “come out” as a non-believer in the history of the Congress, which he did in 2007. He didn’t last long, though, unable to win re-election in 2012. His opponent ran a campaign that focused on his lack of faith.

Indeed, to this day, as far as I am aware, no other atheist has won a seat in the House of Representatives or the Senate — and none has captured the White House. The most recent Congress is the most diverse in history, with Native American women, Muslims, a bisexual senator and the youngest woman to gain a seat in either chamber. But there isn’t an atheist — just one representative ticked the box saying “religiously unaffiliated” in a recent survey, but none admitted to no belief at all.

In his book Big Gods, the psychologist Ara Norenzayan collates the evidence that shows why politicians are so afraid of admitting to non-belief. He shows that many in America still cleave to the trope that non-believers are more likely to be amoral and untrustworthy – ironic given that nations like Denmark, with lots of atheists, are rated as among the least corrupt. One survey asks the following question: “would you be willing to vote for a presidential candidate of your own preference who is ......”, with responses such as African American, Catholic, female, Jewish, Muslim, atheist, and so on.

In 1948, only 48% of Americans said they would be willing to vote for an African-American president, perhaps unsurprising given the nation’s history. By 1999, this had doubled, and clear majorities expressed a willingness to vote for all minority groups — Catholics, Jews, women — except one. Only atheists had failed to reach that threshold and, according to dozens of more recent surveys, they remain the most distrusted group today.

In one sense, this discrimination isn’t wholly surprising. Atheists do not have a powerful lobbying group to fight our corner. We are not united by a belief, but by the absence of a belief. Atheists do not march on cities or proclaim an ideology. Ricky Gervais put the point rather well: “Saying [atheism] is a belief system is like saying not going skiing is a hobby.” Indeed, my sense is that most atheists are rather uncomfortable with the anti-religious evangelism of the likes of Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, regarding it as shrill. We are happy to live and let live.

Some of an atheistic bent — understandably — think this lack of activism is a mistake. They think we should insert ourselves more strenuously into a world where politics is getting pushier, where people are becoming more ideological and where power is coalescing within creed groups. Given the discrimination faced by atheists in America, and the starker dangers to which they are exposed in other parts of the world, wouldn’t it make sense for the non-ideological to become a bit more, well, ideological?

But this is where I wish to inject a bit of optimism. You see, I think that the quieter, more rational temperament of atheism is likely to win out in the long run. We can already see this in the Middle East, where disbelief is often a criminal offence punishable by death. In Saudi Arabia, the religious police believe that the more vicious the penalties against apostasy, the longer they will be able to sustain the grip of fundamentalism.

A writer named Raif Badawi started an online forum known as Free Saudi Liberals. He was motivated by the idea that it is possible to see the world from a non-religious standpoint and that people should be free to disbelieve. When this came to the attention of the clerics, he was convicted of “insulting Islam”, sentenced to jail and given 50 lashes in front of a Jeddah mosque. He remains in prison to this day.

Others have suffered a similar fate, such as Mubarak Bala, an atheist in Nigeria, who was arrested this year for blasphemy and has been threatened with the death penalty. Human rights groups have found a range of tactics being used against atheists, including “the criminalisation of blasphemy and apostasy, impunity for attacks, social isolation and discrimination”.

But another trend is under way, albeit under the surface of Islamic societies. A report last year by the BBC, which surveyed 10 majority-Muslim nations and the Palestinian territories, found that atheism is on the rise. The proportion saying (confidentially) that they are non-religious has increased in just five years by 15% in Tunisia and a similar amount in Libya, with big jumps in Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Sudan and Jordan, too. Non-belief is the fastest-growing belief system by far.

From this vantage point, the brutality of the religious fundamentalists starts to look less like strength than weakness, while the rational decency of atheists is like a magnet to people exhausted by ideological indoctrination and factionalism. Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian who won the Nobel prize in literature, recently wrote to Bala in jail. “You have fought for all humanity, to ensure a better, fairer, world for all. You have not sought to appease those that treasure scrolls. You have not bowed to pressure to revere their unseen deities. It beggars belief that religionists still demand such reverence and seek to control our individual conduct. Do they not see the futility of their quest? How can they hope to rein in technology, to rein in questioning minds?”

I know that my friends on the other side of the pond might regard this as patronising, but I think America would also benefit from a surge in atheism. Unlike in western Europe, where discrimination against non-believers has largely disappeared, zealots (particularly Christian evangelicals) continue to wield disproportionate influence. This undermines the rationality of discourse, particularly in areas such as stem cell research, and inflames ideological polarisation. It is certainly damning that in the land of the free, politicians who don’t believe (there must be a few) still feel unable to say so publicly.

In the long run, though, I remain sanguine. I suspect future historians will regard the various fundamentalisms we see in the world today as a series of connected spasms, the last gasps of those who struggle to encompass the concept of unbelief. The fall of state religions may be bloody in some regions, particularly the Middle East, but I doubt it can be prevented by any amount of force or indoctrination.

Reason and tolerance will, in the end, win through. That, at least, is my article of faith.

3. Does it have to end this way?  The kids have killed the full stop Teenagers say the punctuation mark is too aggressive. That’s nothing compared with the insults thrown at dashes, semicolons and exclamation marks:  Susie Dent

Ask teenagers what they think about the full stop and you’ll get an unexpectedly lively response. If you’ve always considered this piece of punctuation an innocuous but necessary mark of conclusion, be warned: according to a debate among linguists on Twitter last week, for the younger generation, when used in a WhatsApp or text message, it can imply sarcasm, unhappiness or even aggression.

I find this intriguing. If you’d asked me for the most controversial punctuation mark in history, the full stop would have been bottom of the list. Top spot would surely be occupied by the exclamation mark or, as it has been known over the centuries, the wonderer, admiration mark, shriek, screamer, boing, pling, bang, gasper, slammer and Christer.

Whatever you choose to call it, a pile-up of them is generally seen as a linguistic no-no. Sir Terry Pratchett called the excitable punctuation mark “a sure sign of a diseased mind”. A person who used more than one was, he said, “someone who wears his underpants on his head”.

Second-place honours for the most maligned form of punctuation go to the serial comma, or Oxford comma. A final comma in a list before the “and”, it is sometimes a matter of taste but at other times essential: the TV listings of The Times once included Peter Ustinov having an encounter with “Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector”.

Similarly, the dash, so ubiquitous in online language, was once viewed as the doing of the devil. It was, its critics protested, a jack of all trades that swerved any understanding of the finer points of punctuation. The pamphleteer William Cobbett decided it was a “cover for ignorance”. Today, as we speak with our fingers, dashes are everywhere, the ever-ready substitute for the unpopular colon or semicolon.

Those colons and semicolons have had a difficult time of it recently. Ben Jonson, arguably England’s greatest punctuator, loved the colon so much he inserted what he called a “double prick” between his first and last name, but their glory days are long past.

Kurt Vonnegut denounced the semicolon in a lesson in creative writing: “First rule: do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.” I love a semicolon, even in a text message, but then I’m a nerd who finds them instinctively neat and elegant. In online discourse they tend to stick out like a misplaced aubergine emoji. Or, it turns out, like a full stop.

Many of us now — in certain contexts — opt for zero punctuation. A full stop, it seems, not only interrupts the stream of consciousness that flows all over the internet, but also conveys all the wrong emotions.

Before you decide this is linguistic anarchy, consider the following hypothetical responses from a friend to the news that you’ve had a pay rise:

“great”

“great!”

“great.”

Most of us would plump for the second. The first is a little muted, but the third hints either at envy or absolute indifference.

The omission of full stops is not a fad. Adverts have been without them for decades, and poets have dispensed with them for far longer. But our new written-spoken language is all about energy and spontaneity, and the plod of a full stop is clearly a party-pooper.

As the linguist David Crystal, who anticipated this evolution years ago, points out: “The line-break has taken over. We don’t need both.” Crystal will also tell you this isn’t just a young versus old thing — databases of language use suggest that for all of us the full stop is, paradoxically, firmly on the move.

None of this is to say that the days of punctuation are numbered: rather, like every aspect of English, it is simply adapting to our needs. A well-placed squiggle can make or break a piece of writing and, in some cases, have far-reaching legal implications.

Even on its own, a judiciously used punctuation mark can say more than the words it serves. Victor Hugo once sent a telegram to his publisher inquiring about the success of his book. It read simply “?”. The book was clearly doing well, and Hugo received the reply “!”. A full stop would have told a very different story. 

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.  

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

Living La Vida Loca in Spain and Galicia

God knows, reports of illegal constructions and deserved/cruel demolitions are not infrequent in Spain - including the houses of (conned) Brits bought in good faith Down South - but I was surprised to read yesterday that, in Vigo alone, more than a thousand homes had been saved rom demolition by some happy judicial verdict. I was even more surprised - though shouldn't have been - to see the size of some of the flat blocks that had been illegally constructed.

I was less surprised to read that, because of local political wrangling - a hospital down on the Costa del Sol has been finished but unopened for some time. And might not be so for a while yet. 

Reports of corruption are, likewise, not a rare occurrence here in Spain. The latest I've read of is 5 councillors of his own party demanding the resignation of a mayor in Ourense province, for ‘misuse’ of party funds.

For reasons unknown to me, yesterday was Bats Day in Pontevedra. Possibly not as popular as usual during the Covid crisis . . .

Another foto of the 'world-first'  lighting system on our O Burgo bridge:-

María's Dystopian Times, Day 15. What happens when an ex British colony goes wrong and becomes unrecognisable from the mother country . . .  

The UK

When we need innovative leadership, the government harangues remote workers back onto commuter trains to save commercial landlords and Pret. It won’t admit “normal” is dead, living patterns have changed, whole professions are defunct, cities must repurpose or die. It should convene entrepreneurs, economists, tech experts and social forecasters to imagine the products, services and possibilities of a new world. Young people are best placed to intuit the way forward but need investment, support and guidance.

The Way of the World

Here's the reaction of 'Grumpy Old Man' to an article on how tough kids have it these days. I'm guessing we're of a similar age and were raised in similar circumstances: I didn’t realise that I was brought up in such a golden age.  A golden age when there was still rationing.  A golden age when we had no central heating and the windows were frozen on the inside in the morning.  When we had no fridges, washing machines, tumble dryers, dishwashers or microwaves.  A golden age when we had to walk to a phone box if we wanted to talk to our friends, and we had to catch the bus to school, or even walk.  A golden age when we had to go to the library if we wanted to find out any information. A golden age when we worried, not about our exam results, but whether Mr. Kennedy or Mr. Kruschev would launch their missiles first. A golden age when inflation was nearly 30% and mortgage rates were 15%. ¡A golden age when women had to give up work when they got married, when rooms to let said “No blacks, no Irish and no pets”, when homosexuality was illegal. I’m not saying young people today don’t have problems, just that every generation has its own, and has to work through them.

I recall all of this - except the rationing - but particularly the ice on the inside of my bedroom windows . . .

The USA

The Democrats' embrace of BLM may be about to monumentally backfire: The anarchy caused by the Black Lives Matter movement has given Donald Trump's campaign an impetus it had so far lacked. See the article below. And weep.

English

The title of this song - top of the US 'pop chart' in 1950 - is If I knew you were coming I'd have baked a cake. In standard British English, this would be the shorter: If I'd known you were coming etc.. But what makes it odd is that the singer is American and most(all) Americans I know - and most Europeans - would say If I would have known you were coming etc.' Feel free to disagree. 

Finally . . . 

Life is full of coincidences, some of them more incredible than others. Yesterday, in a book on groupthink I read of the volcano of Mauna Loa in Hawaii. Earlier in the day, in a novel by David Mitchell I'd read of a mountain called Mauna Kea in Ha-Why(Hawaii). Another volcano there. 

This is said to be the answer to an exam question but is possibly a  very, very old joke:-

Q: Why does Judaism practice circumcision? 

A: To get better at it.

THE ARTICLE

The Democrats' embrace of BLM may be about to monumentally backfire: The anarchy caused by the Black Lives Matter movement has given Donald Trump's campaign an impetus it had so far lacked.    Freddy Gray, editor of Spectator USA

The Black Lives Matter movement could sink the Democrats and ensure Donald Trump's reelection. If I had made that statement a few weeks ago, you might have thought me mad. After the police killing of George Floyd on May 25, the world was horrified. The Democratic Party made considerable political hay from massive and widespread protests and riots which followed. Joe Biden, still then the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and his top allies all firmly aligned themselves with BLM. They repeated BLM slogans, took the knee, demanded radical change - then enjoyed a surge in the polls.

Now, however, we are approaching the end of August, the riots haven't stopped, and the Democrats' embrace of BLM is starting to look like a monumental mistake. Every night, across America, cars and shops are being smashed or set alight and property defaced with graffiti saying "BLM". The worst affected areas, in cities such as Portland, Oregon or Seattle, Washington, now resemble war zones. American voters are sickened by videos of police killing black citizens. But they are also increasingly disgusted by endless images of carnage and they are disturbed by the radical BLM blather that senior Democrats seem much too keen to echo. Every sane person agrees that black lives matter, but BLM's other big slogan, Defund the Police, starts to sound like madness when homicide rates are spiking and maniacs exploit the lawlessness. BLM spokesmen often encourage violence, threatening to burn places down if they don't get what they want.

Voters find that off-putting. An interesting new Civiqs survey shows that, in the immediate aftermath of Floyd's death, support for BLM surged among non-college educated white people in crucial election battleground states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan. By the end of July, a majority of those same voters said they opposed the movement.

Biden finally took to Twitter this week to say that "burning down communities is not protest; it’s needless violence". But that sounded a lot like too little too late.

In 1972, Richard Nixon, a president less loved than perhaps even Donald Trump, managed to win his second term in a landslide by campaigning against crime and social decay.

Who knows what will happen in this mad year, but the widespread sense of BLM anarchy has given Trump's campaign an impetus it had hitherto lacked.

The BLM riots have also validated the other big Republican point: the media's perception of what is happening in America is hopelessly warped by its Left-wing perspective and its loathing of Donald Trump.

Over the weekend, the disturbing clip of a policeman shooting a black man, Jacob Blake, emerged from Kenosha, Wisconsin. A CNN reporter covering the unrest was filmed standing in front of a raging street fire as the caption on screen below him called the protests "largely peaceful".

People aren't stupid. The Democrats could learn an old lesson the hard way. Don't play with fire. You might get burned.

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Covid 19 

The country with the world's strictest lockdown is now the worst for excess deaths - Peru. Which has taken over the top spot in the deaths per million table, from poor Belgium. 

At the current growth rate, the USA will next month not only overtake Sweden but also Italy, the UK and Spain. Which the Democrats will surely make something of ahead of the November presidential election.

Pick the meat out of this research, from which the right-wing governments of the UK and the USA and the left wing government of Spain don't emerge well. A taster: In Spain and the USA, about three-quarters of government supporters say their country has handled the coronavirus well but in the UK, the figure is only just over half.   

Living La Vida Loca in Spain and Galicia

Our Spanish tourists will all be leaving this this weekend. Normally, we'd see an influx of (Covid-bearing?) foreigners in September but I suspect not this year. 

There are signs, though, that Camino numbers are slowly increasing. I might see 5-10 these days. Only a fraction of normal numbers, of course, but more than zero. I'm always tempted to tell them not to go across O Burgo bridge and up the through Lérez but, instead, to take what was a temporary but prettier route along the parallel river Gándara. But I usually don't, partly because it's no longer signposted.

Talking of signs . . .  This one is at the top of the down-escalators at Pontevedra's train station. 

A better English option would surely have been 'No Entry'. But why check with a native speakers when you can pay your cousin? Or yourself

Pontevedra's red light district . . . from left and right:-

María's Dystopian Times, Days 13 and 14.  

The USA

That Republican Party convention . . .With less than 70 days to go before the presidential election, and a catastrophic health crisis that has spiralled out of control leaving 180,000 Americans dead, tens of millions out of work, and the lowest ever recorded GDP in Q2, a sense of delusion hovered over the White House ceremony.    Both Mr Trump and Mr Biden have rightly agreed that this election is the most important one in decades. In the end, it will be a referendum on Mr Trump, and his ability to manage Covid-19 and the crises that have accompanied it. 

This is somewhat less depressing. Fart on Genesis.   

English

A new/rediscovered word: Flummery: 1. Meaningless or insincere flattery or conventions. 2. A sweet dish made with beaten eggs, milk, sugar, and flavourings. Origin: An early 17th century word denoting a dish made with oatmeal or wheatmeal boiled to a jelly. From the Welsh llymru; perhaps related to llymrig ‘soft, slippery’.

English/Spanish

Three more refranes:-  

- You can't make bricks without straw: No se puede trabajar sin materia prima.

- You can't please everybody: Nunca llueve a gusto de todos.

- You can’t win them all: Palos porque bogas, palos porque no bogas.

Finally . . . 

Canela (cinammon) is also good.

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant. 

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Covid 19 Lockdowns 

Lockdowns are officially indefensible. Sweden has won the international experiment, as its firms outperform even the German Großunternehmen while Covid deaths plummet in line with the rest of Europe.   . .  The Covid saga rumbles on. A grim tale of Machiavellian idiocy, statistical illiteracy, and robotic leaders who have no idea how to level with voters. Still, at least they have realised their lockdown error. It’s a glimmer of hope to which we must cling. See the full article below.

A (brilliant) old song of which I’m reminded.  

And a new one.

Covid 19  in Spain and Galicia

A Spanish commentator writes: Spain’s failure to come up with a coherent, coordinated approach to managing COVID-19 (along with many other issues) is largely due to its division into so-called autonomous regions, which enjoy significant devolved power.  the Spanish system of regional autonomy has led to duplications, bureaucracy and corruption, and above all, a lack of coordination and sharing of information in real time that has made us much more vulnerable to a threat of a global nature.  Full article here.  

An interesting Covid consequence.

Living La Vida Loca in Spain and Galicia

My TIE: Well, I now have my snazzy new card. In the end, the process was quick and problem-free. But there were 2 (non?)surprises: Firstly, I was again asked - by a nice lady - for the green Certificado de Residencia which was taken from me 6 weeks ago; and, secondly, I was asked to give a print of both my index fingers before the card was given to me. It left me wondering - if this were the most effective way of proving my identity - why I had to both produce the resguardo and to show my passport. And why the card couldn't have been given to me days ago, when I didn't have my passport. It's as if, to access my Mac, Apple asked me to show the bill for its purchase, a copy of a contract with them and finally my relevant passport page before demanding and accepting 2 fingerprints. It all rather contrasts with the system now in place in the car park below Pontevedra's market which allows my car to exit without putting the payment receipt into the slot. But, then, that's a commercial operation, where efficiency and common sense matter. I was also reminded of how the introduction of computers into the the Post Office (Correos) had made the clerks even slower than 10 or 15 years ago. Finally on this . . . My TIE lasts for 10 years. I suspect that, by 2030, at least a retina examination will have been added to the panoply of measures required to prove one's identity. And maybe voice-recognition. And something not yet invented. The expression 'belt and braces' doesn't quite cover it.

My Dutch friend has finally had enough and has told El Corte Inglés it can stuff its card up its corporate jaxi. After more than 2 weeks of conversations re what they require, yesterday he received a letter demanding for the renewal of his card:-

- His latest salary chit

- His pension details

- An official certificate of  his work  history (from the Social Security)

- A copy of his last income tax (Renta) return

- A photocopy of a statement from a savings account or the current account to which bills will be debited.

- Any other important data which he thinks will agilizar the process . . . [!!]

This is surely an even better example of beyond-belt-and-braces avoidance of risk than my experience with the Policía Nacional. I wasn't going to write this but, after 19 years of working here, my friend despairs of Spain's future once the flows of other people's money stops. And even if the sun continues to shine and the tourism industry recovers. As the father of 2 teenage Spanish daughters, this is less than academic to him.

The response of the last employee of El Corte Inglés to whom he spoke was that his dissatisfaction and complaints would be noted and passed on. I wouldn't be confident of that.

A propos . . . There seems to be a significant difference between the Golden Visa regulations and the high-handed way bureaucrats interpret them.  This high-handed treatment of investors is in keeping with the behaviour of other areas of the Spanish bureaucracy, and echoes Spain’s not so distant, authoritarian past.  Click  here for the full article.

I think we can say without much fear of contradiction that the motto of Spanish officialdom ain't Keep Things Simple. Especially, it seems, if you're a budding entrepreneur or autónima.

Talking of illegal acts committed with impunity . . 

The UK

Well, I’d certainly be annoyed bye this . . . 

The USA

Just in case you're thinking of moving there . . . Trump may be behind Joe Biden in the polls but among Republican voters he has an approval rating hovering around 90%. In 2016, there was endless friction between the Republican Party machine and Trump. No longer. His message, his priorities, his instincts, his tone is now theirs. What this convention has done is expel any lingering doubt. His takeover of the Republican Party is complete. Win or lose on November 3, that could remain true for years to come.

In an attempt to prove he's done relatively - if not wonderfully - well, Trump fans continue to stress that US Covid deaths per million are less than in Belgium, the UK, Spain and Italy. What they don't say is that the USA - after being way behind Sweden - is now within a whisker of the latter's total, having passed those of Luxembourg, Switzerland, Ireland, the Netherlands and France along the way. Or that while the USA's total has soared from 356 in mid June to 556(+56%) now, Germany's has gone from 106 to 112(+6%). And Portugal's from 149 to 177 (+10%).

Despite the rising deaths per million - the only truly relevant statistic - a Trump spokesperson claimed this morning that, thanks to him, 'Everything is going in the right direction'. Dear god.

English/Spanish

My thanks to the reader who kindly provided this info:-

- You can't escape your destiny: Another variant appears in Rubén Blades' famous song Pedro Navaja . . . Si naciste pa' martillo, del Cielo te caen los clavos.   

- You can't have your cake and eat it too: There are at least three equivalents:- Soplar y sorber, no puede ser/Estar en la procesión y repicando/Estar al plato y a las tajadas.

Finally . . . 

My thanks also to the reader who suggested star anise with my ground coffee beans. Certainly a success. Now to add canela?

THE ARTICLE

Europe is at last waking up to its lockdown folly.  As battening down the hatches fast loses favour, we can at least take this as a glimmer of hope:    Sherelle Jacobs, the Telegraph

Did you hear it? Beyond the second wave sirens and the schools debate, the sound of the penny dropping on the global stage. In recent days, world leaders have hinted at an extraordinary admission: lockdowns are a disaster, and we can’t afford to repeat the mistake.

Still, when that spiritless reverend of the global order Angela Merkel delivered this confession a few days ago, she was so officiously ambiguous that the world paid no attention. “Politically, we want to avoid closing borders again at any cost, but that assumes that we act in coordination,” she droned at a summit in the Mediterranean. And with that, an earthquake: saving lives “at any cost” has been excised from the lexicon of liberal internationalism. Instead the aim is to save the economy. This means “acting in coordination” to kill off second lockdowns.

Emmanuel Macron was the first leader to drop this little bombshell. Last week he said that France can’t cope with the “collateral damage” of a second lockdown, explaining that “zero risk never exists in any society”. Italy joined in three days later, with the health minister hinting that the country will not return to national hibernation. Meanwhile, after lauding China’s draconian lockdown, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is imploring countries to avoid battening down the hatches again.

About time. Lockdowns are officially indefensible. Sweden has won the international experiment, as its firms outperform even the German Großunternehmen while Covid deaths plummet in line with the rest of Europe. Scientists caution that it may take years to develop a vaccine. Economists warn that even the richest economies in the world cannot afford national lockdowns costing up to 3 per cent of GDP per month.

Perhaps even doom-mongering politicians have twigged that civilisation threatens to evaporate into a mushroom cloud of psychoneurotic delirium. Polling reveals that Westerners on average believe 6 per cent of their national populations have died from Covid-19. The real figure is around 100 times lower.

Or maybe global leaders have been terrified by their instinct to protect the status quo. After all, seasonal travel shutdowns are an existential threat to a borderless Europe. Italy’s collapse following another lockdown would bankrupt the Eurozone. The banal rituals of cosmopolitanism are under threat – from the professional class’s daily pilgrimage into the cities to Starbucks lattes in reusable cups.

The trouble is, if Britain is any guide, leaders will struggle to persuade the masses to keep calm and carry on. Risk-averse statesmen aren’t ideal poster children for the message that we must all learn to live with more risk.

More importantly, no leader dare tackle the toxic relationship between mass panic and “the science”. Take the problem of dodgy Covid statistics. The bizarre failure of politicians to explain to people the basic fact that “rising” cases could partly reflect an increase in testing is a scandal. So is their inability to point out that, far from being cause for alarm, mild upticks may be an encouraging sign that testing and tracing is working, as the system becomes more effective at picking up localised spikes.

Nor do governments have a handle on the spurious second wave modelling that could yet drive us into another lockdown. It is, however, a myth that politicians are helpless against the judgment of career scientists. In Britain and beyond, politicians have never followed the modelling; modelling has always followed the politicians.

As the pandemic hit, officials across the world requested forecasts for long-term worst-case scenarios, even though it is widely held in expert circles that statistical models are only accurate for roughly two-week stretches. Worse, part of the reason the science has come up with ridiculous solutions is that politicians have asked ridiculous questions.

As government adviser Prof Mark Woolhouse recently told a parliamentary committee:“We are not aiming the models at the right target; we are aiming them at everyone when in fact the burden of this disease is very concentrated.” Perhaps the number crunchers would do better to model social distancing measures directed at the vulnerable rather than population-wide lockdowns.

Sadly, world leaders are less interested in taking the science debate forward than in covering their backs. Their expediency will only fuel paranoia. After an intriguing U-turn from the WHO, face masks are being rolled out as a mass market placebo from Britain to Spain. The notion that they reassure more people than they alarm – let alone the evidence that they work – is risible. Still, they usefully distract from the incompetence of Western states when it comes to the routine mass testing that could genuinely quiet hysteria and avert new lockdowns.

And so the Covid saga rumbles on. A grim tale of Machiavellian idiocy, statistical illiteracy, and robotic leaders who have no idea how to level with voters. Still, at least they have realised their lockdown error. It’s a glimmer of hope to which we must cling.

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.  

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Covid 19 in Spain and Galicia

There’s growing fear that we’ll soon have a second national lockdown, perhaps preceded by regional varieties in Madrid and Cataluña. The article below addresses the dire economic effects of this, partly the consequence of polarised, tribal politics. As I’ve asked, does the major part of responsibility for this lie with the Spanish themselves? Specifically their inability to obey distancing guidelines/rules once the draconian fines stopped.

As I said to my daughter while surveying the happy crowds in the centre of Pontevedra last week: I fear these people have no real idea of what's round the corner after the interim schemes end and a full economic hit is taken.

Living La Vida Loca in Spain and Galicia

As if it didn't have enough to worry about, it's reported that Galicia will be one of the Spanish regions worst hit by post-Brexit customs duties. Specifically on wine, agri-foodstuffs, clothes(Inditex/Zara) and cars. 

At a trivial level . . .  My Dutch friend continues to have classic Spanish problems getting his Corte Inglés card. Seeking to get his work history demanded by the store, he's had several calls to help desks - he's totally fluent in Spanish - in order to get a Key (Clave) to allow him to access all Spanish government sites. Followed by one abortive video call with the Tax Office and a second video call in which he wasn't asked to produce the passport he'd been unable to show during the first one. And then an abortive call to the Social Security office, when they admitted they didn't have the phone number he'd given in order to get the Clave. So couldn't progress his request. He's now awaiting a call from the Social Security folk - promised for Monday - when he'll be told what challenge he faces next. 

I have, of course, asked him if a bloody store card is worth all this hassle and time-wasting but I suspect for him it's now all about not allowing the system to beat him.

It hasn’t been a good week for him, as his relatives due to visit this weekend have been prevented by the Netherlands putting Spain on its blacklist.

The union of Galician estate agents(Realtors) has asked/begged the government to address the plague of squatters by enforcing eviction within 48 hours and by imposing prison sentence. Fat chance.

Meanwhile, I have a cita at 13.20 today at the (national) police station to get my new TIE. No outcome will surprise me.

Day 12 of María's Dystopian Times    

The UK

Quarantine is not lockdown by another name. It is far fiercer. Those in it may not leave home, even to shop, exercise or walk a dog. They must ask others to buy food or medicine if deliveries can’t be arranged. Nobody may visit except to give care. Only a handful of reasons justify stepping beyond the front door: medical emergencies, a family funeral, imminent danger. People must isolate for 14 days but they have no right to be paid. You would assume that a government decreeing that these serious restrictions were vital would be monitoring them with equal seriousness. You would be mistaken. The system for overseeing and enforcing quarantine is a shabby, incoherent mess, because nobody has designed it to be anything else. . . . The government has no idea whether its rules are being observed because it’s taking care not to find out. . This is nuts. A theoretically draconian policy which prevents people from working or going to school while failing to stop viral spread is collective insanity. 

English/Spanish

Three more refranes:-

- You can't escape your destiny: El que nace para mulo del Cielo el cae el arnés.

- You can't have your cake and eat it too: No se puede tener todo.

- You can't make an  omelette without breaking eggs: Nada que valga la pena se logra sin crear conflictos.

Finally . . . 

My daughter and grandson return to Madrid today. We have begun to draw up contingency plans agains the probability of another lockdown, in the hope that one of them proves effective in the event.

THE ARTICLE

Second lockdown could destroy Spain's devastated economy: Graham Keeley. Telegraph

Spain’s tourism-reliant economy has taken a beating from ongoing global travel quarantines, but coronavirus cases are continuing to surge   

Quarantines imposed by Britain and other countries have decimated Spain's tourism sector as cases in the country rise.

Not since Spain plunged into a bloody Civil War more than eight decades ago has the country’s economy suffered so badly as during the Covid pandemic. When General Francisco Franco’s Nationalists staged an uprising against the Republican government, the country’s economy went into deep decline between 1936-1939. The same happened when Spain imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe in March in order to try to contain the epidemic.

After emerging from lockdown in June, a new surge from the virus saw the total number of coronavirus cases rise to 359,082, the highest number in Europe, according to the data released on Aug 17. More than 28,600 Spaniards have lost their lives to Covid-19, according to health ministry data, although the real death toll is closer to 45,000, according to data from regional authorities and research bodies.

The dire cost of Spain's economic hibernation was laid bare when government data revealed the economy shrank by 18.5% between April and June. Official records only go back to 1970, but estimates by economic historian Leandro Prados de la Escosura show that in 1936 – the start of the Spanish civil war – the economy sank at an annual rate of 26.8%, or 6.7% each quarter.

Spain’s tourism dependent economy has been devastated

Tourism-dependent Spain, which depends on holidaymakers for 12% of its GDP and 13% of jobs, according to official data, has seen this crucial sector decimated by the imposition of quarantines by Britain and other countries. Last year, 18m Britons travelled to Spain, making up one in five of all tourists to the country.  

Over the first six months of this year, 10.8m foreign tourists visited Spain, nearly three-quarters fewer than in the same period of 2019, according to the country’s National Statistics Institute (INE). Spain haemorrhaged businesses and jobs when it would normally be gaining them during the summer, tourism-reliant, months. Between February and June, 51,000 businesses closed, compared to the same period in 2019, when 24,000 opened, according to INE. More than one million people lost their jobs in the second quarter of the year, the worst fall in employed workers on record, pushing unemployment to 15.3%.

A second lockdown may be a death knell for Spain’s economy

Alfredo Marquez, an automotive consultant from Barcelona, was made redundant in July: “I have been looking for a job but it is really hard. This could not have happened at a worse time,” he said.

The IMF predicts Spanish GDP will decrease by 12.8% this year, meaning it will be worse hit than Britain where the economic slowdown is expected to be 10.2%. The reason is twofold. Spain adopted a more severe lockdown earlier than Britain and it is more dependent on tourism.

With coronavirus cases soaring the fear is Spain may have to bring in a second lockdown to flatten the curve once more. However, Antonio Garamendi, president of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organisations, says this will be the death knell for the economy. “We are very worried that we will have to go through what we had to go through in March and April. People come first but the economy will suffer brutally,” he says.

Spain’s government has spent €8.1bn (£7.2bn) on a furlough scheme that has saved many workers from hardship. However temporary workers, like those in tourism, and small companies have not been eligible for the programme and have instead had to rely on loan schemes. Spain's labour minister Yolanda Díaz has signalled the furlough scheme will be extended to the end of the year but for businesses this could spell headaches ahead. Kate Preston, a British businesswoman who runs eight restaurants in Barcelona, said: “The furlough scheme has saved many companies from going bankrupt immediately. “[However] when it ends, I forecast carnage because companies are obliged to keep all staff in their previous positions for a minimum of six months or return all furlough money for all workers. If your takings are down 70-80pc, that is clearly impossible.”

Political in-fighting may slow Spain’s recovery even further

Spain is expected to receive €140bn in European Union funds to help shore up its economy and €61bn could be in grants rather than loans. The fragile left-wing coalition government has drawn up a €150bn public spending plan for the next 2 years and wants to avoid making cuts as happened during the 2008 financial crisis. However, Spain’s polarised political system means agreeing how best to spend the cash has proved hard.

Pedro Sanchez, the Socialist prime minister, only came into power in January after striking a deal to form a coalition with Pablo Iglesias, leader of the far-left Unidas Podemos (United We Can) party and the government must pass the budget for 2021 by October.

Garnering enough support from a myriad of small parties is not straightforward. Pablo Casado, leader of the conservative People’s Party, does not want to make cuts either but does not want EU money spent on “ideological projects”. Faced with ballooning public debt that is pushing 110% of GDP, the expectation is that government will have to raise taxes.

Javier Díaz, an economist for IESE Business School, says: “More than the economics it will be politics which decide our ability to recover. We have a divided political scene and the government must pass the budget by October or we will have to have another election.”

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.  

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Covid 19 in Spain and Galicia

The latest announcement of the Spanish government.   

An interesting article which questions several of the assumptions, strategies and actions of the last months.

An unexplained sharp fall in Covid-19 cases and deaths in the Brazilian city of Manaus has led experts to consider whether a form of herd immunity has been achieved in the Amazonian capital. The city was once a symbol of the threat that the virus might pose to the developing world. Drone images of mass graves caused alarm around the world 4 months ago as Covid-19 ravaged the city and burials were running at five times their normal rate. Yet last week, despite no formal lockdown having been imposed, and tests suggesting only 20%% of its population has been infected by the disease, “excess deaths” were listed at close to zero.  

Living La Vida Loca in Spain and Galicia

In the Catalan article I cited yesterday it’s claimed that 3/4 of the Spanish hate the founder of Inditex/Zara. The red poppy syndrome. Possibly this reflects the fact that the defining sin of the Spanish is said to be envy.

I’d never heard of the black Irish until I read this yesterday. But it wasn’t new to read again that both the Irish and Galicians have myths which insist that Ireland was colonists by  Iberiains from here.  . .  The Goidels (Gaels), leave Egypt at the same time as the Israelites (the Exodus) and settle in Scythia. After some time they leave Scythia and spend 440 years wandering the Earth, undergoing a series of trials and tribulations akin to those of the Israelites, who spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness. Eventually, they reach Hispania by sea and conquer it. There, Goídel's descendant Breogán founds a city called Brigantia, and builds a tower from the top of which his son Íth glimpses Ireland.[4] Brigantia refers to Corunna in modern-day Galicia, in Spain, (which was then known as Brigantium)[5] and Breogán's tower is likely based on the Tower of Hercules, which was built at Corunna by the Romans.          

Says the the FT, in an article here and below: The 1978 constitution was a success because it achieved enviable political stability as Spain made its transition to democracy. But over time, the focus on stability has ended up eroding the Spanish political system.   Worth a read if you want to understand Spanish (polarised) politics.    

My TIE saga: I  wondered yesterday if my problems had been caused  by responsibility for issuing them being switched from the local to the national police. But, no, a check confirmed that both the normal and the temporary offices belong to the latter.     

Talking of the infamous Irish bureaucracy, a friend has sent me this morning this report of Messi having to send a burofax to his employers, not just a simple, unregistered letter of notification of his desire to leave.   

The Way of the World

To the current generation of youngsters, the use of a full stop/period at the end of a text message indicates an excess of emotion, specifically anger. Can it be much longer before punctuation marks are all seen to be colonialist, imperialist, hegemonic, and/or white-supremacist?

English/Spanish

Three more refranes:-

- You are what you own: Tanto tienes, tanto vales.

- You can judge a man by the company he keeps: Dime con quien andas, y te diré quien eres.

- You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink: Puedes darle consejo a alguien pero no puedes obligarle a que lo saga.

Finally . . . 

Google's Blogger seems determined to drive me away from it. Their lates irritation is to remove the ability to check the links you've inserted. I'm guessing Google will end Blogger soon, as they did with The Reader a few years ago. And Google +

THE ARTICLE

A Royal scandal shows Spain needs a more accountable democracy: The nation is paying a high price for the political stability it enshrined in 1978: Miriam Gonzalez Durántez, an international lawyer. [And also the wife of Nick Clegg] 

The crisis of the Spanish monarchy has lifted the lid on a wider problem in Spain: the lack of checks and balances for those in power, and for political institutions generally. The country is divided between those who want to preserve the monarchy and constitution, and a growing minority who question them. However, the only way to guarantee the survival of the constitution is by introducing full political accountability into it.

Juan Carlos, Spain’s former king, fled to Abu Dhabi three weeks ago. His departure follows revelations of alleged financial irregularities over decades, including an offshore fund linked to an undeclared €65m “gift”from Saudi Arabia. The lack of transparency is such that it took two weeks for the royal palace to confirm his whereabouts, and there is no official confirmation on whether he will return to Spain. His departure looks dangerously close to being an exile.

Notwithstanding the gravity of the alleged misdeeds, Juan Carlos is unlikely to face trial for his actions while king. The Spanish constitution states the person of the king “is inviolable and not subject to [legal] responsibility”. Although the Supreme Court can consider cases related to actions after his 2014 abdication, one of the constitution’s drafters contends the inviolability still applies. 

The reason why Spain’s political system grants such rights to the monarch is that, when the constitution was drafted in 1978, the main objective was to preserve the country’s political stability. After 40 years of dictatorship, Spain was transitioning to democracy. 

Ensuring the irreversibility of the democratisation process was crucial. Unlike constitutions like that of the US, which aim to ensure that no one is too powerful, the Spanish constitution seeks stability at all costs. Power was concentrated within the political establishment, instead of being shared fully with the Spanish people so that the democratisation process could be properly controlled.

This explains why monarchs have so little accountability. But it also explains the excessive powers and privileges of the political establishment in comparison to their peers in other countries. In Spain, all members of the General Council of the Judiciary, which controls the justice system, are nominated by politicians. This has led to the increasing politicisation of the judicial system.

Politicians can also nominate absurdly high numbers of handpicked senior officials, without any transparency or meritocracy. Unlike ordinary Spanish citizens, politicians are tried only in higher courts, under the so-called system of aforamientos. Moreover, independent oversight bodies are simply non-existent. Even the national polling body is in the government’s hands.

If the Spanish constitution had an effective system of checks and balances, it would have been impossible for the alleged improprieties of Juan Carlos to have lasted decades without anybody — be that government ministers, senior officials, royal household staff, security personnel, the intelligence services, diplomats, businesspeople or journalists — denouncing such behaviour and triggering a prompt investigation. 

It would have also been impossible for pervasive political corruption in Spain to have lasted for decades at all levels of governments and under political parties of all stripes. In the US, whistleblowing from a civil servant about the alleged misuse of public office by President Donald Trump kicked off an impeachment process last year. 

In Spain, where there is not even protection for whistleblowers, a similar process is inconceivable. 

The 1978 constitution was a success because it achieved enviable political stability as Spain made its transition to democracy. But over time, the focus on stability has ended up eroding the Spanish political system. If effective checks and balances were in place to hold the political establishment to account, perhaps there would not be so many Spaniards disenchanted with politics.

Given the persistent threats to the Spanish state’s unity from Catalan and Basque separatism, reform of the constitution is unquestionably a challenge. If badly handled, it could derail the political system and in turn break the country apart. But turning an outdated constitution into a fortress will do little to ensure its survival. 

At the very least, a technical process of reform should be launched to start considering effective checks and balances for each and every political institution, including the monarchy. A constitutional reform that brings political accountability into the system is the only way to finish the process that started in 1978 but remains incomplete. This would be full devolution of democratic power from the political establishment to the Spanish people.

This article has been amended to make clear that prosecutors at the Supreme Court are investigating Juan Carlos

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

 Covid 19 in Spain and Galicia

Madrid lockdown looms after 15,000 coronavirus infections. Madrid could be put back under lockdown, the official in charge of Spain’s health emergencies said last night. “If the numbers continue to rise, drastic measures will have to be taken,” Fernando Simón said. There goes my next planned visit at end September. 

A week or two ago, we were told that our September medieval festival (A Feira Franca) would be slimmed down (descafeinada) but it seems it’s finally been completely cancelled. Shame but correct.

Living La Vida Loca  

My TIE saga: Well, the temporary office turned out to be the right one and my wait to be seen wasn't too long. But, as my intention has been only to get a cita to pick up my card, I'd stupidly broken the fundamental law of Spanish bureaucracy - whenever you go to an office of the local, provincial or national government, take your passport with you. And at least one copy of it. So, I did get a cita for Thursday - but not the card I might well have been able to pick up today. The latest wrinkle was that I was told to bring the A4 green certificate of residence which had been taken from when I made the application 5 weeks. This shouldn't have been done, the lady said. Maybe so, I replied, but I'd been given a resguardo in its stead. And I was concerned this expired this week. After a chat with a colleague, she agreed that this would do.  Left hand, right hand. . .

Truth to tell, my saga was nowt compared to that of a friend who has been trying for 10 days or more to renew his debit card with El Corte Inglés*, Spain's premier (only?) department store. His calvario has gone like this so far:-

- 10 days or so ago he went to the store and talked to someone at the Customer Service desk re a new card. He was told he'd get it in a couple of days

- Not having received it, he called a week ago and was told they didn't know the person whose business card he'd been given. And that he needed to send another document. Which he promptly emailed and was told he'd get the card inside 2 days.

- As he didn't, he called them again, only to be be told again that he needed to send the document he'd already sent.

- They checked and confirmed receipt, and said the card would be available for pick-up in 2 days.

- On Saturday, he went to the store - in Vigo -  and was finally given a card.

- After shopping in the store and presenting the card, he was told it was blocked.

- Returning to the Customer Service desk, he was told they couldn't explain this but that someone would call him soon about it.

- Sure enough he got a call yesterday morning but this turned out to be someone telling him his card was now ready to pick up. No information on why the card he'd already picked up didn't work.

- And in the evening he got another call saying his card was blocked because, as he'd changed his job recently, they needed to have his updated full work history (vida laboral). 

- So he sent this and now awaits a card that does work. Right hand, left hand . . .

Anyway, all this inevitably reminded me - yet again - of Vernon Werner's book and I sent my friend a copy of my notes taken from it. You can see it at the end of this post [https://colindavies.blogspot.com/2018/03/thoughts-from-galicia-spain-28318.html].  Like me, my friend has been here 19 years but, unlike me, has worked here all that time. He didn't find anything in the very long list to disagree with . . . Enough said.

The  moral: If you're new to life in  Spain, consider moderating your expectations. You'll be a lot happier. Or at least a lot less frustrated/irritated. And always carry something to read . . .

BTW:-

Coincidence 1: My friend, like Vernon Werner, is Dutch . . .

Coincidence 2: A reader yesterday advised me of 2 paeans of praise - here and here - written about the entrepreneurial Dutch culture by a Spaniard. One is in Catalan but the other in Castellano. Google will oblige in both cases. Albeit with imperfect translations. But you'll easily get the gist.           

It took a global pandemic, but urinal dividers are finally getting installed in Spain . . .

Days 10 and 11 of María’s Dystopian Times   

The USA  

The Hispanics are coming!     

Spanish

Doblegar: To bend (usual meaning?); to break; to subdue (as in the Feira Franca article above)

English/Spanish

One more refrán:-

- The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing: Que tu mano izquierda no sepa lo que hace la derecha. (Possibly)

  Finally . . . 

The writer of this article refers to Vigo - a city of almost 300,000 souls -  as, first, a town and, then, a village. Anyway, it's hit the headlines for being the first in Spain to start setting up - or at least talking about - its Xmas lights.    

Under pressure from my daughters - who very occasionally read this blog - I’ve not used bullet points in this post. Feel free to comment or even disagree with them . . . 

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

** BTW . . . I thought for a long time this meant 'The English Court' but it actually means 'The English Cut' and is a reference to a certain style . . . 

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Covid 19 in Spain

• Striking an optimistic note . . . Covid-19 can lead to a more agile, productive and innovative economy. Businesses rightly reacted to Covid-19 by focusing on safety, liquidity and continuity. Now a more nuanced form of crisis management is necessary. A marathon rather than a sprint, and encompassing different assumptions about markets, products and technology.

Living La Vida Loca     

• When I came here 19 years ago, it was considered scandalous that most young people could only aspire to a salary of €1,000 a month. 'Milionarios'. Now - after many years of inflation - this is considered a decent wage. So, things have clearly deteriorated for people coming on to what passes for the job market here. As clearly demonstrated by this article.  
• I think I've mentioned before that there's a well-known scam here in Spain whereby Chinese students who need a piece of paper to raise their (critical) civil status back home 'study' at Spanish institutions which take their cash but invest it in something other than teaching them. So, everyone's happy. Or they were until Covid 19 came along. Perhaps a large hole has now been blown in that scheme.
• My TIE: No luck on the phone again this morning, so I’m off now to the Comisaría, unless the ‘temporary’ office in the old Bank of Spain building - mentioned to me by 2 people - proves to be the right place to go to. I’ll be trying there first, especially as it’s closer to my watering hole.
• Day 9 of María’s Dystopian Times. 

The UK

• Here's a nice assessment of Boris Johnson. True, this is from from a left-wing paper but a large - and increasing - number of right wing voters would agree with it.  I give Johnson only 12-24 months before he’s ruthlessly ousted.  The Tories are not like US Republicans.     

The USA 

• Andrew Jackson once proposed that every office in America should be elected, from president to dog-catcher. This approach to politics is meant to prevent the creation of the kind of self-perpetuating elites (such as, say, British judges) that Jackson loathed. The drawback is that, in such a system, it is impossible to float above partisan politics. In a country as divided as America that creates a different problem.
• To amuse:-

[Can't includeit here. Go to  https://colindavies.blogspot.com/2020/08/thoughts-from-pontevedra-galicia-spain_24.html]

English/Spanish

• Three more refranes:-

- Let sleeping dogs lie: Quien despierta un perro dormiendo vende paz y copra ruido.

- Those whom the gods love die young: A quien Dios quiere para si, poco tiempo lo tiene aquí.

- Worse things happen at sea: Más se perdió en Cuba.

Finally . . . 

• I came across this quotation this question this morning, from Samuel Hoffenstein :

Breaths there a man with hide so tough

Who says two sexes aren't enough?

I guess it would have to be 'two genders' now.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Hoffenstein

• I also guess most folk will have realised that yesterday's Where there's much . . . should have been Where there's muck . . Well, native English speakers at least. Though maybe only northern Brits. To whom ‘brass’ means ‘money’.

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Covid 19 in Spain

• Things are getting better but no one knows why . . . See the 1st article below. As I’ve said, one factor surely is that - while the virus might revisit those whose antibodies are no longer effective - it can’t kill the old and the vulnerable twice.  You only die once.
• Anyway, here’s a nurse’s guide to having a safe family gathering or dinner party.    

Living La Vida Loca  

• It’s said that - possibly contrary to expectation - the Spanish were very good at obeying the rules during our fierce lockdown. As I’ve hinted, this might well have had something to do with the combination of huge fines and officious/efficient police forces. Since the relaxation, things seem to have returned to normal as regards obeisance towards rules. If only because it’s rather harder to know about indoor get-togethers. Though drones are helping with the illegal raves and botellones(binge parties). 
• Here’s something on the fines that the Andalucian government regards as essential to contain the parallel (and synergistic) epidemic of youthful gatherings.  
• Talking of rules . . . I think the fine for chucking your mask on the ground is €300.  Yesterday, I passed 4 of these on a short walk - across the famous bridge - into town.
• Said bridge is today being used for some sort of long-jump competition associated with the national triathlon competition being hosted by the city.
• A couple of rather nice fotos of the construction:-

Never let it be said I'm only negative about it . . . 

• Yesterday I had a go at getting a cita on line for the collection of my TIE. With a little difficulty, I went through the various stage of the process - including selecting the Pontevedra province - only to be told at the end that I could only get it from either Vigo or Tui. Which conflicts directly with the shortly-to-expire document I have, which says I must do this from the office in which I started the process. Which is in Pontevedra, of course. So . . . Tomorrow, I’ll try the phone again and if/when this doesn’t work, I’ll go to the Comisaría and ask the policeman at the entrance how he suggests I can solve this problem. Without a high degree of confidence that a solution will be offered. If not, I’ll just have to wait until people return to work in September and rely on the benevolence of any police person who - in the interim - tries to fine me for not having a current residence document. 

The USA  

• The curse of identity politics. See the 2nd article below. The polarisation of politics there, it has to be said, is not entirely Fart’s fault.

The Way of the World/Social Media 

• How ‘woke’ America cancelled press freedom. See the 3rd article below. Not just in the USA, of course. Though perhaps it’s far more of an Anglo-Saxon than a global/developed world problem,

English/Spanish

• Three more refranes:-

- When it rains it pours: Siempre llueve sobre mojado.

- Where there’s muck there’s brass: Ensuciandose los manos, se  puede hacer un rico.

- Where there’s smoke there’s fire: Donde hay humo hay calor.

 THE ARTICLES

1. Coronavirus: Things are getting better but no one really knows why.  Doctors warn against complacency despite the global fall in death rates from Covid-19: Tom Whipple. The Times

At the beginning, when beds were full and deaths common, doctors were still trying to understand the best treatment for coronavirus. “In March, if you came in and had trouble breathing, you’d be put straight on a ventilator,” says Alison Pittard, dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine.

This was what, in frantic Zoom calls to Italy and China, they had been told was the best approach. The learning curve since then has been steep. These days, Dr Pittard and her colleagues are more careful about who is put on ventilators, lest invasive treatment causes more problems. They also have a drug, dexamethasone, that can significantly improve survival among those who do reach ventilators.

It would be easy to claim that we are seeing the results of this. In Britain, even as recorded cases rise, deaths are not following. In the western world daily deaths and death rates are falling. But Dr Pittard is not prepared to take credit on behalf of her colleagues. “Yes, the way we manage patients has changed,” she says. “But I don’t think that has had much impact on mortality.” Some statisticians have argued that the effect is an illusion, created by more testing. She disagrees, at least to the extent that more tests explain everything. “Something does appear to have changed. We don’t know for certain what that is at the moment.” She has a theory though. It may not be that the disease has altered, or that treatment has. It could simply be that the people getting it have. “I think the group of people who are being infected is different now,” she says. One explanation, favoured by Dr Pittard, is that the virus has already claimed the lives of those most at risk. “I think the more susceptible people have got the virus and been sick with it,” she said. “Now the people who are getting it respond in a different way.”

Another, not necessarily mutually exclusive, suggestion was put forward this week by Takeshi Kasai, a senior WHO official. Covid-19, a disease of the old, is becoming an infection of the young. “People in their twenties, thirties and forties are driving the spread,” he said. “The epidemic is changing.”

In Britain, as the number of Covid-19 patients on ventilators continues to drop, from more than 3,000 to 70, infection rates have risen by 35 per cent among the under-44s. In Australia, the Philippines and Japan, more than half of new infections are now in the young. In continental Europe too, where rising cases have not been matched by rising deaths, it seems like we are seeing a breaking of this year’s fragile social contract — that the young, who do not get sick, are increasingly refusing to suffer on behalf of the old, who do. That is, arguably, fine, provided it continues to spread only among the young. The problem is, says Richard Grewelle from Stanford University, that if Europe looks across the Atlantic it will see that this does not happen. “When public spaces reopened in May and June, young adults were more likely to be seen socialising than older adults,” he said. This could be seen most clearly in Florida where, a bit after what would traditionally have been spring break, there was a spike in cases among those in their early twenties. It did not stay there for long. “These individuals came in contact with older relatives and friends, which has driven the subsequent increase in deaths [now up two to three times since the daily lows in June]. Similar features are probably true in some European countries,” he said. If he is correct, then we would expect to see first a shift in the population getting infected then, a fortnight later, a rise in deaths.

With coronavirus, however, there is always another theory. Paul Tambyah, president-elect of the International Society of Infectious Diseases, said that an increasingly common mutation in the coronavirus may be making it less deadly. It is a truism of virology that viruses, which have no interest in killing their host, evolve to be increasingly benign. They fade into the background to the point where they become a “common cold”. Is this what we are seeing? It is not impossible but, other scientists said, it is unlikely. Brendan Wren, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “It would be offering false hope to suppose it is weakening yet.” He did offer yet another explanation for why the disease’s apparent severity could be diminishing. It could be that what is key is not who it infects, but how. “With hand hygiene and social distancing, the infectious dose would be lower,” he said. Instead of sitting next to someone on the bus and breathing in exhaled air for 15 minutes, we catch the virus as a glancing blow — and, like a glancing blow, can fight it off better.

As ever with the pandemic, simple questions have a complex answer — normally several. But if there is one lesson most virologists do agree on, it is that countries have not yet gone wrong when they have prepared for the worst. This is why Dr Pittard hopes that the idea the virus is weakening, or health services are getting stronger, does not take hold. “I wouldn’t want the public to be lulled into a false sense of security.”

2. How ‘woke’ America cancelled press freedom: Digital platforms have empowered as never before small groups of critics to bully and silence views they deem politically incorrect: ByJudith Miller 

America has awakened. Or gone woke. So has American journalism, or much of it. Only two decades ago, boycotts of unpopular ideas and the people who held them were confined to extreme newsletters, obscure journals and college campuses, where students have long taken pride in shutting down provocative speakers. But the decline of "legacy" newspapers and the growing concentration of power and influence in the hands of Big Tech - primarily Google, Facebook, Apple and Twitter - have enabled those behind these causes to exert far greater influence.

While social media and digital platforms feature more diverse views of dramatically varying quality from more people from across the globe than ever before, they have also empowered as never before individuals and small groups of critics to bully and silence views they deem politically incorrect. Posts on Twitter calling for activists to "rise up" in response to perceived intellectual and cultural offences instantly go viral. Online shaming, callouts, doxing (digging up and disseminating dirt on targets and foes) and so-called "cancel culture" writ large have become the order of the day. Such online intimidation often results in grudging conformity and silence, and not just among journalists. Many shop owners in riot-plagued Portland, Seattle and New York have posted "Black Lives Matter" signs on their boarded-up store windows. Many undoubtedly sympathise with the mass uprisings in May sparked by the brutal killing of George Floyd.

A shocking video of a cop's knee on Floyd's neck triggered not just months of protest against police brutality and America's lingering endemic racism, but sweeping demands for greater social justice. However, some others posted signs simply to prevent their businesses from being looted and trashed. Meanwhile, the list of cancel-culture victims and targets continues to grow. What began with the targeting of Nineties sexual predators such as America's TV dad Bill Cosby, the late Michael Jackson, and media mogul Harvey Weinstein, soon spread to those accused of thought crimes.

Comedian Shane Gillis was hired and quickly fired by the television network NBC for defamatory comments about Chinese Americans, LGBTQ people and women. Another comic, Sarah Silverman, claimed to have lost a coveted movie role because she wore blackface in a comedy sketch in 2007. New films by Woody Allen, who has repeatedly denied having molested his adopted daughter, are not shown in most US cinemas. Scarlett Johansson stands accused of "white privilege" and "cultural appropriation" after asserting that she should be permitted to play "any person, any tree, or any animal" rather than characters only of her own race, gender and sexual orientation. The online streaming service HBO Max recently slapped a moronic trigger warning on Mel Brooks's brilliant 1974 parody of the Western, Blazing Saddles.

Perhaps it was inevitable that the newspapers reporting such instances of cultural shaming would eventually be targeted. The paper where I worked for 28 years, The New York Times, has been at the forefront of this trend. It has repeatedly succumbed to the woke demands made by its young, mostly Left-of-centre staff, at the cost of its reputation, its mission of publishing "all the news fit to print", and its commitment to hosting a diversity of opinion on its op-ed pages "without fear or favour". Of course the Times was never "objective." Its overwhelmingly liberal staff ensured that. But its editors usually deleted the worst examples of reportorial bias, and it remained open to comment articles written by conservative politicians and commentators. In June, however, the paper's publisher, A G Sulzberger, pushed out his editorial page editor, James Bennet, for having published an op-ed by the Republican senator Tom Cotton, which argued that the military ought to be deployed to US cities in order to quell riots. While polls showed that a majority of Americans agreed with him, Times staffers protested the paper's decision to give him a platform. A month later, Bari Weiss, the Times's contributing editor and writer, also resigned under pressure. In a scathing open letter to the publisher, Weiss denounced the paper's failure to defend her against internal and external bullying for having strayed from an ideological orthodoxy. Because Times reporters and senior editors had so often succumbed to the prevailing intolerance of far-Left mobs on social media, she charged, Twitter had become the paper's "ultimate editor".

The Times is hardly the only paper to have suffered a collapse of moral courage in the face of an internal staff revolt and external pressure. But the failure of the "newspaper of record" to adhere to its principles and commitment to free speech both reflects and stems from broader troubling trends within the industry. Newspapers have become an increasingly endangered species. Over the past 15 years, more than one in five American papers has closed. According to the Pew Research Centre, the number of journalists at newspapers has been cut in half since 2008. Hardest hit have been local and community papers, whose closure, purchase, merger or consolidation have turned many American towns into "news deserts". Surviving papers, moreover, tend to have less ideological diversity, as both TV and newspaper ownership is increasingly concentrated. The largest 25 newspaper chains now own almost a third of the nation's papers, including almost half of its dailies - a historically high level of consolidation. The pandemic has accelerated local journalism's plight, according to Penny Muse Abernathy, a former Times journalist and now an academic at the University of North Carolina. Papers in dire financial straits tend not to be pillars of courage. They can no longer afford to offend remaining readers. The revenue that ensured resources and relative clout has increasingly shifted to digital platforms - Google, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter - which have also become virtual monopolies. Protected at birth to encourage their survival, Congress exempted them from the many onerous requirements and the accountability that newspapers shoulder. Now, even Congress lacks the political will, or perhaps the ability, to control them.

Such massive technological shifts usually drive equally massive cultural shifts. While Twitter on paper barely breaks even, it has galvanised communities of the like-minded. In a defunded media environment, the younger masters of the new digital technology have disproportionate power. They can decide whether an article is worthy of professional approbation or is "racist", "offensive", and hence, cancellable. What they can create - much to Twitter's financial benefit, since it exists simply to generate revenue by attracting clicks and keeping customers on its platform - is an instant, constantly powerful culture of complaint, accusation and smearing, whose perpetrators are unlikely to be punished. The Times, for instance, has rules against slandering colleagues on social media, which, as Bari Weiss painfully discovered, senior editors fear to enforce. "The Times once had a professional hierarchy," said a journalist who has written often for the paper. "A young reporter lived in fear of being fired by a mid-level editor, who lived in fear of his senior editors. Now it's the reverse: top editors live in fear of the Twitterati, because they can get you fired."

A third source of cancel culture is Donald Trump. His relentless campaign against the "fake news" media is aimed at undermining the public's already fragile faith in the press, which not only monitors his almost pathological lying but acts as a constitutionally mandated check on his imperial executive aspirations. According to The Washington Post, Trump has made over 20,000 false or misleading claims in office.

But his incessant Twitter attacks on journalists as "liars", "human scum", and the "worst people in the world", and his hypocritical denunciation of cancel culture in the name of free speech, have further divided and polarised Americans. Because Trump has ignored activists' positive calls for racial justice and police reform, and has tried to turn to his political advantage the movement's reprehensible insistence on ideological purity and the loathsome heretic-hunting that have long characterised Left-wing (and Right-wing) movements, liberals hesitate to criticise their illiberal fellow travellers.

As the Times columnist Michelle Goldberg recently wrote, calling out Left-wing illiberalism in the era of Trump is like "complaining about a bee sting when you have stage-four cancer". If Trump is reelected in November, America's great cancel culture divide can only deepen.

3.  Identity politics has shattered America. If Biden wins, he must confront the left’s ‘oppression Olympics’:  Matthew Syed. The Sunday Times

I first noticed the depths into which the American left had descended during the build-up to the inauguration of Donald Trump in January 2017. The Million Woman March scheduled for the day after was supposed to be the first step in the fightback leading to 2020, a broad base of people campaigning on mainstream issues and showing Trump that he still had a fight on his hands. Within minutes, the vision was being pulled apart by forces that, I fear, the Democratic Party leadership still doesn’t understand. Black women objected to the name of the march because it was the same name as that used for a largely black march in 1997. One poster on Facebook regarded this as “cultural appropriation” while another described it as “white supremacy disguised as white feminism”. As activists started pulling out, the name was changed to the Women’s March, but minorities continued to feel “uncomfortable” walking alongside white women, given that 53% of this group had voted for Trump. White women — particularly those of a Democratic persuasion — retaliated, appalled that they were being singled out. “You’re no better than Trump supporters,” one wrote. As these skirmishes ricocheted through the internet, other factions piled in, with yet more boycott threats and recriminations. Even though the march went ahead with an impressive 4.2 million people, a headline in the Washington Post called it “The somehow controversial women’s march in Washington” — a classic understatement.

I mention this because it indicates, however tenuously, how identity politics is tearing America apart, and is likely to continue to do so regardless of who is elected in November. On this side of the pond, we tend to focus on the alt-right white nationalism of Donald Trump. The president has played on white fears, stoking racial tensions in often shocking ways. But while Trump has demeaned his office, the left has played its own deadly game, only with a different and mutating set of identity grievances. This isn’t just about the trans movement, but “intersectionality”, where oppression is said to be proportional to the number of minority identities a person embodies. On this rubric, black women are more subjugated than white women, black trans women more than black women, and so on in what has been called the “oppression Olympics”.

So desperate are people to commandeer minority status that Elizabeth Warren, briefly the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, took a DNA test to show that she was between 1/1,024 and 1/64 Native American Indian, explaining to the public in 2018 that one of her great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great (great?) grandparents was indigenous. In a society based on shared interests, this toenail of DNA would have been irrelevant. In today’s America, based on every kind of difference, it was endlessly portentous.

It is for the same reason that the LGBT movement became LGBT+, then LGBTQ, then LGBTTQQIAAP. It is difficult to know what term to use today because the cause is adding letters faster than the German mark added zeroes during the 1920s hyperinflation.

Twenty years ago, people would call themselves Irish-Americans, Pakistani-Americans or Italian-Americans, but the emphasis was on the second word in that couplet. Americans were proud of their heritage but more proud of the identity shared with millions of others by virtue of what they saw as the honour of citizenship and commitment to the constitution. The joint crime of left and right has been to shatter this identity, focusing, instead, on narrower identities based not on shared beliefs, but immutable traits such as sex, race, ethnicity — and their intersections. Because these characteristics are unchangeable, they cannot be bridged or shared, and are jealously policed, based on “lived experience”. This is what caused such deep tensions on the Women’s March, and explains the explosion of allegations of cultural appropriation. A few weeks ago, Morgan Bullock, a black American dancer, was castigated as a “racist” on social media. Her crime? She performed a beautiful Irish jig that went viral. Or take the trend of shaving one’s eyebrows so that they are slightly thinner at one end — yep, one eagle-eyed activist read racism into this, too, a point missed by the wider world until he ignited a firestorm of protest. Apparently, the technique “appropriates Asian beauty features”.

I’m sorry, but this is madness. The left insists that identity politics is necessary. It points to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the feminist cause a little later. It says, not without reason, that the unifying rhetoric of the republic — that all citizens are equal before the constitution — always had a strong element of hypocrisy. Black people were denied rights for centuries, as were women. Yet, it doesn’t seem to see the fundamental difference between the movements of the 1960s and the surrealism of today. Martin Luther King, a great African-American (emphasis on “American”), sought to build bridges, not erect more barriers. His vision was for a society where blacks and whites were treated the same; where colour mattered less, not more. It was the Black Panthers and Nation of Islam who were the precursors of today’s identitarians, for they insisted upon irreconcilable differences, demanding a separate homeland for blacks within the borders of America.

And this is where identity politics is headed today, not least with the phenomenon of “neo-segregation”. Last year, Harvard staged separate ceremonies for students of colour and Latinos, while Brown University celebrated its “blackalaureate” and Columbia its “Black” and “Raza” ceremonies. One review found that 72% of colleges hosted segregated graduations and 42% had segregated residences for black and minority students. The left, needless to say, regards this as a celebration of diversity — a catastrophic misreading of that important concept. [I’m reminded of the 1980’s liberal, multiculturalist admiration for Muslim ghettoes in Bradford, now seen as a big mistake]

November’s election takes place against the backdrop of the shattering of American identity. Identity politics in the UK, although troubling, doesn’t yet come close on the Richter scale of divisiveness, or match its McCarthyite dynamics. Given Trump’s serial incompetence, Joe Biden is faced with an open goal. But if he wins (his cognitive capacity remains an issue), his primary task will not be facing down the Trumpian right — hopefully that brand of grotesque populism will come to be seen by Republicans as an aberration. No, his challenge will be facing down the identitarian left.

Let me re-emphasise that America has much work to do in combating racism and other scourges, particularly in the south, but this reinforces the point: social progress is impossible in a society retreating deeper into hermetically sealed silos. Is it any wonder that Congress has lost the capacity for bipartisan action, or that special interests loot the republic as progressives on both sides of the aisle bicker over whether to add an X to LGBTTQQIAAP?

When a nation is divided against itself, it loses strength, virtue and any hope of collective action. America can become great again only by ditching its identity obsession.

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.  

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Covid 19 in Spain

• Spain saw one of the most draconian Covid-19 lockdowns in Europe, but 2 months after it was lifted, the virus is spreading faster than in any neighbouring nation. 
• It now has Europe's fastest-rising caseload, with 142 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the past two weeks.  By the time the state of emergency ended on 21 June, Spain was registering 100 to 150 cases per day. That number has risen to more than 3,000.
• But there are key differences compared to the spring.  The number of deaths over the past week stood at 122 on Thursday, a far cry from the 950 registered on 2 April alone, the blackest day in Europe's epidemic.  And only around 3% of current cases require hospital treatment, less than 0.5% need intensive care and the current death rate is as low as 0.3%.
• Despite rising figures across the country due to increased PCR-testing, a high number of towns and villages nationwide have never had any cases of Covid-19 – or, at most, only 1 or 2. Whilst it may appear that the virus is rife everywhere, this is not necessarily the case – 1 in 3 cases is in Madrid, and the majority are in Catalunya, Navarra and the Basque Country. All regions have active cases – none have escaped entirely – although latest estimates show that in some parts of the country, up to 70% are asymptomatic.
• Spanish politics has lacked any consensus or spirit of collaboration in managing the coronavirus crisis. And Poisonous politics is putting Madrid at risk.  See this BBC article on this.
• We have a national triathlon event in Pontevedra city this weekend. Which means a lot of visitors and much congregating. Stand by for a spike in infections, if not in hospitalisations and deaths.
• An interesting video.    

Living La Vida Loca  

• The power of this blog 1: An exposure: Squatting is on the rise in Spain 
• The power of this blog 2: Action at last: Catalonia and Castilla-La Mancha order the closure of brothels – Other regions are expected to follow.  
• The BBC has interviewed our ex-king’s ex-lover. See here. I mean . . Who gives anyone a 'gift' of €65m? And who'd believe anything said by an utterly corrupt monarch? And who on earth would support and protect him? Lots of Spanish politicians of all stripes, actually. For whatever reasons. Beats me. To save the monarchy and to preclude a 3rd republic, perhaps.
• Contrary to this report, I don’t believe many ‘pilgrims’ do the camino de Santiago for religious reasons. Or even ‘spiritual’ reasons. But, if you’re likely to be one of the few who do, the (machin) translation below will be of interest. You’ll need to go to the article for the fotos.      
• Yesterday was the 18th birthday of my neighbour’s son. When I got back from dinner at midnight, the party was just getting started in their back garden. The loud music went on until after 4am, my daughter tells me. But I had pushed my foam earplugs further down into my ears than I’d ever thought possible and managed to get to sleep. And, more importantly, stay that way.
• Talking of local irritations . . . Yesterday, I had someone on my right do a U turn on a roundabout entirely in the outside lane, blocking my exit. Twice. I wouldn't mention this bugbear/everyday occurrence  - honest! - but for the fact the second offender was a police car
• Days 7 and 8 of María’s Dystopian Times.       

The UK

• Thanks to Covid, restless corvids . . . 

The USA 

• Trump: I spoke to God about the economy and He trusts me to rebuild It.  Yes, of course it's believable. That he said this, I mean.

Finally . . .

• The greedy greenfinches are most definitely back, en masse. But still no sign of my 20+ sparrows.
• More importantly . .  My post of 20th August doesn't seem to have  been publish on EoS. So click here for it.

THE ARTICLE

Religious tourism on the Camino de Santiago: its spiritual dimension

Many are the pilgrims who start the Camino de Santiago with religious reasons, either for personal devotion, to fulfil a promise or vow, or as penance for their sins.

Currently there is a large number of religious shrines, temples and churches that receive hundreds of people every year. Santiago de Compostela is, along with Rome and Jerusalem, one of the great centers of Christian pilgrimage since medieval times.

Many and very diverse are the reasons that lead thousands of pilgrims to make the pilgrimage to Santiago every year. The spiritual component is one of the reasons that leads walkers to start this great adventure. It is true that most pilgrims have experienced how this experience has changed their way of life. Pilgrims who make the Camino for religious tourism are advised to prepare physically and spiritually.

Within this type of pilgrimage, travelers who made the Camino could do so for various purposes, out of personal devotion, to fulfil a promise or vow, or as penance for their sins. To this day the arguments of conversion, change of life and rethinking of the very existence that the pilgrimage to Santiago has had since the Middle Ages have not been lost.

The places of worship most acclaimed by pilgrims

Religious tourism represents a growing type of tourism market. The main destinations are important places of devotion and pilgrimage. Religious tourism includes tourist activities linked to religious practices in places with religious significance. Here we detail a series of places of worship and essential monuments for pilgrims:

Somport pass

The Calixtino Codex places the Port of Somport as one of the three most important hospitals for pilgrims on the Jacobean route. As the Codex cites: "The three columns that the Lord established in this world to support the pilgrims." These three hospitals are that of Jerusalem in the Holy Land, that of Mont Joux, in the Alps (on the way to Rome), and finally the port of Somport del Alto Aragón, on the way to the city of Santiago de Compostela.

The Lameiros Cross

The cruceros were in charge of guiding the pilgrims before the appearance of the yellow arrows. The Lameiros Cross dates from the 17th century and located in Ligonde. It is decorated with sculptures and stone messages. At its base it has coiled serpents, skulls and sculptures related to symbols of the crucifixion of Christ. Furthermore, in 820 the battle between the Christian troops and the army of Almanzor took place in the nearby hills.

Saint Mary of Eunate

A Romanesque temple with an octagonal plan that was created in the 12th century. It is surrounded by a gallery of semicircular arches on double columns. A peculiarity is that it has the same number of steps as the staircase of the Cathedral of Santiago. This church is a replica of the octagonal enclosure of the Temple of Solomon (Jerusalem). In the Temple of Solomon was born in 1128 the Order of the Temple, due to a papal edict that assigned warrior monks the protection of the roads that led to the Holy Land.

The Perdón Heights

In this famous place on the Camino de Santiago were the pilgrims' hospital and the hermitage of the Virgen del Perdón. Formerly the pilgrims confirmed here their belief of reaching Santiago. However, these constructions disappeared over time. The Friends of the Camino de Santiago raised an incredible monument with different pilgrims that today is often visited.

La Reina Bridge

It was built in the 11th century by Sancho el Mayor in commemoration of his wife. The reason for its construction was to save the riverbed. The pilgrims used to worship in this place the Christ of the Crucifix.

Monjardín Fountain. Also known as Fuente de los Moros, it was an old cistern from the 13th century built to alleviate the fatigue of the pilgrims in times of heat. However, as it posed a danger to animals, it was closed until 1991, and from there it was restored and opened to the public.

San Juan de Ortega

It is a Romanesque sanctuary that is located on the French Way. In the Middle Ages this route crossed the nave of the church. In the nave there is a chapel that represents the Miracle of Light twice a year, a message to pagans and believers that still hides unsolved mysteries Cruz de Ferro

The Ferro Cross

This is a stone altar found on Mount Irago. It is crowned with a wooden post and a small metal cross. It is thought that it was a funerary monument where deceased pilgrims were buried in the mountain pass.

The Door of Forgiveness

The Puerta del Perdón is located in the Church of Santiago, in Villafranca del Bierzo. It has the peculiarity of granting the pardon or achievement of the pilgrimage in substitution to the Cathedral of Santiago, in case of not being able to continue the trip to Galicia. The Puerta del Perdón only opens in the Jacobean Year, as is the case with the Holy Door of the Cathedral of Santiago.

Samos Monastery

This belongs to the oldest Benedictine monasteries in Spain. Here appeared the abbot Virila, a monk who spent three centuries in ecstasy on an astral journey.

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Covid 19   

• If you arrive in the UK from Portugal at 4am tomorrow, you won't have to self-quarantine for 2 weeks. If you arrive at 3.59, you will have to. As if.
• France, Spain, Germany and Italy are facing the most serious coronavirus outbreaks since the lockdown after holiday travel and social-distancing fatigue [especially in Spain?] allowed the disease to spread again. There are concerns that cases could rise further in Europe as tourists return home and their children go back to school. 
• Spain has recorded more than 3,000 new cases in a day, the highest increase since its lockdown ended on June 21. Although a countrywide return to lockdown has yet to form part of the national conversation, officials are concerned at the trend. However, they note the type of cases is different from the spring peak. Sixty per cent of cases are asymptomatic, compared with probably 90% of cases being very serious in March. The rapid rise in cases is attributed to an excessively fast easing of lockdown rules and fatigue. “We were psychologically exhausted and this undoubtedly made people relax. We underestimated the risk. There’s no evidence that the virus is weaker. We could go back to the spring pandemic at its worst.”
• Says a Granada nurse: “In March, we were the heroes, and we got applause each night. Now, seeing how many people are going out partying without giving a damn about the rules, that applause feels like it was meaningless.”

Living La Vida Loca  

• Well, after 27 tries yesterday, I'm again calling the comisaría this morning. With an equal degree of success.
• A tad shocking to read yesterday that, in Pontevedra province, the promised minimum income has so far only been received by 0.5% of those entitled to it. More bureaucratic sloth?
• And disturbing to read that, if you're hit by squatters(okupas), it'll take at least to a year to get them before a judge, who is then most likely to hit them with a fine - for a 'minor offence' - rather than any sort of eviction order. So, what's to lose, if  you're never going to pay the fine? Needless to say, the problem is growing. Especially in a month when folk leave their properties vacant to go on a holiday.
• There was a machine and crew again on the reformed O Burgo bridge yesterday, attending - I think - to the lighting system. I wonder when it really will be finished.
• Which reminds me . . . I saw a couple of camino 'pilgrims' on it yesterday. A mere trickle compared with the torrents of recent years. Back to 2009 levels. They were drenched on Tuesday and will be again today. Though the sun shone a lot yesterday, giving them some dry relief.
• I've finally figured out why this pedestrian bridge is so wide . . . It's to allow groups of cyclists to spread out so they can cause maximum inconvenience and irritation to those of us on foot.
• I was wondering yesterday whether Spanish - with all its gender aspects - would provide greater problems than non-gendered English does for the woke generation of ‘snowflakes’. Copas de nieve, in Spanish. And 'Stay woke' appears to be either Mantener despierto or Mantener alerta.  

 English/The USA 

• My elder daughter works for a major international consultancy. This is how I know that the latest euphemism for 'sacked' in the USA is 'transitioned out'. "What's in a phrase", someone didn't once ask.

English/Spanish

• Three more refranes (from a sheet ripped up by my grandson):-

- What the boss says goes: Donde hay patrón, no  Manda marinero.

- What you see is what you get; No hay mas cera que la que arde.

- What you lose on the swings, you gain on the roundabouts: Lo que se pierde en una cosa se gana en otro.

Finally . . . 

• Here's a foto of the (possibly) acceptable 'Japanese knotweed' (Persicaria capitata) from outside my front gate:-   

• If  you get the impression my posts are rather rushed - albeit late - this week, you're right. A very active 19 month old in the house can change your priorities quite substantially. Or at least your time allocations.

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Covid 19   

• Some researchers are wrestling with a hopeful possibility. More than a dozen scientists have said that the herd immunity threshold is likely to be much lower: just 50%, perhaps even less. If that’s true, then it may be possible to turn back the coronavirus more quickly than once thought.
• Spain’s bad news:  
• A bit of good news? Relevant sites here and here.       

Living La Vida Loca  

• As I was saying  . . . Various types of establishment closed down but not the obvious one of Spain’s uncountable brothels. Until Covid strikes. In this case in a village called Cox  . . .  
• It’s 4 weeks since I applied for my TIE. Interestingly, the British Embassy says folk like me don’t need one. Assuming we’re happy to  carry our passports around all the time. 
• Day 5 of María’s Dystopian Times.  What’s round the corner?  

The UK 

• Richard North on the country’s future: My only sure prediction is that, within 10 years, this will be a very different nation, in ways that we cannot even imagine. Whether this will represent an improvement is also impossible to predict, but I'm fairly confident that it will get worse before it gets better. See his rationale here.    

The USA 

• Two things in the USA are higher than ever - gun crime and -Covid notwithstanding - the stock market.  Which must say something. Or perhaps a lot. A dream world?
• Thanks to said Covid, the end of the American era?  
• A very long  document:  Trump’s lies about the coronavirus.   

English

• Synecdoche: A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in “England lost by 6 wickets” (meaning the English cricket team).

Spanish

• Feo tras feo: One (bad) thing  after another?

English/Spanish/Finally . . .  

• Three more refranes:- 

- Truth will out: Las mentiras tienen las patas cortas/Se pilla el mentiroso antes que el cojo.

- Try to strike a happy medium: Ni tanto que queme el santo, ni tanto que lo alumbre.

- Walls  have ears: Hay ropa tendida. Las paredes oyen.

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Covid 19   

• The nice article below details some of the allegedly crazy things done around the world in the name of resistance to Covid. Spain features a couple of times and there's mention of  'hefty fines' from 'over-empowered police'. Which I think I might just have cited more than once. As the writer says: Having foisted on its poor people one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns, the Spanish authorities are still at it. 
• Click here for details of the latest measures.Which seem powerless against the Spanish compulsion to socialise at whatever cost.  

Living La Vida Loca  

• Lenox Napier is pessimistic re the populist Right: Expect a massive recession, lost jobs and, sooner-or-later, a far-right government to tell us it was all the fault of the foreigners, the Jews, the coloured and the homosexuals. . . . 
• But there’s a possible silver lining . . .The only bright light is the small and, until now, forgotten pueblos that make up most of Spain. They can be filled by well-healed residents who either work from home, or have a good pension. 
• María, too, is pretty  unhappy with the way things are going - Days 3 and 4 of her Dystopian  Times      

The UK 

• On paper Britain was the best prepared in the world for a pandemic. We know what happened in practice. In future, we need more than a mirage of competence. 

The USA 

• So, the 'China-virus' didn't 'just go away' in April. Nor in May, June, July or even hot August. And deaths didn't tumble much either, staying at around a thousand a day.
• So it is that the USA deaths per million, at a thousand a day, climbs inexorably towards Sweden's - today’s numbers: 523  v 572
• While Fart boasts of what a wonderful job he’s done.

English/Spanish

• By coincidence, on the day I had to check the meaning of en la picota (in the stocks/pillory. Said of some person  or organisation whose faults have become public), I saw this labelling of one of todays’ curses  - the rolling-news pillory.

English/Spanish

• Three more refranes:-

- Time heals all wounds: El tiempo lo cura todo.

- To err is  human, to forgive divine: Consejo es de sabios perdonar las injurias y olvidar agravios/ (El) error es humano; (el)perdonar divino.

- Too many cooks spoil the broth: Obra de común, obra de  ningún.

Finally . . .  

• To this who saw it, my apologies for yesterday's typo of IGISTS. Which should, of course, have been IGIMSTS.
• Ditto for the  fact that posts will be later  than usual this week  -  grandfather duties.

THE ARTICLE

Has the world gone mad? 10 bizarre Covid rules (all in the name of science): Oliver Smith, The Telegraph

“The world has gone mad.” If my long-suffering wife had a pound for every time she’s heard me utter these five words over the last few months, she’d be a wealthy woman. But some of the rules and regulations introduced by countries across the planet (all in the name of science, of course) warrant no further comment. Here are some of the most idiotic. Tell us which ones you have encountered using the comment box below.

No smoking on the street in Spain

Let’s start with the most recent addition to Spain’s draconian rulebook. Having foisted on its poor people one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns, the Spanish authorities are still at it. Last week the Canary islands, as well as the region of Galicia, effectively banned smoking in public places over concerns it increases the risk of Covid-19 transmission. More regions are expected to follow suit. Why? The President of the Canary Islands, Angel Victor Torres, said a ban was needed because “infected smokers could blow droplets carrying the virus when they exhale.” How he thinks non-smokers breathe was not explained. 

As Christopher Snowdon points out, writing for The Telegraph, an ironic twist is provided by growing evidence that smokers are actually less susceptible to Covid than the rest of us. He said: “Studies suggesting that smokers are surprisingly resistant to Covid-19 have been around since April and, although it has received minimal media attention, the evidence has been growing stronger every week. A study in the Lancet last month found that countries with more smokers had less Covid-19. While I don’t expect to public health officials to actively encourage people to smoke, there is no reason to think that a renewed clampdown on smoking is going to do a lick of good in the public health crisis that has engulfed the world. It may well make things worse, but when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”

Brazil’s pillow ban

The main worry about flying during a pandemic? It’s not the close proximity of 200 other travellers, or the probability of Boris Johnson forcing you to unexpectedly quarantine when you get home, but the pillows. Of course. That’s why Brazil, whose president has been pretty relaxed about most things during the Covid crisis, has decided to wage war on these soft and fluffy Vectors of Disease. 

US aviation website View From the Wing has the story: “In a move that seems aimed more at teenagers travelling as part of a school trip than on fighting the novel coronavirus, Brazil has apparently banned pillows on aircraft. U.S. airlines don’t reuse pillows without sanitizing them first, airlines are cleaning and disinfecting more than ever before – especially on international flights – and surface transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is now thought to be much less common than aerosolized spread. Nonetheless, a memo from United Airlines to its flight attendants outlining new rules from Brazil’s Health Regulatory Agency banning pillows on aircraft. The ban means that United Airlines cannot provide pillows to passengers on its flights to and from Brazil (including their business class ‘cooling gel’ pillows) and passengers are not permitted to bring their own pillows on board, either.”

Cambodia’s ‘death deposit’

Witnessing the UK’s shambolic travel policy makes one wonder whether they even want any tourists to visit this year. Keep your money, you big spending globetrotters, our economy is doing fine! But even more bizarre was Cambodia’s recent attempt to start luring visitors back. It hasn’t officially lowered the drawbridge just yet, but when it does not only will you need to provide evidence of a negative Covid-19 test, but you’ll also have to hand over a $3,000 deposit to cover the cost of various coronavirus “services”. Here’s the full run-down of those delightful services:

$5 for transport from the airport to a waiting centre, $100 for one Covid-19 test, $30 for overnight stay at a hotel or waiting centre and $30 for three meals a day while waiting for the test result.

If one passenger tests positive for Covid-19, all those on the same flight will be quarantined for 14 days. Each passenger will have to pay $100 for a Covid-19 test and $84 a day to pay for the stay in a hotel or quarantine facility. 

For a Covid-19 positive patient, they will be charged $100 per Covid-19 test (maximum four tests), and $225 a day for hospital room, medical treatment service, meals, laundry and sanitary services. In addition, in case of death the cremation service charge is $1,500.

If issuance of a Covid-19 health certificate is required, for example for future travel, foreign nationals will need to pay $100 for a lab test and $30 for the certificate.

Join the back of the queue!

Kosovo’s old folk curfew

I’m not suggesting Kosovo is at the top of many holiday bucket lists, especially when the Foreign Office says you shouldn’t go (as it currently does), but any intrepid older travellers will think twice when they see the following warning on the FCO website:  “Following a rise in cases, some local measures to slow the spread of the virus have been reintroduced. An overnight curfew prohibiting the movement of people outside their place of residence between the hours of 10.30pm and 5am is in place in the municipalities of Pristina, Prizren, Peja, Podujeva, Gjakova, Ferizaj, Lipjan, Drenas, Vushtrri, South Mitrovica, Gjilan, Fushe Kosove and Sterpce. In those municipalities, individuals over 65 years of age, or with chronic illnesses, are only permitted to leave their place of residence between the hours of 5am to 10am and 6pm to 9pm.”

Over 65s can’t be trusted to pop to the shops during normal business hours, apparently. Because Covid only comes out in the daytime. 

New York’s kinky sex edict

Over in New York, official rules say masks should be worn in public when social distancing (six feet) is not possible. Common sense would suggest this applies to crowded indoor environments like Metro trains and busy shops. But police are also eagerly enforcing mask wearing in the city’s outdoor parks, while residents (most of whom, curiously, identify themselves as “liberal”) have taken to verbally abusing those seditious few who, in full accordance with the rules, wander the streets bare-faced. 

So absurd is New York’s embrace of the face mask that the city’s Health Department recently encouraged residents to wear them while having sex. “Make it a little kinky,” the guidelines said. “Be creative with sexual positions and physical barriers, like walls, that allow sexual contact while preventing close face-to-face contact.” Shagging through a wall. You couldn’t make it up. 

Apparently impressed with the idea, health officials in Canada have since issued their own, even more explicit, tips: “Use barriers, like walls (e.g. glory holes), that allow for sexual contact but prevent close face-to-face contact.” I wouldn’t advise Googling “glory hole”. Use your imagination. 

Mandatory gloves in Russia and Ukraine

Don’t forget your rubber gloves if you’re heading to Kiev. The FCO advice for Ukraine states: “When in public places, including when travelling on public transport and in taxis, you must maintain a minimum distance of 1.5m, wear protective masks and gloves.” Yes, that’s social distancing, masks AND gloves in a country of 42 million that has seen just 2,089 Covid-related deaths. Gloves are mandatory in Moscow too, and police in the city, as of July 31, have handed out fines to 37,000 metro passengers for breaching its rules. A nice little money spinner. 

Gloves are madness, of course. Covid is spread largely in the air, not on surfaces, and germs latch onto latex just as easily as they do bare skin. Furthermore, they may provide a false sense of security, encouraging users to wash their hands less frequently and ignore social distancing guidance.

So surely we won’t be asked to wear them in Britain? Don’t count on it. Remember when the World Health Organisation (WHO) told us masks were a bad idea?

Spain: king of the mask rules

Ah yes, masks. It’s easy to forget that just a few months ago the WHO said there was little or no benefit to wearing masks outside of a clinical setting. A bit of lobbying from European governments and suddenly it changed its tune. Now, it seems that only a selfish granny killer would dream of walking around in public without covering their face. That’s science for you. 

Spain’s rules are the strictest in Europe, but also the most confusing. 

Mark Naylor, writing for The Spectator, explains: “According to the most risible rule of all, you can now be fined for not wearing a face mask when you’re walking down the street, regardless of how many other people are around or how close they are to you. Juxtaposed with the lax regulations in bars and restaurants, this results in some truly surreal situations. To take just one: my girlfriend lives above a bar that’s packed, inside and out, most nights of the week. When we head down for a few tapas at the weekends, we’re legally obliged to don a mask to cross the two-metre patch of pavement that separates her apartment building from the bar. But once seated on the crowded terrace, surrounded by unmasked strangers, we can take them off. Whichever way you look at this combination of severity and laxity, it’s senseless. Santiago Moreno, head of infectious diseases at Madrid’s Ramon y Cajal hospital, recently told Spanish daily El Pais why he was in favour of mandatory face masks at all times, even when social distancing can be observed – something the paper described as a ‘conceptual necessity’: ‘By being so strict, those who don’t meet [the rules] will feel like they are breaking the law’, said Moreno. It’s hard to think of a more succinct or enthusiastic endorsement of Spain’s oppressive mask culture. Because the rules governing their usage are so inconsistent, and their efficacy far from obvious, the only decent reason to wear them now is to avoid a hefty fine by the over-empowered police. People who exercise a little situational logic and take their safety gear off on a street when there’s no one around won’t just feel like they’re breaking the law, they will be breaking the law. The threat of punishment, rather than a last-resort reinforcement measure, has become the sole good reason for wearing a mask in Spain. This is, without doubt, the weirdest and most lamentable aspect of the ‘new normal’ in which we live.”

So has the mask wearing done Spain any good? It appears not. Its infection rate is among the highest in Europe, prompting the FCO to remove it from the quarantine-free list, and still rising. 

South Africa’s toe fears

Being told what to wear on your face and hands is bad enough, but South Africa’s government offered further style tips during its long and oppressive lockdown. 

Shops were told they could only sell shoes if they are “closed toe,” while short-sleeved shirts were only allowed if they were promoted or displayed to be worn under jackets or jerseys. Quite how many cases of coronavirus have been traced back to a super-spreading big toe is not clear. But, you know, whatever it takes. 

“These new clothing regulations are frankly mad and seem more at place during the 1980s under the Soviet Union than they do in a democracy like South Africa,” Dean Macpherson, the country’s shadow trade and industry minister, said in response. 

There was some solace for South Africans today, however, when the country’s alcohol and cigarette ban was finally lifted. A stiff drink is surely needed.

Australians can’t leave, even for a child’s wedding

From the mildly comical to the painfully harsh. Australia, having adopted an ambitious elimination strategy, is starting to discover that government rules, no matter how draconian, can’t stop a global pandemic. But still it tries. In Victoria, a “State of Disaster” has been declared, which involves venturing no more than three miles from home, and wearing a mask whenever you do, while the country is increasingly preventing its citizens from heading overseas. Since March 25, most Australian citizens and permanent residents have needed government permission to travel or move abroad, but around three-quarters of applications have been rejected – even though they will be tested and kept in quarantine for 14 days on their return. Those with seemingly good reasons to travel are being denied the chance, not just holidaymakers. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that one woman, Donna Burton, was refused permission to go to England for her only daughter’s wedding.

Australian MP Zali Steggall likened the rules to North Korea. She said: “It puts us on par with North Korea, in terms of, are we now a prison state, that unless you can justify yourself to the department, you cannot leave the country? Even in times of war, we don't have that kind of restriction so it does seem a little extreme.”

NZ residents charged for their quarantine

Over the Tasman Sea, New Zealand is permitting its residents to leave the country – so long as they pay to be quarantined on their return. The isolation stays cost NZ$3,100 ($2,050) for the first adult in each hotel room, $950 for each additional adult and $475 for each child sharing the room. It essentially makes overseas trips unaffordable for all but the wealthiest residents. For how long will New Zealand prevent most of its residents from leaving the country? Until a vaccine is found, it would appear. How long that will take is anybody’s guess. 

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.  

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Covid 19   

• As you'd expect, cases have leaped up along our coast - because of, says someone important -'meetings of family and friends'. Not to mention the influx of tourists. So, we’re back to May’s level of infections. Though not, deaths, I imagine.
• Our lucky break is that few of these tourists are international. Though many - if not, most - will  have come from the Madrid ‘hotspot’.  

Living La Vida Loca  

• My elder daughter is here from Madrid for 10 days. Unluckily for her, the first 5 or 6 are forecast to be as rainful as today.
• But . . . If next week is as sunny as forecast, the rain+sun will be good for the grape harvest. Though with demand well down, this is not necessarily as good a bit of news as it might have been,
• When I flew into Madrid 2 weeks ago, I was obliged to report I’d passed through that city to the Galician health authority. So, I fully expected the same thing to happen to my daughter, through the good offices of Renfe, But, no. Nothing said and no form distributed. IGIMSTS.
• Nice line from Lydia of the Olive Press: You aren’t really the king of Spain until you’ve been exiled. More from her here on our roguish ex-Rex.  
• Lawbreaking  is not exactly uncommon in Spain, especially when the chancea of getting away with it are high. As used to be the case with illegal constructions. But drones have changed the equation and I wasn’t surprised to read this morning that more than €16m in fines have been dished out here in Galicia in just 5 years. 
• A case in point . . . Crowds have been subjected to new coronavirus measures at bullrings after a huge backlash from the public for not following the original rules.  More on this here.
• And this report is somewhat inevitable, in every aspect. It seems that, while discos, nightclubs etc. have been closed down, brothels haven’t been. So very Spanish.   
• Here’s María’s Day 2 of our Dystopian Times . Spanish politics.   

The UK 

• The Minister of Health was asked how he knows if people are properly self-isolating on their return from Spain and whether the R rate is above 1 in some parts of the UK. His answers were “I know because I know” and “I’m not going to tell you” respectively. Confidence inspiring, no?

The USA 

• More (counterproductive?) mocking of the most powerful (yet most stupid) man in the world.   
• Not so very hard to believe. Covid 19 has made the country's billionaires even more insanely rich. Click here to find out how.     

    Finally . . .  

• On top of the expensive replacement of the telefonillo came, first thing this morning, a new car battery. I wonder what the 3rd nasty surprise will be this week.

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant. 

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Covid 19   

• I suggested a week or two ago that we'd all surely by now have been in contact with  someone who was infected. And I wondered why, therefore, there weren't more cases and higher rates of both antibody incidence and national infection percentages. Putting this another way, why is even Stockholm in non-lockdown Sweden still very far from the famous 60% necessary to achieve herd immunity? All this at a time when death rates had plummeted. This video from an old friend might provide some answers to these queries.   
• Do we have to accept that the virus is to be lived with, not eradicated? As this Times columnist writes: Uncertainty is a global phenomenon. Until last week, New Zealand looked like the world’s great success story, a status attributable either to Jacinda Ardern’s visionary leadership or the small matter of being miles from anywhere. While the rest of the world wore masks, endured temperature checks and stayed at least one metre apart, New Zealanders were gleefully yodelling, ostentatiously licking each other and holding pepper-sniffing competitions. Then a handful of cases popped up in Auckland, and the city went back into lockdown. It was the clearest sign yet that without a vaccine, the coronavirus is something to be lived with, not sent packing.
• Meanwhile, as reported, the USA's death per million rate passed that of France a week or so ago and is now heading rapidly towards Sweden's. Today's US and European numbers:-

France 466

USA 521

Sweden 572

Italy 585

UK 609 (after revision downwards)

Spain 612

Belgium 857 Something of an outrider . . .

Living La Vida Loca  

• After our current (attenuated) Peregrina fiesta, our next big event should be the impressive Feira Franca of the first weekend in September. Followed by our own version of the Oktoberfest in, well, Octubre. But will either of them take place? I rather doubt the first one will, meaning I won't enjoy my annual buey(ox)-sandwich. Actually, 2 of them, as I always go back for another one . . .
• Bad, sad news for our vineyards.  Good news for wine prices?  
• Which reminds me . . .More than 100,000 Barcelona fans has a massive stroke of luck this week. Locked out of  their stadium, they weren't subjected to the 2-8 humiliation inflicted on their team by Bayern Munich. Well, excluding those who watched at least some of it on the TV. And, if this were at home, at least they could openly weep.
• Here and here are a couple of excellent potted histories around Spain’s Islamic invasion and its aftermath. Those Moors were certainly battle-prone.     

The UK 

• The levying of fines finally seems to have begun.     
• The UK government has swung from paralysed fatalism five months ago to something bordering on zero-risk, when such a policy has already been overtaken by events and by advances in science.

The USA 

• The Republican Party continues to ignore the country's still high Covid death rate, in preference for stressing the far-less-relevant percentage increases in European cases from a low base. Sophistry, of course, but very possibly a good strategy for none-too-bright Fart fans.
• Said president Fart claims that deficiencies in postal voting - which he's reported to be doing his best to maximise - will make the USA the 'laughing stock of the world'. That ship has sailed, mate. If you were really concerned about it, you'd get off our TV screens, one way or another. Preferably via suicide. Political or actual. We don't care.

Quote of the Week 

• From the Times columnist cited above - Helen Lewis - Life is short: every tomorrow is a bonus. When you think like that, uncertainty becomes more bearable.

English

• New OED words;.

- Nomophobia: Fear of being without your mobile phone.

- Jafaican: A white English person speaking in the manner of a Jamaican. 

English/Spanish

• Three more refranes:-

- Things often happen when you least expect them: Donde menos piensa el galgo, salta la liebre.

- Time and tide wait for no man: El tiempo pasa inexorablemente.

- Time doesn't stand still: El los nidos del antaño, no hay pájaros hogaño. [A re-appearance]

Finally . . .  

• Last year I installed a phone system (telfonillo) at my front gate, at a cost of around €150, as I recall. It has regularly malfunctioned and now I'm told the bell won't ring because an underground wire is bust. I can either pay for much of my concrete garden path and garage to be pulled up or buy a new system ('Of only 2 wires, not 6’) at a cost of another €250-300.  I can't wait to move to that flat where I can hassle the landlord/lady . . .

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant. 

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Living La Vida Loca 

• Being rather more aggressive than their British oppos, our police have begun fining folk on the basis of a gamut of new - or re-visited - crimes. Though I do wonder if anyone has yet been done for smoking in public. If not, this might be because our police are engaged in getting ever-more efficient in fleecing motorists. Using their new mobile radar traps. Fines are way up, said the headline to this foto:-

• Which reminds me . . . When I was in The Netherlands, a long car journey would involve a constant speed limit of (a slightly irritating) 80kph, regardless of the roadside properties. Here in Poio yesterday, a short trip to and from a garden centres involved at least 10 changes in the limit. Perhaps someone in the town hall has a relative in the sign-writing business.
• A propos . . . There's more here on our corrupt ex-king. From a Spanish journalist in the NY Times. Extract: The same political class, business community and courtly press that draped a mantle of impunity over the king has come to his rescue. What should be a question of decency and accountability is instead a polarized debate for and against the monarchy. 
• David Jimenez is one of those nuisance journalists who questions the way things are done here, as in his last book on the media, El Director.      
• The abandoning of dogs has long been a feature of Spanish society, though I have to say I've rescued far fewer in the forest behind my house than years ago. Anyway, the numbers have (inevitably?) risen during the Covid crisis.  
• Maria has recognised that times are not merely abnormal but actually dystopian. Here's Day 1 of her new Chronicle. (I'd been wondering when the title would change . . .)    
• María mentions supermarkets . . . I went to mine at 8.30 last night and found the shelves totally empty of vegetables and of most fruit, and virtually so of meat. I hadn't realised until very late, of course, that it was a holiday today.

The UK

• The turning of the screw.  Fines of up to £3,200 for failure to wear a face-mask will be introduced as part of new curbs on risky behaviour. On-the-spot penalties of up to £10,000 will also be levied on the organisers of illegal parties.  But will they be applied? 

The USA

• Laughter is the best medicine. Though someone has suggested today that mocking Fart will only help him win in November  . . .  But as I doubt that many of his base read this blog, here’s Video 1 and here’s Video 2.     

The Way of the World/Quote of the Week 

• Effie Deans: I watched Tootsie when it came out in 1982. I am astonished by the change that has taken place since then. . . . Everybody smokes indoors. Men flirt with women, kiss them without asking permission or signing a consent form. Everyone in in the film is white. There are no gay characters, but homosexuality is mildly mocked. There are no disabled characters and no ethnic minorities at all apart from in the background. There is no political correctness whatsoever. This was a mainstream popular movie from 38 years ago, but it couldn’t be made today. It includes so many micro-aggressions that a snowflake would immediately become a snow drift and then melt in fury. It might as well be a film about the middle ages.  This is from this article on the much wider subject of identity.    

Finally . . .  

• It's said that a property owner is someone who's always coming out of a DIY/hardware store. Or, in my case, paying an endless succession of técnicos to deal with water leaks, dripping toilet cisterns, non-functioning doorbells and broken blinds. And that's just this month. I look forward to downsizing to a rented flat, where I can badger the landlord about attending to things like this. At his/her cost.
• A fascinating analysis of a famous Titian work.   

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Covid 19   

• Yet more food for ongoing thought: Swedens’s success shows the true cost of the UK’s arrogant, failed establishment. See the article below.

Living La Vida Loca 

• The Galician government (A Xunta) has banned smoking in streets and public spaces where 2m of distance can’t be guaranteed. Several other regions look like doing this too.  But . . .
• In the tapas quarter of Pontevedra yesterday lunchtime and evening, you’d be forgiven for thinking Covid-19 had never happened. Queues for the tables, little (if any) social distancing  - especially at tables of 8-15 people - and a lot of smoking in defiance/ignorance of the new prohibition of this.
• Indeed, the only aspect different from normal was the absence of guiris. Foreign tourists.
• I asked the owner of my favourite tapas bar to remind the woman at the table beside mine and the 3 young women at the table in front of it about the ban on smoking. But he chose not to.
• As I’ve asked . . . Are the Spanish themselves - not government failures - primarily responsible for the country again topping the Western European infections league table? [BTW . . .Years ago this would have prompted retorts from many Spaniards suggesting I return to my shithole of a country - too coin a phrase - but I don’t think I have many Spanish readers these days.]
• Maria has something to say on this in Days 59 and 60 of her chronicle life in her Galician village.    

The UK 

• As France and The Netherlands are added to the UK’s red list - and Portugal is not withdrawn from it - this is a timely comment: The English government states that: “If you don’t self-isolate, you can be fined £1,000. If you don’ provide an accurate contact detail declaration – or update your contact detail form in the limited circumstances where you need to move from the accommodation where you’re self-isolating to another place to continue self-isolating – you can be fined up to £3,200. As at late July, only one person had been fined for not self isolating and only 8 Covid-19 related fines had been issued by the police in England and none in Wales.
• A reader has kindly sent me this article on one of my regular topics.      

The EU

• Romanians are none too popular here in Spain. Here's one reason why.  

The USA

• The insult

• The revenge

English 

• A new word for me - Vitiligo: 'A condition in which the pigment is lost from areas of the skin, causing whitish patches, often with no clear cause'. Seen in the context  of different coloured Barbie dolls . . . In an article of much wider import, I stress.

English/Spanish

• Three more refranes:-

- There’s nowt so queer as folk: Hay de todo en la viña del Señor.

- They're all different: Cada uno es de su padre y de su madre.

- Things have changed: En los nidos de antaño, no hay pájaros hogaño.

Finally . . .  

• I'd forgotten that the greenfinches had come to dominate the sparrows in my garden. A couple have now returned to the feeder - joining the robin and the single collared-dove - and I now wonder when the rest of the greedy greenfinch family of 10-12 will reappear.

THE ARTICLE

Sweden’s success shows the true cost of our arrogant, failed establishment: Allister Heath, Daily Telegraph

Shocking incompetence has unnecessarily wiped billions of pounds from the UK economy:

So now we know: Sweden got it largely right, and the British establishment catastrophically wrong. Anders Tegnell, Stockholm’s epidemiologist-king, has pulled off a remarkable triple whammy: far fewer deaths per capita than Britain, a maintenance of basic freedoms and opportunities, including schooling, and, most strikingly, a recession less than half as severe as our own.

Our arrogant quangocrats and state “experts” should hang their heads in shame: their reaction to coronavirus was one of the greatest public policy blunders in modern history, more severe even than Iraq, Afghanistan, the financial crisis, Suez or the ERM fiasco. Millions will lose their jobs when furlough ends; tens of thousands of small businesses are failing; schooling is in chaos, with A-level grades all over the place; vast numbers are likely to die from untreated or undetected illnesses; and we have seen the first exodus of foreigners in years, with the labour market survey suggesting a decline in non-UK born adults.

Pandemics always come with large economic and social costs, for reasons of altruism as well as of self-interest. The only way to contain the spread of a deadly, contagious disease, in the absence of a cure or vaccine, is to social distance; fear and panic inevitably kick in, as the public desperately seeks to avoid catching the virus. A “voluntary” recession is almost guaranteed.

But if a drop in GDP is unavoidable, governments can influence its size and scale. Politicians can react in one of three ways to a pandemic. They can do nothing, and allow the disease to rip until herd immunity is reached. Quite rightly, no government has pursued this policy, out of fear of mass deaths and total social and economic collapse.

The second approach involves imposing proportionate restrictions to facilitate social distancing, banning certain sorts of gatherings while encouraging and informing the public. The Swedes pursued a version of this centrist strategy: there was a fair bit of compulsion, but also a focus on retaining normal life and keeping schools open. The virus was taken very seriously, but there was no formal lockdown. Tegnell is one of the few genuine heroes of this crisis: he identified the correct trade-offs.

The third option is the full-on statist approach, which imposes a legally binding lockdown and shuts down society. Such a blunderbuss approach may be right under certain circumstances – if a vaccine is imminent – or for some viruses – for example, if we are ever hit with one that targets children and comes with a much higher fatality rate – but the latest economic and mortality statistics suggest this wasn’t so for Covid-19.

Almost all economists thought that Sweden’s economy would suffer hugely from its idiosyncratic strategy. They were wrong. Sweden’s GDP fell by just 8.6%in the first half of the year, all in the second quarter, and its excess deaths jumped 24%. A big part of Sweden’s recession was caused by a slump in demand for its exports from its fully locked-down neighbours. One could speculate that had all countries pursued a Swedish-style strategy, the economic hit could have been worth no more than 3-4% of GDP. That could be seen as the core cost of the virus under a sensible policy reaction.

By contrast, Britain’s economy slumped by 22.2% in the first half of the year, a performance almost three times as bad as Sweden’s, and its excess deaths shot up by 45%. Spain’s national income slumped even more (22.7%), and France’s (down 18.9% and Italy’s (down 17.1% slightly less, but all three also suffered far greater per capita excess deaths than Sweden. The Swedes allowed the virus to spread in care homes, so if that major failure had been fixed, their death rate could have been a lot lower still.

My guess is that only half of our first-half collapse in GDP would have happened under a variant of the Swedish model. This means that the other half – some £250 billion – was an unnecessary cost caused directly by the lockdown itself. The decision to shut everything down, rather than to impose and promulgate extensive social distancing, hygiene measures, ubiquitous PPE and testing, means that we have wasted a quarter of a trillion pounds worth of GDP, as well as needlessly ruined the education of millions of children and cancelled the health care of hundreds of thousands of adults. I suspect that this immense, unbearable additional cost saved very few additional lives, and that almost all of the gains came from social distancing, not the lockdown.

Some of the lost GDP will be recovered; the intangible costs of lockdown – the cancelled weddings and sporting events, the failed IVF cycles, the time not spent with family – will remain with us forever.

This is a catastrophically high price tag for the British state’s systemic incompetence, the uselessness of Public Health England, the deep, structural failings of the NHS, the influence of modellers rather than proper scientists, the complacency, the delusion, the refusal to acknowledge that the quality of the British state and bureaucracy are abysmally poor.

Even more depressingly, a Swedish approach was always unrealistic in Britain. Panic and hysteria were the only possible outcome when the failure of the system became apparent. I’m not seeking to absolve Boris Johnson of blame, but he would have found himself in an impossible situation had he sought to ignore the official advice, and he inherited few, if any, working levers to pull.

So what now? How should Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, reboot the economy? Sweden, once again, is a role model. After decades of socialist decline from the early Seventies, the Swedes slashed the size of their state (though it remains too big), liberalised their economy, reformed their schools along market principles and scrapped their counter-productive wealth tax.

They learnt that the state cannot drive prosperity: only the private sector can do that. The Tories used to understand this: Sunak needs to take inspiration from Tegnell, and push for a Swedish, liberal approach to saving our economy, trusting individual initiative, not resorting to a top down, Whitehall-knows-best attitude. HS2 and green projects are not the answer. The Conservatives will only survive their handling of Covid if they don’t also botch the recovery.

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Covid 19  

• More food for ongoing thought:-

1. Exposing Coviid's 'orgy of incoherence'.  

2. Fascinating maps and charts of the 'uniquey bad' US situation.   

3. More endorsement of the Swedish approach. 

Living La Vida Loca 

• The Economist reports that much of the AVE high-speed train system here is poor value for money. Which is no great surprise. I'll post the article when I have it but here's El País in Spanish on this.
• The real problem caused by this excess expenditure on a prestige project has been neglect of the pre-existing rail system. The tracks of which owe much/most to the 19th century.
• I came across this sad cri-de-coeur yesterday, from someone autistic: In Spain everyone expects you to be extroverted and funny and be able to talk all the time about bullshit like sports or girls. People are quick to catch on that you're weird otherwise. I wish I lived in some country where being autistic is okay. In Spain, I suffer.
• Well, we've had fireworks every night this week, in one city square or another. This is unusual and I wonder whether it's compensation for the absence of several events this year. 
• Just before last night's we had a sort of light-show on the (infamous) reformed O Burgo bridge, with the usually-off side lights alternating between white, blue and purple. See these poor fotos:-

• •    I confess to wondering why money was invested in this feature. Will this light show be a regular feature or just an annual one, during our Peregrina fiesta in August? Either way, for whose benefit is it, given that there are normal lights to illuminate your way on the surface of the bridge?
• Talking of urban features . . . I had thought that there was only one 16th century house in Pontevedra with heads on the top of its facade but someone told me about this one, above the ferretería in Rúa Real. 

I imagine no one knows who they are here as well.

• Maria's chronicle of her lfie here in Galicia, Day 58.    

The USA

• President Fart talks:-

1. The 1917 Spanish flu [it was 1918-19] probably ended World War 2. He meant WW1, of course but even this claim would have been stupid.

2. The most horrible and disrespectful person in the USA. Talking not about himself but about Biden's running mate. A woman, of course. Fart only knows 2 types of women. 1. Nasty and 2. Willing.

Social Media 

• Hundreds of thousands of people are still trading fake reviews on Facebook despite promises that the platform would crack down on the problem. An investigation by the consumer rights group Which? found that Facebook was failing to halt “fake review factories” in which people offer freebies or money in exchange for positive reviews of products on Amazon.

English/Spanish

• Three more refranes:-

- There’s no accounting for taste: Sobre gustos y colores/no discuten los doctores/no hay nada escrita.

- There’s no smoke without fire: Donde hay humo, hay calor.

- Things always happen/come in threes: No hay dos sin tres.

Finally . . .  

• I've been deleting old comments to this blog, dating back to 2002. One, 10 years or so ago, said my profile foto reminded him of actor Robin Ellis, of Poldark fame. I checked and decided the reader was not only kind but shortsighted. Though possibly way back then . . .

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Covid 19 

1. Sweden. Herd immunity: Claim and counterclaim. It is close to achieving this. No, it isn't. Here's something new from the latter camp, from the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. Sweden has yet to show evidence of herd immunity, with the same number of people infected in London as in Stockholm. Antibody tests showed that 17% of people in both London and Stockholm had been infected in April.

2. Current infection rates - cases per 100,000 - according to the UK government:-

Spain 90.3   On the UK government’s red list.

Malta 63.0 

Belgium 61.7  

Netherlands 34.6  Where no one  has been wearing masks, except on public transport. About to go on the UK's red list?

France 29.4 Ditto

Portugal 24.6. About to come off the UK's red list?

Poland 23.7  

Britain 17.1  

Greece 14.2  

Germany 13.3  

Italy 7.5

3. Spain. An official view on the resurgence of infections: Spain's highly social culture is partly to blame. This is a country that doesn't understand holding a celebration, or taking a holiday if you're not going to share them.

4. Worth pondering? . . . The ONS figures for excess deaths published yesterday show that fewer people are dying than is usual at this time of year and more are succumbing to flu and pneumonia than to Covid. Yet governments across the globe have managed to make this virus uniquely resistant to rational thought and decision-making.

Living La Vida Loca 

• There was a spectacular meteor shower over Spain last night. We didn't see it here in Galicia because:- 1. We are not in Extremadura or Andalucia, and 2. It rained for the first time in many weeks. Good for my parched lawns, I hope. 
• But we had a very red sunset last night, making my cityscape even prettier than usual. I tried to capture it on both my phone and camera but this is the (inadequate) best I could do:-

• It's very possibly a consequence of Covid but I've been waiting 7 weeks for a company to come and fix/replace the large blind in my lounge. And also for my usual plumber to replace the flush mechanism in 2 toilets. Or, rather, I was. This week I've managed to get alternative técnicos to come and give me estimates. Plus promises as to when the work will be carried out. Vamos a ver.
• Talking of delays . . . Yesterday I went to possibly the only remaining domestic appliance store in Pontevedra city - there used to be at least 4 - in search of some new bathroom scales - after my (clumsy) cleaner had told me that the previous appliance had 'exploded' when she'd merely brushed against it with a mop. After 15-20 minutes of waiting - unacknowledged - at the counter while 2 assistants faffed around on a computer, I left - with the intention of making Jeff Bezos even richer. But, passing a Chinese bazar, I went in and bought some scales at 2/3 of the price in the shop. Interestingly, I wasn't the only impatient potential customer to leave: a Spanish couple did so as well. But I don't think the assistants even noticed. Or cared, if they did. I wonder how long the shop will remain open.
• I might have been wrong about kids being allowed to congregate in front of the concert stages:-

• Maria's chronicle of our Vida Anormal, Day 57. 

The USA

• Trump has been declared to have a large and impressive brain.    
• J-L Cauvin again   

The Way of the World

• “Take care” has become an inescapable verbal tic in the lexicon of modern life, along with “stay safe”, two phrases I hardly ever heard growing up. It is not that people in the past did not want to stay safe or take care but our entire world did not revolve around these notions. The gradual infantilisation of society that is exemplified by weather warnings helps explain the over-reaction to the coronavirus. Public policy is driven by a concept known as the precautionary principle whereby everything is done to avert an immediate risk while medium to long-term threats are ignored. Governments in thrall to this nefarious doctrine persuade people that risk can be eradicated when it can’t be   

Spanish

1. A reader has kindly added to Maria's suggestions for 'The pot calling the kettle black': Dijo la sartén a la caldera: '¡Quita allá, culinegra!'.

2. It's not uncommon, these days, to see the English word ‘test’ used in stead of prueba. But  my eye was drawn yesterday to los test, making me wonder if the plural shouldn't be, Spanish style, los testes. But I guess not. For one reason and another.

Finally . . .  

• I  wonder where 2 of these huge ‘terror crocodiles’(Deinosuchus) were caged in Noah's ark.

• Does anyone know how to get BBC podcasts on iTunes? Whenever I try to get the relevant URL - as per BBC instructions - I get the message: Do you want to allow this page to open “NetNewsWire”? Which is a reader like The Old Reader and Feedly. And which I don't need/want. 

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Living La Vida Loca 

• There was a 2nd firework display at midnight last night, 2 days after the last one. I lose track of why.
• So what's caused this? Spain has been plunged back into a coronavirus crisis as the soaring number of cases confirmed it to be the worst affected European country. The 'good news' is that deaths remain low. And maybe that: The WHO has said it did not expect the government to reimpose a total lockdown. Rather, it would try to contain the virus with localised restrictions.
• As for an answer to my question . . . Below is an article by the Times' correspondent in Spain on possible causes of this reversal and its implications. One of which is preventing my younger daughter and her kids coming here next week, because of the need to self-isolate on their return just as schools are (possibly) reopening.
• A case in point . . . Totana, a town of 35,000 inhabitants in Murcia, is back in lockdown after a party in a bar led to 55 people testing positive. 
• Putting it bluntly . . . Do the  Spanish have anyone to blame but themselves?

The Way of the World

• Are you 'she/her', 'he/him' or 'they/them'? Do you know? Do you care? You  might soon have to, the way things are going. At many universities, students are given pronoun badges when they arrive on campus. They may be expected to state their preferred pronouns in seminars. At conferences, too, attendees might be offered pronoun-identifying badges. Some corporations, such as the BBC and local authorities, ask staff to include pronouns in their email signatures. This, it's said, is to please - or, rather, avoid displeasing - transgender folk who represent a tiny fraction of the total population. The critical view is that: Pronoun-declaring is pure narcissism and a game played by an identity-obsessed minority with far too much time on its hands. Forced attempts at normalising pronoun introductions may be done in the name of inclusivity but they reveal only how hopelessly out of touch those who run our universities, local authorities and political parties have become. They no longer have any idea how normal people talk to each other. But there will be a spectrum of views, of course. As we don’t have a war to worry about. Only a plague.

English/Spanish

• Three more refranes:-

- There are plenty more fish in the sea: Hay mucho más donde elegir.

- There’s always a catch: No hay miel sin hiel.

- There’s honour among thieves: Entre bueyes no hay cornadas. 

Finally . . . 

• A single collared-dove was seen to join my resident robin yesterday but neither its lifetime partner not the sparrows have put in an appearance. Despite there being food in abundance. They  must be very happy somewhere else. Or dead.

THE ARTICLE

Spain blames the coronavirus surge on work, travel and parties: Isambard Wilkinson  

Concern is mounting over Spain’s failure to stem a spread of infection that has brought the daily total to the highest level since May, when the country was in lockdown.

Health ministry figures showed yesterday that 1,229 new infections had been registered in 24 hours, the most since May 1. The World Health Organisation, which uses a different measure, put the figure at 905. Salvador Illa, the health minister, said that there were more than 400 outbreaks nationwide and almost 5,000 cases.

Most are in Catalonia and Aragon, although numbers in Madrid are growing. The outbreaks tended to be connected to family gatherings, parties and nightlife and the movement of temporary workers, Mr Illa said. Making matters worse, many Spaniards are about to head to the coast as temperatures soar above 42C.

The rise has punished the tourism industry. On Saturday Britain announced a 14-day quarantine on travellers returning from Spain. Norway has done the same. France and Germany have advised against travel to Catalonia.

Mr Illa insisted the situation was different from the crisis in March and April, when the daily death toll was approaching 1,000 and hospitals were on the verge of collapse. More cases were being detected this time, and most were asymptomatic, he said. The average age of those testing positive has dropped from 60 to around 40.

In the past week 10 people have died and 25 have been admitted to intensive care. On May 1 there had been 281 deaths in 24 hours, with 732 people admitted to hospital, of whom 84 needed intensive care.

The Balearic Islands, including holiday hotspots such as Ibiza and Mallorca, had only one new case, while the Canary Islands had seven. “We don’t have to be afraid of the virus, but we have to be careful,” Mr Illa said.

On Wednesday the Catalan authorities eased the lockdown in and around Lleida, the northeastern city where 160,000 people had been ordered to stay at home after a sharp rise in infections. The regional government, which issued a stay-at-home order to nearly four million residents in the Barcelona area, has said that the surge is easing.

Measures have already been introduced to prevent a second wave. Mask-wearing is compulsory in indoor and outdoor public spaces in almost the whole country. Appointments must be made to visit some beaches, and areas for sunbeds are demarcated to ensure social distancing. On some coasts drones monitor crowding.

Mr Illa said Spain’s regions — which run their own coronavirus response strategies — were averaging 42,000 PCR tests a day. Some regions are fining anyone who has tested positive and breaks quarantine arrangements, which run for at least ten days. Their contacts may also be fined. In Murcia those penalties are up to €60,000. The region has also introduced fines of €100 for failing to wear a mask and €600,000 for organising illegal parties of more than 100 people.

Contact tracers told El Diario, a news website, the flouting of quarantine restrictions had worsened in recent weeks as people returned to work or went on holiday. The increasing number of young people affected had led to more rule-breaking, they said. Concern is mounting that there are not enough contact tracers to control the spread of the virus, particularly as people move around the country during the holiday season. This month the College of Physiotherapists in Catalonia offered the services of its 12,000 members to help boost the contact tracing effort in the region. It was the tracing of cases from Catalonia that led to the discovery of the first infection on the tiny Canary Island of La Graciosa. The Ministry of Defence has said it is developing a contact tracing strategy to prevent outbreaks in the armed forces and would offer those services to civilian authorities if needed.

Almost 127,000 people have been admitted to hospital in Spain since the beginning of the pandemic, and the death toll stands at 28,441, as calculated by the World Health Organisation.

But many who have contracted the virus may not have been included in the health ministry’s figures, particularly at the start of the crisis. An estimate by El País put the death toll nearer 45,000, based on excess mortality and data from the various regions.

According to the UK’s Office for National Statistics, Spain has the second-highest number of excess deaths. England has the highest.

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Note: Our August Peregrina fiesta is, of course, of 2 weeks’ duration, not 2 days’. My apologies to those who saw my typo before I corrected it yesterday.

Living La Vida Loca in Spain 

• Come the summer in Galicia, come the forest fires. And, usually, the tragic death of at  least one firefighter in the crash of a plane or a helicopter. As has just happened up in Lobios, near the border with Portugal. Which the fires don't respect, of course.           
• According to this vitriolic chap, our ex king was a bit of a cad. And had nearly 5,000 lovers. Whether he was or wasn't or did or didn't, many towns and cities around the country are now busy changing street names which honoured him. And the current king is using his elder (teenage) daughter to try to burnish the tarnished image of the monarchy. Which might well work. Poor girl.
• Some folk go so far at to see this as the beginning of the end of the Spanish monarchy. Which might well be right.   
• I was pleased to read last  night that Mark Stücklin and I share 3 things:- 1. Shock that Brits who'd never think of not using a lawyer when buying a house back home happily take the advice of smiling agents or developers that either they don't need to do so here or that they should use theirs: 2. Disbelief that, after 20 years of counselling against this on both our parts, it's still happening; and 3. Insistence that it's essential that buyers get themselves not just any old lawyer but a qualified and independent one. See MS on the subject here.
• Here's one useful list of lawyers. Confusingly, Galicia is in the Madrid list. And here's MS on the challenge of finding a competent and honest lawyer.      
• Driving in Spain: Another realisation has belatedly dawned on me . . . When a driver who hasn’t made any signal either when approaching a roundabout or when on it then signals right once they’ve exited it, this simply means: ‘By the way, this is the road I’ve chosen to continue on.’ I mean, what other explanation is possible?
• María's Day 56.  

Spanish 

• María has endorsed my doubts re this being a good equivalent of ‘The pot calling the kettle black’ - El que tiene tajado de vidrio no tira piedras al de su vecino. More like ‘People in glass  houses etc. . . ‘. María gives these better alternatives: El burro hablando de orejas, or Dijo la sartén al cazo."  I prefer the first one.

English/Spanish

• Three more refranes:-
• - The cobbler’s sone is always the worst shod: En casa de herrero, cuchillo de palo.
• - The truth will out: Se pilla al mentiroso antes al cojo.
• - The wages of sin is death: El pecado se paga con el  muerte.

Finally . . . 

• I think I've raised this issue before: As they haven't re-appeared at my bird feeder since I came back from my 2 weeks away, I searched an answer to the question: Do sparrows migrate? The answer: All house sparrows are sedentary; they remain in virtually the same place throughout the year. Sparrow usually stay within 1 kilometre of their birthplace. So . . . Have mine just found a garden where the grass is greener? And, if so, is the same true of the  collared doves?
• I get spam messages in the Comments to my blog. But why someone would think it profitable to advise a brothel in Manesar in India is rather beyond me,

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Living La Vida Loca in Spain     

•    A midnight firework display surprised me into remembering that our annual 2-week fiesta began yesterday. But it’s a pallid version the usual extravaganza, of course. No bullfights, for example. And no fairground occupying the Alameda and all the streets around it. So, a lot quieter . . . Except when the the bagpipe players (gaiteros) parade through the streets. And we’re still having the (very) loud concerts which begin (notionally) at 10pm. But with socially-distanced seating these days. Though I suspect they won’t be able to stop the kids congregating cheek-to-cheek right in front of the stage.

• At a more national level . . .Thank god for a new foto of Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein:-

Like me, you're probably sick to death of seeing this one:-

The lady has been described today as : A Danish adventuress who had reinvented herself as a German princess and then as mistress to the king of Spain. Which sounds about right to me. Now a very, very rich woman, of course. Able to afford a lot more plastic surgery, I'm sure.    

•    María's Day 55.   

Quote of the Week

• Effie Deans: Identity trumps economics. It always has. It always will. . . Viewing everything through the lens of identity is more powerful than the facts themselves. . . . All forms of nationalism eventually become violent. 

Social Media

1. Rod Liddle: As a keen and experienced observer of current affairs, it has occurred to me that Donald Trump can be a little crass from time to time. . . I have further observed that he is not always wholly truthful; seems to possess antediluvian attitudes towards women; and on occasion makes statements that suggest, to a neutral observer, that his ignorance is a fathomless abyss. . . . In short, Trump appears as the very embodiment of what the rest of the world has always reckoned Americans, in general, to be: loud, dumb, money-obsessed, boastful, badly dressed and arrogant. But especially dumb. Despite this, it is impossible not to be on his side in his battle with Twitter and Facebook. . . . The boundary of what you can say narrows seemingly by the week. It is becoming a noose.
2. Camilla Long: Social media is the Caliban offspring of the internet.

English 

1. I bring you beyotch: “A friendly use of the word bitch. Usually used in greeting one's friend (Hey, beyotch!) or when one has succeeded over someone (You got owned, beyotch!)”. I imagine it comes from the USA but wonder why it's necessary.
2. Architect: Apparently now one of those nouns which have become verbs.  Same origin, I strongly suspect.

English/Spanish

• Three more refranes:-

. The pot calling the kettle black: El que tiene tajado de vidrio no tira piedras al de su vecino. [?] 

- The proof of the pudding is in the eating: No se sabe si algo es bueno hasta que se lo pone a prueba.

- The sap rises in the spring: La primavera la sangre altera.

Finally . . . 

• The other day I ground some cloves in my coffee grinder, which made for an interesting brew the next day. Yesterday, I ground some dried cayenne peppers (guindillas) in it (for a curry, of course). So . . . an even more interesting brew this morning. And not exactly a huge success. Made worse by the fact I buggered up my (UK-bought) kettle when boiling water for second go at my morning filter-coffee. Using just the cone of a Philips machine which went kaput a few weeks ago. But worse things happen at sea, I guess. Más se perdió en Cuba . . .         
• But my spirits were raised by all the fog outside my window. For it always reminds me of a hotel owner on the camino who warned all ‘pilgrims’ against taking the mountainous option to the next town, as there was always mooch mood and mooch fuck up that way. 

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'* 

Covid 19 

• Covid 19 

• It's one of Trump's regular lies that the US is doing more tests than anywhere else in the world. Indeed - being unfamiliar with the concept of truth - he's gone so far as to boast that the US is doing more tests than the rest of the world put together. This isn't even true in absolute terms but, in per capita terms, there are several countries doing better at this. Tests per million of population:-

- The USA: 191k

- The UK: 258k

- Russia: 204k

- Denmark: 286k

- Luxembourg: 995k (virtually all of its population of 627,000).

• The more you test, the more asymptomatic cases you find, meaning a fall in the percentage of deaths per case reported. The USA does well on this parameter and it was this Trump was trying to stress in his disastrous weekend interview, while dismissing the fact of more than 1,000 deaths per day as 'what it is'.
• France has a low testing percentage, so it's not surprising that, at 15%, its deaths per case on a per capita basis is much higher than the USA's  - 15% v 3%.
• More surprising is that the UK has a high test number but also has a death per case number of 15%. This is possibly because, as someone has said - they're 'daft enough' to record as 'Covid-caused' every death where someone passes when they have the virus. Whatever they actually died of.
• Spain: All is not what it seems . . . The Health Minister yesterday again denied that the country is facing a second wave of infections, despite a spike in cases in recent days.

Living La Vida Loca in Spain 

• I've mentioned that the Galician government now requires one to advise them not only you've been to countries on the nation's blacklist but also if you've been in certain regions of Spain and, now, Madrid. The online form is superficially simple but not user-friendly. Worse, it doesn't bloodywell work. I've pressed the Enter button more than 50 times in the last 24 hours, to no effect and must now contact them by phone today. My housemate had similar problems  days ago, trying to report that he'd been in Portugal. But he eventually succeeded yesterday. Which was rather ironic, as the Xunta had taken Portugal off the list earlier in the day . . .
• I see there was an official 'opening' of the reformed O Burgo bridge on Wednesday night, which included a concert from a string quartet and the switching on of the new lighting system. This was not in evidence last night, so here's a bad foto of it taken from a local paper:-

I've no idea how often we'll have the pleasure of seeing the bridge bathed in red. Or of how many people care about this.

• Driving in Spain:  After almost 20 years of pondering this - essentially using too much logic - I've finally figured out what it means when someone here is signalling right when approaching a roundabout of more than one exit. It simply means they're going to leave the roundabout at one of the exits. Which can, of course, be any of, say, 5. If you take on board this lesson, you'll save yourself the risk of being in a collision for which you'll be blamed. So, Rule 1: Whichever exit you're taking, beware of cars coming from your right, in a way you'd not expect in any other country. Rule 2, born of this situation: The really smart driver here doesn't offer any signal but leaves everyone else guessing. Which forces them to hesitate and stay out of your way. There's always some form of logic at play . . .
• Noise: There was a sparsely-attended hard-rock concert - from 3 middle-aged guys - in Pontevedra’s main square yesterday. At midday. Or maybe they were rehearsing for the evening. Either way, it was naturally deafening. And, of course, no one nearby seemed perturbed by the fact they had to shout their conversations even louder than usual.**
• Here’s María’s Day 53 of her Chronicle. Uncertainty rules. 

The USA 

• J-L Cauvin again. It is what it is. 

The Way of the World

• The Zidane-Bale impasse shows the [soccer]game at its tone-deaf worst: while Bale is playing less than ever, his salary is still set to rise, from £15.3 million for his latest spasmodic season to £17.1 million for 2020-21. Real Madrid lack the power to put him out of his misery, while Bale lacks the inclination.

English/Spanish

• Three more refranes:-

- The early bird catches the worm: Al que madruga, Dios le ayuda.

- The grass is always greener . . . : Gusta lo ajeno, mas por ajeno que bueno/Nadie está contento con su suerte.

- The pen is mightier than the sword: Más puede la pluma que la espada.

Finally . . . 

** I’ve just checked. It was a midday concert, from the Three Black Crows.  Whose foto in the events guide was clearly taken several years ago. Today we have a 5-member female group called Agoraphobia, who are part of a Barullada de Rock.  Or ‘ A Noisiness/Rowdiness of Rock’. I rest my case . . .

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant. 

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'* 

Covid 19 

• Yesterday I wondered aloud what was really going on, though I do understood it’ll be quite a while yet before we know for sure. Meanwhile, to confuse us further:-

- Did Lockdown Work? I find no clear association between lockdown policies and mortality development.  See here. Or, 2nd hand, here.

- Some Spanish doctors allege that Covid 19 is a fake pandemic. Possibly Vox/Trump supporters. See here.      

Living La Vida Loca in Spain  

• Maybe we really are heading for constitutional reform and the end of the monarchy. Though you can be sure there are powerful forces which will resist it. The Church for one, I suspect.  
• Here - if you can access it - is how to get really serious about Covid 19-rule-defaulters - fines of up to €60,000. Compare the UK . . .     
• And, ditto, here’s what to expect at airports if you do chance your arm and come here. Again compare the nonsense/chaos of the UK.
• So, has our ex-king really exiled himself? . . . As Juan Carlos abruptly left Spain for a secret location, leaving his compatriots shocked and divided, he sent a text message to friends, saying: “I’m not on holiday and I’m not abandoning Spain. This is just a parenthesis.” According to El Pais, some people, including those in the government, are not sure that it will be that easy for a former king engulfed in scandal to reverse his voluntary exile, which was executed in the hope of limiting damage to the Bourbon brand. What a jokester!
• I see there are no longer any machines on O Burgo bridge. So, I guess we can finally conclude its reformation is complete. Ten months later than predicted. Anyway, it’s possibly now the world’s widest pedestrian bridge. And the route out of the city on the camino towards Santiago de Compostela. Or Fátima in the other direction. Not that, these days, one sees the hundreds of ‘pilgrims’ making their way across it every day between March and October. So, plenty of space in which to ensure social distancing. 
• Here’s María’s fruity Day 52 of her Chronicle.  

The USA

• It's reported that Americans are 'insanely jealous' of Spaniards who've been able to exile  their corrupt head of state but I'm not convinced this is a widespread sentiment. 
• A Fart fan yesterday rejected my suggestion that deaths per million are rising faster in the USA than elsewhere. These are the progressions since mid June for the worst countries in the world, excluding both tiny states and South American countries where rates are now as high as these:-

Belgium 833 850 + 17(+2%)

UK      614 683 + 69(+11%)

Spain   580 610 + 30(+5%)

Italy   568 582 + 14(+3%)

Sweden  483 570 + 87(+19%)

USA     356 488 + 132(+37%)

France  451 464 + 13(+3%)

As I've said, the USA - having passed France - is heading rapidly towards Sweden's number and will pass it, I guess, within 2 weeks. Even though Sweden's growth rate it higher than that of other European countries. Hopefully as it heads towards the holy grail of herd immunity.

• Something rather more amusing.   

The Way of the World

• A global debt crisis is looming – how can we prevent it?  

Spanish

• A nice phrase I came across last night - No tener vela en este entierro.  Not having a candle at this funeral. ‘An expression we use to censor a person who meddles in matters which don't concern them, or who participates in an act or conversation to which they've not been invited. It comes from the custom of the family of the deceased giving candles to friends attending the funeral.’

Finally . . . 

• An acronym new to me: AIBU - “Am I being unreasonable?" Which I am very unlikely ever to need to use, of course.

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant. 

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'* 

COVID 19 

• A contentious view (from a rightwing US commentator)?: The Netherlands' top scientists, having examined key data and research, have declared there is no firm evidence to back the use of face coverings. Indeed, they argue that wearing the wretched things may actually hamper the fight. More here. 

Living La Vida Loca in Spain 

• This must rank as good news: A mask which deactivates the SARS-CoV-2 virus is now on sale across Spain. More here.  I wonder if there’ll be any left on the shelves by midday.   
• Despite - or because of - Brexit, there’s been a huge upsurge in Brits applying for residence in Spain. Some of these, of course, must be those who’ve been living here below the wire for years and now need to come out of the long grass, to mix metaphors.
• It’s a regular - and very valid - complaint of Lenox Napier of Business over Tapas that the Spanish government concerns itself greatly with short-term tourists but not at all with us ‘residential tourists’. By coincidence(?), here’s his latest comment on the wisdom of the Spanish government putting all their eggs in the tourist basket.        
• If you agree with the Podemos view that Juan Carlos has fled from Spanish justice, you must have assumed he'd face it one day. Which is something of a stretch. Makes for a good headline, though. Which might push us a tad closer to a republic. Even a de jure federal state, perhaps. In place of the de facto one we have now.
• Here’s Maria with Days 50 and 51, the latter addressing the issue of the ex-king and his tainted forbears and descendants.

The UK

• In the last 48 hours the government’s handling of the ongoing crisis has reached a new pitch of incoherence. the Prime Minister has simultaneously slammed on the brakes, executed a U-turn and pressed the accelerator. No wonder the government appears to be drifting. What is more, the rationale for all this frantic manoeuvring collapses under the slightest scrutiny. 
• The second wave hysteria is a smokescreen for No 10's abysmal failures, says the controversial columnist of the article below. 

The USA

• Fart’s interview with Jonathan Swift has to be seen to be believed. Some will see it as evidence of his genius. The rest of us will see it a proof that he is, inter alia, a narcissistic cretin who doesn’t understand even the simple - and misleading/erroneous - data he’s been spoonfed.  

English 

• Another new word from David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: Cryptomeria - Japanese cedar/redwood.   

English/Spanish

• Three more refranes:-

- The darkest hour is before the dawn: Las cosas suelen empeorar antes de mejorar.

- The devil looks after his own: Mala hierba nunca muere.

- The die is cast: La suerte está echada.

Finally . . . 

• Rates of dementia in men have been falling around the world for 3 decades. Two of the risk factors for the condition are said to be smoking and deafness brought on by 'excessive noise'. Hmm. I'm in the wrong country for avoiding these. I wonder whether the improvement has been observed here.

THE ARTICLE

Second wave hysteria is a smokescreen for No 10's abysmal failures:  Perish the thought that Downing Street Machiavellians prefer it that way. Sherelle Jacobs, Daily Telegraph

A Prime Minister slamming the brakes on lockdown easing. The highest number of daily cases in a month. Restrictions reimposed in the North of England. A ‘major incident’ declared in Manchester as cases surge. Scientists who previously advocated herd immunity now warning pubs may have to shut. You’d be forgiven for thinking the second wave was upon us.

But probe a little further, and you realise the public is being bombarded with potentially meaningless – if not outright misleading – numbers. We are being routinely deprived of the one basic figure that would give us a much clearer picture of the state of play: the number of Covid cases being picked up, adjusted for the number of tests done over time. As such a figure takes into account the increase in the testing being conducted across the country (Leicester has ramped up testing dramatically in a short space of time for example), it would give us a much better idea of whether Covid transmission is indeed spiralling out of control.

But as Prof Carl Heneghan wrote for Oxford University’s Centre for Evidence Based Medicine on Sunday, when you adjust the rise in people testing positive for changes in testing over time, it appears that the rate of cases in healthcare settings is dropping and the rate of cases in the community is flatlining rather than rising, as widely assumed. Even this may be an exaggerated picture, he claims, as false positives risk inflating case figures.

Underlying this academic confusion is an outrageous scandal. Let's pause and take it in for a moment: more than half a year into this crisis, No 10 (and the media) is still allowing incomplete, poorly interpreted and potentially inaccurate data to be widely circulated, fuelling public hysteria.

A cynic might wonder whether premature panic suits Downing Street’s agenda on some perverse level. The public still overwhelmingly supports lockdowns as the best weapon against the virus. 49 per cent of Brits remain uncomfortable returning to a pub, according to Yougov. Polls by Opinium and Ipsos MORI show that more than half the public think the Government is relaxing the lockdown too fast, while just one in seven think lockdown is being eased too slowly. 

A Machiavellian politico might take the view that if the electorate is panicking about a second wave that is already here, then it isn’t scrutinising the Government for failing to prepare for the one potentially around the corner. Covid-19 may be subsiding but it could yet prove seasonal, striking again this winter. That is still some months away, which means No 10 has some time to get its ducks in a row. But voters aren't really picking up on this time frame. The risk is that they then have accepted that the Government has little time or room to manoeuvre to avoid a second lockdown; this could yet prove No 10's Get Out Of Jail Free card. Or perhaps this Government is genuinely just incompetent. 

Either way, the false narrative that No 10's hands are tied needs to be challenged. With hospital rates dropping, and the evidence that infections are surging still uncertain, the Government does arguably in fact have time and space to get Britain’s chaotic Covid strategy in order.

Although the roll-out of two new ‘game-changing’ 90-minute tests for whole cities and towns is welcome news, what Britain really needs is a flawless and focused testing regime to protect vulnerable groups. Instead, a pledge for routine testing in care homes this summer has been quietly abandoned. Nor has the Government explicitly committed to a timetable for routine weekly testing in the NHS. Last time, Covid ripped through hospitals with some of the country’s worst-performing NHS hospital trusts among the most badly hit; where are the emergency measures to get failing hospitals up to scratch?

So is history doomed to repeat itself if coronavirus returns for a second winter? That rather depends on whether the public is whipped into such a state of panic that, once again, it gives politicians the benefit of the doubt over their failure to avoid lockdown. 

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*

COVID 19

Early in the virus saga, a Spanish doctor forecast that, eventually, we'd all get it. She didn't, however, give a time frame and, of course, back then we had no idea that many who did so would be asymptomatic. But we did know/think that the infection rate of Covid (the R number) was high to very high. 

Surely by now, then, we'll all have come into contact with the virus, somehow, somewhere. And we should be well on our well to herd immunity. 

So, how to explain that the percentage of cases among the population is extremely low, even in those countries with high levels of testing. For example:-

Spain: Pop. 47m  Testing 143k per million. Infections: 344k. Percentage of population infected 0.7%.

Belgium: Pop. 11.6m.  Testing 174k/m. Infections 70.3k. Percentage of population infected 0.6%. 

The UK: Pop. 68m. Testing 246k/m. Infections 305.6k. Percentage of population infected 0.5% 

Sweden: Pop. 10.16m. Testing low at 80.2k/m. Infections 81k. Percentage of population infected 0.8%

The USA: Pop. 331.2m. Testing 184k/m. Infections 4,900k. Percentage of population infected 1.5%%

Deaths as a percentage of the population is even lower, of course,

Spain: 0.06% 

Belgium: 0.09% 

The UK: 0.07% 

Sweden: 0.06%

The USA: 0.05%

And deaths as a percentage of cases has steadily reduced, giving the overall rates of:-

Spain: 8%

Belgium: 14%

The UK: 15%

Sweden: 7%

The USA: 3%

As it's falling, this rate will be lower among recent/current cases. Though possibly not in the USA, where deaths are rising rapidly.

Of course, these stats (from this site) are national. There are cities where the percentages are much higher and where lockdowns might make more sense. New York for example:-

Pop. 19.5m  Testing 313k/m. Infections 445.8k. Percentage of population infected 2.3%. 

Deaths as a percentage of the population 0.17%

Deaths as a percentage of cases 7.4%

So, the questions arise: What is really going on? Have we overreacted? Will herd immunity ever be reached? Was Sweden's strategy right all along, especially if they don't experience anything like a 'second wave'? Will we have to live with this virus for at least until a vaccine comes along, if one ever does? If so, should we rely on measures less severe than lockdowns - masks, distancing and limited gatherings, for example (a la Sweden, of course)?

Or have I got the wrong end of more than one stick??

Living La Vida Loca in Spain 

• Some evidence here that, while infection rates are rising here in Spain, the death rate remains lower than ever. 
• Mink farms are a source of Covid infection, it’s reported. So, it wasn’t good to read yesterday that: Spain has 38 active mink breeding operations, most of them in northwestern Galicia.
• I’ve spoken of the efficiency/officiousness of Spain’s police in levying fines. As it’s hot, it’s time to note that one of the several (minor?) offences you’ll be done for is having your arm/elbow outside your window. And then there’s not having an extra pair of glasses in your glove compartment . . .
• Living in Galicia, this looks like an interesting novel - All This I Will Give to You, by Dolores Redondo. Investigating the death of a friend in a car crash here, a novelist is led deep into one of Spain’s most powerful and guarded families.  And, in the shadows of nobility and privilege, he  unravels a web of corruption and deception. Sounds about right.
• Meanwhile, back in the real world, I was yesterday midday assailed by a group of jolly Disney-like characters, led by a toy car loudly playing American marching tunes and a very slow rendition of Anchors Aweigh. Spooky, as Dame Edna would say.    
• I see our disgraced ex-king has finally exiled himself. Possibly. Not a huge surprise.

Finally/English  . . .

• I’m halfway through a novel set in Japan in the late 18th century, among Dutch traders there. I haven’t learned much Japanese or Dutch so far, but I have met these English words new to me:

Geomantic

Dugs

Spindrift

Snonky

To scratchiest

Prismatic (of pain)

Paulownia (wood)

To scull (cheat)

Catpurse

Finny (way)

To cark

Crimped (shanghaid?)

Langer

To scrit

To clirk

Manumission

Golem

Root-truckled

Moxibustion

It’s always a pleasure to come across new words. Assuming you can later use them. Which I’m rather doubtful of in this case. Meanwhile, I’m hoping reader Perry will either know or delve into the meanings of these . . .

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*

Living La Vida Loca in Spain 

• Last night I again ventured onto the Renfe site to buy some tickets in my daughter’s name. It wouldn’t let me do this via my account with them, so I had to go back and enter all the journey details again, plus all my personal and card details. And, when it came to having them send confirmation and PDF’s to my daughter’s phone, I had to go through the process 5 times before it worked. Is there anyone at the company who checks the usability of their site? Or cares about it?
• My favourite restaurant in Pontevedra - a Moroccan place - has risen to the top of the Tripadvisor rankings. So, I just need to say it’s now a terrible place. Please don’t go there, if you visit our fair city. Leave it to us residents to suffer there . . . 
• To my surprise, the city council’s annual guide to summer fun contains quite a lot of events. Though not our big Jazz and Blues Festival. Which, TBH, is rather more jazz than blues these days, to my disappointment. 
• María’s Chronicle Day 49: A holiness of virgins?   

The UK

• The rules are wildly confusing. And at some point people will simply shrug their shoulders and go their own way. As the message becomes more and more muddled, so confidence, and compliance, diminishes.  
• Between July 7 and 20 only one person had been fined for not self-isolating after arriving in England. A law flagrantly ignored without sanction is not a law. 

The USA

• This must have been a tough list to compile. 
• Part of a wider essay on populism in the USA: Donald Trump’s prodigious stupidity is not the sole cause of our crushing national failure to beat the coronavirus. Plenty of blame must also go to our screwed-up healthcare system, which scorns the very idea of public health and treats access to medical care as a private luxury that is rightfully available only to some. It is the healthcare system, not Trump, that routinely denies people treatment if they lack insurance; that bankrupts people for ordinary therapies; that strips people of their coverage when they lose their jobs — and millions of people are losing their jobs in this pandemic. It is the healthcare system that, when a Covid treatment finally arrives, will almost certainly charge Americans a hefty price to receive it. And that system is the way it is because organised medicine has for almost a century used the prestige of expertise to keep it that way.  . . .  American medicine is a supremely costly bureaucratic labyrinth.  See the full essay here.    

The Way of the World

• An ex of the defunct Epstein: After an experience of direct awakening at age seventeen, Shelley Lewis has been on the path of inner transformation ever since. Now as a wellness entrepreneur and inner beauty expert, living and working in NYC and London, she actively holds Sacred Space, helping clients heal from their past and envision their future.
• To my astonishment, people are paying up to £12,500 for ugly dogs such as Pomeranians, British and French bulldogs and pugs (with which it’s hard to tell which end is which). Is it any wonder there’s quite some fraud in the puppy-selling industry? 

English 

• Some of the consulant-ese (over)used by the current British government. About itself and its policies, of course:-

- World-class

- World-beating

- Best in class

- Cutting-edge

Newspeak?  

English/Spanish

• Three more refranes:-

- Spring is in the air: La primavera la sangre altera.

- The chickens have come home to roost: Aquellos polvos** traen estos lodos 

- The child is father of the man: Lo que se mama de niño dura toda la vida. [??]

Finally . . . 

• Definitely the last mention of my garden . . . 1. I cut down more than 80 shoots/suckers on the bougainvillea, one of which was more than 150cm(5 feet) long and the width of my little finger. 2. The volume of Virginia creeper I pulled off the rear wall of the house was astonishing. Though not very heavy.
•  

 * A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

** Meaning here ‘dust’, not ‘a shag’.

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'* 

Covid 19

• Food for thought . . Based on the data, there seems to be no relationship between lockdowns and lives saved. That’s remarkable, given that we know for sure that lockdowns have destroyed economies the world over.   . . .  It was pure speculation that lockdowns would suppress this virus, and that speculation was based on a hubristic presumption of the awesome power and intelligence of government managers.  . . .  Billions of lives fundamentally altered. Economies wrecked. Centuries-old traditions of liberty and law thrown out. Police states everywhere. And to what end? The data indicate it was all for naught. Apparently, you cannot control a virus with state policies. The virus just doesn’t seem to care. More here 

Living La Vida Loca in Spain 

• “Empty Spain” - The potential solutions are examined here. 
• More good news re the  mass graves of Republican victims of murderous Francoists.
• Someone has had a very different TIE application process from mine, as I described here and here recently.      
• In parts of Spain, autopistas are being taken back into public ownership and tolls abolished. Here in Galicia - and for reasons unclear - the government seems determined not only to leave ours in private ownership but also to protect the company’s interests come what may, en route to the most expensive toll road in Spain. So.  . .  The state will compensate Audasa for the fall in traffic on the AP9 caused by the pandemic. Friends in high places?
• María’s Chronicle Day 48. 

The UK

• Richard North is at his pungent best again here: I am entirely unconvinced that the government has a handle on this epidemic, or that its central management of local outbreaks is contributing anything of value.  
• See the article below on the theme of UK government (in)competence.
• According to a Guardian’s survey: ‘No one stops you': shoppers' attitudes to masks differ across UK. Some shopkeepers report wide compliance with coronavirus rules, but others say the message isn’t getting across.  While adherence to mask-wearing rules was estimated to be as low as 30% in some areas of the UK, other areas have had near-complete compliance. At least there’s consistency in The Netherlands; no one wears one, except on public transport. And the government there has just decided not to impose an obligation. In very sharp contrast with Spain, of course

The USA

• If senior Republicans really have given up on Fart, will we see the assassination I forecast years ago? 
• But, I guess, if he really does quit before the November elections, as postulated here, that won't be necessary.  
• Meanwhile, some more amusement.    

The Way of the World

• Fortunes are being made by collusion between Chinese manufacturers of counterfeit/copy products, internet influencers and 'retailers' who invest in nothing but act as (legal) middlemen. Drop shopping, it's called. Needless to say some of it is fraudulent. Who'd have thought the internet would facilitate this . . .    

English 

• An illuminating article from Effie Deans, asking a reasonable question or two.   

Finally . . . 

• Here's a surprise . . . Experts pour scorn on celebrity wines. Sommeliers have spoken out against the trend of celebrity-endorsed wines, saying it usually signifies a mass-produced product that the star in question would be unlikely to drink themselves. Can we at least look forward to one from Gwyneth Paltrow which tastes something like her frontal nether regions? To coin a phrase.
• Last mention of my garden . . . The weeds have naturally had a field day (a garden day?), especially this blighter, the Portulaca oleracea, known - I see here - as common purslane, duckweed, little hogweed, and pursley. Bloody nuisance, even if edible:-   

THE ARTICLE

Careless words could cost PM the goodwill of a long-suffering public: If the Government wants to heed the lessons of wartime, the key one is to make its message clear: Janet Daley,  The Telegraph

When this whole saga began, you may recall, Boris Johnson was very fond of war analogies. Britain had been forced into battle against a “hidden enemy” which would only be defeated by unified action and national resolve etc. Last week Matt Hancock was at it again: the country was “as close as you can get to fighting a war” which required constant vigilance and sacrifice etc.

With all these nostalgic metaphorical calls on the British Blitz spirit, you might have thought that the fundamental principles of wartime government would have been observed in regard to the use of language - which is of such huge importance in ensuring the confidence of the people in a crisis.

So what are the basic rules for a government addressing its population in a war against a foreign power which should also apply (as per Mr Johnson and Mr Hancock’s analysis) to a viral epidemic? First, there should be consistency and an appearance of agreement between all members of the government (and its official policy advisers) at all times. Second, there must be an unshakeable sense of calm clarity which is to say, an absolute prohibition on any statement that could give rise to hysteria or panic. Finally - and most important of all - there is the urgent need to maintain public morale, the collapse of which would be catastrophic: pessimism and hopelessness are the true enemies in any war effort.

It is only fair to say at the start that this pandemic has been so unpredictable in its progress that most of the established rules for dealing with health crises have been pretty useless. So I am not talking here about the practical matters of organising hospital resources or instituting testing programmes which have been largely a matter of trial and error throughout the world.

Whatever mistakes were made - or not - about lockdowns and tracking regimes will have to be debated on empirical scientific grounds sometime in the future. But political leadership is something which governments can control and on which they can be judged now.

It would have been beyond the reach of almost any politician to evaluate properly the solutions, which were at various points conflicting, being offered by the scientific experts. But where politicians should have their own expertise is in the words that they use to present their case for action. Even if they cannot control events, they can control the description of them.

The present Prime Minister is known to be less than assiduous in his command of factual detail but he has an awesome capability with language and an unrivalled understanding of its force. So there is really no excuse for the imprecision and bluster which has created confusion and despondency at best, and outright rebellion at worst.

It would take some beating to produce a statement more utterly meaningless than the sentence uttered by Mr Johnson at his briefing last Friday: “We can’t fool ourselves that we are exempt from a second wave.” What in the name of God does that mean in actual life-changing terms? Is it a cautious way of saying that we are now, at this moment, into a second wave of the virus? Or that we might be, but there is no way to be sure? Or that we are not yet in a second wave but if we persist in our dangerous habits (which until a few hours before this announcement, were acceptable) we shall be in one? And what exactly is this dreaded thing - a “second wave”? What are the criteria for determining that it has arrived? How can it be distinguished from occasional lingering flare-ups of the first wave? All of these questions are left hanging in the air.

What will remain in the minds of most people are those terrible words, “second wave” which keep being repeated wildly and loosely by almost everybody in a position to pronounce on policy, producing a vague vision of thousands more victims dying alone in overflowing hospital wards. Is that what the government wants - to scare everybody back into submission to the rules (whatever they are at the moment)?

At the time of writing this column, the only thing that can be indubitably and unquestionably stated is that there has been an increase (not a huge one) in the number of positive tests for the virus in some areas. Even to label these “new cases” is dubious because so many of those testing positive are not, in any perceptible sense, suffering from the illness. The fact that they are carrying the virus has been discovered by a vastly increased use of testing. For all we know, they may not be “new” instances of the virus at all: they may have been positive for quite a long time before random testing found them.

Again as I write, there has been no increase in hospital admissions so this rise in the number of positive tests seems not to be equated with what most people would understand by the emergence of a “second wave” of the pandemic. We have not had an increase in disease, we have had an increase in positive tests - which logically would follow from a massive increase in testing. So why bandy around this peculiarly emotive and almost indefinable term (“second wave”) when you could just speak, strictly correctly, of local recurrences? And why is there so little reference in official pronouncements to the fact that treatment of actual cases of the disease has improved so much that it has become a manageable condition for many patients? That is genuinely good news and would, presumably, affect the outcome of any future second wave.

Many people I gather are beginning to suspect that the government deliberately plays down good news for fear that we will all just throw out the rule book and run riot thus putting the NHS under threat of being overwhelmed once again. (Except, of course, that the NHS never was overwhelmed.) The populace has been, as ministers constantly acknowledge, extraordinarily forbearing through this on-again, off-again suspension of life as we know it. But - you can feel it in the air - the good will is running out.

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

 Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher house:’ A Pilgrim in Spain’*

Living La Vida Loca in Spain 

• Driving in Spain/Galicia: Yesterday’s stats, on my return from the Netherlands and Madrid:-

- To seeing a driver not trusting my signal that I was turning right - 5 minutes.

- To seeing the crazy overtaking of a learner driver on a blind bend - 10 minutes.

- To seeing an aggressive driver in a yellow car - unique to Spain? - 2 hours. (After tiffin).

• Here’s how to survive the current very high temperatures.   
• A pessimistic overview of the Spanish economy going forward, as they say. Irritatingly. 
• The recently ‘modernised’ O Burgo bridge continues to cause controversy. And not just in my house. It’s reported that a suit has been initiated against the council for covering some of the oldest stone features of the city - the steps down to the river - in ugly concrete. I featured these in a post last year, which I can’t find right now.
• My daughter in Madrid claims there's an unwritten rule in Spain that - when 2 people on the pavement are heading for a clash - it's the faster who has to give way. I can't say I've noticed this. So will check with Spanish friends.

The UK

• So, from August 8, the British police are going to get as officious in issuing virus-related fines as the Spanish police . . .  I rather doubt it.  Here in Spain, the 17 regions run their own coronavirus strategies. Some are fining anyone who's tested positive and broken quarantine arrangements, which run for at least 10 days. Their contacts may also be fined. That's the way to do it, Mr Punch.
• The Spain travel ban has little to do with health, and much to do with Brexit, says the writer of the article below. In which, for some odd reason, Pontevedra features. But not me. Sentidiño, I should add, is Galician, not Spanish. It means ‘a little common-sense’. BTW, I confess to not being convinced about this.

The USA

• At least some lifetime Republicans have finally had enough of Fart, seeing him - surprise, surprise - as being unfit for office. The scales have certainly taken their time to drop from their eyes but his latest madness about postponing the November elections has proved to be la última gota, as they say here. The final straw. Click here for a relevant article.   https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/trump-election-unfit-for-office-postponing-presidential-election/
• Maria writes of this development here. 

English/Spanish

• Three more refranes:-

- Six of one and half a dozen of the other: Es igual uno que otro.

- It's a small world: El mundo es un pañuelo.

- Sometimes the remedy is worse than the disease: El remedio puede ser peor que la enfermedad.

Finally . . . 

• My garden . . . Forgot to say:-

- Of the 3 self-propagating plants I brought from the UK last November, only one has survived the winter. But no flowers, this year at least.

- The hydrangea still only has one (pathetic) bloom

- The lemon tree is again suffering hugely from sticky leaf-curl, seemingly caused by aphids, which I'll now blast with a soap-oil mixture.

- I seem to have killed the 2nd holly tree shoot.

THE ARTICLE

Spain travel ban has little to do with health, and much to do with Brexit: Amancay Tapia, the Telegraph

There are many posters plastered all over the Rías Baixas beaches in Pontevedra, Spain, urging citizens to comply with the Covid-19 regulations. “Sentidiño” (“common sense”) reads one of them. Nonetheless, the “sentidiño” of the British government in suddenly deciding to impose a quarantine on all travellers arriving from Spain has been questioned by many. 

The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez branded the decision “unjust”, claiming that the new Covid-19 surge was specific to a few regions and that those outbreaks are being contained. CEHAT (the Spanish tourism association) has offered to pay for tourists to take tests in Spain and called the decision “illogical”. Those whose travel plans have been affected see themselves as pawns in what appears to be as much a political decision as a health one.

Wearing a face mask at all times is mandatory in Spain, even if you are able to maintain the two-metre social distancing rule. Hand-gel dispensers are everywhere and apart from a few careless youths who were caught partying in now-banned botellones (drinking alcohol in public spaces), the vast majority of Spanish respect the regulations. It is believed that the latest rise in transmission has been mainly due to social gatherings, resulting in health experts repeatedly warning people to take social distancing seriously.

Sue Wilson, the Chair of Bremain in Spain, which aims to protect the rights of Britons living in Spain, sees the UK government’s decision as a blame game. She said: “The Government should focus more time on examining their own backyard rather than blaming their European neighbours. Throughout this pandemic, they have been slow to respond and the one time they act quickly it is without thought for those affected.”

This raises the question: did geopolitics play a part in this decision? 

According to INE (the Spanish Institute for National Statistics), 18 million people from the UK visited Spain in 2019. Britons therefore make up one-fifth of foreign visitors to a country that received 83.7 million tourists last year.

These precious visitors are once again the perfect “bargaining chips” in the ongoing Brexit negotiations. There is no agreement yet on a key issue for the EU and Great Britain: fishing and access to fishing waters. Moreover, the current Spanish government may have dropped its sovereignty claim to Gibraltar, but the Rock is still trying to retain EU ties after the Brexit transition period ends. We shouldn’t forget that the future of this British Overseas Territory depends on both the UK and Spain.  

Furthermore, the British government is well aware that the millions of euros which British visitors usually contribute to the Spanish economy every year would be welcomed by any other nation in the world in a heartbeat. Even if these countries are geographically more than a two-hour flight away from the UK. The U.S. economy has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic in the second quarter of 2020. Just imagine how beneficial those 18 million British visitors could be to the North American nation. Right now, more “sentidiño” from our leaders is required. Alas, they appear intent on playing political games instead, which are seriously disrupting the everyday lives of thousands of people.

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.