I take back what I said recently about Christmas not arriving until December in Spain. I ventured into some shops today and found it had already arrived in all of them. Worse, the town idiot – clearly being ‘cared for in the community’ – has taken to wearing his Santa Claus hat.

I see someone’s taken the trouble to have my blogs automatically translated into Spanish by Google’s computer. I’m touched. Mind you, the translation leaves something to be desired. It’s not only Word’s spellcheck that has difficulty with curmudgeonly.

One of the best bits of news about Spain in 2004 is that the threat from the Basque terrorist group, ETA, appears to have been reduced to almost zero. The main reason is that, since the New York tragedy of 9/11, France has destroyed the bases from which ETA operated across the border. This raises two questions – 1. Why did it take France 40 years or so to do this? and 2. Why did the Irish government never get round to it with the IRA? So much for partnership within the EU.

And here’s another question – What is it about the British flag that persuades young people to wear clothes composed partially or even totally of it. Ignorance?