Here's my take on the Obama beatification. Except it isn't. It's the always-excellent Matthew Parris, writing today in The Times. But I could have written it. Honest.

I think I can say without fear of contradiction that The Economist's latest diagnosis of Spain is not on any Pontevedra news-stand and is unlikely to appear on one in the week ahead. Which is a shame. Vigo, perhaps. Or maybe La Coruña or Santiago.

So the Scottish Nationalists failed to win a bye-election that everyone expected them to walk away with this week. Hardly surprising really, given how obvious it is that Scotland's two major banks would have gone under without help from the British exchequer. Meaning English taxpayers, of course. As I've long said, the Scots were always going to be far too canny to vote for the cold world of independence. Even less so now. So maybe we've seen the peak of nationalism north of the border. But we'll know for sure after the 2010 general elections.

Talking of would-be independent nations, it's reported today that the authorities in the Basque Country have taken to buying juvenile Moroccan immigrants a one-way ticket to La Coruña and putting them on the bus to Galicia. How's that for solidarity?

Galicia

A friend tells me that the radar machine I mentioned yesterday has long been the most revenue-productive in the whole of Spain. And that it may recently have been switched off as being a contributory factor to a high accident rate on the relevant stretch. However, neither of us is going to test things by hurtling past at 80.

My town-house in Poio is one end of a block of four. I mention this because the same friend tells me that he was giving an English lesson in the house at the other end this week and was told that they, too, suffer from Tony's bawling. But, being two houses away, not quite as much as me, of course.

As I write this, Everton have scored 3 goals in the last 5 or 6 minutes of their game with West Ham. What a good birthday present. Even if it's a few hours early. But not as good as the prospect of Tony departing tonight for six weeks at sea.