Dawn

Dawn

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Mr Sarkozy and Mrs Merkel met yesterday and gave us one of the more amusing photos of the year – a rear view of the pair of them walking up a cobbled hill in a French town, with Mr S’s lifts clearly visible. Perhaps ‘stumbling’ would be a better word in his case.

The purchase of 30% of the Spanish energy company, Repsol, by the Russian company, Lukoil, gets curiouser and curiouser. Now we’re told the troubled construction company that bought the shares two years ago effectively got government assistance to do so. One wonders why.

If you’re thinking of moving to the UK and so need to know whatever ‘Britishness’ might be, the book cited here should help. Or you could just buy it just for a laugh.

What was I saying about it being increasingly hard to accept incidents of inebriated police officers when they’re enforcing ever-stricter laws? We’ve also got a report in today’s papers about a judge in Cataluña physically threatening the police who stopped him for drunken driving? Where will it stop? The President being done for murderous road rage?

I would quote the latest figures on the construction sector here but they’re just too depressing to repeat. The OECD now says Spain will be the second worst performing economy in Europe in the near term, with only the UK getting a worse rating. The difference, of course, is that Britain has the option of letting its currency fall so as to stimulate exports. In theory at least. Freefall, though, is not generally regarded as a positive.

Galicia

Pontevedra’s council has issued an incomprehensible map of all the changes being made to the city’s serpentine one-way traffic system. Should be good for raising revenue from confused drivers going down a street in a direction that was legal yesterday but ain’t today. Especially as it will be a while before they change all the arrows on the roads.

Some killjoy Nationalist politician has asked for an enquiry as whether our annual bullfights receive illegal subsidies. Surely not.

If you’re going to Vigo, don’t go out of your way to visit the new A Laxe shopping centre down near the seafront. It’s a remarkably ugly building that’s even worse on the inside. The people responsible for it – who may have previously built flat blocks in East Berlin during the 60s – should be machine-gunned. But probably won’t be.

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