I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that the Sunday Business section of the left-of-centre El País had weighed into the socialist government around its (mis)management of both the boom and the bust. Well, the paper returned to the charge yesterday and essentially accused the government of serial incompetence. It’s commonplace here to suggest that the right-of-centre paper, El Mundo, regularly attacks the Leader of the conservative Opposition because it favours a more right-wing candidate (Esperanza Aguirre, Presidenta of Madrid) but I don’t recall reading that the media empire behind El País favours someone other than Señor Zapatero as President. Charles Butler comments on the development here and repeats his prediction that Señor Z. will not serve out this term of office. Interesting times.

I don’t know if I’m just emerging from a case of swine flu but I certainly hope so. For I’ve just read today that a bout of normal – ‘seasonal’ – flu affords no immunity at all against either the bird or the porcine variety. This is because of the new non-human elements, which account for its rapid spread. The upshot of this is that, if I’ve only had normal flu, then I could well be laid low again with swine flu within a matter of weeks. Days even. Which is a nice prospect. But, hey, I’ve lost some surplus weight. And I’m not dead. Why, I can even almost walk upstairs without breaking sweat.

When I was 18 and doing Voluntary Service in the Seychelles – well, someone had to – I learnt to strum a few songs on a cheap guitar. One of them was a sad ditty about an unmarried woman, called Take Her Out of Pity, by the Kingston Trio. Which is as painful as it sounds. I hadn’t heard it for more than 40 years when it came on Spanish radio tonight, rendering me very nostalgic and melancholic. Which I attribute to the blasted flu. And since I’m too weak to be creative, here it is . . .

I had a sister Sally, she was younger than I am.
Had so many sweethearts, she had to deny them.
But as for sister Sarah, you know she hasn't many.
And if you knew her heart, she'd be grateful for any.

Chorus:
Come a lands man, a pins man, a tinker or a tailor;
A doctor, a lawyer, soldier, or sailor.
A rich man, a poor man, a fool or a witty,
don't let her die an old maid but take her out of pity.

I had a sister Sally, she was ugly and misshapen.
By the time she was sixteen years old she was taken.
By the time she was eighteen, a son and a daughter.
Sarah's almost twenty-nine, never had an offer.
(Chorus)

She never would be scoldin'. She never would be jealous.
Her husband would have money to go to the alehouse.
He'd be there a-spendin'. She'd be home a-savin' and
I leave it up to you if she is not worth havin'.
(Chorus)