It seems that a bidding war has broken out for Paul the prescient octopus. As one octopus looks much like another to me, I trust the winner is prepared to invest in some DNA testing before handing over the cash.

Well, President Zapatero’s handling of the Spanish economy may not have been exemplary but at least, as a good socialist, his heart’s in the right place. He announced yesterday, at the end of the State of the Nation debate in parliament, that his government intends to put an end to the pages and pages of ads for whores and brothels at the back of most Spanish newspapers. Well, we will see. It’s possible the measure will be muscled out by even more important matters, now that the good times are well and truly over. And bad times forecast to get even worse.

Incidentally, the public is reported to have made the leader of the Opposition the victor in his personal battle with Sr Zapatero in this debate. But only just. Which is hardly impressive, given that the Opposition has an eight percentage points lead over the government in the polls. But then, hard as this is to believe, the personal rating of the said Opposition leader is even lower than that of the President. I guess the PP party would get rid of him immediately if there really were a sensible alternative.

After Spain had lost their first match in the World Cup to Switzerland, a wave of pessimism seemed to sweep over the country. Only to be replaced by an equally extreme sense of optimism and confidence just before the final with Germany. I was reminded of this when reading of national mood swings in this interesting article in today’s El País. The writer makes the point that Spain had excellent growth before the introduction of the euro ushered in the phoney construction boom that peaked in 2007. There is much to be proud of, she asserts, and the Spanish should not be as pessimistic and as self-flagellatory as they are. Well, maybe, but as even she admits, the widespread corruption of the last ten years has left them justifiably sceptical that their political class has the solutions to Spain’s deep problems. Which, I guess, is why the personal ratings of both major party leaders are so low.

Meanwhile, though, and at a macro level, Spain is having no difficulty in selling debt to the Chinese and to sovereign funds in Arab countries. I can’t help wondering whether the latter, recognising there’s no other way of restoring Al-Ándalus, are planning on getting the country back by buying it in a fire sale.

Finally . . . Are these tiny steps in the direction of real customer orientation? For the first time in eighteen months or so, my electricity supplier didn’t overestimate my usage last month and charge me accordingly. And my water company hasn’t increased its fixed costs this year but, instead, has raised the unit cost of a cubic litre of water for amounts above a certain level. Finally I’m not subsidising people who use ten times more than me. Or not as much as I have been anyway. Of course, I only know this because I have the time and inclination to study my bills. Spanish companies don't often write to their customers, either with good news or bad news. Not that there's ever a lot of the former.