The Santiago train crash; Caliphate atrocities; Sign success; & House insurance.

It's a year since 80 people lost their lives in a train crash close to Santiago. It's now accepted that the driver's distraction by a phone call was only the proximate cause and that there was contributory negligence on the part of politicians and rail company executives. That said, none of the latter have cooperated with the investigating judge and all look like getting off scott free. Victims and heros were scheduled to receive medals tomorrow but many have refused, seeing the ceremony as political exploitation. Who could blame them? Anyway, here's the BBC's report.

The man who would be Caliph has ordered that all women and girls over 10 in Mosul undergo genital mutilation. Or ablacion, as it's euphemistically called in Spain. ISIS has also trumpeted its intention to take back El Andalus from Spain. It takes something to be more extreme than Al Qu'eda. Cue condemnation from around the Muslim world. Maybe.

Well, the huge For Sale sign on my neighbour's gate must have done its work at the speed of light. For now it's tacked up on the wall of another neighbour. I'm discounting the possibility that one family was daft enough to buy not just one but two expensive houses at the height of the boom.

Finally . . . I'm reviewing my house insurance policy. Happily, I've started to do this - by chance - more than 2 months before the expiry of my current policy. For, if you don't, you'll run into all sorts of problems, under regulations that don't seem to have been drafted in the interests of consumers. See here for all the details.