Ponters Pensées: 26.7.16

Spain and the EU: Given the tsunami of cash in this direction in the last 40 years, you can easily understand why the Spanish regard the institution with affection. And then there's the fact that Brussels condemns their corrupt Establishment for things such as the ludicrously inadequate investigation into the Santiago rail crash of 2013. Not that this changes much, of course.

Richard Ford on Spain: Anyone with a real interest in Spain must read the wonderfully-written commentaries of this English author of the early 19th century. He's astonishingly caustic at times but clearly a great lover of the Spanish people. Despite sometimes (always?) having the blackest of hearts, he writes like an angel. Try his Gatherings From Spain (free ebook), if you can't afford his Handbook for Travellers in Spain. His publishers originally declined to release the first draft of this, so nasty was it in parts. Having read bits of a later edition, one can only imagine what this must have been like!

The EU and Brexit: This is a podcast which perfectly encapsulates both my view of the last 25 years and of now. I'm a tad biased but I think everyone who supports the EU and opposes Brexit should be forced to listen to it. Daily.

Galician Highways: Well, they've waited a mere 13 years for it - almost as long as the rest of us in the region have waited for the overdue AVE high-speed train - but the residents of the charmingly-named Coast of Death now have their 26km bit of the A552, between Baio and Carballo. Eventually, this will be connected with other bits of this highway. But no one believes the official forecasts of when this will be, of course. Cosas de España.

Talking of Galician highways . . .

The Infamous AP9: I knew this Audasa-owned road was one of the most expensive in Spain - it doubles your fuel cost from, say, Pontevedra to La Coruña - but I hadn't realised Vigo is the only large city in Spain which doesn't have a free ring-road. Truly a licence to print money. Which Audasa is now aiming to get a lump sum for. There's no shortage of prospective buyers, of course.

Finally . . . . Keeping Secrets from Your Partner: Would you hide details of your finances from your partner? Here's the percentage who said Yes to this question in a few countries:-

Spain: 26%

The EU average: 31%

The USA: 32%

France: 50%. The highest by some way.

As for me, the percentage was 0% when I was a young man. Now that I've been through an expensive divorce, this might just be at the other pole, if I were ever to live with another woman . . .

GALLERY

A cartoon I recently enjoyed  . . . and shared with visitors from Norway:-