Some historical advice from an Irish perspective for Esperanza Aguirre on the pitfalls of attempting to demonstrate by symbolic means the virile and libertarian spirit of Madrid in the invented and regrettable conflict between it and doldrummed Barcelona.

In response to confusion in the markets re Spain’s constitutional arrangements and the size and distribution of its public debt, kaleBirthday has, remarkably, gained the consent of the Catalan, Spanish and EU administrations to conduct a binding poll on the future of the troubled region. Vote now or forever hold your peace.

A Google Maps/Le Figaro mashup.

The precedents for, and some possible implications of, the Catalanisation of Barcelona’s cinemas. Plus some crowd-pleasing video of the Quebec language police in action. (Allez! Allez! Allez! And the hell with the economy!) All in somewhat fevered response to an article by Martin Dahms in the Tages-Anzeiger.

How would you describe the relationship of the Slav Francisco with his mother?

Scratch a libertarian and you’ll discover a totalitarian, so keep scratching.

Wait, let me check that.

One of Spanish nationalism’s numerous Achilles heels.

It’s not what you steal, it’s the way that you steal it.

The British establishment doesn’t give a rat’s arse what he thinks.

What do ghit ratios from La Vanguardia, El Periodico, El País, ADN, ABC, El Mundo, Público, and Levante tell us about their owners’ priorities?

(Even if they can’t make a decent paella.)

Nominations for the noblest British fighter in a Spanish war, and speculative revisions of the history of two idiot idioms.

Xenophobic atavism in the 1640 Reapers Revolt.

Link love for 01/06/2009.

Some corner of a foreign football pitch that is for ever Bilbao, and I hope they got fed afterwards:

The original strikes me as thoroughly Teutonic:

Let’s not kid ourselves any longer: everything interesting, from nachos to nationalism, was invented by the Germans. Fortunately they tend to be generous about using the proceeds to mitigate the resulting [...]

But is the prevailing Spanish refusal to distinguish racism from multiculturalism actually more sensible than the Anglocabrón approach?

But of what?

A fascinating ethnic map of 1920 Paris, and the suggestion that the metropolis was colonised by the provinces rather than vice versa.

If the UK’s worse hit than Spain, how come there’s less fear in the markets of it defaulting on its sovereign debt?