Madrid Teacher

After an argument with R last night over which was the biggest empire, the British, French or Spanish (we left aside the nicer issues of how bad imperialism is! well we had drank a bottle and half of white wine and watched a film chronicaling the love story between Josephine and Napoleon), and discussed whether Gibralter shoud be British or Spanish, I went to bed thinking about patriotism, the monarchy and other old duffer stuff. In fact I am reading a book about the decline of the Windsors which is interesting but not really relevant as I don´t think that they will ever go. I am bi-monarchist I think they do some good however I do have issues with how they seem to carry out their personal lives while spending our money. But I do believe that in Spain the monarchy is necessary, at least until the "historical nations" as the comminities label themselves nowadays, finally decide on where they see themselves in relation to Spain and Europe (personally I hope it stays as one state but that is the Hobbesian in me).
It seems that the country could split into different states, many of the nationalist parties do quite well, even here in Madrid you see grafitti stating "Madrid es Castilla" a geeky variation on I woz ere. I think that the monarchy here is a centrifugal holding the state together. Also the Queen of Spain does a wonderful job and she does appear to care about people. However, after reflecting on my thoughts last night when I awoke with hangover, bad breath and after taking Nova for her absolutions I decided to listen to a bit of the Mikado. There is nothing like a bit of Gilbert and Sullivan to bring out the patriot and you don´t have to be a scoundrel to take refuge in listening to Yum Yum.