It’s not a well known fact but Spanish naval vessels are designed with glass bottoms so that their new navy can see their old navy.

Elsewhere, in parochial but marginally interesting news for political junkies, the rightist Spanish opposition party Partido Popular has just opened a fully fledged branch of the organisation in London. The first congress of the PPE-UK took place in London last weekend.

TheEye’s invitation was lost in the post, it seems.

Until recently the Conservatives have l0oked after Spanish expat Tories from London via ConservativesAbroad and the PP have represented their 500-ish UK members from Madrid. Now both parties have got full local branches. The PP are offering golf tournaments and wine-tasting for members and anyone stupid enough to be interested. Speaking the lingo is probably required though. Arm-waving won’t cut it. Especially if holding a golf club at the time.

There are 1.5 million Spanish nationals living abroad, mostly in Argentina. 50,000 are in the UK, which compares to about 1 million who have gone the other way to the Costas to live in the sun.

They, of course, get to avoid the “one-eyed Scottish idiot”. And that’s the main thrust of this post…two centre-right EU opposition parties are stepping up contacts in advance of General Elections which they both have a great chance of winning.

From Sr. Oleo, the PPE-UK spokesbloke: “Broadly speaking, the Partido Popular shares the same political ideology as the Conservative party in the UK. The PP think tank FAES, which is led by former Spanish president Jose Maria Aznar, is associated with many of the British think tanks associated to the Conservative Party.” Miguel is staying strictly non-partisan, it seems.

On the plus side the PP actively canvassed for Boris, but they also aren’t fans of Gib, so it’s a 50/50 result. Still, they are better than the other mob.