Social Policy and Equality/No-one Homeless

Ambling slowly to get my bearings today, I still covered a lot of ground: the elegant Plaza Mayor; the Mercado San Miguel where I could sit for a year and eat tapas (just look at how beautifully they bottle their olives - extra 1); the cathedral which seems to be uncertain whether it is old or new, the Temple of Debod, definitely old, donated by the Egyptian government in thanks for Spain helping to build the Aswan dam which would have drowned it had it not been taken down stone by numbered stone and re-erected on a hill in Madrid. 

Along the way I stopped to watch a bunch of soldiers bicker over the best way to take down an awning frame - highly entertaining lack of competence and organisation (extra 2). I walked along Gran Via - a splendid example of how very different buildings can make up a coherent whole - to Puerta del Sol and the streets around (extra 3), then along Caller Huertas to the Prado where I spent 90 minutes with Velazquez, Goya, Rembrandt (briefly) and Durer. If I'd planned all that beforehand I'd never have managed it, but my feet took me there at the rate they wanted to go, and stopped me for rests along the way on shady benches.

After the Prado I went to talk with the people around an encampment of small green tents which have been tidily erected in a small park immediately opposite the Ministry of Health, Social Policy and Equality. Or, rather, to listen to them. They are homeless people campaigning for the right to security and a home and I was taken aback to learn that of the 120 people who have been camping there since April, four are pregnant women and four are children.