“[Spain in 1986 is] a distinctly idiosyncratic [society]: a federal monarchy with a tax-paying King whose father was alive when he ascended to the throne; a welfare state in which three quarters of the jobless do not qualify for unemployment pay; a former police state where the majority of detectives belong to a trade union founded by erstwhile members of the secret police; a democracy in which the circulation of a neo-fascist newspaper has riesn sixfold; and a country dedicated to the cult of the Virgin Mary where there are a half a dozen whores for every nun.” (Hooper 1987: 268)