The main action in Iberia round about this time of year goes down on the Costas. Even the most earnest of investment bankers heads for the hills or the beaches, knowing all too well that even with the best will in the world - or bonus in the offing - there's nothing to be done in the city in August. 'Spain is different,' as the president's favourite phrase goes, and August is clearly not a month for work in Spain.

But this time round the impossible has happened - work is being done in August. Stock market officials have had to return from the seaside, judges have been called back from their jaunts, the inland revenue has been hard at work, even the government has been seen to put in a day or two's work in the capital. The biggest political and financial scandal in recent history is pouring out from court room number 1 in Madrid's Audiencia Nacional.