Originally Posted by Mitzyboy

That is just ridiculous ... how can there be an allegro around with only 20k on the clock .........

Originally Posted by TheArmChairDetective

Ah, one of the borrowers

Originally Posted by casa del sol

.............................................the UK is not getting any better, so I will work, save hard and look forward to spending more of my time in the future in a country that is more like the uk was 30 years ago.

Originally Posted by casa del sol

Spain V England

Love both for different reasons, have just lived 6 months in Spain and have enjoyed most moments.

The fresh air.
The quality of life.
The cost of living.
The family values.
The open spaces.
The friendly neighbours.
The fresh food from the campo.
The cheap council tax.

Where we were living it is/was almost impossible to get employment so the novelty of not having to work was alright for a short time, but after a while you get to a point where it all gets sooo boring, and you need a worthwhile regular job that pays a few euros to make you feel real again. Sorry but staying at home with nothing to do but cleaning, Sky and shopping is not my style.

Back in Uk now, although not happy as,

Too much traffic
Too much building
Too many people squashed together
Too much crime
Too much tax
Too much debt
Too much Materialism
Too much CTCV

Well IMHO the UK is not getting any better, so I will work, save hard and look forward to spending more of my time in the future in a country that is more like the uk was 30 years ago.

Originally Posted by brucer

My reasons for leaving England
a)boring job, wages not keeping up with inflation
b)high council taxes more than I can afford with my meagre pension
c)increasing car tax, increasing cost of petrol
d)therefore increasing cost of food, et al
e)weather
I think thats enough to put anybody off living in england

Originally Posted by Beachcomber

When I read threads like this I often wonder if the people who are moving to Spain now would have done so in the early 1980s at a time when:

1.- Franco had died only a few years earlier.

2.- The most recent attempted coup d'etat was still very fresh in everyone's minds.

3.- Spain was not a member of the EU and there were no reciprocal rights of work, abode, health care etc.

4.- Part of the process of applying for permission to live and work here meant waiting for hours in a filthy hospital to get a blood test and a chest X-ray and obtaining a certificate from the police in your country of origin to the effect that you had no criminal record. (A requirement which, alone, would disqualify many present day incomers!)

5.- There was no satellite television or local English language radio stations the only contact with the outside world if you didn't speak Spanish being rather hit and miss reception of the BBC World Service on a short wave radio or foreign newspapers which arrived several days after their date of publication.

6.- Telephone calls to the UK cost nearly £1.50 per minute assuming you could actually find a telephone that was capable of making an international call.

7.- There were no internet fora on which to bounce around ideas and ask for help

8.- Very few Spaniards spoke English.

9.- Surfaced road were few and far between and petrol stations even more so. (I still have the map where I have a note to 'fill up here' because it was the last petrol station for 160km.)

10.- The Guardia Civil were a menacing overbearing military force wearing black patent leather hats.

11.- The National Police wore sinister brown uniforms and would shoot you as soon as look at you.

12.- The Policia Municipal (as they were called then) consisted mainly of frail old men who looked as though they would barely be able to lift their gun let alone point it in a straight line.

OK that's twelve and there are probably many more but this is not a list of reasons for not moving to Spain at that time. It is testament to the fact that I am very glad that I moved here when I did and that I at least had a few years of living in a proper foreign country rather than the bland European clone, Brit infested, concrete jungle that it has now become.

Originally Posted by kpw4v

And you live where?

Wigan versus Spain!

What a stupid comparison. Wigan versus some town of 300,000 people in Spain, then bring the debate on. Wigan versus some some town in Spain that has dragged itself up by its bootstraps from the ravages of 500 years of coal mining then bring it on.

This was I thought a good open honest well debated thread, but unfortunately brought down to a level of inane drivel by a smarmy comment that adds nothing to the debate.

Kevin

Originally Posted by Big Pete

Wigan or the warm clear seas and soft sandy beaches that are so fine , you feel them squidge between your toes hmmmmmmm yea got to be Wigan anytime

Originally Posted by leighbloke

But you could set up a franchise on Wigan pier? and just think of all them pies!!

Wigan is actually pretty well sited, it's the last town in the manchester sprawl going north and its more or less nowt but countryside from there to Glasgow.
It makes the peak district seem like a town park.

Originally Posted by Big Pete

Nah way to cold up north for me and i dont understand a lot of what they say

Countryside gets boring i am a sea person Lived in countryside last 20 years , birds are to noisy and every winter get swamped with a million dead leaves

Originally Posted by Big Pete

Nah way to cold up north for me and i dont understand a lot of what they say

Countryside gets boring i am a sea person Lived in countryside last 20 years , birds are to noisy and every winter get swamped with a million dead leaves

Originally Posted by Mitzyboy

You're such a fussy git
God knows how you'll cope with Spain

Originally Posted by Deb B

I have been living in Spain for 3 years and although its not as easy as people think, espacially if you have to earn a living, I cannot think of one good reason why I would want to go back. Saying that its going to rain here for the next week so it feels a little like England right now.