Re: Non registered Brits
 

Let Whitehall 1212 be your friend........:eek:

Re: Non registered Brits
 

We are running a party called Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojácar in that town. The list is a mixture of Spanish and other European nationals. The party is against discrimination and corruption and is in favour of controlled growth with sufficient infrastructure.

Re: Non registered Brits
 

Hmm........don't you think that's a rather sweeping and somewhat unfair statement?
It may well have been said tongue in cheek; but judging from the majority of people on this forum, I don't think many of us fit your description.

I don't know how long you've been living in Spain, but for those of us who haven't been here all that long the most important things are finding somewhere to live and doing the initial vital paperwork.
A simultaneous necessity is to practise and improve on one's language skills, whilst finding your way around a totally new area and starting to make new friends. Once you've done that, you can start becoming part of the community that you've chosen to belong to.

I would imagine that finding out about local politics is not the top of anyone's prority list, unless that is something they feel particularly passionate about, or were very much involved in before moving here.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't be interested in what's going on around us; but I found Brititsh politics hard enough to understand after 40 years in the UK, so I'm hardly going to be completely "au fait" with Spanish politics after a year!

I don't think it's necessary to make such negative and sweeping comments about people who are trying to experience a different way of life.

Re: Non registered Brits
 

Quite agree :thumbsup: ......and also if you are just leaving the .u.k. to get away from Mr Bliar who you have had enough of :thumbdown:

Not everybody will be interested in Politics, if they weren't interested in them in their original home country they certainly will not be here, and it's far more complicated :o

There are plenty of other neccessary parts of your life that you need to get together first and then enjoy your new country :thumbup:

Re: Non registered Brits
 

I moved here in the early 1980s and I would estimate that 90% of British people I have come across from then (although, of course, at that time there was no satellite TV) to the present day fit that description and I make no apology for the post.

Re: Non registered Brits
 

Beachcomber,

I also moved here at towards the end of the 80's, and you are quite right about a lot of all nationalities I think that live on the Costa's are people who like all of today's up to-date gizmo's, nothing wrong with that.

My family on my wife's side are all Spanish, but they too and an awful lot of their friends wherever you are in Spain also like Satelitte TV and their kids like all the computer games etc

But it doesn't make them any different from you or I and that doesn't make them bad people for wanting those things :ohmy:

Chill m8 pick a few more oranges and avocadoes from your finca, then have a beer on the verandah & get ready for that paella on Friday:thumbup:

Re: Non registered Brits
 

Please excuse me for quoting one of my own posts but I posted this a few weeks ago in another thread when members were discussing the pros and cons of moving from the UK and I was wondering how many of my observations you would agree with.

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.

I firmly believe that people who moved here at that time did so for the right reasons and not because they just wanted to make it into a Little Britain in the sun.

Re: Non registered Brits
 

Thanks for your supportive comments, Big_john :) Much appreciated!

Beachcomber,

If 90% of the British people that you've met during the past 20 years fit your description, then maybe you need to widen your circle of acquaintances!! :unsure:

I don't think anything I say will change your opinion, so I won't bother trying to remove myself from your typecast notions.
Each to their own, eh...........and happy voting!

Re: Non registered Brits
 

Well I respect a lot of what you say on here Beachcomber, but somehow I feel just a little insulted by the above comment. :(

Now please don't take this the wrong way, but you seem to tar everyone with the same brush, and exhibit a sort of holier than thou stance on the subject.

I've no doubt that in those days it was much more difficult to establish yourself here, and you probably had to be very determined, but not everyone is coming over here with their shorts and sunhat seeking out the nearest Watneys Red Barrell and fish and chip shop.

Just bear in mind that, although doubtless there are those here that do as you describe (and places like Benidorm are prime examples), there are a lot of us on here that came for different reasons and don't want to change anything here. :)

Re: Non registered Brits
 

And your point is :unsure:

I first came to Spain in 1963, way way before you even thought about coming to live in Spain, but it doesn't make me a better person :o

Benidorm , San Felieu, Tossa etc were villages then and no hotels around, so what.

My wife's father was offered a lot of the land and I mean thousand's of hectares at which is now Calpe for peanut's :ohmy: .......all he could say was and what would I do with that :ohmy:

They are Spanish, and they are all the same as us, they want a good standard of living, 2 of the family were in the Guardia Civil, but so what :ohmy:

Your's is a pointless argument Beachcomber :( ......we can go on and on, but basically we all like spain and it's various atributes

Re: Non registered Brits
 

Well, all I can say is that whichever party you vote for, "nos joderan de una forma o otra". You can vote for the PP candidates and grind your teeth over their special brand of corruption, or the PSOE and do likewise, or you can vote for the Green party and no doubt be treated to yet another brand :D

All I want is that Spain remains the Spain I have always loved. Not perfect, by any means, but still a better place for me to be, than elsewhere I can think of. It's not going to happen since change is inevitable, but I'll be digging my heels in at every opportunity. ;)

Re: Non registered Brits
 

Having said that, what percentage of the Brits living in Spain are on this site, only the ones interested in getting and giving advice register here, the rest are just happy taking things as they come. It's a bit like the majority of people in the UK, they rant and rave about the things that go on, then when it comes to a general election they sit at home with their feet up and don't bother to vote. Here people are talking to the minority, and I would assume that anyone on here who is in a postition to register to vote will have done so, it's just the sort of people they are, so, you are right, people on the forum will NOT fit the description, but then again probably the majority of expats would.

Re: Non registered Brits
 

We're registered everywhere we should be... and are able to vote... and yes, we've chosen our candidate carefully.

Oh, and we like Satellite TV (although we still haven't sorted one out yet lol)... and video games (although the PS2 is gathering dust as we speak)... I speak very little Spanish (but I'm learning)... I also love Tapas, pulpo con vinagrette and Canarian potatoes (anyone wants the recipe for Canarian papas y mojo verde, then PM me), I therefore seem to be developing a backside resembling the proportions of many of the ladies my age here (no, don't PM me asking for pictures - the wide angle lens hasn't arrived yet)...

Am I normal? Actually... don't answer that!:rofl:

Re: Non registered Brits
 

Well I feel I have to say something, I am Mrs Average, and I am really upset by Beachcomer's remarks and I feel down right insulted that he is saying these things about me. As it has been said already when you first move to another country there is a hundred and one things to do and my goodness so many forms to fill in and you have to do this all with limited langage and the fact that nothing is ever achiveable in one office with one person. you have to go here there and everywhere and talk to him, her and his brother, and to top that most of us are suffering from senior year syndrome with the old grey matter a sleep most of the time.

Beachcomer things in your life meant that you were able to live your life in a place that you wanted to, most peeps are stuck in a rut and see no end to it. Yes things in UK has meant that more peeps could afford to buy aboard and yes with the EU it means more peeps can travel and hopefully have the benefits that you have been lucky enough to have for many years.

90,% I think not the thing is it only take one rotten apple to spoil the barrel, if there was a crowd of twenty peeps having a drink and two were causing trouble you would only remember the two and not the other 18 and sadly everytime you see a group you would remember that there were twenty trouble makers last time and not 18 behaved peeps and then that new group would be in included in your calculations.

Boy I'm pi&&%d, with you..........I can't type quick enought to keep up with my mouth:eek: :eek:

Re: Non registered Brits
 

My comments were quite clearly in respect of the people I have come across (I wouldn't dignify the status of the 90% with the word acquaintance) and, as far as I am aware, I have never met anyone on this forum.

Anyway, no further comment from me, I have decided to follow the advice of Jack Coleman-Levy.