Reminds me of how my childhood memories were shattered when I returned to Blackpool as an adult to find that a pleasant family resort it was no longer.

I stopped off at quite a few places along the Brava coast, many of them quite pleasant. I was looking for a base on the peninsula at the time but looking back I'm pleased to have chosen somewhere further south.

To get back to the pain in Spain,I get the impression from local TV reports that crime is on the increase around here with everything from petty minor thefts to one gang that lifted more than 200 tons of oranges out of a plantation. A similar theft occured last year on not quite such a large scale and the cops caught the Rumanian gang who were responsible.
It's a bit tough on the local farmers many of whom have already lost a fair bit of money in recent years.
I mean someone helping themselves to half a carrier bag is one thing,but over 200 tons a time is serious business.

Unfortunately it seems that Spain is THE place for organized criminal gangs... Rumanians and Colombians to name the main ones... but really from anywhere.

When times are hard crime blossoms

The crime gangs are nothing to do with hard times

They are prevalent in Spain because when Franco died crime was at very low levels in Spain and there was no organised crime (well excluding Franco's government, he'd killed, imprisoned or deported the rest)

So there was a gap in the market that was filled by foreign gangs as soon as the borders were opened up

Funnily, with British criminals in the CDS

yes, it keeps happening to me. Memories are all of the broad streets, the shiny surfaces, the bright lights.
Go back, its narrow streets, the graffitti, the dirty dusty surfaces, the lights don't all work.
First noticed it when I came back home after a year out the far east. Only 18 but it all seemed so dull, narrow, parochial, after all the sights I had seen. Regrettably some of the people were the same as well.

As the uk doesn't have oranges they seem quite happy to steal a flock or two of sheep. As with the oranges it has to be organised as transport has to be there along with the labour. I wonder how many christmas trees will be stolen this year. Last year at this time manned security for plantations was a growth business.
Nothing is sacred anymore.

Ah, Christmas trees. I planted quite a lot in 73, for those who remember there was a big campaign, plant a tree in 73, plant some more in 74 keep em alive in 75, chop em up for sticks,........

Anyway they were simply part of mixed plantations, partly to break up the bleak landscape and also as shelter belts for the livestock.
As soon as they got up to a metre or so they started disappearing. I thought when they got up to 2.5 meters or so they'd be safe, but no the tea leaves kept on coming and simply chopped off the top half leaving sad looking stumps behind.
At least I had some good sport, hiding in amongst them and scaring the crap out of some of the thieves,catching them red handed in the black dark.

I also had a few sheep and cattle rustling problems about the same time, but I don't think it's quite so bad now with the more recent ID systems.

My home village like many others did go downhill for quite a while, however in recent years things have improved a lot, very little crime, much cleaner, friendly folk (though thats always been the case) and lovely walking areas.
Also we thought all the pubs were finished, but now two of them have re-opened, so all in all it's quite a pleasure going back there now.

One good thing about the consumer society, its not worth breaking into a house to steal a DVD player as they are only £14.95 to buy in Argos and you couldn't stick my Sony 60" telly up your jumper

I recently read a book about Harry Patch, the last WW1 Tommy who mentioned the crime rise after WW1, then in WW2 he had various jobs but said people were hard up and if something wasn't nailed down it got nicked.

I suspect these days there is a lot of opportunist theft by many folk who would not in 'normal' times entertain the idea.

Organised crime is just that, organised (well) these days it appears, I've no idea how 'they' will deal with it; I can only see it getting worse.

normal housebreakers are not there for the DVD player or the DVD's to play on it - they are there to take them down the road to get a couple of £'s from secondhand dealers to fund the drug habit.
and if someone had a mate out with him doing the next house they would carry your 60" tele between them and split the money
the "home" these people go back to are rarely more than 4 walls and a bed on the floor.

the police suggest having items postcoded but the s/h dealers very rarely check items with a uv light

organised crime is actually lots of littel criminals going what they can do, sometimes very well, just they operate under "licence" to someone for working a particular area.
thats how some get to CDS (and other places). Never worked, no pension, but the money keeps coming in tax free.

The Spanish police have kept organised crime pretty well under control, after a long struggle with criminal gangs coming to Spain from all over the place.

I’m going to be slightly facetious to short-cut a possibly long discussion. The gangs have gone home because there’s f’uck-all left to steal in Spain.

I'd have to agree. There isn't nearly the level of organised crime in Spain like there used to be only 5 years ago. Obviously there is still a lot of fraud going on in commercial business, but most of it is "legal" fraud. They rip you off because they can.

Today the bigger criminals are the utility companies and any private businesses who you are forced to do business with.

There is still a lot of organised gangs on the CDS although a few have been busted this year. There has also been a few murders which the police call "settling of accounts"

Sadly that is true.
I don't know how bad it is in Spain but the sheer greed of these ppl. in the UK is simply shocking.

Companies which are not even British, given licence to control major aspects of our every day lives and pass on millions to their directors, whilst old folk are struggling to pay their exorbitant prices to keep themselves warm.

I don't understand the reasoning behind the privatisation of utility companies or why stricter controls are not enforced, but the supposedly intended competitive aspect is a sick joke and appears to be pretty well widespread practice throughout Europe.

The policy has been adopted by Socialist as well as Right wing govts and the last UK Socialist govt seemed happy enough not only to allow this unjustified profiteering to continue but actually added to it.

Absolutely. Gas, electricity and water should be government companies without a doubt.

It was the privatisation of utilities companies that helped cause the mini-revolutions of Venezuela and Boliva

Since UK are cutting themselves off from the rest of Europe lets see if they now expel the foreign banks and utilities companies that have set up there Chavez style

It's much the same in Spain.

My water/basura bill is well over 500 Euros every 3 months. From Jan it will go up by 10% and there is nothing whatsoever I can do about it.

For info; the local company was set up by the PSOE and is owned by the local councils.

See this