Dick Dasterdly

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/05/17/...90_283594.html

"King Carlos bows to Austerity and gives up his Yacht."


Pardon my cynicism but I think his sailing days are probably over anyway.

Also I wonder if the fact that his popularity is at an all time low could in any way remotely have influenced his decision ?

Still an honourable gesture in any event.

It was his third yacht and a present from a group of businessmen and the PP Govt in the Balearics, supposedly to boost the tourist industry..........

Lynn R

I wonder if he'll cry like Lizzie Windsor did when the Royal Yacht Britannia went? One of the very few occasions when she's been seen to display any genuine emotion in public - apart from when one of her horses wins!

Domino

a bit like Prescott who went to the Seychelles diving to improve business and relationships ??

supposedly worth £18million, it is 13 years old and probably needs an expensive refit.
so he has given it to the nation and the government to do with as they see fit - so the nation can pick up the cost of that refit ??
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/46...ht-fortuna.htm
mind you he sends his wife on low cost flights and isn't fit enough to walk up/down the gangplank
old age and infirmity comes to us all at some point

Dick Dasterdly

Still he hasn't done too badly, getting through 3 luxury yachts in less time that Liz has been stuck with her ancient rust bucket.

Domino

ISTR she didn't own "hers", which was held on the books as dual use as a hospital ship
and always refused the offers of certain groups of business leaders to buy her one

Dick Dasterdly

Good old Liz.

Never heard of her old man trotting off on an elephant hunting safari either.

Domino

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fodeeroy/6459108861/

The Presidential Yacht of Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. After a coup in the country ousted the president , the new governers cancelled the order as 'excessive' at £5M. She had solid gold taps on the numerous baths.
Eventually taken on by the RN, refitted and renamed HMS Mermaid. Later transferred to Malaysia where she is still in their training squadron.

Domino

no, he never used the "safari" excuse, but seemed to have one or two others

Dick Dasterdly

Bet the first thing they did was weigh-in the gold taps otherwise I couldn't see them being around to long.
Quite a few Scousers in the Navy, I've heard tell.

Dick Dasterdly

Closest thing we have left to a decent stand-up comedian.

rugbymatt

Unlikely to happen given the charity he helped set up though eh?

Dick Dasterdly

Another sign of the times.

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/05/21/...15_570067.html

.....but good news at least for 5000 young Spaniards each year,

.....as long as they are happy to move to Germany.

Lynn R

A great many of their fathers and grandfathers did, I've met so many older people here who tell me they worked for 30 or 40 years there, or France, or Switzerland, then came back here to retire. The old couple we bought our house from had worked most of their lives in France, and the old man who owns the house across the street told me he'd been 30-odd years in Germany before he'd bought the place.

This agreement sounds like European co-operation at its best.

Dick Dasterdly

I imagine many of those older ones were refugees and descendants from the civil war especially at the very end when many republicans crossed the French border fearing for their future under Franco in Spain.

Hopefully the younger ones leaving will be able to adapt to the very contrasting culture between Germany and Spain.

Lynn R

I don't think the ones I've spoken to go that far back, they range from people in their '50s to their '80s (the older ones having been back in Spain since they reached retirement age). It was work they were looking for, and much like people from the poorer areas of the UK who go South looking for work, the Andalucians went North, some only got as far as Madrid or Barcelona (a fair number of my neighbours have come back home from those places too) but a lot went further afield. The chap whose house we bought was a chauffeur for a French industrialist, and I've met lorry drivers, factory workers, builders, all kinds of jobs. One guy we got chatting to one day told us how much his pension was per month from working abroad, it was enough for him to live like a King here, as he said. A Spanish friend of mine who is just 50 went to Switzerland with her parents when she was 10, when they moved so her father could get a job, and just returned here 3 years ago when her husband retired. She is fluent in 4 languages (Spanish of course, plus German, Italian and French), puts me to shame.