My experience too. They do tend to be better dressed than the locals, men always wear smart cut shorts and boat shoes etc. I suspect it's a bit of inferiority complex as many have the appearance and confidence of having money.

You quite obviously mix with the wrong crowd!

Ah, yes, just like before, when the british were, like other EU citizens, provided with an ID card in Spain. Only some of them felt that, as Europeans, they shouldn't have to do that. I'm not sure what it was they objected to, having to carry the card, having to pay a nominal fee, or having to queue at the comisaría with all those foreigners.

So now we, along with those from other EU countries, are spared the ID card nonsense, but since the replacement green sheet doesn't count as ID, we have to carry around our extortionately expensive UK passports as well.

Far easier to carry a Spanish driving licence for ID. I have only taken my passport as ID for a notary appointment apart from that I use my driving licence.

Rosemary

I also use my driving licence, which is normally 'good enough'. It's nevertheless not an entirely legal solution. But, having to drive home to get my passport and jolly green formulario is not a wonderful solution either. The problem is, that despite the size of our community (a million or so Foreign Europeans in Spain), we have no one to represent us, or speak for us, either in Madrid or in Brussels.
...and no, the Spanish authorities neither read nor care about opinions we may post in our local English language 'newspapers', forums and websites.

I have my NIE on a nice credit card sized piece of paper, which is in an old UK visitor's card plastic holder.
This along with my UK photo driving licence has been found to be adequate for most things, even at the Hacienda

however, in my car I keep a colour photocopy of my passport with the car docs
how legal all this is I will find out if/when stopped by the police.

Quite right, and it extends to local government
The Town Hall only give a toss about us just prior to an election. Thats when they appear here, thats when our roads get attention

I couldn't give a t*ss about a bit of paper and I dont feel like I'm part of a "community of foreign Europeans". Whatever that is

On one hand you say you dont want to be treated differently because you are a foreigner but on the other hand you want special representation because you are a foreigner, it makes no sense

And nothing is stopping you setting up a foreign residents lobby group, if that is what you really want

Living in Spain as you do should make you understand that "bits of paper" here are important!! Much more so than in Britain.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it the law for Spaniards, at any rate, to carry ID with them at all times, even if they only nip out to the fishmonger round the corner.
I don't live among ex pats because there aren't any to speak of where we are, but I count myself as a "foreigner" here, because I am. Cannot alter one's birth.

I dont feel foreign in Spain. To be foreign is to feel like an outsider. I feel perfectly at ease in Spain as in the UK. The only difference is that in the UK I have a Northern English accent and in Spain I have an undetermined non-Spanish one

My original but long out of date Tarjeta de Residencia has always been good enough when I needed it as well - though admittedly I have never been asked by the police for identity.

I always left the passport and green sheet at home unless going to do some official business somewhere.

Interesting. I've been here 13 years and have a Spanish partner but I am still a foreigner. It's not a problem, I am quite at ease here, but I feel different and I am treated differently.

This is particularly noticeable this week, Semana Santa, when even people who declare themselves as non-believers get swept up in the religious fervour and follow the pasos. Nobody expects me to join in, and I don't - I just don't get it!

I think in a situation like that I would feel foreign, but my wife and her immediate family are not religious in any way and dont do anything like that

I think I would feel "foreign" if I was in England and had to go morris dancing or to Xmas mass

I am very much the foreigner, I am not religious but I stand and watch all of the processions and I am included in everything including my friends taking me to the various houses to see the saints. Traditions are also explained to me so that I will understand events, they seem to swell with pride when they tell me of how some of these traditions began.

Rosemary

Well some things have moved on. Non-Catholics don't get buried feet first in the sand anymore

My residencia ran out a few years before we left. Couldn't be bothered to renew it for a bit of paper. I was paying my taxes so was ok. officially. Used it all the time, even at the Ayuntamiento. Never any problem until the last time. Sold my car 1 day before leaving. Went to Traffico with new owner to change documents and the funcionario who seemed to want every bit of paper I ever had, said he wouldn't accept it as was expired! Fortunately a Spanish friend was buying it and he really had a rant at him, told him not to be so stupid and he relented