How should we feel

As a package, Spain beats UK hands down (& "luxury" life In Thailand beats both !) !!

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

Hahahahahahahahahaha  and out of the woodwork comes someone else using 2 id’s on the site.    How every unusual. 

Ocelots are passive mobs that normally spawn in Jungle biomes.  I am a fake leopard (would never wear real fur) that lives in leafy surrey;  not a chav in site in leafy Surrey.   A regular with no back-bone,   and an isp that’s the same as another members!  Interesting you say you rarely comment, twice to be exact in the same day you join the site; the second time being more of an immaterial observation.

I would suggest you tread carefully my friend as ios will ban you if you’re not careful.  Just grow some and use your usual handle, coward.  Such silly behaviour.

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

Perhaps I have an old fashioned attitude in that I ADMIRE  people who do well (ie as opposed to resenting them !!)

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

** EDITED - Against forum rules **

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

I really am laughing here - your corrections are hysterical, obviously a male who works for the word police, but you can't seem to spell pretentious!   A demotion may be in order lol.  And there is that word "DRIVEL"  haven't we all heard that word used here before???????????  Georgia here is a big clue to your threatening emailer.  Trolls are not very bright people, it's all in the detail everytime.

Don't bother replying I am away now for the holidays, ** EDITED - Against forum rules ** - you have given me a good laugh though.

FELIZ NAVIDAD TO EVERYONE

 

This message was last edited by Foxilady on 23/12/2012.

This message was last edited by Foxilady on 23/12/2012.

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

 Arguing over the virtues of Benidorm over Madrid is way off the problem of Spains continuing economic decline.

The problem stems partly from the fact that the spanish could not organise a p...up in a brewery.

I live on a large urbanisation of some 7000 people but the council are now some 12 years late in issuing our certificates of habitation and so the vast majority are not paying their taxes, IBI etc. Can you blame them.

If you go into the village most of the local shops can't be bothered to serve you so we stick with the English shops on our urbanisation or hop onlin with Amazon or Ebay.

None of this helps the spanish economy.

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

Roly - I agree with you about Madrid being expensive, but I have a tiny insight into how people can afford to live there. I went on an intensive advanced language course in Madrid in 2010, and opted for the Family Stay. The couple I was with had a truly tiny flat - they had to fold up the dining table in the lounge to reach their miniscule balcony. He had a fulltime job as a maintenance manager for a large office block, she was a fulltime school administrator. On top of that they took foreign students for about 46 weeks a year to make ends meet! I have to say the food they gave me was very cheap, and small portions. Not a problem for me but I could see that they didn't really eat well themselves. I got into the habit of getting a decent lunch out, so just had breakfast and dinner (snack) with them. I should add the conversation practice was great!

They lived in a residential area about 30mins on the tube away from the centre. A huge block with a fairly small garden. As a comparison, it was like a slightly-improved ex-council block in the UK. Well-educated (he was excellent on grammar) but clearly struggling financially. Interestingly, they were quite snobbish and thought everyone in Andalucia was a poor peasant!!!

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

 I think there are fools everywhere and Spain is no different but one of the main problems Spain had and still has are its autonomous governments. This sytem although some say has worked fairly well, I think has been the fall down of Spain. So many uneducated people with influences and "friends" have been managing banks and hundreds of millions of euros for just too long. It was obviously far too tempting to have so much money so easily available. Also having the power to legislate over land usage was Spain's biggest error. How can a local government or council determine if land can be urban, industrial or rural? It is one of the most attractive powers to have and it was handed over to a bunch of bafoons and money hungry thieves, all over the country. That is something that should be controlled by central government and have a strict supervision, it is just opening the door to corruption and that is exactly what happened. The malaya case in Marbella was a perfect example and there are similar cases all over Spain, I mean how is it possible that someone who works for a local council can affors to hang a Miró in his bathroom above a the jacuzzi and have assets valued over a billion euros attached to him. No one saw this coming? Castellon airport is another great example, I am sure in the near future we'll here more about that one! Billions and billions of euros have been stolen from the people of Spain and the black market in Spain was and still is enormous. The fact that 80% of the IBEX 35 have accounts in tax havens doesn't help much either. Why a few are moving billions out of the economy and away from Spain, Joe Blogs has to pay up and make up for the losses. That is one thing the Spain needs to sort out asap. Take control of the country! Remove power from the banks, local governments and councils and start to manage the country for the benefit of the country and not their "friends" or children. Both parties ar guilty, and I know that austerity measures are necessary as there is now no way back, but it would have been a lot less if they had actually run the country instead of letting the local idiots run their own spending spree for such a long time.

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

mac75   could not agree with you more its local gov with all its greedy civil servants/ mates who have made Spain as is today what a shame. Mind you us expats have not helped thinking that the extra money in our inflated house prices would pay for that holiday home in the sun. Please dont get me wrong we were lead astray by our own gov back in the 80s by saying if we want it now then get it so now we are paying for that as well. We were made to feel the odd ones out if we did not own our own homes and the banks bent over backwards to get us the money to do that with. This madness has to stop and maybe now with the world in such a state people might wake up and do something about it before its too late. If only for the grenerations to come, we need to come together on this and solve the problems. It wont matter to me as am too old now and all the fight in side of me has calmed down but the fire still burns even in the embers.

 

Merry Christmas to one and all        .

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

  tamaraessex - I  agree that the people of Madrid think that Andalucians are country bumpkins - even though they are still buying property there for holidays   - and I agree also that generally apartments in Madrid are small - even expensive ones.  I know because I have looked at a fair few with a view to buy.   But believe me - there is still plenty of money in Madrid and other big cities. Just have a stroll to the Bernabeu, and you will see plenty being stuffed into the stadium - everyday of the week not just on match days!!

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

 The documentary certainly hasn't gone a miss with Valencia's local government. The Mayoress of Valencia came out in protest against the BBC'S programme the Great Spanish Crash defending Valencia's success as a City and outraged at the claim that they were wasting tax payers money...... read the article

Go to EOS NEWS BLOG

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

Thanks Ian.  I just read the article.  I think it's a bit rich for this Mayoress to complain when a British TV channel does a programme on what are self-evident truths about the wasteful policies in Valencia - what does she think about the runway which isn't wide enough, for instance and the fact that the airport is not used?  You'd have to be mad to think that that was a justifiable use of public money.  It's scandalous.  Also, the Spanish authorities didn't used to say anything when Channel 4 did the whole series of A Place in the Sun, which was completely one-sided in favour of Spain (and other countries) and led to many people making dreadful mistakes investing their life savings in Spain.  It's my understanding that the Valencian government instead twisted the knife in further with their land seizure policies. They seem to want it all their own way.  It's not the job of the BBC to be some sort of adjunct to the Spanish tourist board.

On the other hand, I think it's a fact of life that the BBC and other channels are often biased, but that's hard luck really; as individuals sometimes we will agree with the bias in programmes and sometimes we won't.  If we think it's all one way we can try and lobby for more balance, but we don't have someone who checks the content of each programme before it is aired, to make sure that it covers all aspects and is completely balanced. On this particular subject, how could it be balanced anyway?  In fact the programme did mention the notion that these massive projects in a relatively small city, proportionately, might be useful to tourism in the future, so it was balanced.  What else could they have said? 

I find it ridiculous that the ambassador thinks he has any rights to tell the BBC what it can and can't do, moreover.  What we are going to do, have Spanish politicians dictate what Britain puts on the telly?  They want to worry less about what we say about what they've done and think more about how to put right what they've completely screwed up.

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

Yes, the last thing they want is to be under the spotlight as they are trying to reboost the tourist sector in  Valencia. But then again I think it was more of a publicity stunt coming out and talking as Rita Barbera can't allow people to say that "She and the local government" have squandered billions of euros from the tax payers all over Europe, as much of the funding came from Europe as well, not just Spanish government. Here in Valencia, the airport in castellon has been kept very quiet, not many people talk about it or are even aware that the runway is too narrow! However everyone knows how well the architects did on the Science park project managing to triple the original budget and getting away with it. Unfortunately I thought the documentary was quite accurate, Valencia has been on a mission to boost it's image as the country's thrid capital city for quite a while, which is all well and good but unfortunately the management of this mission has left a lot to be desired and it certainly can't be achieved at "any" cost. The truth is that all of these initiatives : Americas Cup's, Formula 1, Sceince Park, Aquarium, Bio Park have given fantastic assets to the city but they aren't generating or didin't generate the income that was or is expected. Now maintenance costs outway income on nearly every project, leading to an accumalative loss which naturally has a knock on effect on local services and budgets ie: new schools etc. The priority is to boost the image of Valencia as quickly as possible and tourists can not see a run down or abandonned Science park when they visit, even if it means maintaing temporary schools and removing central heating from schools because they can't pay the bills. I suppose no local government is free of guilt, but admitedly the objective of the Valencian government was almost Pharaonic! 

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

 Valencia needed a bailout this year due to losses of 845 million euros just from companies and foundations fun by the Valencian Government. The  Palau de les Arts Foundation that manages the most emblematic building of the science park, the opera house has been giving out free tickets left right and centre and having to pay the vat on these tickets and it has been discovered that they have been hiring friends and giving contracts to members of the board of trustees for events which went ahead without the boards approval. Also Valencia's super film studios which are now up for sale received 265 million euros in public funding from Valencia for what was a private venture. If it was to receive a government "subsidy" it should have been open to any company to present a project and make a bid, but it wasn't. So now the European comission is saying they should give back the money as  it was an illegal contribution from the Valencian government and  many other private film studios have complained. Without going any further the local government television Canal 9 has been buying over the years documentaries for the price of fiction series and hasn't even televisied them. They sold off the rights to other television chanels for a 10th of the price and guess what, they went and bought some of them back again. How odd. The documentaries cost 177,500 euros each and were sold off for under 20,000 euros. They were then sold on again and at the end of the day each documentary delivered a cost of 92,000 euros each when a a 30 min programme/docuementary had a value of 9116 euros. And as far a Calatrava the Spanish architect, domiciled in Switzerland, is concerned he is now claiming that he is still owed 700,000 euros for a bull fighting themed mural in the Opera House and that the local government should pay the compensation to the building company of 2,5 million euros fro delays in decison taking on the project. The list is endless and the biggest scandals aren't even visible, they are behind closed doors.

 

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

Always remember which party has run the Valencian "government" for the past many years!

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

 Yes but unfortunately no party is free of guilt in Spain. I don't think it is such a question of which political party is in power, but more a problem of self greed and personal interest all across the board. I don't think it would have been any different with the PSOE in charge, different projects maybe but the same problems. 

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

It looks to me that the Mafia could learn much from the government  of Valencia .

 

 

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

I did see a 'map' showing the cases of corruption in Spain; I can't remember if it was based on provincias, but anyway it showed that it was fairly evenly spread amongst the political parties all over Spain (These maps can equally be produced showing police corruption... because corruption is a way of life in Spain).  In terms of the link between political persuasion and corruption, it is similar to the way that in the UK politicians across the board were involved in the expenses scandal.  I think the right wing are used to using all the tricks to keep their money and use good accountants etc. and the left wing are excited at suddenly getting their hands on some money (although the Conservatives and Labour in the UK having been morphing in recent years and you get toffs in the Labour Party and 'common' people in with the Tories).  The difference is that corruption really has been the ruination of Spain.  As I always say, I'd like to see someone in Government with the balls to start a process to seize the criminals' and thieves' assets, freeze their bank accounts and so on, so that the public money they have stolen can be returned to the public coffers.  I think the problem is that no-one is clean enough themselves to be able to morally or practically take on the task.  When people right up to the upper echelons have their hands dirty, the situation can't be put right.  It's all very depressing.

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

 Here's another white elephant for Valencia to add to its portfolio... It's just taken over Valencia FC.  It is of prime importance to Valencian Society they said.....so are hospitals and schools....

here's the link :

www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jan/21/valencia-cf-debt-city-takeover

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know