Spanish say good riddance to departing Brit expats

There's an interesting article in El Pais today about Brits leaving Spain (same article in the English version but without the Spanish comments beneath).

 http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2014/07/01/actualidad/1404245567_806749.html

Reading the comments with help from google translate. Golly, they hate the Brits. 

They love our money though.

OK - I have read the article, and where is there any indication that they really hate the Brits???????????   Am I missing something?  The article is a pretty good analysis of the current situation, and if anything is pretty critical of Spain!!   It fully recognises the impact on the ayuntamientos of the exodus, and looks (without hysteria) at some of the reasons.  

In addition, the comments from Spanish people below the article are very sympathetic.    

I am at a loss as to how this has been interpreted as 'good riddance'.

 I have to agree with Roly,

I think there is only one comment by an obviously racist individual which is at the end of the article against anything non-spanish..... but I can't see how "they" hate us....the article was written because "they" are worried the Brits are leaving... from what I can see.

Roly2. The only thing I said about the article was that it was interesting. There were over 800 comments posted beneath the article. I cut and pasted a few hundred of them into google translate. The overwhelming takeaway was "good riddance". Overwhelming. A couple of the more polite examples below:

"Now, come, settle down, and they begin to ask them to pay their income taxes we pay tontillos Spanish, then put poker face and decide to go back home. Do not feel sorry for these grandpas who was often cheaper to live here than to do it in their country, if they come here to enjoy the sun, climate and total free health but they also have to put up with their share of taxes. Maybe you are not interested and coming here to vegetate and certainly not us we want them here while their incomes remain safely in their country because they do not trust our country."

"Many of these retirees, brought their world, their customs, their characteristics etc. and were unable to join, do not know the language of the country where they reside for years, do not mix with the "natives", use them only as servants and then complain that no one understands, let the world upside down, it's like I live in G.Britain pretendiese and all around me speak Spanish, but that if they came because their pension due to change pound-peseta was much higher than the Spanish, because the weather was, and is infinitely better than his country and, most importantly, our health, in those years, was remarkably superior to yours, in short, no I went to look for them came because it suited them, practically paid no taxes but benefiting from all the services españolitos yes we contributed to our own and, of course, now that the situation is bad, choose to return to their respective countries provided that nobody is taking, will on its own initiative, I hope you have a good trip."

Well - I am not using a translate function and I don't have time or inclination to sift through hundreds of comments.  But the ones I glanced at were pretty sympathetic.   The title of your post, perhaps unintentionally, links it with the article.  

"if they come here to enjoy the sun, climate and total free health"

I suppose they don't now that NHS pay around 4,000 euro.p.a. for each UK citizen registered on the health service, for the 'free service', and we 'grandpas and grandmas' spend all our pensions here too.

I guess if a similar article were to appear in the UK press about Romanians/Kosovons/Poles/Kurds etc. leaving the UK in their droves becasue they didn't like it anymore, the reader's comments would not be too sympathetic either. The fact that ex-pats departing from Spain can only have a negative impact on the overall economy will naturally not be appreciated by the average Spaniard. (Can't comment on the UK simile!)

The new Poundland (Dealz) store that openend a couple of days ago here has several British employees, some of whom seem to speak very little Spanish (shame on them!) Take what you will of that: presumably the thousands of unemployed Spaniards who applied were unsuitable for one reason or another - probably because they either speak NO English, are too lazy to work the hours required, or both. Either way, the same people who have nothing better to do than reply to articles such as the one discussed here, will no doubt accuse guiris of stealing "Spanish" jobs - just as the same Brits who would celebrate the departure of immigrants from the UK would complain about those who remain stealing "British" jobs. Such is the world.

P.S. as for the sun, I understand that we are soon to be taxed on that anyway!