Costa living update.
Just recorded an interview with Denis MacShane MP, about how Brits abroad are treated...and whether the British government should do more, especially during a recession. You can hear part of it by clicking on Start below. I admit this is rather a big photo of Mr MacShane.
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The cute thing is that although the interview is for this Saturday's programme, it will be broadcast on rem.fm tomorrow - the station is going to ask its listeners whether Mr MacShane is right to be worried that in a downturn, anti-foreigner feeling against Brits on the continent could rise.
iPM has done a fair bit on this already - you can read more here - if you have a view, please click on Comments.
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Comments
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I'm afraid I have no sympathy whatever.
Anyone who emigrated ten or fifteen years ago should have been a little wiser in investing the money they would have saved with the differential of house prices between Spain and the UK.
I would imagine the amount of hostility to retired people is minimum, if any, and this all sounds like a way to bleed more money from the UK taxpayers.
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I am a 73 year old widower living alone in a small Spainsh village[100 houses maybe].I have lived here since 1990 thus do not qualify for the UK winter allowance. My income is from pension and I do not possess a credit card,mobile or mobile 'phone-paying cash as I go.
When I reconstructed my dwelling the exchange rate averaged[1990-1993] 192pesetas/£ thus 1.18 euros approximately. Today my bank gives me 150 pesetas[now called 1.13 euros.].
I watched with dismay the arrival of 10's of thousands of UK house sellers during the 2002 to 2006 period creating towns which as a result of other North Europeans had a minority of Spanish.THAT CAUSES RESENTMENT in places such as Calpe where the Brits learn no Spanish-eat and shop only where their language is spoken. Those that are pensioners use the National Health system and local clinics -FREE to them. In turn many of the Spanish complainers do not recognise the HUGE income they have received-from builders to shop-keepers. Most of the recent arrivals have brought from the UK large capital gains[usually from houses] yet still resent the fact that the market here has now declined-costs are up and their 'paper' money is not available to be boasted about. I am far too old and long in tthe tooth to expect any consideration from the UK government [of any colour] Having spent my time paying ONLY UK taxes-even since I came here I-along with many others -will simply accept our fate.The only sad thing is that I can never afford to visit my family in New Zealand
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11Robert, I have considerable empathy with you since I also live in Spain (Valencia, Valencia). The exchange rate has made things much more expensive, but you have to consider your quality of life. Why else did you leave Blighty?
I love learning the language and not meeting other English speakers; I don't want us Brits to alter the culture here or anywhere else - why would anyone want to come here otherwise?
Bugger the cost, enjoy it while you can.
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Re; mcafzap
Well said - you brought up a very good point as regards the quality of life, hence I'm still wondering why there are so many people who seem so unhappy?
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I waited to move abroad until I had earned an occupational pension and accumulated savings. Because I do not live in the EU and have no access to National Health and social services, I kept my house in UK, with all the hassle of renting (another subject for debate?) By frugal living I saved enough to buy a delapidated property here and gradually improve it. The inundation of less prudent expats has increased the cost of living, and undermined the fragile infrastructure and previously good relations between expats and nationals and damaged the environment. Having sold UK properties to buy extravagent "Villas" they now complain they have run out of money
Not only do I pay UK income tax on rent and pension whilst being no charge on Nat. Health etc., but if I return to UK and sell my property there to fund Sheltered Housing I will be subject to CGT.
Now all my capital and income has seriously devalued, I am still more comfortably situated than the "Lotus Eaters" and love my adopted people, its scenery , lifestyle and people - but I face a bleak future
I have not even been able to vote at the last two UK elections because the Electoral System does not allow time for postal voting and papers "went astray " in the ten miles between my Local Authority and my proxy!
I feel thoroughly let down by the Government who penalise expats and mismanaged the economy and the media who perpetuate public misconceptions of life abroad.
What is needed is an International Organisation to protect the interests of pensioner expats.
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I sympathise with Frankspeaking and think the comments he makes sum up many a British expatriate's experience. I wholeheartedly agree that all British expats (not just pensioners) need a bespoke body/organisation to represent their affairs, concerns and interests which have hitherto been sorely neglected. At the time of writing, I'm waiting to hear back from 10 Downing Street as to whether my petition request for the government to set up a Ministry for Expatriate Affairs will be accepted. If it is, the petition will be open for signing until August 2009 at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk
Given that IPPR's research indicates there are some 5.5 million British expats out there, that has to be a large enough constituency to satisfy any Whitehall value-added reckoning.
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I want to support the proposal for the petition for a Ministry for Expatriate Affairs and hope that it is accepted. How can I support this proposal, please?
I also applaud Denis MacShane´s attempts to abolish the legislation which excludes UK citizens from voting in UK elections if they have been removed from a UK electoral roll because they have been living continuously outside the UK for more than fifteen years.
The existing legislation comes very close to infringing fundamental human rights. Regrettably it does not quite infringe them in terms of international law, which leaves without legal recourse those of us who for reasons of employment have been living continuously outside the UK for too long to be on an electoral register.
I was born and bred in England, of parents of English stock, and I feel at least every bit as much British as most UK permanent residents of UK nationality. I resent being unable to vote in UK general elections.
I also acquired Australian citizenship. Despite not having lived in Australia for twenty years, I can still apply to vote in its general elections.
Australia is like many countries in that respect. Most major EU nations let their nationals vote in their general elections for life, even if they reside in other countries. Italy even goes so far as to reserve two parliamentary senate seats for them, I have been told. Some nations extend nationality and voting rights to sons and daughters born in other countries to their nationals who permanently reside in them.
I work and live in an EU member state in which only its citizens can vote in its general elections, but not long-time tax-paying permanent residents such as me. Thus I cannot vote in its general elections, nor in those of my country of principal nationality, but only in those of Australia.
I think this state of affairs is absurd. But it has all to do with affairs of state - or states. Not to mention states of mind.
There are some nations which take a benevolent paternalistic attitude to their prodigal sons, grandsons, greqat-grandsons and even great-great-grandsons, and welcome "back" with open arms those who have not set foot there for generations (Germany and Israel are two examples).
By contrast, the UK acts like an unforgiving stepmother who with harshness declares: "Take one step outside my house, and outside you shall stay for life, to be neglected and forgotten by me".
I left the UK at a time when I could not find suitable employment there. Like many other emigrants, I was offered it elsewhere. Although I speak fluently the language of the EU member state in which I live, I also listen to the BBC, mainly Radio 4, and subscribe to The Economist, as well as buying expensive British newspapers when I have enough spare cash in my pocket. I feel myself to be an emigrant who is English through and through.
But I do not feel myself to be a British "expat" and I most definitely do not regard myself as such! I do not meet let alone mix with the many so-called "expats" who I know inhabit this EU member state.
Indeed, I do not understand, let alone have sympathy for, the state of mind which makes folk WANT to call themselves "British expats" or which makes people in the UK want to talk about "British expats" instead simply of British emigrants.
Alas, there has been a two-way creation of the state of mind responsible for the derogatory term "British expat", behind which lurks a pernicious mix of vengeful jealousy with self-righteous deprecation on the part of many UK residents, while, as affront to those, it is ignorantly paraded ("in your face") by many "expats" themselves who display it as a badge of honour rather than of their victimhood.
It is high time for us British folk to grow up, and to leave behind us those childish tit-for-tat attitudes. It will be a long hard "learning curve". There will be many steps to be taken. Among them, one must be for Government to take the lead and, through legislation, to extend full UK voting rights at the very least to all UK citizens who have ever been on a UK electoral roll. (Personally, I would want t go further, and extend that right to those of their children who retain UK nationality also.)
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I too would like to support the petition- please how can I find out when (hopefully )it is accepted ? Any further info re expats' rights also gratefully received.
I also supportmikewalkermur's
commentson voting , particularly unfair to those who
are still paying UK Tax- surely there is something somewhere about "No Taxation without Representation"? There was an article on the subject in The Weekly Telegraph" some years ago with details of an organisation supporting voting rights for expats, but unfortunately at the time I did not have access to a Computer and didnt keep the details.
"A rose by any other name....." I agree the term "expat" has unfairly acquired
derogatory connotations but we use it for brevity. I doubt if one can use "immigrant" unless
one has taken up nationality of the host country, which in some cases may present difficulties, Any suggestions for alternatives?
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