Alfaz del Pi
February 21, 2016
While you are here in Spain doing what most UK-resident Brits think we do all day, do you watch Sky News or not want to know?
This morning it was so depressing, I wished that I had not.
First, to hear that Donald Trump has a real chance of making the White House. Can you imagine him as President of the USA? With his hand on the nuclear button and his anti-Moslem stance?
Secondly, with Russia trying and maybe succeeding in wiping out resistance in Syria, creating even more refugees and a country that no one wants to go back to? His next target?
Thirdly, the Brexit looming over us. Just when we need a strong Europe to work together to combat the problems that will follow the aforementioned should they happen. Who will care about the shape of tomatoes then? For the Brits in Spain, a looming disaster ref our rights to healthcare. Sure, Spain benefits incredibly from the economic presence of we Brits. The tourist industry will continue to flourish, but for the foreign residents? Ok, the Spanish and British governments will undoubtedly try to do something about it, but that will not happen overnight. For every registered British pensioner the British government pays the Spanish health service 3,000 Pounds per year. If they stop that payment, even temporarily, the already overloaded health service here will not cope. Those who cannot afford private health care will need to return to UK and many of the ancillary businesses here, professionals of all kinds dealing with resident Brits, will find it hard to keep going.
Life as we know it is teetering.
As an ageing comedian once said, “I’m glad I’m on the way out and not on the way in.”
So while it all gets sorted out, lie back in your deckchair and continue sipping sangría in the sun.
PDT
