Thoughts from a "Happy" Half Scottie

It's been a while since I last posted and apologies to those who are still waiting for my Windows post, It will come, just not sure when.

I've been busy here in Martos had to change my car as some idiot that borrowed my old Diesel Citroen managed to put petrol into it so now have a Hyundai with air-con, what a relief. Also had to sort out our Residencia, became a pensioner and had to put up with the stupidity of Brexit and all the worries over future Pension Rights, Healthcare and becoming a Non EU Resident (potentially)

But and its a big But, I am confused and amazed at the other immigrants here, There are not many, Officially only 57 in our town, but some still profess to be Brexiters. Oddly enough several are Scots or of Scottish decent and I queried a few as to why.

Apparently even though Scotland as a whole voted overwhelmingly to Remain in the EU, the ones

here voted leave on the basis that if the UK did leave then Scotland would have a strong case for leaving the Union (UK). The idea being that Scotland could then apply to rejoin the EU as an independent country. This is a charming idea and does have some appeal to me, particularly as My father was Glaswegian so I could claim a Scottish passport and remain as an EU citizen. Unfortunately it is also a path fraught with danger and risks, suppose the Scottish Independence referendum did not pass a leave vote, suppose the EU hesitated over Scotland joining and personally who pays my pension and offers my health care paid by NI contributions in England, previously the United Kingdom.

I am afraid that whilst the ideals are to be commended, the path is faulty and I remain a staunch European Believer.

More thoughts, Assuming we do leave and Deal or No Deal ensues, The UK Government has not promised to continue uprating our pensions nor have they agreed to continue honouring the SI to guarantee our health cover, all of which was paid for over more than 40 years of National Insurance contributions and agreed before the Referendum, does anyone agree that a possible class action against any Government that takes this away would be possible, particularly as it is a self inflicted contact breaker.

I moved (retired) to Spain on the basis of a European Freedom of Movement contract, the UK has broken that contract, might be refusing to honour its commitment to pay for my health care, which I have paid for. I know I'm only one (my wife is too young to get her pension yet as she is one of the 60s kids who have been cheated out of her pension till she is 67), of an official 300,000 pensioners here and over twice that many are younger working folk but hell, everyone is entitled to get what they have paid for.

There are a lot of younger, ie non pensioner folk here again who moved with their families and now run businesses, teach and generally contribute to the economy of Spain, I am not excluding other European countries like France and Germany who also have many British folk, but even they are feeling excluded, example, if a person has resided out of the UK for 15 years they lose the vote and yet 15 year olds were allowed to vote for the new leader of the Conservative Party and essentially for the Prime Minister, 15 year olds! they can't even vote in an election, some Conservative Party members even got 2 voting forms, of course no one actually voted twice because that would have been illegal.

I have a daughter, married with three children of her own, my wife has a son and also a Grand Daughter, Her son has often declared his desire to move for work in Germany at some stage, this will become more difficult. Who knows, my Grandsons might want to work someplace other than England

A Spanish Example, to move to Spain you have to show you have Health cover and either savings or income so that you are not a burden on the state, if you cannot do that within 3 months (90 days actually) you are supposed to leave, if you don't then you are technically "irregular", not really a problem but don't expect state handouts or any help, The UK could use these same EU recommendations but chose not to. Now as an EU citizen I had to show an income of about 7500.00 euros a year for the two of us. My pension covered this ( at least it did when the £ was reasonably strong, now not so much) and my Health (bought and paid for by NI contributions) was also covered. As a Non EU citizen, the income requirements are 4X this for one person plus 1X this for each extra person so a small family say three people moving to Spain after any Brexit would be required to show an income of over 30,000 Euros. Loads of comments on Facebook that people moved over before the EU and so they can move over after Brexit, of course they can if they have massive income, how many pensioners do you know retiring on over £30,000 a year.

Fortunately Spain currently has a reasonably benign government and has made concessions including a grace period for legal immigrants to change their status, but even there, issues, until you have been registered for 5 years you are considered Temporary and we as yet have not so will have to jump through more hoops to change our status from EU Residents to Non EU residents and then only until the 5 years is up, then we will have to do it again. It is not yet clear if we have to this every 5 years after that, all we can do is hope.

Well that's a rant and a half all inflicted on us by racist idiots, At Christmas for example one English lady here told me she had voted for Brexit as when she went to the UK, the Girl in the Bank was wearing a hijab, when I asked her what the hell that had to do with the EU she said leaving the EU would stop all these people from going to England. OK not all Brexiters are racist but I'm damn sure all racists are brexiters.

I haven't even mentioned Northern Ireland, some government comments on that have been disgraceful, clearly some have very short memories.

Well what can you do, well object, lobby and support Steve (The Stop Brexit Guy) and vote, #peoplesvote whilst you still can and over here enjoy the weather, the wine, the food the beer, the people, the architecture, the culture, the longer life spans and of course we can enjoy all our little woofs.  Yes we still foster and occasionally fail, the little Dachund Cross and the scruffy one are recent failed fosters and now have a permanent furever home.

  That's just a few of the lives we have changed forever for the better.

Good Night all, Sleep Well.