How is brexit affecting moving and living in Spain - Page 3

Uhhhhhhh ... sorry?  I take it you don't understand how the EU Parliament works?

a bit like choosing a labour leader eh

Who makes decisions in the European Union?Heads of state and government make decisions on general policies in the European Council. The Commission makes proposals for new laws. The Parliament reviews the proposals and passes decisions together with the Council of Ministers.Not quite the same as the British Parliament which consists of directly elected people who then form a majority party which proposes, debates, formulates and enacts laws and policies - in consultation of course with Her Majesty the Queen whose signature makes an act the law...  May not be 100% logical or perfect but with apppropriate adjustments as time goes by it has worked for a few hundred years.

Yesssss … heads of State and governments …. and who elects those heads of State and Governments in the first place …..?  Who elects the MEPs to Parliament? That’s right.  The voters.

With First Past The Post, the UK system is weighted heavily in favour of whichever party can garner most support in the more heavily populated areas, all but disenfranchising those who want representation by a differing political view.

FPTP is how the Tories have managed to retain power for the past decade.  They know that and that is why the much fairer proportional representation is so fiercely resisted, so while you have noble visions of a fair and democratic system, it is sadly anything but, now.  Governments are bought and paid for with whoever has the best financial backing.  Hence huge amounts of Russian money going to the Tories, and the elevation of someone of Russian nationality to the House of Lords against advice of the security services that he was a security risk!  Peerages are handed out like sweeties to reward whoever has best served the governing bodies interests - it makes a mockery of the Peerage system and indeed the House of Lords which is no longer one of the checks and balances of government, but just a reward for giving ruling party lots of money.

The Queen, whilst having the power to dismiss the Prime Minister and the Parliament if they lose her confidence is unlikely ever to wield that authority as it would now cause a crisis, with the Media whipping up outrage.  The Crown has been reduced to no more than a rubber stamp.

Your voters, and by extension the government, are actually quite nicely controlled by a handful of media barons.  The voting public at large are sufficiently malleable to be swayed into swallowing whatever rubbish the media prints, making a mockery of the notion that through universal suffrage you can change government … through well placed items and media manipulation, the billionaire media barons will ensure that the person or party is elected that best suits their interests (they don’t need to manipulate everyone … just the areas of greatest population density because … FPTP) - and those interests are ALWAYS “more money” … again, ask where this money comes from and whose interests does it serve.

Brexit was an excellent example of manipulation, with a sufficiently large percentage of those who bothered to vote being manipulated to willingly swallow wholesale a variety of lies about Britain after Brexit, you were promised variously that Turkish migrants were set to flood UK, when Turkey wasn’t even close to being accepted as an EU member, that £350.000.000 a week would be saved (and would go to the NHS) when nowhere near that amount is paid, that you’d get sovereignty back when you hadn’t actually lost it in the first place, that you’d regain control of your borders that you already had, that you’d get blue passports back, which you could have had at any time in the past 35 years, that you’d have no more EU rules “forced” on you which never were as UK had a veto in the EU parliament, that after Brexit, nothing would change, British Citizens would still be able to Live, Work and Study in the EU as before, which was an outright lie… and so on and so forth … so many more examples.

“But but but” you’ll cry “why hasn’t it ALWAYS been like that then?”  Well you can thank “Social” media for that, with Facebook / Twitter / Instagram etc etc able to spread an idea or position far more quickly and effectively than simple print and television media ever could.  You have SM “Influencers” who’s ideal is to do just that - influence, and you better believe their influence is bought and paid for.  And audiences can be targeted - exactly as Cambridge Analtyica did with both Brexit and the 2016 US election.

But it all really does make a mockery of you saying just how democratic UK is compared to the EU.  It’s anything but.

1. I believe that Brexit was a Protest Vote that went wrong. However, the bottom line is that a majority of those who voted opted for the UK to exit the EU. 

2. "Let's Get Brexit Done" became a Boris Johnson catch-cry. He's a politician and there's nothing like a catchy few words to get the party faithful and brain-dead in rally mode. Who gained? - Probably a few rich people who didn't need the extra money anyway. Certainly, nobody else cashed in ahead.

3. Britain has regained her "independence" (I nearly said soverignty) from the EU. But, what does that mean? It's unlikely that the NHS will be all the better, although promises were only promises and in the relatively short term the NHS will be privatised and sold (probably to United States investors). Again the Fat Cats will profit handsomely. 

4. The person in a meagre job before Brexit is still in a meagre job after Brexit. Perhaps this punter deserves this in all that he stupidly believed approaching the Referendum? A fat lot Brexit has to offer to such people - and a fat lot they'll get. 

5. I arrived in Spain a few weeks ago and toured in our new campervan eventually arriving in Mojacar. On our first night one of my neighbours (who never visited RoI) arrived on our doorstep waving his new Irish Passport. He called it "My Golden Ticket." His grown up children have now applied for an Irish passport. Let me say, I'm very proud of such circumstances as I've hammered away on this forum for people to investigate the Irish Passport thing. And thanks to the moderator(s) for allowing it to proceed. Again I would say that anybody who has an Irish parent/grandparent and who is a UK citizen to investigate the process of becoming "Irish" especially if you live in Spain or just have a holiday home in Spain.

6. Brexit is the greatest disaster to hit the UK since WW2. I don't say this lightly. Ask any person of mixed race in the UK if he/she feels better because of Brexit. I bet a huge majority of answers will say "No." The UK is not far off the signs on many boarding houses of the 1950's/1960's  which stated "No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs." My strongest belief is that Racism got Brexit done. Some of my Panama Hatted acquaintances openly admit this. I have no problem in saying that they are racist although they won't admit to it. (I'm not absolving the large Irish population in the UK who were part of this racist process either). Nobody can argue with the truth, something that is rare in the UK for many years. Ask any Tory.

7. Voting System:- I've promoted Proportional Representation - Single Transferable Vote on this forum too. It works in Ireland, but with the huge population numbers in the UK it probably is unworkable. But, it is a fairer system. The  First Past the Post system of voting will probably be used in general elections for years to come. Just a quote from several United States presidents:- Democracy has its limits, but there's nothing better around.

What to wear and what to eat???!!! We're talking about the EU here, not your mum and dad! 🤦‍♂️

There's a wealth of information online about emigration to Spain post Brexit. Basically, UK citizens now have to qualify for residencia in exactly the same way as any other 3rd country national. That means a visa is required. To obtain a work visa the employer has to prove no EU citizen could do the job, so unlikely. For a self Employed visa you need a strong business plan and show you already have an established customer base - tricky. There's a golden visa if you can invest 500000 in property or 1000000 in the bank or there's the non- lucrative visa aimed at retirees as you can't work for the first five years. You need an income of at least 35000 or savings for a couple ( although in reality it's 70000.because you have to demonstrate enough for 2 years at a time) and you'll need to buy private health insurance. 

If you can get a visa then once you're here, as a Spanish resident, you'll need to take a Spanish driving test because you're not allowed to drive on your UK license. So in answer to your question, for anyone making the move post Brexit yes it has become much more difficult but not impossible if you have enough money.

However, for those of us lucky enough to have moved here before Brexit and who went through the relatively easy process of becoming residents, little has changed although.its fairly impossible to get anything posted from Britain through customs, so we just don't bother.. Life is easy here and every day I think thank goodness I don't live in Brexit Island any more. The only bad thing about living in Spain is the embarrassment of what the UK has done and what the country has become! 

Spot on the uk always thinks its better than any other country&look at it now!!! In a mess hence im leaving for spain asap as just got my irish passport

I just got my irish passport yipeeeeee spain here i come and goodbye crap britain

Jenni you were not told contrary to Mail or Express the discisions were voted upon and we had full MEP members there to vote