La Vida Alcalaína

An open letter to Ms Emma Boon, Campaign Director of the   Taxpayers' Alliance , who want to abolish payment of the Winter Fuel Allowance to British pensioners living in the EU.   Nearly 73,000 people living on mainland Europe claimed £15.6 million-worth of payments last winter ....  a 52% increase since 2006-7 ...  33,495 recipients live in Spain.   "This is a shocking increase and is yet more evidence that we need to reform the welfare system, so that money goes to those who really need it, not to well off ex pats living on the Costa Del Sol", says Ms Boon.  "The Government should scrap schemes like this because it doesn't make sense to take people's money in tax, then give it back in be nefits that they might not want or need.  It was always intended to help the elderly through the winter but many of those claiming it are living abroad where it's warmer anyway."   read the full article   Dear Ms Boon, Emma Boon As a...

Being able to watch their favourite British television programmes is a high priority for many expats living in Spain.  To watch them on a TV set this means having giant satellite dishes on the roof, various other bits of kit, and a certain amount of fiddling with Sky subscription cards if you want the whole range of channels.   Even then, reception often cracks up in poor weather conditions or during the hours of darkness. Watching programmes on a computer isn't that straightforward either.  The BBC iPlayer and ITV equivalents won't work outside the UK, for copyright reasons, so you have to install special software to shield your IP address and use a proxy server. There are some companies that offer access to a range of channels via a paid subscription, but they tend to come and go (along with your subscription fee) as they are not strictly legal.    You can download torrents, but getting the programmes you want is a bit hit-and-miss and that's not strict...

2012 marks the bicentenary of the first Spanish Constitution, which Spain treasures in much the same way as England does its Magna Carta.  It was drawn up, signed and published in the city of Cádiz, which is marking the occasion with a year of festivities and cultural events , a new road bridge from the mainland, and hopefully lots and lots of tourists, as it is also the 2012 Capital Iberoamericana de Cultura .   So what is la Constitución , or " La Pepa " as commonly referred to, all about? It is known as "La Pepa" because it was published on St Joseph's Day, 19 March 1812. Pepa is the feminine form ( la constitución  is a feminine noun) of Pepe, a nickname for José. Early in the 19th century the Emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, was keen to spread his Napoleonic Code across the rest of Europe. The code, based on the Enlightenment principles of the French Revolution, replaced old feudal laws with a clearly written legal system,...

Apologies for the long silence.  The blogging muse (Cryptico?) appears to have gone on vacation.  Navidad , Nochevieja and Los Reyes Magos have been and gone - I didn't participate in the local festivities this year due to a bad cold and a bad back, and anyway I've described them all before.  I did hobble up to the Plaza Alta to enjoy a marvellous concert by the Orquestra Joven del Bicentenario , who played Beethoven's Fifth and the Nutcracker Suite with great aplomb.  We had our customary walk along the beach on Christmas Day and watched The Godfather on TV.. Nothing much.else. Nothing much from our illustrious Ayuntamiento either.  The new Mayor is scarcely seen nor heard in the town and we have had no announcement about budget plans for the coming year, as we used to under the previous administration.  There was a bit of a kerfuffle when one of his councillors organised a coach trip to a shopping centre in Jerez just before Christmas; the Alcalá shopk...