1. Spain
2. France
3. Germany
4. Netherlands
5. Denmark
6. Sweden
7. Italy
8. Poland
9. UK
10. Ireland
The irony, of course, is that Britain and Ireland have higher per capita incomes than elsewhere. So, even if money does bring you a better class of friends, it clearly doesn’t buy happiness. Though I guess that’s really another index, always won by some Scandinavian country or other.
Quality of life is, of course, a debatable concept and it’s noticeable that hours of sunshine figured for the folk who compiled the above list. What they probably didn’t include, for example, is anything like the slow pace of justice here which has, so far, left the parents of a child killed by a reckless driver in Vigo without any trial verdict after six years. Or, indeed, any trial. Or, at a much more mundane level, waiting two hours in the local Catastro office this morning for a two-minute query because only two of the six desks are manned and there are 27 people ahead of you.
The Zapatero government has acceded [conceded?] to Catalan pressure and published tables showing what the regions pay into and get out of the ‘national solidarity’ accounts. No previous government has felt it wise to do this. And, indeed, El País is already suggesting it’s thrown fuel on the fire of Catalan demands to keep more of its tax revenue. In point of fact, both Madrid and the Valencian Community turn out to be more ‘generous’ than Cataluña. Not that this will stop them moaning.
All of which sort of reminds me that, now that the interim Belgium government has fulfilled its purpose of signing the Treaty of Lisbon, it's ceased to exist and the country has returned to the path of break-up. Or at least a formal federation or confederation. The government of this fissiparous nation of nations must be looking on nervously from Madrid.
There will be a Masters tennis tournament shortly in that city. And auditions [los castings] have begun for the bellas recogepelotas – beautiful ball-girls – who are always so easy on the eye. Could this happen in many other European countries? Apart from Italy, of course. And does it contribute to our superior quality of life? Or that of 50% of us anyway.
Someone interviewed on the BBC this week said it was immoral there are around 800,000 empty properties in the UK, with 100,000 in London alone. By pure coincidence, it’s reported today there are 3.8 million empty properties in Spain. Adjusting for population, this would mean 5.7 million in the UK. Or 7 times as many. Both the central and regional governments here are looking at ways to financially penalise owners of more than one property. That’s the easy bit; the hard task is to make the measure both legal and effective.
There’s a new program on TV here called Canta! Singstar. Anyone know what a singstar is?
Galicia Facts
Of the mainland regions/autonomous communities, Galicia ranks third in the list of winners from the national solidarity transfers mentioned above, coming after Extremadura and Asturias. But the biggest beneficiaries are, in fact, the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla - which I coincidentally suggested the other day might well come to be regarded - like Gibraltar- as too much of a financial burden.
Spanish petrol stations are reported to be the most profitable in Europe. But the top honour must go to those here in Galicia, where prices have long been around 6% higher than elsewhere in the country. God knows why.
Finally, here’s a photo of my neighbour Tony, snapped as he was going up to inspect work on the houses behind ours. Being an expert on everything, Tony was able to tell me the bricks are of 4cm diameter and that this is good. Or at least better than the 3cm we have. I mention this because there was a short debate on the quality of Galician brickwork after I posted a photo the other day of the work in progress. Or not now in progress, as it happens. But at least the street is no longer full of Portuguese cars.
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