Dawn

Dawn

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Spain's treasures; Changing Spain; An airport deal; Breasts exposure; Russian propaganda; & Facebook again.

SPAIN'S TREASURES: The Local gives us 15 of these here. I'm pleased to say I've seen most of them. 

CHANGING SPAIN: My Ferrol friend and regular reader, Richard, has reminded me that Spain is getting better at allowing people to set up businesses and at making it "easier to pay taxes"(!). But very slowly. Per the World Bank, Spain has recently moved up one place in their rankings of ease of doing business and now rank a still-lowly 33rd. Things remain particularly bad for those wanting to set themselves up as an autónomo, or sole trader in UK terms. Not only is it mired in bureaucracy but also expensive, at c.€300 a month in taxes from the word go, even if you don't turn a penny. 

AN AIRPORT DEAL: The Local tells us here that the ghost airport down in Castellón is now not quite as useless as it was. A deal has been struck with Ryanair which will bring an income of €600,000 a year. To Ryanair, that is. As I say, I guess it makes sense to someone. In Spain, I mean. Ryanair's logic is obvious. At €10 each for 600,000 projected customers.

FRAUDULENT BRITS: Hard as it is to believe, there are Brits - surely all down on the south and east coasts - who indulge in benefit fraud. Essentially by forgetting to tell the UK government they've moved to Spain and lost their entitlements. Anyway, they've been warned they face jail sentences, like the woman who's just been given this treatment, after collecting €58,000 over 8 years.

CLEAVAGE v BOOBAGE: New to me but there seems to be a difference between these concepts. I guess everyone knows what the former is but here's the definition of the latter:- The exposure of vast amounts of breast in dresses that squish unattractively rather than hugging sexily. It's said that the former is for film stars and the latter for mere 'celebs'. I don't suppose many men care about this distinction.

FINALLY . . . RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA: Here, again, is the site of the European organisation which tracks Moscow's preposterous - and sometimes hilarious - disinformation. They can also be followed on Twitter. Whatever that is. At @EUvsDisinfo

FOOTNOTE: Another Facebook 'success' this morning. I got a friend acceptance from a lady in Madrid whom I now see has 1,360 'friends'. So I don't feel terribly exclusive and will now defriend her. Nice to see my spellcheck doesn't recognise defriend. Or spellcheck.

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