Today is our last day alone as Chris and Yvonne are flying back from their holiday tomorrow. We had been invited by Jim and Hazel to join them in Alcalali for lunch and, knowing the Spanish lunches, we knew we wouldn’t be needing anything more than a snack in the evening. Carol thought it would be a friendly gesture to go armed with a poinsettia in readiness for Christmas so, in the morning, off we went, together with el perrito on his lead, to find a couple (one as a homecoming present for Chris and Yvonne, too). A small garden centre in Jalon produced the goods.
Just outside Jalon there is a spring with constantly flowing water. It seems to be something of a local ritual to fill countless five-litre containers from this spring, one which we are happy to become part of. Quite why anybody would buy drinking water with this resource available, I don’t know. Since we were heading that way for lunch, we thought we’d take all the containers we had emptied during our stay and replenish them ready for Chris and Yvonne’s return. 70 litres later, we spent a very pleasant afternoon eating, drinking and nattering overlooking the valley (which I now realize is actually called the Vall de Pop).
As darkness descended, we thought it was time to return to give el perrito some company (and, maybe, drink another bottle of wine).
Filling up countless water containers says something about the local infrastructure. Johnny foreigner has no piped water!
Well, he does but the spring water tastes better not being chlorinated. Were that not the case, though, when their “council tax” costs 250 Euros instead of £2500 per annum, I personally am willing to forgive a little less infrastructure.
If you examine your council tax, you will probably see that the same amount in the UK is allocated to local infrastructure as well. The UK tax also covers schooling, care for for disadvantaged people, police, fire etc. So we must be sure we are comparing apples with apples.
Eventually you have to look at the whole tax burden and benefits. Income tax, Local tax, Vat, business tax, and the benefits, health care, cost of living, freebies (bus local amenities), and finally the expected earning power of the indigenous species.
OK I expect the Spaniard still wins. But then look we do spend more on defense, and pay more than most people into the EU pot to support countries like Spain. And we also internally pay for disadvantaged UK areas like Scotland. Yes we pay 1500 a year more in tax which gets filched by those North of the border to pay for their care of OAPs, students, health care and now to cap their council tax for three years.
Yes rip off Britain, but more likely rip off Middle England especially the Southerners.