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www.theolivepress.es Voted top expat paper in Spain
A campaigning, community newspaper, the Olive Press represents the huge expatriate community in Spain with an estimated readership, including the websites, of more than one million people a month.
OPINION Facebook failure Companies such as Pet Taxi Transport highlight the ease with which anybody in the digital world can set up a ‘company’ and charge for services remotely. In many cases without any paperwork or licences. Yet it also highlights the perils of failing to undertake due-diligence. With an enormous amount of companies across all sectors, it can be difficult to know which is legitimate and which is bogus. It is equally hard to know if that 5-star rating was earned or is faked. Yet when a company such as Pet Taxi doesn’t even have the correct registration to carry out the simplest of jobs it is important for media groups like ours to step in and expose them. For one thing’s for certain, the likes of Facebook are not going to do it.
No turning back now Brexit… well it’s finally happened. After more than three years of uncertainty, we now have more... uncertainty. What has actually changed? To all the Brexiteers, we ask, what has changed in your life this week that wasn’t the same last week? The common answer people tend to give is ‘we got our country back, we got our sovereignty back’. Hurrah. But what does that actually mean? Until 2021 nothing will change as we’re still in the transition period. One thing that changes every day though is the uncertainty and the rumours. All we can really do is sit back, wait and see what January 2021 brings. Even though we almost all voted Remain, we genuinely want Brexit to be a success, for our families and loved ones who still live in the UK and for our futures in case we ever move back. Do we think it’ll be a success? Now that’s a different matter.
PUBLISHER / EDITOR
Jon Clarke, jon@theolivepress.es Charlie Smith charlie@theolivepress.es
Joshua Parfitt joshua@theolivepress.es
Laurence Dollimore laurence@theolivepress.es
John Culatto johnc@theolivepress.es
Dimitris Kouimtsidis dimitris@theolivepress.es
Gillian Keller gillian@theolivepress.es
Joanne Oakley joanne@theolivepress.es
Simon Wade simon@theolivepress.es
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AWARDS
2016 - 2020 Best expat paper in Spain and the second best in the world. The Expat Survey Consumer Awards.
2012 - 2020 Named the best English language publication in Andalucia by the Rough Guides group.
‘Brextranjeros’ were nowhere to be found on the night the UK ‘took back control’ from the EU, writes Charlie Smith
48.1% REMAIN
51.9% LEAVE
TIME’S UP S O are the shackles finally off or are we about to embark on one of the messiest and costly divorces in history? Maybe both. It depends who you listen to. But one thing is for sure. When the clock struck 12 on January 31, the UK officially left the European Union and we expats in Spain were all made ‘Brextranjeros’, as the Olive Press is dubbing you. It only took three prime ministers and 1,316 days of parliamentary bickering, but we are finally here. Possibly to his eternal discredit, Boris got it done and Brexit is happening. As Nigel Farage joyfully told the European Parliament this week, waving his Union Jack. Only one question remains though... to celebrate or commiserate? On Brexit night, the Olive Press dropped into popular Kinsales bar, in Duquesa Port. ITV News were also broadcasting live from the popular expat watering hole. We didn’t spot anyone weeping into a vino tinto or triumphantly sinking pints of Carling. Nor did anyone draw inspiration from Spanish New Year’s Eve and gobble down a dozen scotch eggs as the clock struck 12. On the stroke of midnight (11pm UK time) one man clapped. A very British way to see in this new era of British history. The words of T.S. Eliot’s poem The Hollow Men seemed very apt in summing up the night’s partying – or lack of. “This is the way the world ends. “Not with a bang but with a whimper.” Remain voter Brian Forgie, 57, told the Olive Press that ‘Brexit was a f**k up’ and he was just here to ‘enjoy a drink’. “This is beyond England, Scotland and everything. “The Southeast of England has just sucked everything into itself. “There’s so much in the EU that
VARIETY: Different ways the press marked Brexit departure
we don’t understand.” Other British expats in Spain were also out on Brexit night, regardless of whether they were Brexiteers (unlikely if you’re an Olive Press reader as our 75/25% poll last year discovered, more of which later) or Remainers. One fiercely British Remainer, 64-year-old Paul Darwent, hosted an ironic Brexit bash up in the hills on the way to Ronda. The expat of 22 years put on a ‘tongue-in-cheek’ evening of poetry, food, music and comedy at his popular Bar Allioli in Jimera de Libar. Think beans on toast, tunes like Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again and buckets of nostalgia on ice. One person who definitely didn’t celebrate was Anne Hernandez (above), President of Brexpats in Spain which is fighting for the rights of British residents here. “I feel violated,” she told the Olive Press, speaking ahead of mid-
Brexit in numbers 700,000
Britons actually living in Spain
365,967
Britons registered as living in Spain
180,000 9,000 60%
Spaniards registered in UK Spanish cross-border workers in Gibraltar
British expats who couldn’t vote in 2016 referendum or last general election
night, “I feel a personal sense of ‘Rise and shine...it’s a glorious bereavement, and tonight I will new Britain’. be losing my identity. Among the most self-aggran“I’ll be sitting indoors crying todising was the Daily Telegraph, night, I’ll be having a strong cup boasting in an eight-page Brexit of coffee. supplement how its former col“How can people celebrate losumnist (Boris Johnson) made it ing their rights? It’s barbaric, 47 into Downing Street and led the years of history erased. country into a new era. “My big question is, who is the The Daily Star went with the UK going to blame when it leaves end of Dry January. and it can’t use the EU as a Meanwhile, others scapegoat?” chose to optimistiMeanwhile, across the border on cally look ahead to the Rock, Fabian Picardo’s Gieven more holidays braltar marked the EU departure in Europe post-Brexit, with a ‘short and solemn’ EU flag including English jourlowering to the glorious sounds of nalist and theatre critic Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. Quentin Letts (below). The Commonwealth flag is to reWriting in The Sun, he place the EU flag. said: “The Further afield, hairpin bends other Brexit celeof Monte Carlo, Please sit brations included the bleat of Pyresome pathetic down, resume nean mountain Union Jack-waving the canals your seats and goats, by Nigel Farage and bong shops and his EuroscepAmsterdam, put your flags of tic cronies in the S candi navi a’s away European Parliafjords and frisky ment in Brussels. midsummer The Brexit Party freedoms, plus leader’s antics were swiftly cut all those amazing, bewildering, short by vice-president Mairead beautiful languages and literaMcGuiness, who turned off his tures and cooking styles: Europe microphone, adding: “Please sit will continue to exert her magical down, resume your seats, put allure on us.” your flags away and take them Local Mijas Councillor Bill Anderwith you if you’re leaving son, who became the first Brit now.” to take up the post in the Teary-eyed Retown’s 40 years of demain-suppor ting mocracy, was slightly MEPs also commore measured than memorated the Letts. approaching B-Day “Tonight I’m having by breaking into dinner at home with a rendition of Auld my Spanish wife,” he Lang Syne. told the Olive Press Farage’s anti-EU revbefore midnight, “I’m elry was matched by the definitely not going to front pages of Britain’s rightany Brexit parties. wing press, which invoked patri“Some are going to drown their otic sentiment with images of the sorrows I’m sure, but for me, it’s White Cliffs of Dover and Big Ben. not a chance to celebrate, I think ‘A new dawn for Britain’, was the a lot of British people will be afDaily Mail’s splash, while the Daifected. ly Express opted for the tedious “The biggest effect in the short