Not FRance but would the British tolerate it?

[Ron Avery]

Nothing to do with France, but I suspect that the same thing happens here, sneaked in from the baking heat on Tuesday and caught a programme on BBC 1 called Living in the Sun, about Brits living in Spain.  Featured was Saron Roberts who has set up a second hand furniture business and is hoping to hit the big time"

This woman's "business" was to supply furniture to the Brits in Spain,  they could not get there, (it had to be sales to the Brits as this woman struggled to speak understandable English and uttered not one word of Spanish to a Spaniard the whole programme.)

So did we see her register her business with the local authorities..

Did we see her visit the chamber of commerce ...

Did we see her visit her accountant or Insurance Agent....

Did we see her plastering the Town's cars with leaflets in perfect English ... YES

Did we see her driving around in an old battered UK L reg RHD Transit with no UK tax disc... YES

OK She is for the Spanish to worry about she may even be the topic of a thread on a "Living in Spain" Forum, BUT  would the British tolerate a Kosovan, Rumanian or a Cypriot doing the exactly same thing in the UK?   I don't think so some how

Also should the BBC a) be wasting money on this tosh and b) be showing programmes where the subjects openly abuse the law of the country that they are living in?

Perhaps Spain should deport Nadia Sawalha and do us all a favour

[Ron Avery]

Response to John deleted owing to using joined up words

[Val_2]

Ron. There is a very true old saying "What goes around,comes around".

[Georgina]

What is going on here, dont understand...... however, having been to Spain recently, I was cringeing at the amount of English Breakfast signs, English telly signs, Get your English Footie here etc. I know I was in a touristy area, but I was thinking, could not imagine how that would go down in France or England (Spanish or other). However the Spanish seem to cope by simply ignoring you completely (can't say I blame them some parts of Spain have been taken over with English flags. My kids were literally bashed on the head with plates by the Spanish in the hotel in an attempt to get to their buffet. I was amazed at the lack of eye contact and total disregard... glad to be back in France where practically everyone says Bonjour, from the Maire  to the bin man.

Georgina

[Tresco]

 So did we see her register her business with the local authorities..

Did we see her visit the chamber of commerce ...

Did we see her visit her accountant or Insurance Agent....

Did we see her plastering the Town's cars with leaflets in perfect English ... YES

Did we see her driving around in an old battered UK L reg RHD Transit with no UK tax disc... YES

All of which wouldhave made for excruciatingly boring TV

OK She is for the Spanish to worry about she may even be the topic of a thread on a "Living in Spain" Forum, BUT  would the British tolerate a Kosovan, Rumanian or a Cypriot doing the exactly same thing in the UK?   I don't think so some how

I think the British are very tolerant on the whole of young people having a bit of get up and go, especially where starting up a business is concerned, as long as it's just the start up period, not once the squids start piling up. I'm talking about selling jeans on a market stall or something similar, not dodgy income generators - though I know some people will say if it isn't declared it is dodgy full stop. If this (the example Ron gives from the show) is someone of more mature years, (who is not a 'refugee' of some sort, i.e someone who simply has to use their initiative to get their life going, because their initiative  is all they have), i don't really understand it.

The programmers will stop commissioning these programmes if people stop watching them. But, much as I loathe them, the loathing is one of the reasons why on my two visits to UK I have scoured the TV schedules hoping to catch this sort of programme

[Vraititi<P>PSG till I die -fluctuat nec mergitur.<P>]

I, too, must say that I'm a mug for these programmes (as long as they're not too exaggerately staged, unlike Nippy and Nigel) where achingly clueless Bidochons flout just about every rule in the book and rubbish every sensible piece of advice under the sun, go about their business all guns blazing regardless, never talk to any locals ('foreigners'), are totally oblivious to the charms of their new location, are absurdly unrealistic and spend whole days drinking sangria while making pharaonic plans for their retirement in the sun ! I've tried liking the sensible ex-pats progs but just cannot warm to them. Cannot get enough of my dear Bidochons' progs, j'en raffole ! C'est grave Docteur ?

[bixy]

I think this story is sort of relevant. One time on the Costa something I went into a shop to buy a pair of shorts. Trying to speak a bit of Spanish, I was taken aback when the proprietor said [in English] "I'm sorry, I don't speak Spanish". Evidently he didn't know how to operate the till either because he gave me the shorts for nothing! I wonder how long his business lasted.

Patrick