September. Conference season. Liberals in Bournemouth, Labour in Brighton, Tories in Manchester and the Government in the dock. The `Operation Yellowhammer` papers predict traffic chaos and post-Brexit shortages when finally prized out of The Gover`s hands. “We will secure a deal by October seventeenth”. Or will we?
Anne Hernandez and Richard Hill, together with 5 other representatives from Facebook Group Brexpats In Spain, travelled up to the British Embassy in Madrid last Thursday, September 19th to meet with Stephen Barclay, the Secretary Of State For Exiting The EU.
Whilst this meeting applies to expats living in Spain, the information is relevant in many ways to all British Citizens in EU27.
Recess but no respite. Deal or no deal? Brexit is all-pervasive. Those who demonstrated monumental disloyalty to Mrs. May now demand loyalty themselves. There is half- hearted shuttle diplomacy between London, Berlin, Paris and Dublin in the run up to the G7 summit in Biarritz. The Number Ten spin machine holds out hope of a deal while different noises emanate from Europe.
July. All change in Downing Street, Whitehall and Her Majesty`s Representative at the Court of King Tramp. Tory Leadership candidates discover Red Jerry`s Magic Money Tree and spending promises are the order of the day. “If you cannot convince a voter, buy one”. As 0.2% of the electorate choose the interim Prime Minister of the United Kingdom the question remains: will there be another General Election in the Autumn?
The British and Portuguese Governments have signed a bilateral agreement in Lisbon today that secures the rights of Portuguese citizens in the UK and British citizens in Portugal, to stand and vote in local elections in each other’s countries after the UK leaves the EU. This was signed by Lord Callanan, UK Minister of State at the Department for Exiting the EU, and by PT State Secretary for European Affairs, Dra Ana Paula Zacarias, in the presence of the Minister for Internal Administration, Dr Eduardo Cabrita.
Last week in Loulé, at a meeting of NERA, the regional employers association, the urgent need to retrain workers and bosses was highlighted. Automation and digitalization is coming. We need to retrain some 30,000 of them. Thus we need updated teachers.
For 60 years, universities have been publishing methods to improve the qualification of teachers. Unlike Portugal, almost all civilized countries delegate primary and often secondary education to regional or local level. Part of the programme is also flexible, since good teaching starts from students’ real world to the abstract, from the specific to the generic. In the USA, counties offer or control primary and high-school.
Four years ago I published for the first time that Portugal would be the gateway for terrorists in the EU. I do not have a crystal ball. It is historical and logical. Earlier, in 2005, I published in ‘Barlavento’ that we would have a crisis in 2009 - writes Jack Soifer.
The accident in Funchal was a terrorist act, perhaps by one person. The organization behind it does not want to reveal itself. Leaving doubts requires more work from intelligence agencies - and it creates interest among extremists.
There is no fair taxation. The more profit they have, the less tax is paid by giga corporations. Almost all have cartels and dominate the market in the EU and Portugal; they pay only 2%-5% through tax havens.
In 2012, the European Parliament presented proposals to reduce this tax evasion. Brussels did nothing. Lux Leaks detailed the evasion in 2014. To compensate for this fraud, governments tax us more.
