Interesting Times

El País in English is just one of many sources that announces triumphantly that ‘Spain plans to grant residency to 400,000 Britons if there is a hard Brexit’, and, like most of the Britons resident in Spain, we at Business over Tapas are very grateful for this. It is indeed a fine thing when the Spanish authorities appear to care for us more than the British ones do.

There’s a catch though.

It comes in the second headline: ‘The contingency plan underscores that concessions will depend on securing similar treatment for Spaniards living and working in the UK’.

Will the UK allow the Europeans to continue living and working in the UK, much as before? Well, no. That was part of the thrust of the Brexit – to make it difficult, uncomfortable and even threatening for Europeans and other foreigners to stay in the United Kingdom (unless, of course, they were very wealthy).

If the British do go with a Hard Brexit in a few short weeks from now, and they do react against the Spaniards living there – said to be around 150,000 – then even if the Spanish authorities were feeling lenient towards the Britons living in this wonderful country, who knows what the next Government (elections in April) will think and, furthermore, what will the Spaniards themselves have to say as their white-faced friends and relatives begin to arrive in the Madrid and Barcelona airports?