Over 70€ a head spent on the Christmas lottery
The average Spaniard spent 71€ on the lottery this Christmas, with northerners splashing out the most, statistics reveal.
In the small Pyrenéen region of La Rioja, this rises to 106€, and in the central region of Castilla y León, 102€. People in Asturias, Aragón, Madrid and the Basque Country are predicted to spend 96, 91, 86 and 85 euros on tickets respectively.
Residents in the Comunidad Valenciana spent 80€ – four décimos – a head, with those in Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Murcia, Galicia and Catalunya spending 77, 74, 72 and 70 euros respectively. People living on Spain's islands – the Balearics and Canaries – only spent around 40€ or 45€ a head, but this is still two décimos per person. Andalucía, Extremadura and Navarra will fall somewhere in the middle.
The largest lottery of the year, the El Gordo draw at Christmas saw multi-million-euro prizes handed out across the country. With one décimo, or tenth of a ticket, costing 20€ and worth a record 400,000€ in prize money this year, the recession and the chances of netting big money are expected to push people into ploughing more money than ever into the lottery this Christmas.
Protest over foreign office 'abuse and discrimination'
Thousands of charities, unions, solicitors and political groups will staged a protest march in front of the foreign office in Almería over the 'mass' refusal to issue permits.
With a high percentage of residents in the province being from outside Spain, those affected call foreign office staff's attitude 'abusive, unjust and chaotic'. Non-EU citizens can, by law, obtain permanent residence rights if they are able to provide a 'social report', proof that they are settled in the country – such as a mortgage – together with a job contract, census certificate, and the absence of any criminal record.
Around 30 different associations in the province say that nearly every application is put on the 'suspicious pile' before being turned down 'for any tiny motive' and that the small percentage of permits issued are then cancelled three days later by the foreign office. They say this behaviour means companies and employers are forced to break the law by employing foreign citizens without residence rights, 'despite their desire, in most cases, to comply with the rules'. This, they say, is harmful to the economy, since there are thousands of residents in the province who cannot pay their taxes, and numerous employers who have no choice but to pay workers 'on the black' and are unable to give them job contracts. It also means that each time a person is denied a residence permit, they have to go to the expense and time of applying for another one, which will probably also be rejected.
Spain lags behind the rest of the EU in Technology use
Spain is way behind the remainder of Europe in terms of technology, with only a third of the population, on average, having embraced the digital age. Only just over four in 10 people have their own computer – or 43.4 per cent of the country's headcount – and less than three in 10, or 29.5 per cent, use social networks such as Facebook. On average, throughout the EU, eight in 10 people have a computer and 32.6 per cent use social networking sites.
Buying online is still a relatively foreign concept in Spain, claims the survey, which was carried out by the University of Navarra business school and the Latin American Business Centre. The average person in Spain spends 342€ a year in internet purchases, whilst the European average is 431€.
Spain leads growth in Europe for mobile phone use, with an average of 1.13 handsets per person, only slightly lower than the EU average of 1.23, but representing a rise of 1.4 per cent compared to the overall figure for the continent of a decrease of 0.4 per cent.
Surprisingly, the same study found that over 100 million people in Europe – the equivalent of more than double the population of Spain – has never used the internet.
Public holidays to fall on Mondays only
Spain's president-to-be has announced that he will move bank holidays to a Monday in Spain and cut out the traditional puente, whereby some workers get the day off in between where a holiday falls mid-week.
Mariano Rajoy believes it will increase productivity without reducing the number of days workers in Spain get a rest. The only ones he will leave on the day they fall are those that are 'the most socially deep-rooted', such as Christmas Day and New Year's Day. He states that any proposed labour reform should encourage out-of-court settlement of disputes and 'fluid' working relations, as well as promoting the 'right to permanent training'.
Valencia-Madrid high-speed train is 'great for business' but 'too expensive for tourists'
A year on from the opening of the high-speed train route from Valencia to Madrid has been 'great for business' but 'no good for tourism' says Valencia's main hostelry federation, the FEHV.
Its spokesman, Vicente Pizcueta, says the RENFE needs to make more of an effort to get passengers on seats, starting with its price structure and timetables. Between 10.00 and 12.40, there are no trains, whereas in the morning they leave on the hour. An economy seat is 79€ one-way, or 143€ in first class. For businesspeople travellling to conferences or meetings, the ability to get to the capital in the morning and be home by lunchtime is invaluable, and they can claim the cost of their ticket on expenses. For a family of four going out for the day or for a weekend, the ticket cost is a minimum of 320€ each way.
The RENFE website does not make it clear that the Joaquín Sorolla RENFE station in Valencia – from which the trains leave – is not the same as the Joaquín Sorolla metro station. The metro is a 10- or 15-minute walk from the RENFE station, and there are no signposts.
FEHV admits that its profits have gone up by between five and 10 per cent since more people from Madrid – nearly all on business – are spending a night in a hotel in Valencia.
Dad-of-two pays traffic fine in one-cent coins
A 35 year old father of two has paid a recent traffic fine in coins of one, two and five cents in protest over the way he was treated by civil servants.
Daniel Hidalgo, from Murcia, who has been unable to find a job for months but carries out part-time freelance work for Vega Media Press, received a 200€ fine for allegedly jumping a red light. If the money was paid before December 1, the amount would have been reduced to 100€, but he missed the deadline due to ill health.
Daniel took two 50€ notes to the ministry of traffic in Murcia, together with a note from his doctor to prove he had been unwell and unable to pay the fine before December 1. However, the employee dismissed this and told him 'the law is the law' and ordered him to pay 200€.
Furious, Daniel went to the bank and had 200€ changed into 'shrapnel' totalling 15,000 coins and weighing nearly seven kilos, presenting them at the traffic department just minutes before closing time at 15.00hrs. When employees told him they would have to take the money to the bank to be counted and would contact him with a payment demand if the amount was insufficient, Daniel refused to hand over the cash and insisted they count it in front of him, saying he did not trust them.
"I understand that they're a load of jobsworths, but I know perfectly well that if one of their friends or family members had been in an identical situation, they'd have let them off with the 100€ fine," Daniel stated. |
