Hard times

We complain about the current situation but just look at these fascinating photos from Spain's past posted on Facebook.

 

Teresa wants more trees

 

Necessary measures

 You my ask, "are the precautions being taken here in Spain proportional?"

On the 15th of January the number of cases of coronavirus in Bigastro stood at 268.  Now, just 12 days later, the figure stands at 371 - that is a 38% rise. 

A reminder

 The electricity will be cut off today from 9:00am until 11:30am. 

Further restrictions

Note that both Torrevieja and Orihuela will be closed to traffic leaving or entering between 3pm on Fridays to 6am on Mondays.  

 

Just look at San Fulgencio centre

 

Troubled by wind

Those who live here will know just how windy it was yesterday.

The old cover that we put on the garden furniture was heavy enough to say in place in all but the strongest of winds. The new cover though is not so heavy and so the job today is to drag it back in place. 

I also notice that one of the brolly stands has made its way into the pool. The base should be no problem because it is floating around but the pole has sunk to the bottom of the pool. I'm hoping I can fish it out with my net because  there is no way I am going into that cold water!
 

 

The joys of Brexit

 Smooth, tariff free trade my backside!

Since the 1st January, UK companies can no longer charge VAT on goods ordered to be delivered to EU countries. Instead, it is the courier who will have to collect VAT and any import charges at the time of delivery. Of course, the same applies to UK customers buying goods from the EU. 

I regularly buy art materials from two UK companies; Jackson's Art Supplies who are based in London and Rosemary & Co Artist's Brushes who are based in Yorkshire. 

Jackson's supply possibly the widest range of art materials available online including items of their own brand which are of excellent quality at economical prices.

Rosemary & Co. produce arguably the finest quality handmade brushes at reasonable prices. I've currently got an order for brushes on its way - ordered on the 8th January without VAT. 

My order has been stuck at the Post Office's  Langley international processing centre for a week. I suspect it is the complications arising from Brexit that are holding it up. 

On their website, Rosemary & Co. say, "We have been informed that our EU customers are incurring high VAT rates as well as import duty together with handling and clearing fees ( hidden costs )." They have therefore stopped taking orders for the EU.

I have no idea whether I will be asked to pay extra charges by Correos and if so how much will they be. I am hoping that it will be no more than the VAT I would have paid at the time the order was placed. 

Companies like Rosemary & Co. rely upon trade to other countries, the market in the UK is just not large enough to keep them going. In fact Rosemary's biggest market is the US. 

Cynical Brexiteers tell UK customers , "not to buy goods from the EU, buy British instead." That's akin to asking people to turn their clocks back to a time when Britain made most of what people bought - we've moved on from then. 

Our jabs are on the way

 Spain’s Health Ministry and regional governments are working out the details of the next stage of the coronavirus vaccination campaign. 

If the current pace of delivery keeps up, this new phase could begin in March, although the start date may be pushed forward or back depending on the speed of shipment deliveries and whether new vaccines get approved.

Immunizing healthcare workers is proving to be a fast process, as they are easy to locate, but reaching the general population may prove slower

There are around 6.8 million people over the age of 70 in Spain, although of these, approximately 380,000 live in care homes and are in the process of being inoculated. People included in the next group will be notified by their local healthcare centre for an appointment, and those who are physically unable to go will receive a home visit by a nurse.

To compare the rollout of the vaccine with the UK we have to remember that the the UK has a population of 66.65 million with 8.8m over 70 year olds. Also the policy here is different. Those who have received the first  Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will get the second dose 21 days later. In the UK, people are  only being given one dose on the basis that this will mean more people will get partial immunity. The second dose will be given much later. 

The new rules in Bigastro

 

Is there any good news?

Areas of Britain are on high alert for flooding as Storm Christoph deluges Greater Manchester, Northumberland and Yorkshire. Four 'severe' flood warnings, meaning there is a danger to life, were issued for the River Mersey at Didsbury and Northenden, and in Maghull.

The Manchester Evening News shows the areas of high alert which come pretty close to Sale where our youngest daughter lives. Thankfully, the River Mersey is starting to drop this morning. 

Britain also records a second record day for deaths from coronavius. On the plus side, the number of cases is now dropping thanks to the measures that have been taken.  

Advance notice

Not sure whether this means that electricity will be cut for the whole urbanisation or just Canada Andrea.

 

Tweaking

In response to the increased number of cases of Covid, the rules have been tightened. 

• All bars and restaurants will be closed except for takeaways.  
• All shops must close at 6pm, except those selling food. 
• The 10pm curfew may be changed to an 8pm curfew.  
• All sports centres, except those for professionals, are to be closed. 

Please note that the new  restrictions will be in force for 14 days.

 

Four years ago today

It is hard to believe that it was four years ago that we saw snow on the beaches of Torrevieja and the Orihuela costa. I even went outside and made a video of the snow falling outside our house. Of course the snow did not last long. Almost as soon as it covered the ground, it was gone.

 

From one extreme...

Last week it was bitterly cold - even more so in parts of the interior of Spain that are still at risk of low temperatures. 

 

Warming the night up

We heard the fire engine sirens and then Pam spotted an item on Facebook about the blaze last night.

It was in a palm plantation between Bigastro and Orihuela. Started at 6:09 and took two hours to extinguish. It total 5,000 m2 of palm forest was destroyed. 

Fortunately, no one was injured and none of the nearby houses were affected. 
 

 

Couldn't put it better myself

 Our neighbour, Eladia, posted this on Facebook. If you don't have symptoms, don't go out looking for them and if you do have symptoms don't go out to pass them on. 

Extra precautions

The number of cases of coronavirus have increased in Bigastro to 268 (about 4% of the population*).  Therefore, in addition to the rules set out by Valencia, the town's Sports Centre will be closed from today along with all public parks and games zones.

* Compare that to an estimated 8.7% of the UK. population  and 10% of the population in Spain that have had coronavirus and we are still relatively safe here in Bigastro.  We want to keep that way! 

 

Following on

 As I said yesterday, I believe the key to controlling Covid is for people to be compliant and use common sense.  Nit-picking about whether you can exercise for half an hour or an hour, whether you can cycle for two miles or twenty and whether you can stop and take refreshments is counter productive. 

Since March, we have been required to wear face masks when out in public and when in shops. I would say that, almost without exception, people here comply. You may find the odd person whose mask has slipped below their nose which they will pull up when asked. 

Glancing at the Daily Mail this morning, I spotted an article about how the supermarkets in England were cracking down on shoppers, requiring them to wear a mask. SAGE have identified that shops are a major source of transmission of the virus. 

According to the article, many shoppers in the UK are unwilling to comply and guards are not enforcing the rule. Assistants who ask shoppers to mask up are facing abuse. 

The article shows many photos of shoppers NOT wearing masks. 

Following on from my comments yesterday, should people have to be made to wear masks? There are no guards outside shops in Spain and yet shoppers comply without question. 

It is almost as if a section of the English population are determined to challenge every rule made, keen to find every loophole they can to defy the law and thwart every attempt to control the spread of the virus. 

I am no great fan of the UK Government who I believe have made a great many mistakes dealing with coronavirus. That is no excuse though for people to just ignore their advice. In the end, it is the people pulling together, applying common sense. that will defeat this virus, not a handful of Ministers in Whitehall. 

Note to the lady in the following photos: none of us find wearing a mask comfortable. With the wrong mask, my glasses steam up making it difficult to see. If it really is a problem for you, buy a face visor and wear that instead. My mask protects you and yours protects me. 

This lady, who identified herself as Gladys, told the guard her mask was in her bag. 

She put the mask on but then pulled it down to her chin saying is was uncomfortable.
As far as she was concerned, she was still wearing her mask - REALLY!
As one reader commented, hopefully Gladys did not apply the same logic to birth control. 

 

We shouldn't need to be told

 The message worldwide has been clear since last March - the only way to halt this virus is to stop its transmission. That means only making necessary social contacts and keeping a safe distance when you do come into contact with others. It isn't rocket science. The fact that you do not have symptoms does not mean you are not infected and if you are infected then for sure you are passing it on to everyone  else you are in contact with.  

In the first months, people were very wary. They would queue outside shops, only enter when numbers were low and avoid others by choosing empty aisles. Although going out for exercise was encouraged, people chose to either exercise in their own garden or locally. 

As summer came, people felt emboldened. Beaches in England were crowded as were bars that offered take way drinks. There was even a Government scheme to encourage people to eat out. 

Then the Universities opened and new students crowded the streets of cities eager to get their "fresher" experience. Social distancing went out the window. 

The scientists then warned of a second wave but people didn't believe them. By this stage, they had been peddled so many lies and seen so many U turns on policy. 

In Britain, they were first told that it would all be over in 12 weeks, then it would be over by Christmas and by the way, families could mix freely for five days over the Christmas period. 

Now Britain is in crisis. Hospitals are full, ambulances wait outside with patients that need urgent care. The death toll is frightening. By now, most people will know of at least one person who has suffered with Covid and sadly too many will know of someone who has died. 

In response, more and more restrictions have been imposed but large numbers have decided to ignore them. The police have been criticised for being heavy handed with fines but that are they meant to do when people refuse to accept that they are in the wrong and comply? 

Over the weekend, locals here flocked to the interior of Alicante to see the snow. The roads were dangerous, some were blocked and they risked spreading more Covid to innocent people. What were they thinking of?

In truth, we should not need fines and  enforcements, common sense should tell people that the only way to stay safe and keep other safe is to follow the rules - Stay at home, protect the Health Service and save lives - maintain a social distance from others and if you can't at least wear a mask. By all means take exercise but stay local.  Let's not pretend that, now there is a vaccine on the way, all will be well - that is for the future. 

 

We needed rain

 

And we certainly got it!

Stay in your house!

 

Of course, snow is such a novelty here in Southern Spain that people want to go out and photograph it and even just see it. 

Unfortunately there are several reasons you should not do that. 

1. There is ice on the roads making driving tricky if not dangerous. . 

2. Some roads are blocked.

3. Most important - we are in new restrictions for Covid and there are new cases daily.  

The new rules

1. You must stay within the Valencia region.

2. You must not be outside after 10pm. 

3. Bars and restaurants must close at 5pm and there must be no more that 4 people to a table. 

4. You are not allowed to smoke  at bars even on outside terraces. 

5. Shops must reduce numbers inside to 30% capacity and supermarkets etc to 50% capacity. 

6. Family and social groups must be limited to a maximum of 6. 

Timely advice

 

Can we have our heating allowance back?

 When we were buying our house in Spain, we took particular note of the weather graphs. From the data, it was clear that although summers were going to be hot, winters should be mild. Most years that has proved to be correct. 

However, this year has been different. Yes it was hot during the summer and we counted the blessings of having air conditioning. The winter started out mild, too mild but that did not last. Now it is bloody cold. 

For a time, we did get a Winter Heating Allowance but that stopped when it was decided that our winters were not cold enough to warrant an allowance. 

Feel the love

 Following in her parent's footsteps, our eldest daughter is a teacher - in her case Nursery. She also happens to be the Union Rep for her school. 

Her school is due to open its doors for the Spring Term tomorrow but her Union instructs Jemma and her colleagues to exercise their right not to work in an unsafe environment. 

Like London, the Midlands is in Tier 4, an area where infection rates are high and tough restrictions are in place. Gavin Williamson  first delayed the start of term for Primary Schools in certain boroughs of London and then, in a characteristic U turn, closed them all.  

However,  no such decision was made for Primary Schools in other Tier 4 areas. Johnson says he is confident that schools are safe places for children and staff. In that case, why are all schools in London closed and why not in other areas?

As one reader of the Independent writes:

Yet another huge mistake by the totally failed, totally incompetent, totally unfit for purpose, lying, cheating, fraudulent, morally and economically bankrupt, Gavin Williamson. Who has a track record of saying one thing one day and the next day doing a pathetic u turn the next. 

It also gives the electorate further evidence that Bunter De Pfeffel Buffoon and his rabid cabal of jingoistic incompetents decision making is not and never has been lead by and based on the advice of their scientific advisors on the SAGE committee.

Williamson, who unfortunately shares my surname, should have been sacked after the exam fiasco but,  like many of Johnson's cabinet, he was forgiven for making mistakes.

What to do?  It would be highly irresponsible to allow parents to bring their children to school tomorrow only for the Headteacher to turn them away. In spite of comments by some readers of right wing newspapers, teachers are not all left wing, lazy, uncaring snowflakes. Most are hard working, dedicated professionals for whom teaching is a vocation. 

The "me" generation

 It is true that there has always been a gap between the young and old generations but today it seems wider than ever. 

I read this morning about an illegal rave in France with 2,500 partygoers. It started on Thursday and is still going on.  Attendees clashed with police, setting fire to a car and throwing objects at officers attempting to shut the event down. 

No doubt, this was not the only rave that took place over the festive season and it is likely that France was not the only country facing this problem. 

Once it became clear that younger people would be the ones least affected by coronavirus, many have decided that the strict rules meant to curb transmission do not apply to them. It is their right to go out and enjoy themselves whatever the consequences may be for others.  Look at the graph below that shows infections in Spain and you can see which age groups are most at risk 20 - 59 with the 40 - 49s showing the largest numbers. 

Whilst the young may survive an infection with few problems, the older,  more vulnerable, will not as the second graph shows. 

The Covid vaccine here in Spain

 Taken from El Pais

When and how will Spain’s healthcare centres start to offer appointments for vaccinations?

Sunday saw the start of the first phase of the vaccination plan, which covers residents of care homes and their carers, and will continue with healthcare workers and adults with major dependencies. This first phase, which will see approximately 2.5 million people given the vaccine, will last around three months. Once it is over, it will be the turn of the next group, although the Spanish government is yet to confirm who this will include. The most likely approach will be the over-64s and the chronically ill. While the plans for this phase are yet to be confirmed, it is expected that these people will be given appointments via their primary healthcare centres. “Citizens will be given a citation, according to the risk group to which they belong, to attend their healthcare centre,” explained Health Minister Salvador Illa on Sunday. “It is voluntary and free. It is an act that will benefit both the person who receives the vaccine and the collective.”

Who is considered to be a dependent?

According to the Health Ministry’s vaccination strategy, this group includes people considered major dependents (grade III) according to the Dependency Law of 2006, those who have requested recognition as such and those who are yet to do so but are accredited medically to have an illness that requires intense support measures during their day-to-day lives, whether or not they are institutionalized. “The vaccination will take place as soon as possible, taking into account the characteristics of storage and usage of the available vaccines,” the ministry strategy adds. “Personnel who professionally care for these people with a major dependency will be able to get vaccinated during the same visit.”

What happens for those people with private health insurance?

The vaccination will be free and will be administered by the National Health System in the order that the Health Ministry establishes.

What measures must be followed when the vaccine is received?

In principle, the same as those being observed until now, until there is a sufficient amount of the population vaccinated so that herd immunity is reached. This is estimated to be about 70% of the population. While it is known that the vaccine is highly effective at avoiding the development of Covid-19, it is not yet so clear up to which point it avoids the spread of the virus. This means that it is possible that a person who has been vaccinated could still spread the virus while asymptomatic and thus become a vector for transmission.

When will enough people in Spain be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity?

As time passes, more vaccines will arrive – not just from Pfizer, but also, most likely, from other manufacturers too. While the initial rhythm is expected to be around 350,000 injections a week, as more and more pharmaceutical firms get approval for their vaccines this number is likely to rise. The Health Ministry calculates that between May and June around 20 million people will be vaccinated and that by the end of the summer a sufficient percentage of the population will be immunized in order to reach herd immunity.

How will people who have been vaccinated be monitored?

All citizens who receive the vaccine will get a vaccination card that will include the kind of immunization that has been administered as well as the batch number, the date the first dose was delivered and the planned date for the second injection. The card will also contain contact details should there be a suspected adverse reaction as well as a phone number to call should there be any side effects not included in the prospectus. This is the start of what is known as Phase 4 of the clinical trial. In the previous stage the frequent side effects – such as fatigue, tiredness, fever the next day – were found to affect at most one in every 30,000 people. But to detect rarer effects, those that manifest in one case per 100,000 or 1,000,000, the vaccine will be monitored as it is administered in the population. Also, more precise data will be collected on population groups that was not possible during the first trials. This will be done via the primary healthcare system using a centralized database in each region, and will be connected to a national and European system.

A novel solution

For years now, there has been talk of how to improve the flow of traffic between Orihuela and the coast via the CV 95. There have been plans to build a motorway with tolls, a dual carriageway and of course various routes have been discussed. 

The latest plan is to build a 23km tunnel for both vehicles and trains. The starting point will be the train/bus station in Orihuela and on the coast there will be four routes to the coastal towns. It is also planned to have two intermediate stops at Jacarilla and San Miguel de la Salinas.  

Building a tunnel, it is said, avoids all the problems of environmental impact and procurement of land. 
 

Current rules

 These are the restrictions to be implemented in the Valencia Region from Monday 21st December 2020.

Curfew will commence at 11 p.m. except for Christmas's Eve and New Year's Eve when it will commence at midnight.

Social gatherings are limited to 6 people.

Social gatherings on bank holidays are also limited to 6 people and maximum two groups of people living under the same roof.

Social gatherings amongst friends are not permitted during the Christmas period.

Access to the Valencia Region will remain very restricted until January the 15th 

Can we trust them?

 During the emergency news conference last night, Grant Shapps said that earlier in the day there were 500 lorries queued on the M20 and that had reduced to 170. According to Kent police there were 900 and the Home Secretary admitted to Radio 4 that there were 650 lorries on the M20 and 873 at nearby Manston Airport. 

Johnson was unable to answer questions about the issue, instead he told the nation that he'd had a good conversation with the French President who he said was celebrating his birthday. He said that the problem would be resolved within a matter of hours but the lorries are outside the port that is still closed this morning. 

People are advised that there is no need for panic buying so guess what they will be doing this morning. 

In relation to Brexit, the Prime Minister said that talks were still ongoing, that a no deal was looking most likely. It wasn't what he wanted but Britain would still "prosper mightily" if a no deal was the outcome. 

Johnson reiterated his promise that Coronavirus would be beaten by Easter saying that half a million people had been given the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. 

Of course, Britain has heard so many promises that have been broken, trust in Johnson is waning thin. Coronavirus was obviously not his fault and you could argue that he has done what he believed was right to deal with it. His optimism was the appeal that got him elected. However, that needs to be tempered with reality. Can you imagine his hero, Churchill telling the nation that the Second World War would end in six months? 

Covidiots

 Governments have to rely on compliance by people sticking to the guidelines. Whilst nobody wants to endure restrictions, particularly at Christmas, it is the only way that we are ever going to reduce transmission of Covid virus and bring the number of cases down. 

This article from Sky News highlights the problem. 

Police in Tier 2 York say they have seen huge numbers of people travelling to the city's pubs from neighbouring Tier 3 locations, in a clear breach of the guidelines. 

In a statement aimed at people "flouting the regulations", North Yorkshire Police said they had handed out more than 160 tickets over the weekend after making visits to licensed premises. 

Superintendent Mike Walker said: "Where we encounter people who refuse to adhere to the regulations and believe their pint is more important than someone's life, we will use our enforcement powers.

"Some people who were spoken to by officers did go home. However, our teams encountered large numbers of people who were not responsive to the advice, leaving us no option but to enforce through the use of fixed penalty notices."

Mr Walker added: "If you choose to visit the city of York from Tier 3 areas without a justifiable reason to have made your journey, with our extra patrols, chances are you will encounter one of our officers and you'll be asked about the reason for your visit."

Britain in crisis

Britain is facing what the Americans call a 'perfect storm'. 

The port of Dover is completely shut. Normally, tens of thousands of lorries would travel through the port on the run up to Christmas carrying stocks of food etc. 

France has imposed a 48 hour ban on traffic from the UK because of the rapid spread of the new variant of Covid 19 in the South. There were more than 35,000 new cases in the country yesterday, the largest number recorded during the pandemic and almost double the number a week ago. 

Other European countries will likely follow France's lead leaving no route for goods to and from the UK.

Add to this, the Post Office is overloaded with Christmas parcels that it simply can't deliver. This is all adding up to a pretty bleak Christmas. 

If that was not enough, Britain is due to leave the transition period on the 31st with or without a deal.  Either way will create problems but  of the two, a no deal Brexit would be worse especially coming  on top of those caused by Covid. 

So, realistically Johnson desperately needs some sort of deal. However, if he caves in and accepts the EU terms, then he is doomed. He needs to make a decision soon and whatever he decides will not be popular.   

  

Remember him?

The former mayor of Bigastro for 25 years, José Joaquín Moya (PSPV-PSOE), is back in court accused of keeping 70,000 euros of public money, The prosecution are seeking 6 years in prison for Moya and 3 years 9 months for the former auditor, Antonio Saseta Maure,

The lawyer for the private prosecution by Bigastro city council, Marcos Sánchez Adsuar, says that the former mayor and the former auditor signed income orders where, in the end, there was a difference in money between what the businessman paid to the consistory and what actually reached the municipal coffers.

He has pointed out that there are two or three more similar cases that will soon be tried with the former mayor and the former auditor as defendants, for similar sales of land from partial plans where the misappropriation of public money is being investigated.

Moya was socialist mayor of Bigastro between 1983 and 2008, the year in which he was forced to resign due to a case of urban corruption, for which he ended up going to prison. The Anticorruption prosecutor reports that the defendants kept part of the money that a company paid to the council during the processing of the auction of a 30,000 square metre plot of land in the municipality.

The City Council offered the plot in February 2007 and awarded it in March of that same year for 2,250,000 euros to a company that paid the amount in several payments, some of which were in cash that did not reach the municipal coffers. Specifically, the two defendants are accused of keeping 26,000 euros that the company gave them in January 2007 to participate in the auction and another 44,440 euros that the successful bidder gave them in March of the same year.  

We heard that

 Didn't feel anything move but we heard a sound like a lorry rumbling out in the street. 

Yet another 'benefit' of Brexit

 British holidaymakers will be barred from the European Union from 1 January under current Covid-19 safety restrictions, with the EU commission indicating there will be no exemption for the UK.

Only a handful of countries with low coronavirus rates are exempt from rules that prohibit nonessential visitors from outside the EU and European Economic Area (EEA) – with the UK included only until the end of the Brexit transition period.

Within the EEA, or Schengen-associated states, Norway has also confirmed it will bar UK visitors from 1 January, according to the Financial Times.

The imminent bracketing of British tourists with those of other non-EU countries such as Albania and Turkey underlines the potential impact of a no-deal Brexit. EU member states can override the European council recommendations in theory, should they wish to .

It comes and blows

 

This is the plan

 

Do they have a clue?

 In Britain, pubs in areas that are designated Tier 2, will be able to serve alcoholic drinks if they accompany a "substantial meal". That begs the question about what constitutes a substantial meal. 

There have also been questions asked about how much alcohol you can order with your meal and whether you can continue to drink after your meal is finished. 

Speak to different Ministers and you get different answers. Apparently a sandwich could be considered substantial if it is served with pickles and beetroot*. A pork pie though is not considered sufficient, nor is a sausage roll but according to George Eustace a scotch egg would count if it was served to a table. No surprise there since Eustace owns a farm which produces scotch eggs. However, Michael Grove disagreed. He said even two scotch eggs would not count and then changed his mind a few hours later.

Meantime,  Robert Jenrick, says a pasty on its own doesn't count as a 'substantial meal' unless it is served with chips or salad. Of course, you don't have to actually eat the salad - just order it and leave it on the plate and that will be fine. 

Today, MPs will vote on the revised Tier System which replaces lockdown with a further lockdown for 99% of the country. It is thought that there could be large numbers of Tory rebels who will vote against the measures and that Johnson will only win because Labour has decided to abstain. The rebels demanded an assessment of the economic impact of the restrictions but none was forthcoming. 

* The 1965 case of Timmis v Millman, found that a sandwich only counts as a meal if 'accompanied by beetroot and pickles'.