Your good health, Sr Puig
Out of the chaos and disorder which Brexit is generating, British people living in the Valencia region were finally able to breathe a little easier this week.
The affirmations by president of the Valencia region Ximo Puig that – ‘no British person is going to lose their condition of resident in respect of their basic right to healthcare’ and ‘I can guarantee that they will get universal healthcare’ – will have settled a few nerves, particularly amongst elderly and vulnerable people.
The statement from Sr Puig, which came in a long press conference in Alicante this week following a Brexit ‘summit’ with regional business leaders and politicians, is certainly worthy of comment.
This first thing that I would note is that it is significant that the first real ‘guarantee’ over Britons’ rights in a post-Brexit world has come from a Spanish politician. For more than twoand-a-half years British people who live in Europe have been asking for their rights to ringfenced and taken out of the equation in the negotiations so we don’t become ‘bargaining chips’. But this never happened. It has taken the intervention of Ximo Puig to give us our first tangible success in this horrible mess which was created back in June, 2016.
The casual observer might pose the question, is Sr Puig the only one who cares? The British government and EU negotiators could have definitively resolved these issues a long time ago – but chose not to offer any guarantees. The result has been that many British people have upped sticks and moved out back to the UK, driven by fear. Many of these people would not have wanted to go back. Let’s face it, would you want to live in postBrexit Britain? However, they have had their lives turned upside down and have sold up.
Something else which came across in the words of Sr Puig was a genuine affection for British people.
He said: “Their homes are here and they can consider themselves to be Valencians.”
This is significant on many levels. First of all it is very good at the moment for Britons living in Spain to ‘feel the love’. Despite the enormous problems that our country has caused through the vote to leave the EU – the huge amount of time that is now being ‘wasted’ by the Valencians in having to plan to try to get their products (fruit, vegetables and other goods) to the UK, amongst other issues – Sr Puig was still able to offer us affection. He confirmed that we are still welcome here and – more than that – we are ‘one of them’. This contrasts violently with the attitude of many Britons living in the UK, where immigrants like us have been treated despicably by bigoted and racist people.
With so many reports coming out the UK of attacks on ‘foreigners’ and of the abuse which has been directed against European residents, it would be easy to imagine a backlash against Britons living in Europe. In fact, listening to radio talk shows here about Brexit, it is possible to discern an anti-British feeling amongst some of the callers who are fed up of the antics of Little Britain-ers. However, our president in the Valencia region hasn’t allowed himself to be affected.
Another point which I have already touched on is the waste of Brexit. Sr Puig was in Alicante this week trying to organise for the eventual withdrawal of the UK from the EU when clearly his time could be better spent on bigger issues. And this is another tragedy of Brexit. It is monopolising everything. The world is getting warmer, frontline public services are not improving – but rather than directing resources at these things which really matter, Brexit is eating up the time, energy and funds of government departments.
Sr Puig is having to work on measures to ensure that exports from the region can still reach the UK – one of the most important markets for local produce. When doing this you can be sure that he won’t be contracting a company which has no ferries or boats to ship the goods across to Blighty.
Not surprisingly Sr Puig wants the ‘least Brexit possible’. Yet again it takes a Spanish politician to direct some sanity into the debate. With only six weeks left until the ‘big day’, we can only hope that others will be reading his script.