I like a moan.  There is no denying that.  Read some of my recent rants and you’ll wonder why it is I choose to live in Mallorca at all.

But I do, and for good reason; and although I  may somethimes forget exactly what that reason is, every now and again I get a reminder.  Today, I got that reminder.

Mallorca is expensive, true.  Simply making ends meet can be a struggle.  Food, clothing, electronics, fuel, utilities, boradband internet, furniture; all so overpriced you wonder how it is the offending companies get away with it.  The obvious answer I suspect is simply that they can, owing to chronic lack of competition.  Carefour have a virtual monopoly on the ‘superstore’ grocery market, GESA can charge pretty much what they like, because hey, what are you going to do about it?  Live in the dark?

Politically of course Spain is decidedly to the left of the UK, even the PP support policies that would make your average British conservative feel queasy.  That’s the way it is here.  They tax (boy do they tax) and they spend.  Business bears the brunt of high taxation and naturally does what it has to do which is pass these costs onto the consumer; a situation confounded by the lack of competition referred to above.

Spain, quite simply, is not particularly business friendly and can be outrageously bureaucratic.  Take for example the procedure for starting up a limited company in the UK, and compare it to the procedure for setting up the equivalent here in Spain.  I recently had reason to set up a new UK limited company.  I achieved this, quite literally, in no less than twenty minutes online; and the whole thing set me back £20.00.  Within thirty minutes I had the articles of association emailed from Companies House and I was essentially ready to start trading.

I have never been through the equivalent procedure here; but I have been told that I shouldn’t even think about it.  I have set myself up in business before, as a ‘sole trader’ paying ‘autonomo’ and that procedure was costly and complicated enough.  A ‘limited company’ or ‘S.L.U’ can take weeks, has to go through a Gestor and the cost can run into several thousand euros.  I understand that the whole process has recently been simplified, I’m not sure, but it took an economic downturn like no other in our lifetime to bring about that change.

I find this sort of thing maddening, so too the appallingly slow response by the government to the crisis and what it meant to the tourism industry; so too the poor levels of customer service and surly nature of restauranteurs and shop assistants when dealing with tourists.  There is much that angers me, but the bottom line is I am still here and have no immediate plans to change that fact.

Quality of life.  That is what it comes down to.  I am amazed at how many ex-pats I encounter who left behind their high-paid jobs, swanky four-bedroomed detached homes, in order to come here and pay eight hundred euros a month for a modest two bedroomed apartment which they fund through cleaning holiday homes or working behind a bar.  This scenario I encounter often, and almost without exception it is a scenario the people are perfectly happy with.  Because, they say, “we’re here”.

So what is it about “here”?  Well, quite simply it isn’t “there”, which brings me neatly back to that reminder I told you about.  Here it is:

Read it and weep.

I have a certain connection with the article in that I lived only ten miles from Rugby prior to moving here, so it is an area I know well.  I am willing to accept that the incredibly bleak picture painted by that feature doesn’t tell the full story of life in what many would imagine to be a sleepy Warwickshire market town.  That said, it contains many undeniable truths which lead you to seriously question what the hell is going on back home.

So this is why I choose to live here with my wife and children, and I am sure many of you reading this would concur.  I live in Mallorca, because despite all its faults, there is a lot to be said for living your life free of fear.