Our Spanish survey says!

This poll published last week and reported in The Times newspaper (so it must be true - mustn’t it!) reports that 47 per cent of Spaniards said they agreed or strongly agreed that - “ A person can have two or more sexual relationships at the same time” even if the chap involved, like me, has lower-back-pain issues. These findings may raise eyebrows in Britain and amongst the reliably dull-as-ditchwater and sexually repressed British expatriate community on the island. Indeed, it seems that Spanish folk have always thought us Brits to be associated with excessive ‘pudor’ - or prudishness. This is not to say that Spanish tolerance of the idea of polyamory (otherwise known as - putting it about a bit) does not mean that they practice this rather vulgar custom themselves.

In fact nothing could be further from the truth it seems; so you do have to ask yourself - why is it then that so many Spanish people appear to be so keen on supporting a lifestyle that only 0.5 per cent of the population admit to being actively involved in? Funnily enough, this was not the only Spanish based survey that was published in the British press over the past week or so. The other one I’m referring too is all about the fact that Spain of all European nations has more of its young people (of working age) living at home with their parents than any other country. In fact the percentage of young people still living at home in Spain topped 46 per cent which is 14.4 per cent higher than the European average. Part of the explanation for these facts is that Spain has among the highest rates of unemployed young people in the EU and therefore they can hardly be expected to buy or rent a home of their own. If you put these hard facts alongside the undoubted (for me!) truth that Spanish young people don’t seem to have the same desire to live in their own home (flat or bedsit) then perhaps it isn’t any wonder that ‘home is where the heart is’ especially if regular all-year-round work is almost impossible to come-by for that person.

Funnily enough, it seems that young Spanish women are more likely to seek accommodation away from the family unit than their brothers. Recently the Socialist led government of Pedro Sanchez has prioritised the cost of housing as well as political measures enabling young people to leave home in an affordable manner. Last year it apparently announced monthly payments of 250 euros for youngsters on low incomes to help them pay their rent. Unhappily, critics of the scheme suggest that the move could push rental prices even higher. Depressingly perhaps, in a highly commercial and cut-throat market that was always going to be the case perhaps.