Thursday, May 31, 2018

An EU jawbreaker

Visiting a friend of a friend in Portugal, I admired his classic 1970s Triumph Stag.

(A bit like this)


He then explained that the Government had tried to charge him € 58,000 for registering it in Portugal. You can buy a house for that - even two - in some rural areas.

Apparently this sort of thing is illegal under EU law (a case where most of us would agree).

So the EU fines Portugal every year for doing it.

But not enough. Portugal is happy to pay the fine every year, because the swindle is so lucrative.

EU happy, Portugal happy.

It's a gobstopper of a problem, though - less EU, or more?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobstopper

2 comments:

James Higham said...

Live in beautiful Britain.

wiggiatlarge said...

Nice car to look at and on papaer, but why such a disaster has become a classic I do not know, the engine problems from the start were endless.

https://www.raccars.co.uk/news/the-highs-and-lows-of-the-triumph-stag

I personnaly knew two people who purchased this car new, both had replacement engines fitted as head gaskets blew owing to water heat problems warping cylinder heads, they also had suspension problems, and many were fitted with Ford V6 engines and gearboxes to keep them running, sadly this was the British automobile industry at its worst time, total rubbish.

They should stay in Portugal !