Spain owns half of London
Usually everybody complain about foreign investors buying properties and industries in Spain, saying they are going to dismantle the economical structures in Spain, blablah. The funny part here is that actually there are lots of businesses ran by Spanish entities here in London. Let's start with the most stunning of all: abbey bank. This one has recently been bought by Santander Central Hispano, a very well known bank in Spain, and they have given to it their own branding. It still surprises me when I see the flame icon in the middle of London streets!!
Also, an spanish enterprise (I don't remember the name) maintains several tube lines. That is, Jubilee and Northern Line. And another one which I don't remember now too (this is beginning to be a problem!). Casually, the Northern Line is known to have lots of problems with the infrastructure works and maintenance, having lots of delays and not been improved on time. Even more, they said they would have to close part of the line during some months to be able to finish everything just before it is too late. This is because usually maintenance works are done at night, when the tube is not working. But they are so delayed that they need the whole day, not only some hours at night. This news, of course, produced lots of agitated words in most of the newspapers here, blaming the managers of Northern Line!
We have discovered today the funniest part of all, while doing some shopping at primark. This is a big shop which has lots of clothes at a good price. Hence there's always full of people. You know how people react when something is very cheap! It's like being always on the sales season.
And I was holding a product in my hand while waiting for paying in the long queue, and a bit bored, turned it and then found something written in spanish on the label. Uh? What is this? We started looking at all labels of every product we had on sight, and they were all in spanish. It's even funnier than going to Zara... here the ownage is hidden! So, almost half of London is wearing clothes made in Spain, more concretely in Madrid. And they were worried about clothes industry in Spain! Hah! They just need to stablish themselves in another country, they don't even need to say where do they come from!
And I am pretty sure there are lots more examples like these ones!