E Bikers

EDITOR, Just what is the legislation and transport controls applied to these E bikes and bikers?

We have skateboards, Speed,15Km/HR motorised bikes, Speed 15Km/Hr- 30Km/HR motorbikes, Speeds upto 50Km/HR.

Riders aged between 10 and 50.

Scooters, and bikes occupied by 2 to 3 persons not designed for this weight.

Absolutely no compliance whatsoever to operate on our roads to any highway code standard like us licenced vehicle drivers. They can drive up one way streets the wrong way, they can go from footpath across pedestrian crossings and either onto the opposite side of the footpath or onto the road.

They rarely indicate direction of travel, have no means of letting you know as a pedestrian that they are silently coming up behind you which could be life threatening if impacted at 30 Mph.

Hire electric bikes are left stranded all over the place footpaths, fields, in the streets, for days sometimes weeks.

Finally, on one occasion I was forced to swerve almost into a car coming the other way because 2 young kids, the one one the back taking a video with their phone on an E bike thought it was fun to weave in and out of the traffic and clipped an oncoming car nearly throwing them off. The car received some damage and putting on their indicators pulled over to the side. The bikers of course scarpered off. No number plates, no traceability, cost down to the car driver.

Portuguese roads are bad enough to drive on, very little markings on them, especially pedestrian crossings, Give way, Stop, centre lines, etc, many drivers not indicating their intended direction, driving in the wrong lane only to jump in front of you at the last minute, and not adhering to Give way and Stop.

GNR are busy, but Portugal needs to address all these issues, as I see too many accidents on our roads.

by Barrington Thompson, By email

Ordering books

EDITOR, I live in Portugal and have been ordering books from Amazon uk for several years, both for myself and as a teacher of English.

Recently I ordered 4 fiction books and was notified that they would be delivered by a Spanish company paack whereas normally they are delivered by CTT with no problems.

The tracking on paack website said they tried unsuccessfully to deliver on Thursday 14 and Friday 15 August 2025 but no such attempts were made. Finally both Amazon and paack said they would be delivered on Monday 18 August. I waited. When they did not arrive I checked tracking again and was shocked to see them claim that they had delivered when nothing had actually arrived.

Amazon refunded my money on the Wednesday but all attempts to get any real response from paack proved futile.

I managed to download from their website a copy of the proof of delivery which showed a squiggle they accepted as a signature. It was large and illegible whereas mine is small and readable. Copy of the form from them is attached.

I would like you to warn people if they are ordering from Amazon UKto be very wary if goods are being delivered by paack - they do not appear as an international carrier on Amazons website - which appears odd to me.

Although Amazon refunded my money I now feel unable to order my books from them and this makes things difficult for me.

I wonder if maybe you could contact them and ask for their comments?

by Disgruntled Amazon customer, By email

Re: Portuguese Restaurants

EDITOR, Portuguese food,I am a bit to gobsmacked by her comments whilst some food I dislike,I cannot believe her comments ,very sad that she must have stayed in buffet hotels when I go out all the food is freshly cooked unless you go to the big chains,I am eating food I never used to eat,I have family in the USA and they loved the food here especially the flavours they get in Portugal,I have visited USA 100’s of times and do not eat in the big chains.

by CB Albufeira

Re: Portuguese Restaurants

Editor. Regarding the letter from Melissa, USA, she obviously does not go to the places I do where the food is varied and delicious, fresh fish are very much on the menu and there are many very flavourful cheeses. Try São Jorge, Quejo d’Ilha, many of the goats and local cheeses are delicious. Sardines and other fish are often grilled on open barbecues in the street.

If she does not appreciate Portuguese food and traditions, perhaps she should open an American restaurant and run it how she would like it, then let’s see how popular it is before trying to change the way of life that many of us love.

Alternatively, you can always use McDonalds, KFC, and Burger King.....mmm, tasty!!

by Pat Allen, Lagos. By email

Wage share is going down not up

EDITOR, Tony from the USA and his apologia for the decaying model of market economics espoused by Hayek, Smith and Friedman ignores the inconvenient fact that wage share (the proportion of GDP returned to producers as compensation for their labour power) has been steadily reducing across the entire “developed” world for the last 50 years. Profits, naturally, have been going in the other direction over the same period.

This reduction in “a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work” is directly proportionate to the demise of collective bargaining and union influence. So, while Western unions are partly at fault for the commensurate transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich - it’s only because they have not been effective enough at regulating the means of production and rapacious capitalism.

Against that reality, inflation - while admittedly unwelcome - can only be recognised as another means of exploiting the labouring classes in their other guise, and that is the one which Tony would describe as “consumers” .

by Peter Middleman, Quelfes, Olhao By email


Re: Proposal for 6 year period for immigrants to obtain nationality

EDITOR, Would anyone know what “sufficient knowledge of the Portuguese language” means?

by Trevor Roberts, Algarve Via: www.theportugalnews.com

EDITOR, Important, it’s not so much the mandatory residence period, in my opinion, 3-5 years, but rather the knowledge of its principles, values, language, history, culture, and organization. We must not sell/give/abandon our country to those who don’t know Portugal, don’t care about it or just intend to use or destroy Portugal, contradicting its past or have objectives incompatible with the existence, protection, development, and future of Portugal! More, I’m 77 and Portugal is almost 1,000 years old! Portugal is, it could be greater and even more powerful again if we remember ourselves and maintain an active, healthy, and conscientious population who doesn’t continue to ignore their country, our land, our huge maritime resources - the Economic Maritime Zone and “our” extremely vast and rich Extended Continental Economic Platform, the biggest and richest of any European Country except Russia! We can’t continue to ignore our country and ourselves! We can’t continue to transform Portugal in an extension of the Hindustan! Otherwise, bye bye my country, bye bye Portugal!

by A L Fernandes, Via: www.theportugalnews.com

EDITOR, My problem with these proposals is that such civics exams are usually based on a rose-tinted view of the country’s past and present and are basically attempts to get the would-be citizen to regurgitate popular heroic myths. British history is murky and mostly dishonourable as is the history of most of the Europe’s former colonial empires. You can be sure that mentioning the nationalism that’s behind the demand for these exams anywhere on your answer sheet will lead to a “fail”.

by Arthur Scott, Porto, Via: www.theportugalnews.com

Re: Migrants who arrived by boat in the Algarve requesting asylum

EDITOR, Strange, when they arrived, there was a post that the government will send them back because Morocco is a safe country.

by Loes De voogt, Algarve Via: www.theportugalnews.com

EDITOR, Portugal needs to be careful, because it could be seen as a good place to arrive by boat if these people are allowed to stay here with an asylum claim. PT doors could be seen as open for business to other boat arrivals. Morocco is not at war and is perceived as a safe country.

by L, Lisbon Via: www.theportugalnews.com

I would expect someone is running a tally on what this is all costing so these people can reimburse the Portuguese taxpayer.

by Antonio from Algarve

RE: US company investing €200 million in Lisbon

To say that the US is investing here because of the forward thinking and Innovation of the Portuguese is a joke. The Portuguese are none of that. You’re investing because it’s cheaper to hire a developer here than elsewhere.

by Ilze Knight from Algarve

Cheaper? Maybe.

The backbone of any organization is it’s people.

I think it was Cornelius Vanderbuilt who said “If I lost everything but still had my people I could rebuild”.

I think more so than being inexpensive, they feel they can attract and retain quality people here.

Hopefully it will also be an outlet for University graduates and they will be hiring from within Portugal with decent paying jobs.

by j from Algarve

To you foreigners living in Portugal, you moved there because it’s cheaper than other European countries. You comment negatively but look at yourselves.

by Eleanor Pimentel