Xircal

7 hours ago, Morch said:

 

Err...no.

 

Turkey shot down a Russian bomber. The Russians reacted by placing restrictions on Turkish exports (yes, including vegetables) & tourism (that is, Russian tourism in Turkey), and putting a huge question mark over supply of Russian gas to Turkey (previously agreed on at very competitive price). The end result was that Turkey, after much bolstering and posturing - caved in, and promised to behave. No further incidents after that.

 

The "comparison" provided is pretty much irrelevant (and inaccurate). The Russians got a very solid hold in Syria, with some serious air defenses which would challenge any Western attempt to ground Russian airplanes. The US does not have the means to decidedly counter the Russian setup, at least not without it getting very messy. Further, the US is very unlikely to risk a wider conflagration with Russia over Syria. Not even as if the US knows what its goals are in this conflict.

 

Shooting down a few is exactly a gamble that a responsible US president will not take without a very good reason, and without any apparent plan B in case it all goes wrong.

So you're saying that Russia should be given carte blanche to kill and maim civilians in any way it chooses in Syria?

Appeasement didn't work for Chamberlain when Hitler invaded Poland and it won't work for Putin. He needs to be confronted in Syria in order to call a halt to his agression there because if we don't do that he'll annex Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania next and then we really will be looking at WW3. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3876672/Nato-squares-Putin-Russia-beefs-military-Europe-s-border-West-responds-biggest-force-Cold-War.html

15 hours ago, Chip Allen said:

I would like to see the USA stay on its side of the ocean. They are unlikely to intervene in any country which has no oil.

Actually, Thailand has proven reserves of over 453 million barrels of oil but most of it is destined for domestic consumption. http://www.reuters.com/article/thailand-energy-exports-idUSL3N0QZ3AP20140829

16 hours ago, jacksam said:

I think the PM is doing a good job in a country that has been a political basket case. 

You seem to be the only one who thinks that way.

1 hour ago, George FmplesdaCosteedback said:

1997 to 2007, and as PM for 3 years he was still responsible, although Darling was chancellor, until the election in 2010.

Read your own post. Brown/Balls and Darling with Bliars help were a disaster.

What has that got to do with the BoE's independence from political control?

12 hours ago, Pimay1 said:

Trump is absolutely right on this one. Even if I was a Clinton supporter I would be against the no fly zone. Shoot down one Russian plane and it would all start.

Turkey shot down a Russian fighter and the only consequence was Russia stopped buying any Turkish tomatoes for a while.

Shooting down a few more would serve to show Putin that he can't continue committing war crimes by bombing civilians and get away with it.

Comparisons between US and Russian hardware illustrates that the Russians aren't up to scratch when it comes to military might: http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/Russia/United-States/Military

4 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

 

Interesting that there have been zero net growth for the past 16 years.

If you switch to "Quantity" (link above the chart) it gives a better picture.

9 minutes ago, George FmplesdaCosteedback said:

Errr... who was in charge of the Treasury???

When?

15 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

Looks like the farmers better get use to low prices. It has been a long and slow decline.

 

http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=rice&months=120

Looking at the growth rate it looks like Thailand is used to these kind of fluctuations: http://www.indexmundi.com/agriculture/?country=th&commodity=milled-rice&graph=production-growth-rate

7 minutes ago, George FmplesdaCosteedback said:

What Brown didn't do was see that the BoE ensured British banks kept to a strict lending policy. The consequences were dire, and the toothless SEC (or whatever it was called) was just an administration department there to generate income through form filling, not to ensure financial stability.

 

It's not the BoE's job to supervise British banks and their lending policy.

Quote

Under the Memorandum of Understanding, the Bank of England's responsibilities are summarised as contributing "to the maintenance of the stability of the financial system as a whole". The FSA's powers and responsibilities stem from the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, and the FSA has the responsibility of authorising and supervising individual banks. HM Treasury has responsibility for the institutional structure of the financial regulatory system, and the legislation behind it.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmtreasy/874/87405.htm

 

8 hours ago, Grouse said:

There's more....

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/bank-of-england-mark-carney-theresa-may-attack-monetary-policy-tory-conference-speech-a7380016.html

Gordon Brown did the right thing when he gave the BoE independence freeing it from political control back in 1997. May can grumble all she wants but the bank will put the interests of the country first, not her government. 

The quartely or proposed annual reporting system needs to be scrapped altogether. If you've been granted a visa for a specific period of time i.e. one or more years the only time you would have to visit immigration would be to extend it or obtain a new visa.

Thailand needs to join the 21st century and stop treating residents who pay taxes and contribute to the economy like common criminals.

16 hours ago, Alive said:

Let me guess CP who owns 7Eleven and True and so many other businesses in Thailand wants more more more and more. It would be nice if there were less CP in Thailand. Many of the products in 7Eleven are also made by CP.

CP All doesn't own 7-Eleven: they just have an licence to trade their convenience stores under the 7-11 trademark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP_All

Neither do they own True: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Corporation

10 hours ago, DM07 said:

I once did a visa run to Laos with a new passport, cause the old one got in the laundry!

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

I don't understand. Why would doing a visa run to Laos cause your old passport to end up in the laundry? 

9 hours ago, fruitman said:

 

Pattaya is NOT in Europe

I didn't say it was. 

9 hours ago, jesimps said:

The EU Canada "Negotiations" convinces me even more that we're doing the right thing by leaving.

The banks supposedly leaving is more scaremongering by the remainers. Why should they leave when everything is done online and it is cheaper with less red tape to run a business from London than other major European capitals. 

 

It's not really scaremongering. Banks may relocate those services which they won't be able to conduct if Britain isn't able to maintain the passporting rights they have now. Passporting allows British banks to sell services across the EU without interference. http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36630606

Therefore it's only logical for banks that wish to maintain services to the EU move to one of the financial centres witthin the Bloc like Frankfurt, Paris or Vienna.

3 hours ago, worgeordie said:

Actually,they were not illegal workers,just working outside the area

that they were supposed to stay in,any excuse to levy some fines,

doubt the farmer will be able to find 320 Thais to do the work

before the fruit rots on the trees.

regards Worgeordie

It seems unfair on the Cambodians since how are they to know that the trucks are going to be taking them to farm somewhere which are going to be outside their legal working area.

4 hours ago, fruitman said:

 

And all the Thai "ladies of the night" who are in every city in Europe working illegal in professions who even have to pay tax??

 

Earnings of less than 150,000 baht per annum are tax free in Thailand: http://www.expatfocus.com/expatriate-thailand-taxation

Bars usually pay them a salary of between 8,000 and 10,000 baht a month + commission for selling lady drinks. Any extracurricular activities they perform aren't considered to be part of their job and won't be declared for tax purposes.

I often wonder how many of these girls will live to a ripe old age and how many will succumb to liver disease before they're 50 years old even.

14 hours ago, Laughing Gravy said:

There you have it in a nutshell. The French have had enough, the UK has and the rest of Europe has also. The whole lie and story the EU in Brussels keeps forcing upon us, backed up with the TV networks like the BBC are they are from Syria and Libya etc and we should all pity them. Alternative news networks were reporting this over a year ago. I wonder when people will stop using their good intended compassion and start realizing they are being conned and fooled.

 

"According to l'Auberge des Migrants and Help Refugees, the camp has been dominated by predominantly Sudanese migrants, who made up 43 per cent of its population. 

In contrast 33 per cent were Afghan, nine per cent Eritrean, seven per cent Pakistani and just one per cent Syrian and Iraqi, according to a census they carried out between the 10th and 12th of September. "

 

Part of the problem is that people have short memories. Think back to 1999 and you might remember Sangatte and how much trouble that caused: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/may/23/immigration.immigrationandpublicservices1

Closing down Sangatte merely led to the problem erupting elsewhere such as has happened in Calais. Now that the asylum shoppers have been moved from there, the ground needs to be flooded to prevent them returning.

But the only way to stop it happening again is to go after the smugglers. Surely with all the technology we have at our disposal these days it isn't too difficult to identify who has suddenly become stinking rich without explanation. After all, the fees the smugglers charge are quite substantial in the range of 5,000 euros or more per person. Multiply that figure by a million (number of migrants who have landed in Europe this year) and it should be obvious you can't hide that kind of money in a box somewhere.

So somewhere somebody know who these people are. Maybe it's time to start offering substantial rewards for information leading to the arrest of the smugglers since without them, migrants have no way of making it to Europe on their own.

2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

“I hope this works out. I am alone and I just have to study. It does not really matter where I end up, I don’t really care,” – Amadou Diallo from the West African nation of Guinea.

 

Yes he does ( care ). It has to be somewhere that is going to support him while he gets a free education.

Just how dumb is someone that believes that the taxpayers of another country are happy to be paying for people from another country to get freebies at their expense?

 

It is worth remembering that none of us would be treated well if we turned up in those countries and demanded to be given free education, accommodation and food etc.

 

Is he didn't care where he ended up why didn't he apply for asylum in France as soon as he arrived there. After all the official language is French: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea

His case is just another reminder that these asylum shoppers think they have some god-given right to settle wherever they wish and that the host country has to take care of them.

Sturgeon knows which side her bread's buttered on and wants to retain as much as she can when Brexit takes place. Can't blame her for that especially since Scotland was receiving far more back than it was paying for EU membership.

12 hours ago, soalbundy said:

They make a good alcoholic drink from rice where i am, burns the back of of your eyes

It's not the rice which makes the backs of your eyes burn it's the antifreeze they add to it to give it a kick. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/29/fireball-whiskey-recall_n_6067486.html

On 10/22/2016 at 9:51 AM, tbthailand said:

maybe the government should set a minimum selling price and stockpile the excess? 

You might recall that the last time that was tried India and Vietnam jumped in to fill the shortfall which resulted in Thailand losing its position at the top of the rice producing countries.

8 hours ago, Johnniey said:

Anyone can be rehabilitated. 

 

Sure they can. You can invite him to stay with you. Just don't leave any electric saws lying around.

On 10/23/2016 at 5:44 PM, thaibeachlovers said:

He's obviously warning any more thinking of falsely accusing him not to do so.

 

The GOP can't stop any qualified person from standing as a candidate, and he won the primaries. End of story.

 

Clinton is on record as threatening to use the nuclear option, so she isn't any safer. She hates Putin and Trump doesn't, plus she wants to set up no fly zones and that could cause WW3 if the US shot down a Russian plane.

He's still a nutter. Richard Branson described him as having a vindictive streak when Trump said he would spend the rest of his life destroying five people who didn't help him when he was faced with bankruptcy once: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/richard-branson-warns-donald-trump-presidency-us-election-recalls-bizarre-encounter-businessmen-a7374996.html

That kind of demeanor is inappropriate for a candidate running for the country's highest office.

17 hours ago, chiang mai said:

 

We complain about xenophobia in Thailand but I do think it's equally if not worse in the UK in many respects, goodness, just look at the North South divide to understand that. And if the impact on regional economy as a result is not obvious here's a prime example: last week I sent a request for quotes for legal work to two firms, one in the Hants. and one in E. Yorks., two pieces of work and identical specifications. The quotes came back, GBP 785 vs 199, and 6,400 vs1980, the first number of the pair being the one from the South - the price of lack of investment spurred by xenophobia perhaps!

 

It's not dissimilar to the NIMBY's who don't want new houses constructed in their villages/towns/near by. There we have a desperate need to build new houses because there's a chronic shortage, yet residents of candidate areas repeatedly and loudly shout no, not in my back yard. Ditto immigrants, the country its businesses and the economy desperately need immigrant labour but can they be housed next door, of course not, all of a sudden protection of "my space" becomes far more important than the common good or even any national imperative. What is to be done? In both cases government must be able to say sorry, but the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few and push ahead with the initiative and even set aside areas specially for immigrants, they could call it, Bradford perhaps!

 

But you see the problem: for example, the use of Indian and Asian labour in the textile industry in the North of England in the post war years was a good idea, sadly though the process was started and then left to run without being managed. The good people of the Shires didn't have to live next door to those workers so it wasn't an issue that they needed to care or even think about and perhaps that's the answer - perhaps the NIMBY's need to be made to live next door to immigrants in order for any immigrant program to work successfully, distribute them (as a requirement if necessary) and make every town and village take an immigrant quota and don't let them cluster - the sad fact is that we probably need more immigrants rather then less, but we need to do a much better job of managing and integrating them.

Well to be fair housing in the north of the country is usually considerably cheaper than in the south and that would also be reflected in the cost of business premises. So getting two quotes for the same job probably would result in a cheaper one coming from the north.

But xenophobia is usually used to describe the perception that anyone foreign, especially if their skin happens to be a darker colour should be regarded with suspicion. In that respect, migrants from Poland would likely be far more acceptable than someone from say Eritrea or Afghanistan. Eritreans will be black and Afghans are going to be Muslim. But both fit the classic xenophobic perception that because they belong to a different culture that they should be treated with skepticism.

It's too late to turn back the clock now but I wonder how the referendum would have turned out if Merkel hadn't declared her open door policy to any Syrians who wished to go to Germany. I think that was the catalyst which turned the tide in the Leave's favour.

The tabloid press certainly stoked fears that the country was under siege from the thousands of economic migrants  camped on their doorstep with only the English Channel preventing the hordes from flooding the country. Couple that with images of immigrants arriving by the boatload in Greece and Italy forming long queues at border crossings and forcing their way on to trains splashed all over the front pages was enough to tip the referendum in the Leave camp's favour.

That and videos of them threatening truck drivers and forcing their way on to trains bound for the UK was just all too much and ultimately even migrants already in Britain began to be regarded as unwanted guests even though they were contributing to the economy.

But like you mentioned already, workers from abroad were welcomed initially to do the jobs that Brits didn't want to do. I can remember my mother who was inherently racist I might add, becoming infuriated when Caribbean immigrants began to arrive in Britain in the 1950's. I was too young to understand it at the time, but I can see now how communities become agitated by the arrival of large numbers of immigrants hanging around while their asylum applications are processed especially when they don't behave like adults and leer at women and girls who walk past.

The problem now is that even though the Jungle is being demolished and the 10,000+ migrants who were there are being accommodated throughout France the core of the problem which are the people smugglers hasn't been addressed. Britain may or may not retain access to the single market, but the migrants still believe the streets of Britain are paved with gold and until the gangs are eradicated, the migrants will keep coming.