I am the exact opposite, I found that driving in America, my car, not motorbike, in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Nashville etc etc was much safer than driving in the UK, and the drivers more courteous.
I won't mention driving in Thailand.
If people want to come and live in this country or any other country and are contributing to the economy, why can't they just be left alone without all this hassle from immigration?
Just imagine the UK if every adult was contributing to the economy instead of all these immigrants costing the taxpayer.
They just do not realise they should drive on the inside lane unless overtaking.
On a 3 lane carriageway the vast majority of Thai drivers are so stupid that they hog the
middle and outsides lanes all the time.
I do take your point about Thaksin and I agree with almost all of your posts, but let me point out that when I first came to Thailand to stay Thaksin was the PM in 2005.
As an expat I compare Thailand then and now, Thailand is much worse now, but compared to the UK the good still outweighs the bad.
"Look at how stupid the average person is." That's a load of nonsense, in the 20 years of living in Thailand and meeting people of all nationalities, although I have came across the odd idiot, it would be very wrong to say the average person is stupid.
Maybe if he took care of his appearance he would have got a lift without waiting for hours. I would not like someone looking like that sitting next to me.
When I first came here about 20 years ago, it was a 90 day border run (In my case your nearest border) to get your passport stamped. Cost 500Bt. Not every month.
I understand what you are saying in your first paragraph. You mean when my present retirement extensions finish, I should just go to my local IO, and they will just automatically send my marriage application up the line for sign off and it will make no difference that I was on retirement extensions for years with an agent, and then I go through all the formalities, bank account, house visits etc.
I opened a new account with another Thai bank about a year ago, (I was very unhappy with my present bank,) sending money from my UK bank because I wanted to go on the the marriage extensions.
I was told by two visa experts on this forum that because I was on retirement extensions with an agent it could be problematic.
It was mentioned that when I went to my local IO they would notice there was no 800,000 Bt in my Thai bankbook and that could cause problems. I am now left with dealing with my agent who is providing an excellent service, when I should be able to go to my local IO for marriage extensions.