rickudon

As a civil service division which was outsourced, I saw the result. First day using IBM's call answering system for IT support calls, saw over 200 calls unanswered at the end of the day. You want a password reset? Used to take 5 minutes after your call was picked up, new system required your line manager to authorise it; out of the office? wait until tomorrow. After being reassigned back to my old job (online catalogue editor) because the new catalogue had to many errors (for which there was a financial penalty), I fixed it in 2 months (previous old IBM manager couldn't in six months). They then put me on Computer audit (we had about 100 sites across the UK, including Northern Ireland). I was told i had to audit every site twice a year. I sat down and worked out a basic plan, with about 15,000 items to find and check serial numbers, plus travel, i came up with about 80 hours a week at least. I was told get it done. I started, but of course not possible. So i was made redundant. Back at the office 3 months later to meetup with an old colleague and IBM had outsourced the work to another company, who used FOUR staff to do the work. A couple of months later the auditing work was quietly abandoned as 'unnecessary'. That is outsourcing efficiency for you.

I am not a great fan of private schools, because they churn out elitists who look down on state educated pupils. However, yes, we all want our kids to get a good education. In my case and that of my brother, we both went to state grammar schools and then on to university. I have no issues with the education i received. My UK wife wanted to send our kids to private school, but reality was no way could we afford it. When my UK kids were growing up, we moved to a small town with an excellent state secondary school - one of the top ones in the county. No regrets about that, both went on too University and the younger one on to a masters at Cambridge, So state education can compete with private schools, However, not all state schools are good - particularly in cities. My daughter has 3 children but lives in London, and because of the poor schools available locally decided on private schooling (still infant/primary level) she managed to get part scholarships but still the bill was well over 20,000 GBP a year for 2 of them. Could only do it by living in in-laws home, But now the school is shutting - 20% VAT made the fees astronomical and it was a very small school. She doesn't know what will happen now. Also a private school near my old children's school is also closing - they have space for 400, actual numbers now done to 100. I do think Labours policy was ill advised - Brexit, Covid and Ukraine war have all caused financial stress to many families, and 17 years of austerity has seen education under funded (especially maintenance). slapping 20% VAT on to school fees will be the last straw for many middle class families; their are many areas with few if any spare places at state schools. It will also cost at least 500 million pounds to provide for these ex-private school pupils - many will end up being bussed long distances and kept in prefabricated cabins. 20% VAT, higher national insurance for teachers and no business rates relief is a triple blow applied all at once, with no time to beef up the State sector. A very poorly thought out policy, which will have effects for years to come.

Zelensky never refused to sign the deal (which was actually the 3rd version drawn up, which gave better terms to Ukraine). It was Trump and Vance who picked the fight with Zelensky. Bully boy tactics at work. Strange that your so called alley tries to dictate a Versailles reparations deal on you, not the enemy!

More likely that they didn't want to return on a SpaceX rocket, which have a high failure rate (like yesterday).

Not necessarily true. First half of I940 was a good year for the Germans, but after that there luck was not so good. Lost the battle of Britain, their allies the Italians got there arse kicked in Africa, and the London Blitz didn't work all that well. Britain was then mobilising the Empire troops and navies, and was then on the offensive. Russia and USA were late to the fray. Admittedly without them it would have become a stalemate.

Well, Israelis have plenty of experience of trashing other countries and abusing the inhabitants. It is a sense of entitlement.

Trump, Netanyahu and the defeat of Iran's proxies actually make Iran's need for a nuclear weapon much more urgent. A 'little boy' Uranium 235 bomb is quite simple and could be made in a few weeks as long as the fully enriched Uranium 235 was available. Also, it is not true that Iran's missile attacks failed to penetrate Israel's defences - this is something which has been hushed up. There was plenty of evidence that some missiles did get through - several craters were filmed by journalists before they were caudoned off and quickly filled in, also satellite photos showed some damage at Israeli airbases.

I doubt that this carbon tax will achieve anything in Thailand (except increase fuel costs?). However, for all you deniers out there, climate change is happening and man is behind most of it. 2023 and 2024 saw new sea ice lows, in 2025 already a new low in February. Less sea ice means reduced albedo, therefore more heat absorbed by the oceans - a feedback which accelerates warming. I do understand that the complexity of climate change effects is beyond the comprehension of most posters on this thread....

The problem with climate change is that it is not just about getting hotter. There are other effects as well. More violent storms, floods, droughts and forest fires. How do you adapt to all those? you need different solutions, but you do not know which one(s) you WILL need. Also for those of us in Northern Europe there is the problem of AMOC failure. The current in the Atlantic has been getting weaker for some time. Nobody knows if it will fail (it has done in the distant past) but it could be abrupt and happen quickly; nobody knows how to restart it! Latest predictions are it could happen within this century, maybe in only 30 years. This could cause a temperature drop of 10 degrees Centigrade or more. Fancy trying to upgrade the insulation of 20 million buildings in the UK in under a decade? Climate change is a bigger problem than most realise. Complacency only works until it doesn't.

Worst was 1980-1981. I had just been made redundant from my job in Australia (reasons would be a post on its own, but basically my specialism was no longer required after mining plans were changed); i enjoyed a nice long holiday ended up back in the UK, where i thought with my recent experience in environmental monitoring i would at last get the job i was looking for with the water authorities. How wrong I was! The new Thatcher administration did a hatchet job on the economy (and the water authorities), and i spent 18 months unemployed. No-one would employ a scientist to do mundane retail jobs; there where plenty of less educated people for that. Also house was burgled (twice), the insurance company refused to renew my insurance; housemate got mugged, and 2 race riots took place within one mile of me. Strikes happening all the time. When i did finally get a job (as a civil servant), had to do a 6 week IT course which I struggled with for a while. Then we had one of the worst winters on record in 1981 and my house (empty at the time) suffered severe damage from freezing and snow - pipes burst, toilet cracked, and water penetrated the walls causing massive mould problems. House was for sale at the time and i had to take a loss as no-one would buy it in a riot zone. If not for fishing and my savings from the Australian work to live on, I would have got utterly depressed.

Do not really like the toasted sandwiches, as i prefer wholemeal. I do like the cheese and ham croissants.

15 years here, and still cannot get the monthly budget below 30,000 baht for family of 3. That includes no nights out, no alcohol ( both rarely taken). Some eating out or takeaway. Does not include trips to UK, major house improvements etc, health insurance not practical due to chronic issues. If you cannot find 500,000 baht a year until the pension kicks in, go back to work. I was in the same boat waiting for my state pension to kick in; small company pension, savings slowly eroding, made it with about 18 months to spare. Phew!

I live in a small village on the edge of Udon Thani. I feel safe, worst problem are some territorial dogs. As far as crime goes not much in the village/city unless ostentatious displays of wealth. Yes, Yabba and drunks are around, but rarely a problem. I do know of some killings but these are nearly all Thai on Thai or loss of face (e.g. one farang fired his bar manager over missing money). Health and safety are not priorities here. Several people in the village have died in road accidents, a couple of drownings and electrocutions. Just treat all road use as needing extra vigilance - and avoid using motorbikes. In the UK, over the years my home was burgled 4 times over a 40 year period - it is like a tax. I know of people who have been mugged or assaulted for no reason. Better off in Thailand

Problems with growing strawberries? How does Thailand manage! Just change varieties.

I have an ASUS. For me, that problem happened if you allowed it to go into sleep mode for a long time. When you try to wake it up, all you got was a blank screen. Had to play with the sleep settings but fixed it eventually (about 3 years ago, so no details).