rickudon

The real problem is consumerism. People always want everything. But you have to pay for it one way or another. Dickens character Mr Micawber never said a truer word - "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery." The more we spend, the more things cost. Capitalism drives inflation. We need to end this spiral and live within our means. Only buy what is necessary. Applies to individuals and governments. We do not need growth, just stability. When your economy grows, something, somewhere is destroyed to pay for it.

These days, only Employees/salaried people pay significant amounts of income tax anyway. In this digital age, the profits just get skimmed off to some tax haven, laundered and paid out as foreign dividends.

I just use my UK credit card, no fees (including taking cash), excellent exchange rate (as good as Wise), pay it off online. So no need to send money to a Thai bank account (just use Thai account for immigration).

Three issues for the people - Immigration, cost of living and housing costs. Immigration. Illegal immigration is a problem, but is dwarfed by legal migration - nearly a million a year. It only benefits employers. It makes the housing issue worse, puts strain on infrastructure and trying to find a job is not easy - graduates have to apply for about 50 jobs or more to get one. No migrant should be allowed in unless an employer can prove he cannot fill it from a UK resident. No benefits for migrants for 10 years. If existing migrants cannot find a job after say 6 months and run out of money, give them a plane ticket back home. Illegals should be housed in old army camps and forced to work for their room and food - until they can find legal work. No putting them in hotels. Cost of living. Probably the hardest one to fix. Cut energy prices, some subsidies. Housing costs. Driven up by immigration. cut that and house prices and rents should start to fall (or at least rise more slowly). More drastic, tax rental property owners or introduce rent cuts. More houses on the market, lower prices. Also, with a stable population, no need to forever spend more on infrastructure; could build houses instead you have an immigrant labour force.... A stable population will mean less pressure on the environment, water, energy. That would be a start, at least.

There is a touch of truth to the OPs story. Don't like the truth - well, you can find a nutter online who tells you it is fake news, Deep state, whatever. I remember visiting the USA (Florida) in the 90's and 2005; it was cheaper than the UK for many things and i did consider retiring there; conspiracy theorists i didn't meet. Now, motel prices in USA are about 2-3 times higher than 20 years ago, bread and eggs are cheaper in the UK and eating out costs about the same. Real estate and health costs in USA are astronomical. If i had gone down that route (although was not rich enough to get residence) i would be homeless by now. Mind you, UK is no paradise either. Supermarket prices may be higher than 20 years ago, but food is still relatively cheap - as long as you prepare at home. But you can no longer afford a home - prices have doubled in the last 20 years, while rents have trebled. council tax (local government tax) and energy bills also at least double. A one bedroom flat would consume my entire pension in the South of England if i returned, so would slowly starve (better find a food bank). My son and GF earn nearly 100,000 GBP between them, but cannot afford a house; they spend 25,000 GBP a year on rent for a small flat. Work commitments mean living in London. USA is going to the dogs, so is the UK. Not sure which will collapse first. Just hope that is still at least a decade away, doubt that i will be around then.

Presumably a technical problem, 50% of your solar panels are not going to stop producing power in 5 minutes nationwide. Presumably they monitor the weather and sunset, so would know about any expected drop in solar energy input. A grid issue for sure.

Laughable cherry picked data - it refers to about one month! ACTUAL storms in the 2024 season - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Atlantic_hurricane_season

So when did these rolling power cuts take place? Yes, in January they came close due to an interconnector outage, Last time i remember one was the 1970s! Obviously some power cuts do occur due to storm damage and maintenance. Nothing to do with renewable power. i agree that maybe shutting down the last coal fired station was a bit premature, UK does need to put some energy storage in place; the technology is there, just to tight to fork out the money for it. Gas is what keeps electricity prices high - the sooner we can get rid of it for electricity generation, those electric bills will come down.

Currently the war is at a stalemate, Without the help from Iran and North Korea. there would be no movement on the front lines. Russia has manpower, but precious little else in its favour. The first year of the war saw massive Russian incompetence, which resulted in the mauling of their experienced troops. They have lost 75% of their tanks, and significant amounts of Infantry fighting vehicles and artillery. This is why now most of their fighting is with Infantry (mostly untrained). Only the winter of 2022 gave them a breathing space. The Russian military industrial complex is broken. Massive corruption means that factories are inefficient and missing many of the more sophisticated elements they need. Production of complex weapons happens at a snails pace, and doesn't keep up with the rate of loss. Infantry these days attack in civilian cars, ATVs, motor bikes and even on bicycles. As long as they are available, drones, artillery and mines take care of most of them. Successes are rare, but Ukraine has insufficient troops to stage major counter attacks. Russian losses are now believed to exceed one million men killed or wounded - because casualty evacuation is rare, mainly killed. Men have been sent into the attack on crutches! Russian strengths are manpower, shahed drones, ballistic missiles and to a lesser extent, artillery. Glide bombs were a problem but are now less useful. Their 'meat attacks' result in heavy losses, but Putin doesn't care about Russian losses. However, the cost of this war is collapsing the Russian economy, inflation is at about 20%, and civilian infrastructure is not being maintained. If Ukraine can keep up its defence, Russia will probably run out of steam in 2026 - 1917 again? In 1916, Russia was having great success with the Brusilov offensive, which inflicted heavy losses on the Austrians and Germans. But it left Russia so weak that it's armies collapsed a year later. Ukraine is now fighting a war of attrition. In defence, their casualties are much lower, they can trade a kilometre here and a kilometre there, but are bleeding Russia dry militarily and financially. But Putin is greedy, he wants everything, he may end up with nothing if he doesn't do a deal. Tom Cooper's military blog on Sarcastosaurus has given a real insight to this war.

The problem with illegal migration is that there is no easy way to claim asylum outside of the UK, You have to get on a boat first, Then the answer is that you have to find someway to stop people from starting to come in the first place. We should talk to countries which cause the illegal migration, it is far cheaper to offer aid to stop them coming than deal with it when they arrive' In the case of countries in conflict, pay surrounding countries to help the refugees, and offer some opportunity to file asylum claims locally.

Under Starmer, criticism of Israel and Jewish anti-semitism became a taboo, and while nearly everyone hates Hamas, Israeli atrocities get hardly a mention by the British government. Many young people, not just Muslim ones, are very unhappy about this, My son is one of them. Once a Labour member and considering standing for Office, he is now joining the liberals. I very much doubt that any Labour supporter is happy with this government, they have successfully alienated nearly everyone. The only question for them, is if there is a party who offers them more. Reform is a step to far for many younger voters, the Conservative party is probably in an even worse state having tied there chariot to the disastrous Brexit horse. Reform and the Liberals are the only real alternatives. What Britain needs is some really new ideas; not just building walls against immigrants, something that will actually work.

I grow in Isaan (Udon Thani). Our farm soil is abysmal (ex rice paddy) and garden mainly clay. In the hot season most vegetables struggle and die, only a few are ok. Cold season is the main veg growing time. Fruit - Bananas on the farm, but very sickly. If we get more than 10 in a bunch were lucky! Mangoes on the farm do quite well, although first year loose about 50% of trees; get 5-30 fruit per tree when big enough (about 2-3 metres tall). Only ever had one Papaya grow well there, most die. Currently trying Oranges and Date palms, but no fruit yet and some dieback, A few coconuts but no fruit yet (some died) All other fruit trees planted have quickly died (Custard apple, longan, mangosteen and others). In the garden, have custard apple, limes, mangoes and just started to flower this year, a Longan. Did have a Jackfruit tree which gave a few fruit, but it died, Veg - on the farm, everything other than Lemongrass has failed. Even rice was very poor yield, not worth the effort and cost. In the garden, have grown many veg, but sometimes, especially when hot, can fail. have managed to grow Lettuce, other salad leaves, Swiss chard, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, beetroot, beans, Okra, Tomatoes and Aubergines. One year even grew real Spinach (usually to hot). Bell peppers do not do well, lucky to get any bigger than 2 cms. (Its too hot for them). By April, most veg are dying, only ones to grow well in hot season are Okra and Swiss chard. Soil dries out rapidly, have to water twice a day when hot. Lack of Organic matter in soil is a problem, I make compost but never enough. Biggest pest is mother-in-law, who has dementia but still physically strong. Any tired looking veg are exterminated, trees butchered and she sweeps incessantly, we have lost about 10 cms of top soil in the last 10 years (also why little organic matter; leaves, mulch compost all swept away). Growing in the tropics is more challenging than I expected, and hard work because of the heat. But sometimes it works.

Plenty of complacent pricks who like to gloat over their ability to speak and read Thai in this thread. Yes some of us are just to lazy. For some of us it is just really difficult. Dyslexia - this is an issue. My daughter and son in the UK were both diagnosed as Dyslexic in the UK - but only when they got to University. Mild cases are not so easy to recognise. There are different types - some find reading difficult, some writing. Also learning foreign languages. My son says he thinks i am as well. Dyslexia was not even recognised as a problem when i was young. No problem with reading, but writing.... took 3 attempts to get English 'O' level. Spelling and grammar were weak points, so i was a slow writer. in exams i would do 3 pages, most others did 5 or more. Still got to university, and got 2 degrees. Languages - at school, i got the worst French 'O' level mock result in the year, Was not allowed to sit the main exam. In my life, have tried to learn many languages, but always came unstuck even on the basics. I could learn a few words, but could never really converse. Better at reading, can partially understand about 7 languages as long as i know what the subject is about (mainly technical). Then finally my later life problem. I have lost the ability to hear high pitched sounds. I find tones like in Thai very hard. On the phone find it hard to understand people speaking even English until i can 'tune in'. I did try my first 2 years here to learn some Thai. But it was a struggle and rarely needed it. Now just keep to a few phrases like ordering petrol at the petrol station, asking for the toilet, numbers and names of things. I get by. Do i wish i could speak Thai well? Of course. But in life we learn some battles we will rarely win.

The Wuhan lab was first suggested as the source back in January 2020. Big coincidence to have a new pandemic start up within a couple of miles of the Wuhan lab, which was studying Coronaviruses. The scientists say that there was no evidence of deliberate mutation, but could still have been from a Wuhan Petri dish. They had many natural strains in the Laboratory. WHO was denied access to the lab for months. And many of the lab staff were no longer there. Could have been a lab worker going to the wet market to get dinner... either donating or receiving viruses.

True. Apparently Jews used to make up over 10% of the population in Poland. Maybe they would like to go back?