mfd101

Every time I go to BKK I spend quite a lot of time in & around T21. My hotel is about 100m away.

And the point of the webcam is?

Don't you know who we are? We're BRITISH. Woops, no sorry I mean ENGLISH!

16 hours ago, dunroaming said:

I would agree with most of that but cultural?  Britain's links with Europe are not all through the EU.  But this is not over yet so let's see how it all pans out!

I was thinking of the effect of Brexit on UK universities, the top 2 or 3 of which are invariably rated in the top 10 or 20 in the world. Recent news says that European (non-Anglo) academics & researchers are already packing their bags and leaving for a better future elsewhere. The same will no doubt happen to the flow of foreign (non-British) students ...

As Britain's power declines - economic, military & cultural, both relative & absolute - so its need for close cooperation with its European neighbours increases. A certain irony in this ...

In any case, if you convert their figures into a 'Western' currency (in my case $A), the result can't possibly be accurate. In Oz dollars (dividing by 25) it works out that roughly $A100 million = 17% of Thai GDP.

Oh rilly? no wonder they're so poor!

If the first round [almost sort of completed with the Irish border in the too-hard basket] is anything to go by, the outcomes will be about 80% British backdown & 20% European sweetness 'n light.

Oh well, that's life. Can't win em all. Never mind, look on the bright side. You could always emigrate to Thailand and learn to smile.

1 hour ago, terryw said:

The EU will have to make a deal on services. As reportedly said by Mark Carney yesterday, 'London is the Bank of Europe'.

 

Said the optimist (at least from a British point of view).

Um, no, not after January 2021, said the optimist (from a European point of view).

And the probability? More the latter than the former, I should think.

Is that a grimace in the photo? or is she about to burst into song?

"Of course we have given away quite a lot more than we received on two of the three issues. And on Ireland we have agreed not to settle anything at this stage because it's too hard and there is in fact no doable solution. So all round this is a GREAT day for GREAT Britain and a WONDERFUL triumph of my Prime Ministership."

Oh surely not! Why would those British people be getting rid of all those fine East European workers if they still needed them? That would be stupid & irrational.

No no, I cannot believe it.

You might think that, in a well-planned project, someone might have considered the PURPOSE of the project - "What are we trying to achieve here?" - BEFORE they proceeded to allocate funds, sign contracts etc ...

42 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

The small bank branches at malls and department stores will be open along with money exchange booths.

The 1st and 2nd of January are both holidays for new years.

Poor exchange rates at those, I should think.

Actually difficult to see how there CAN be a deal on the border issue - too many contradictions on all sides. A circle that's going to be difficult to square even for clever politicians, and there don't seem to be too many of those at Westminster.

Perhaps technology may provide some kind of solution (like e-passes as you whiz through the toll booths) ...

A normal negotiating tactic - whether between countries or companies or management & unions: Pay me enough and we can be flexible on everything else.

Well it's certainly good that the 'good' news is based on so much bad news. That has to be good news!

The Governor of the Bank of GoodOl'England has just announced the results of stress tests on the banks in the event of the worst likely Brexit outcome (a "disorderly exit"). The banks survive more or less, with £50 billion losses. But the rest doesn't look so good:

• GDP falls by 4.7%
• unemployment rises from current 4.7% to 12%
• interest rates rise from current 0.5% to 4%
• house prices fall 33%
• £1 falls from current US1-32 to US0-85.

Happy Days!

Plus some of the hidden un(der)employment of Thailand would no longer be hidden ...

Lesson: You should be grateful that your high'nmighty status sitting comfortably in your limo allows a handful of serfs to earn a few miserable pennies. Stop complaining!

1 hour ago, 4MyEgo said:

I think you will find that as you remain a resFTP your Medicare card should stay in tact because you are paying tax as a resident of Australia and the Medicare levy should be applied to it, you only lose Medicare if you are a non resident. 

OK, I'll check on that in 2.5 years time when the question becomes relevant for me. Thanks for the comment.

When I was preparing to leave Oz permanently in 2015, my financial advisor said I could CHOOSE whether to remain a 'resident-for-tax-purposes' (even though no longer actually resident & not intending to be) or become a non-resident. There was no suggestion that I had to comply with a set of ATO rules or criteria. His advice was - in my circumstances - to remain a resFTP.

My circs were & are: Incomes (superannuation + pension-related investments) solely from Oz; no OAP & never will be because my superannuation well exceeds that. So I sign off on an Oz tax return each year, full of technical stuff about investment earnings & offsets etc, and no Thai tax to worry about. My Medicare card will run out in another 3 years & I will then cease to pay the Medicare Levy. All seems fine to me.

It could go up. Or it could go down. Either is possible but the latter is more likely than the former. Anyone who claims to 'know' better than that is talking thru the hole in their head.

53 minutes ago, simple1 said:

Agree, though depends on how their constituents view the matter. I personally view the referendum an act of political cowardice by the Conservatives.

I was of course speaking of 'conservatives' not 'Conservatives' (noting that, of course, in Oz the more reactionary 'mainstream' politicians have until recently laughably called themselves Liberal but they are now slowly splitting the Liberal party & establishing a 'new' Conservative party to take Oz back to those wunnerful times before we became multicultural socialist conservationist poofters).

And there's something else that any intelligent conservative worthy of the name should be: a conservationist, conserving carefully those good things we take for granted, both in our society and its institutions and in our environment. A true conservative is an ecological conservationist in a broad sense - full of care for the good things of life, which need sustaining for the long term. But not a reactionary, dreaming of the past, and not hostile to change - just careful with it.

1 hour ago, simple1 said:

Rather a nonsensical statement as Oz government fully recognises de facto relations for government benefits, legal matters etc etc

Yes, and including (in my case) for those Oz jurisdictions (practically all of them except the federal level) that have civil partnerships for homosexual relationships.

But that doesn't make nonsensical Amanda's & Cameron's statements of how intelligent conservatives should view marriage: The reality of marriage as basic to the structure of civil society remains true. If conservatives are to be more than just a bunch of silly old farts & hypocrites, then they should want MORE people to do it, not fewer. A conservative should work to build a society that is MORE inclusive, not less.