kwilco

Why is the UK struggling ore? the answer is Brexit. Brexit has already cost the UK more than the total we paid in over 47 years If you need evidence just read the Brexiteer responses on this thread. - they are so telling. Full of "one quote wonders" putting up mis-selected graphs they don't understand in the hope that one quote can contradict six years and a whole worldwide gamut of evidence to the contrary - only Brexiteers believe that nonsense. As I said before, Brexit is like watching your library being burnt down by people who can't read.

Brexit problems in store for 2023 – all polls are now showing that the public regard Brexit as a bad deal and businesses are now calling for a fast return to closer relationship with the EU just to stop them going under. 2 years since the UK signed its post-Brexit trade deal with the EU, small are finding the hassles of trading across the English Channel are showing no signs of abating. Exports to the EU are 26 per cent lower than they would have been without the non-tariff barriers imposed by the TCA. There has been a sharp fall in the varieties of goods traded, which have dropped from 70,000 to 42,000 since the new rules came into effect. Before Brexit, businesses with 75 per cent EU exports and the rest in the UK have found those figures are turned on their head because of the costs and difficulties of getting products to the EU…..this is a huge loss to turnover British Chambers of Commerce said that these frustrations were typical of small and medium-sized companies that were now facing permanent rather than temporary problems as a result of Boris’s deal the deal. What businesses are calling for is the reinstatement of freedom of movement and a single market. First via a Swiss-style deal with Brussels to eliminate checks on plant and animal products and also a Norway-style deal to reduce chaos around VAT on low-value imports and an ongoing recognition of EU industrial and electronic product standards. In the long term Britain needs an EU-UK deal for VAT and an agreement on EU co-operation on product regulation and professional services. Boris’s TCA comes up for its five-yearly review in 2026 but this isn’t soon enough for any sector of UK businesses – industrial financial or retail … When Boris announced his eleventh-hour deal on Christmas Eve 2020, he claimed that “no non-tariff barriers to trade” would mean little change in the situation. He ignored advice then that it was not possible and now a couple of years down the line the effects are biting but still not fully felt Smaller retail businesses are now faced with a host of ongoing post-Brexit challenges; higher import costs, a weaker pound, longer lead times for obtaining products, the need for new import licences, EU border checks and payment of import VAT. All of this has deterred EU customers. Online retail customers in the EU that had previously bought a single £10 items are facing VAT and handling charges that more than double or triple prices. Businesses in the EU are forced to obtain import licences for products from the UK which obviously makes them less attractive. Many UK products ae now only acceptable as a “premium” priced curio rather than mainstream goods The single issue government has failed to do hardly anything more to expedite exports to the EU. Many people are unaware of the complications caused by leaving the EU VAT system a fiscal intermediary; an EU-registered company able to declare and pay VAT, they work as a guarantor for any VAT due.– I used to have to do this in the 1970s For small businesses this means repeatedly having to pay extra fees, so sending single, occasional small products is not going to be cost effective. I used to do business in the EU from the 1970s to the year 2002 and the difference between the start and the opening of the borders was immense – it allowed many small businesses to flourish and proud to be British – now we are ashamed to be the laughing stock of Europe and the world.

yes - all the polls in UK are now telling the government that they don't want Brexit.

The OP is this- "Why is the UK struggling more than other countries?" The reason as you have pointed out here is that on top of everything the rest rest of te world has had to deal with, the UK has had to deal with Brexit which is why they are "struggling more than other countries" Debating the size of the damage is a red-herring or a diversion.

It is one of the keystones of good road safety that you have an effective police force dedicated to road safety - this would require an almost constitutional reform of the police. There is actually no reason that any police force really needs to be involved in road safety at all - a totally separate body could be created.but that's another side issue. apart from reporting road law violations the "police" need to measure and calibrate EVERY road accident so the real causes are known, categorised and added to a comprehensive range of statistics. Countries with th lowest death rates all do this - since about 2019 Thailand has increased te stats they gathered but if you compare them to the UK or other European countries the Thai effort is risible. can't achieve any of that from a checkpoint.......

More Brexit problems for 2023 - The government has shown how hollow its promises were and how they only had one policy - get Brexit done" - they missed out "at any cost" and that they had no idea how to do this ir anything else. Look at the promises they made about the "North" The North has been disproportionately ignored by the Brexit government despite the lies they promulgated about “levelling up” As we enter recession. It is unlikely that the promises of the Government’s 2019 manifesto will ever be followed through – no proper investment and no increased devolution.- The Tories daren’t let go of control as they fear what will happen…… For businesses, any hopes of recovery from the pandemic, growth and the promises of 'levelling up' coming to fruition are dashed. Instead, we will see the negative effects of Brexit worsened by the war in Ukraine, and a cost-of-living crisis that crippled the finances of many businesses and households up and down the country. Due to the Brexit restraints placed on immigration, the past year has seen the UK’s skills shortage go from bad to worse. With historically low levels of unemployment, many companies are turning to other countries to address these issues. But previous EU workers ae not interested in facing the bureaucracy and hatred of the Brexiteer portion of the public. No staff availability is an ongoing problem and it isn’t going away this coming year – In international trade, the government is failing targets left right and centre; it has missed its target for securing post-Brexit trade agreements, as figures show a 15% fall in the number of UK exporters. In the 2019 election the Brexiteers promised to get agreements covering 80% of UK trade by the end of this year, the figures show it will be just 63%. The Japanese deal was criticised after government figures showed exports in UK goods and services had actually fallen to that country in the past year. (Dept International Trade) Former Environment Secretary George Eustice MP in Cornwall also criticised the Australia deal, saying it was "not actually a very good deal for the UK". UK is limping into the new year and unlikely the rest of Europe, on top of everything, it is hobbled by Brexit.

so why is Kent now a lorry park, if not for delays?

There are simply no properly trained traffic police in Thailand. They don't know what to look for or how to look for it. They simply do a couple of checks that their bosses have picked out (of a hat)

In 2021/22 the Trussell Trust supplied 2.2 million three-day emergency food parcels – an increase of 14% compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019/20. There was a decrease of 15% between the pandemic year of 2020/21 and 2021/22, but the general trend shows a gradual steady increase.18 Oct 2022 - House of Commons Library.

so why is Kent now a lorry park, if not for delays?

So what delights does the New Year hold for Brexiteers? Nothing, because they still have no idea. If you’re brining in stuff or sending it out of the UK things are going to require even more bureaucracy – phase 3 is being implemented – making trade with the world’s biggest trading block even more difficult for businesses or in some cases, impossible. From 1st January 2023, an Entry Summary Declaration (ENS) will be required for all goods before entry to the UK from the EU is permitted, All documents and licenses will be required for submission, and you will also need to provide: · A goods description or commodity code · Information about the consignor or consignee · Details about the type, amount, and packaging of your goods · Declaration of the mode of transport at the border eg. road, air, sea · Details of the onward journey and destination address Health certificates will be required for the importation from the EU to the UK of most veterinary and phytosanitary products. No certificate is available? Entry will be denied. This applies to the following products: · All regulated animal by-products · All regulated plant and plant products · All meat and meat products · All other foodstuffs of non-animal origin with a high-risk profile The declaration must give details of place of origin. Both imports to the UK from the EU and exports from the UK to the EU, will need a statement of origin to enable the importer to claim tariff preference. Goods which are deemed suitable for tariff preference will still be subject to normal VAT rules. I know form pre-Brexit shipping that customs clearance assistance and professional import and export certification is needed by all shippers and transporters a whole new layer of bureaucracy - All this is more delays at the borders – transporters and shippers will have to employ people to deal with this, and cost in the time used keeping such things as trucks and drivers sitting idle for hours at a time – the cost is obviously in the end passed on to the consumer and contributes to inflation on top of everything else. In fact this is proving so complicated the government is seeking to postpone much of this until the end of 2023 – in fact it is a quiet acknowledgement that the pre-Brexit situation is much cheaper and above all more workable.

Just a litany of ignorance. firstly they are doing massive numbers of checkpoints - these have been shown not to work - but the numbers of police involved in them actually REDUCES the amount of officers monitoring traffic for road safety. Secondly the death are over this period is usually slightly lower than the yearly average - this just shows that they are not making any difference at all. Then they claim to be banning commercial vehicles - do they seriously not know they have been banned for the past 30 years of so....and the lack of commercial traffic is probably the only reason for a reduction in deaths, Until the RTP get trained in REAL road safety there will be no significant change in the death rate. It is not helped by the archaic concept of concentrating on "bad drivers" - this is not the root cause of road deaths - it is the overall driving environment that is created by successive governments who have turned down international wisdom preferring to wallow in their own ignorance,

In fact I did as I changed the tyre size on my truck. Spares are only really "get you home" devices in which case you aren't expected to travel as if you have normal tyres on.....mine was to replace an off road tyre and would have to function as a full replacement.

It's not just the heat, it's UV. If you look at tyres closely it is often quite clear that they have started to perish- small fissures appear hear and there. Regardless of mileage they need to go in these circumstances. the conditions here for tyres are vey different from those in Europe and also they may be manufactured to different parameters in Thailand It's the same with oil which only has a lifetime of months regardless of mileage. most tyres have a sell-by date on them too.

The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation is a political backwater - politicians hate this post and it has been run incompetently (and corruptly?) for decades. There has been a lot written about this previously so it comes as no surprise. however what happened behind the headlines to start this particular purge will probably never be revealed. Will it improve the state of National Parks in Thailand? I wold suggest a resounding “NO!” The fact that the DNP has for decades been clinging to the archaic policy of duel pricing just shows what an out of date and mis-functioning institution it is

Yes - they are and the footfall on retail shopping this Christmas was 30% down on 2019 pre-Covid

What does the new year hold for Brexit? More of “project fear” becoming reality. The whole world has been dealing with Covid, energy and inflation only the UK has had Brexit as well…… This year will see further cracks in the UK economy, putting them further behind the rest of Europe and they government at present is so=wing the seeds of serious civil unrest….. The Brexiteers claim this year will see the removal of EU “red tape” – they don’t say what that is, but presumably it is the continued removal of free/borderless trade freedom of movement and human rights. Boris’s “oven ready” deals have evaporated into nothing…. There has been no boost to business, but many have reported contractions…..the new rules have slowed businesses, hampered trade and proved to be unthought out. This from a single-issue government too tied up in dogma to deal with the day to day practicalities of running a country. two years after the trade and cooperation agreement was first agreed, current problems go unchecked, more EU traders go elsewhere, and damage continues to be done. The new UK mark of product quality is also creating problems as it isn’t being recognised abroad as the same reliable quality as the previous EU system and this is damaging trade too. The TCA has 5 years to run but overwhelmingly UK businesses want it re-negotiated immediately. The shrinkage in the economy is now generally accepted to be over 5.5% lower than if the UK had remained in the EU and this has had a massive impact on the amount of taxes any British government can raise which leaves them at a disadvantage compared to Europe when it comes to dealing with the threats of inflation and shortfalls in income of the poorer sections of society. For example UK pensions ae half that of France and one third that of Germany. The move to bring them more in line with EU levels has died off in te face of UK’ss economic woes. The US has lost interest in the UK as a trading partner as it no longer has so much to offr - The pound has lost nearly a fifth of its value since the EU referendum The British pound has fallen 19% to the US dollar since Britain voted to leave the European Union on June 23, 2016. [ Refinitiv]. Brexit has brought in trade barriers for UK businesses and the many foreign companies that used Britain as a European base. impeding imports and exports, sapping investment and creating labor shortages. All this has exacerbated Britain’s inflation problem compared to other countries. This of course is now reflected in Labour relations in the UK. There is a sense of gloom hanging over the UK economy. Striking workers are walking out in numbers not seen since the 1970s (i.e. before UK was a full EU member). Pay and conditions and the worst inflation in decades is eating into wages. At the same time, the government is trying to cut spending and hike taxes to fill the gap in their budget. This happened under Thatcher and resulted in widespread violence, rioting in many cities and in South Wales they backed down on colliery closures as they were warned of serious “civil unrest” – I don’t think the current Brexiteer government has the necessary skills to avoid this – given the latest remarks by cabinet ministers like the health secretary. While Brexit isn’t the sole cause of cause of Britain’s cost-of-living crisis, but it has made the problem more difficult to solve than elsewhere in Europe.

Why?

A can be seen by many of the comments on this thread, necessarily revealing the nationality of those arrested can lead to racist responses and a lot of confirmation bias. i'm also aware of a serious crime where the alleged offender's nationality was misreported - probably intentionally. But when it really matters the RTP and those responsible for compiling statistics do not take into account whether or not the victims are Thai or foreign. Actually even then we don't really need to know their nationality merely that they are not Thai nationals.

Brexit is like having your library being burnt down by people who can't read

So Brexiteers expect the UK not to struggle when the country is faced with Covid, war and energy inflation When they have taken away a free market, free trade and freedom of movement? Brexiteers – how can anyone expect a country to do better in those circumstances??? How one earth can you justify that?

It is totally hilarious that after all that has been pointed out you still cling to that discredited cliche - but what else can a Brexiteer do?

Brexit has removed the EU as an outside source that prevented devolution from escalating and undermining the union. This can be seen throughout the EU where autonomy has replaced independence under the EU flag. Without it the call for independence strengthens. The Brexit Tories in the meantime want to decrease the independence of the composite nations, in an effort to cover up the effects of Brexit on the United Kingdom – however this will only increase support for independence in all the other countries in the UK Don’t forget the UK had already started to break p when Ireland left in the early 20th C. The UK relies on both social and economic structures as well as a common overall international policy – that has ended with Brexit. Half of the whole country are opposed to Brexit but in N.I., Wales and Scotland there is a majority of rejoiners. They see the Union with England as hindering this. They also are now missing the special social, infrastructure and commercial funding from the EU – even Cornwall is experiencing an upwelling of autonomists.

Eve n now since Brexit, the UK is less "unified" than before. It is the first time that the "English" realise that there are other countries involved. With Brexiteers their xenophobia extends especially to theScots. Their xenophobia is particularly conflicted in that they don't want them in the Uk - (or the EU) but they don't want a referendum either. Imagine an England with EU land borders on all sides. Even Brexiteers realised they would be stuffed then.

I have used my ThaiAYM cads on various occasions at ATMSin Vientiane, Luang Prabang and Ken Thao, a small border town. It has always been out isde of te bank - I think if it goes wrong, I can go in and complain. Only done it pre-Covid and the fees were not "noticeable" - I guess about 20 to 50 baht. There was a limit on withdrawals of the equivalent of about 5000 bht I think. BTW - I found many circumstances where people were quite happy to accept Thai baht - probably not legal but they can pass the currency on.