kwilco

I don't think that generic racist slurs on the Thai population actually help an understanding of the situation.

I haven't been to the States for years, but their hotel prices were hugely less than in the UK so I'm not sure what's happened there.

Probably a reflection of the downward change of the competitors rather than any change in Thailand

Americans have to travel a lot further than Europeans to get to Thailand and my experience is they tend to spend extra in an effort to "isolate" themselves from the vagaries of travel - so a hotel of international appearance is more appealing than a local hotel and westernised food - to prove they've experienced a country, rather than immerse themselves in the culture they prefer to buy souvenirs as object based proof of their visit.

Again the big problem is that checkpoints are not effective even if they are "transparent" - it just shows how clueless the authorities are on road safety.

As Thailand isn't a democracy, that is a bit of an oxymoron,

so how long has it taken you? From Oz we were sorted in under 4 weeks - January 2023

Online Premium service You’ll apply, pay and book an appointment online. The earliest you can get an appointment is 2 days from when you apply. You’ll get your new passport at your appointment. Appointments can last up to 30 minutes. It costs £193.50 (or £204.50 for a 50 page frequent traveller passport). You can only use Online Premium to renew an adult passport that was issued after 31 December 2001.

strange logic- not sure what your point is - I have actually worked for EF- and I left because the extraordinary work culture there - more like a cult that a college. The UK has lost the lead in English in Thailand because of Brexit - there is a swing away from British English to American in some part and in others towards Chinese. But I don't see how this has to do with your erroneous assessment of EL in Thailand.

You are making an unsubstantiated assumption about the level of English in Thailand - most comments are based on one annual survey by EF based on people who took their test. Incidentally, this is a Swedish company and IMO they are VERY odd! as for getting your passport seems that applicants for abroad are getting prioritised as since posting this acquaintances abroad seem to e getting theirs within 4 weeks. however you =do have to fill in the forms correctly and supply the right documents. They check them in BKK before sending them off. Th problem in the UK is that in many occupations around the country, trained operatives were from the EU and pre and post Brexit, have returned home leaving a gap of nearly 400,000 jobs in the workplace. The UK has failed to replace these people -

On behalf of the British, I'd like to apologise for those comments

Well Y may have been referring to singular or plural, but I was in fact thinking of 3 articles I quoted so multiple sources or a singular one. We use the singular “they” in two main ways - : firstly when referring to a generic person whose gender is unknown or irrelevant to the context and secondly to a specific, known person who uses “they” as their pronoun. When referring to a generic person whose gender is unknown or irrelevant to the context, use the singular “they” as the pronoun.E.G - if you use words like “person,” “individual,” or “everyone” or phrases like “every teacher” or “each nurse” in a sentence, use the appropriate form of the pronoun “they” as needed. Quite often it's used by racists in wild generalisations but in this case I'm referring to journailsts writing on the matter. who are preserving a certain ambiguity.

Depends who your wife is.....so many expats are married to Issan farm girls who left school at 14 and have very little knowledge for thinking outside the box....they just accept it " the way it is".

Why? Can't you do it???

Just run you down to immigration as someone with insufficient means to be in the country

Somebody tried to say that the FTSIE 500 had actually improved since Brexit. They overlooked that this index includes businesses around the world. If you look at the UK domestic FTSIE 250 it has dropped between 25 and 30 %. This clearly shows that the rich financial fat cats are making a killing out of Brexit, whereas local and smaller businesses are losing out big time

So my friend has just renewed his UK passport from Australia. It was sent just around Jan 1st and received yesterday 31st Jan.

Between 2010 and 2017, I had 3 UK passports. They kept changing the system until all possible went to London. The first 49 page ran out and was replaced by a small passport as they had no 49 page ones. The small òne quickly filled up and in 2017 I replaced it with another 49 page one. I did that in the agency in Bkk. It took 5 DAYS!

Actually comparing GN&C in Thailand to other countries is rather pointless - it doesn't mitigate or justify it and it isn't a competition. But - corruption in Thailand has some very unique qualities that distinguish it from other countries and t=trying to say they are one and te same is to not understand how it works in Thailand - it is engrained in a millennium of Thai history and has the approval of 65% of the population.

thst's the point of the article - they can't directly say it though, can they?

A lot of sense in this article. One thing I feel I could chip in with is for motorists. If you are involved in an accident, however minor, if it looks like the police will be involved or a third party wants compensation RING YOUR INSURANCE AGENT. - straight away!!! Keep the number on your phone or readily accessible - within 20 minutes or so an agent from the insurance company will show up and act as intermediary between you and the police and third parties. Don't get involved yourself, don't argue te toss, just calmly and politely tell everyone the insurance man is on his way. Often just his appearance is enough to make complaints go away when the "injured" party realises that you have a champion and they don't. THe police will be able to seak calmly with the insurance guy/girl and you can sit back an wait for the situation to unfold or resolve. Don't get paranoid and think they are conspiring to stitch you up - the truth is the insurance doesn't want to lose money, they have a vested intrst in putting the blame on any other party rather than their own customer.

It now appears that the UK is actually lagging behind even Russia - according to the IMF. of the post Brexit trade deals, 73 were "rubber stamps" Oz and NZ are new but tiny and the Ozone is set to damage UK farmers. No deal with the US and no deal anywhere near te horizon. No deal with India Investment in the UK has stalled There are 330,000 less workers, 20,000 in the HS and 9000 Gps missing. since free movement was ended. UK is the only major economy that is smaller after te pandemic Brexiteers should be ashamed!

Any major civil engineering project is a target for corrupt practices. You can tell how corrupt a country is by looking at its roads. THe EC project has raised considerable concerns about the environmental impact, in a region that is already scarred by pollution and environmental malpractice. What people are prepared to "sweep under the carpet" in order to attract investors is anyone's guess.

UK visa for a Thai passport holder is usually for 6 months - multiple re-entries can be arranged as can extensions. Unpaid business trips are also allowed. Schengen visa allows unlimited travel all over 27 countries in Europe.

he wouldn't recognise human rights if they locked them up and threw the key away