kwilco

my guess is that there will be a sizeable number of unvaccinated people who have already booked holidays, flights hotels etc who either haven't had jabs or will have members of their party without jabs ....or will simply be deterred from coming to Thailand because of this. It sounds like yet another un-researched dictum reacting to rising covid figures without fully assessing the risks and =consequences.

one of the major symptoms of drinking is that it destrroys brain cells by the thousands

"cheers" - QED

Only a drinker can't work that out.

This is a classic drinker's response. Firstly in denial about the effects of the alcohol they drink (v.WHO above) and then cannot conceive of life without an alcohol model of socialising. As said drinkers can't see outside the glass.

Your problem is because of alcohol you can't conceive how normal people socialise, you can only envisage it in groups styled on joint alcohol consumption groups. drinkers labour under the misconception that everybody behaves like they do - because they simply can't see beyond alcohol. In fact on a world scale they are a minority.

very few I would extrapolate the idea to include other bad habits.....but if it makes you feel better in yourself to imagine that.....it really just shows the depth of your addiction.

This just shows how addictive even "social" drinking really is - people can't even imagine how to function as a human without alcohol.

"lady menstruation " - ??????

As ever after all this time you have displayed a basic and profound misunderstanding of the topic.

20 million is HALF the pre-Covid high of 40 million - I would think that unless they are spending100% more, this poses the a serious problem for the Thai economy.

Not just China,It's the same in the UK and elsewhere..... - the Covid and flu admissions are way up on last year to the point that emergency services are almost collapsing.

sent back home? How many asylum seekers came from Rwanda, then? how many have been sent their by UK? - None! Is this typical Brexit thinking?

1000 words and that is all you can come up with? Not even relevant to my post. or the OP - "Why is the UK struggling more than other countries?" - but it does give one a clue. th OP is

The hapless government of Rishi Sunak is still trying to drip=feed Brexit onto the UK whilst at the same time trying to hold together a crumbling economy and standards of living. We know for a start that re-joining certain aspects of the EU were brought up in Cabinet but that is a U-turn that this current government could not survive. We can seen how fragile the post Brexit UK economy has become when Brexit PM Truss had to be quickly removed by her own Tory nabobs after nearly bringing the country to its knees. Most of the info offered here is also available on the UK government website and Reuters and BBC. …and outlined in posts above….. Since the referendum, the UK has had 6 prime ministers – 5 prime ministers in just 6 years - this is the fastest turnover in a century. Resulting from a massive political miscalculation by Cameron the UK plunged itself into economic decline and political chaos. It was clear from the start that the architects of the Brexit vote, in particular Boris Johnson, had no real plan for untangling decades of economic and legal ties with the EU, so the chaos followed. ..and the government has failed time and again to untangle the EU treaty as it needs to be replaced by UK legislation that can limit the damage to so many aspects of the UK – from trade, to politics to the very Union of the UK. It seems Boris was so keen to become PM, he lost sight of the ramifications of his own ambition…. Technically the UK left the EU on midnight, Jan 31 2020….. but it isn’t that simple…… Basically the government is trying to reduce the economic damage caused by the Johnson-Frost deal UK Government announced on the 28 April the further postponement of import controls planned to come into force July 2022. Most of has now been postponed until late 2023…..or later – e.g. The government is in the process of furtive “un-Brexiting” Time and again the Brexit govt. is postponing full Brexit as they know the damage it will cause. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the minister for Brexit opportunities, said it would be wrong to go ahead with this post-Brexit paperwork while supply chains were already facing pressure from rising energy prices and the effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. – This is therefore admitting that Brexit is putting an extra “struggle” on the UK. Import and export is the most obvious bottleneck – the government keep postponing the inevitable bureaucratic chaos. E.G. - Pre-notification on IPAFFS (Import of Products, Animals, Food and Feed Systems) of goods imported through ports The govt. has postponed the introduction of prenotification until later in 2023. Northern Ireland - The 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement in April 2023 is looming. New elections for the Belfast Assembly have been postponed, but cannot be put off indefinitely. The policies of the UK government would in effect put an almost block on the free trade of most items with the EU. UKCA marking - Government (in the shape of Rees-Mogg) has also been questioned on fourth delay to import regulations - Business secretary Grant Shapps has announced delays to the introduction of the UKCA mark, (UK Conformity Assessed)giving business more time to continue using the EU mark – a move justified by the need to avoid extra costs at a time of economic fragility. The result is that manufacturers, producers, importer and exporters have no certainty for the future they just carry at the moment as if we hadn’t left the EU but with extra paperwork. In the future it may well result in the banning of many UK from the EU and other countries that rely on EU standards for their production (e.g. the Thai chicken industry) this means businesses can continue to use the CE marking and reversed epsilon marking on the GB market until 31 December 2024…. Or even later by then! Even private holidaymakers are feeling the effects of Brexit. Borders now see long queues of Brits waiting to clear their passports all over the EU. – Britain still has third country status at European borders. They could sign to a freedom of movement agreement such as Norway or Switzerland. Treaties – the government said that by the end of 2022 they would have replaced over 60% of FTAs. They have not got any=where near this target – it’s about 60%. The thing is these treaties are for the most part reinstating agreements that were voided on leaving the EU – but the Brexit government has not even been able to establish these. They also made much ado about signing treaties with the USA – who quite simply aren’t that interested as they have much bigger fish to fry. Why would anyone bother going through the hassle of a treaty with the UK when they already have a similar treaty with the EU that covers everything they need anyway. It’s just another layer of bureaucracy for something they already have. One big drawback for potential treaty signers is the UKCA situation – how can you sell stuff to a country that won’t tell you their standards? Boris’s promises – look a bit hollow now….. “A comprehensive Canada style free trade deal between the UK and the EU, a deal that will protect jobs across this country.” - Not done “A deal that will allow UK goods and components to be sold without tariffs and without quotas in the EU market.” – resulting in extra layers of bureaucracy that is strangling trade. “A deal which will if anything should allow our companies and our exporters to do even more business with our European friends.” – quite the opposite has happened “And yet which achieves something that the people of this country instinctively knew was doable.” – Boris – and it is patently not “doable”. The main problem facing the UK today is how to reverse the recession caused by Brexit. The main obstacle is the intransient obstinacy of those who supported Brexit. It was brought in not by reason and thought, it was a product of “feeling” and prejudices. So as it wasn’t based on evidence or reason it is almost impossible to argue against those who still support it as evidence and reason is of no consequence. Brexit will be reversed eventually as the slender group of people in the middle of these politics gradually come to the conclusion the Brexit was a massive blunder – the majority of Brexiteer won’t change their attitude, but they probably are too blinkered to notice the gradual return to common sense and the EU.

This whole incident is clearly part of a spat between high ranking officials. The DNP is a political backwater for ministers and has been poorly run for decades. It would seem that the circumstances surrounding this department are a perfect culture for corruption. A symptom of how badly this place is run is the perpetual insistence of dual pricing for entry to NPs - it is quite clear that no-one of rank in the department has any interest in how the dept is run....nor do they have any interest in wildlife and conservation. It would be nice to think that this "scandal" would result in a complete reform of the whole department - but I fear that is wishful thinking.

Population growth rate of the UK in the last 10 years is 5.69% Jut a little more than Thailand’s at 5,55% and less than the USA at 5.74%.

The thing about Brexiteers is they really didn’t have much of a clue – all thy knew is what they were told and they were told they weren’t happy. A bundle of soundbites, clichés and catchphrase were put forward instead of any real policy and this coupled with a vague idea that things were better in the 1950s was enough. May people also thought that nothing very much would change – they thought life would still go on but with blue passports (they didn’t know you could already get those). What is very clear now is that things can’t go on….the economy is shrinking and that has palpable effects of everyone – especially the lower incomes who thought Brexit would help them. The UK economy is one of the biggest in the world but it isn’t invulnerable and Brexit has given it a big, long kick in the fundament. If you are in any doubt about how vulnerable a leading economy can be just look at what happened when Brexiteer Truss took over…. In a stark indictment of UK democracy, she was quickly ousted by the powers that be to prevent the UK from disappearing down a Brexit hole…..the truth is that the Brexit government keeps postponing further breaks with the EU because they know if they carry on it will just hasten the UK’s decline into a banana republic. The gradual realignment with Europe is not just a political thing, it is an inevitable progression that all politicians are aware of …. It’s just a matter of getting rid of the dingle polcy, dogma-driven few that remain in government.

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?