James105

No, I am an elitist. If I was in charge I would focus entirely on lining my own pockets, look after my mates in big business by mass importing cheap labour for them, coerce people to take vaccines they don't need paid for by the taxpayer (with the appropriate backhanders of course), all at the expense of ordinary people. Normally this should not be a vote winner but I know that the majority of people in the UK are basically stupid and believe anything that my mainstream media buddies will print. Should a "populist" like Farage come along with some compelling arguments about immigration I'll simply call him a racist and take the applause from the stupid people and bask in my virtuousness. Or something like that..

He actually expresses views that the majority of people agree with. This I believe is known as "populism", otherwise known as appealing to ordinary people. Whoever would vote for a man like that when they can doff their caps and vote for the elitists in the establishment parties?

"Not so long ago"? I'd suggest 1612 is a pretty long time ago as that is the last time it happened. Equating the "Religion of peace" with religions that have undergone reformation, modernised and do not wish harm on others who disagree or blaspheme is part of the problem and gives Islam a free pass on their barbarism. I think all religion is nonsense but there is only one that is committing terrorism on a consistent basis.

I think Reform will pick up votes from the disillusioned (like myself) who were not going to bother voting but now have something different to vote for. The system is too rigged for a non establishment party to win outright (or even win a handful of seats), but it wouldn't surprise me if they managed to get 15-20% of the overall vote. Maybe when people realise that Labour are just an even more wasteful shambles of a party than the Tories then next time they may be able to do something.

I'd suggest the extra weight of an additional 700,000 people a year is going to put a strain on any service. Stopping so many people coming in, cutting the middle management tier of the NHS, sorting out the shambolic procurement that buys drugs at the highest possible price point from labelled brands and actually charging foreigners who use it (just like other countries do) would allow for significant cuts to the NHS budget I would think. Then repeat the process across other wasteful entities and there is plenty of opportunity to cut taxes. They are only so high as so much money is wasted.

Indeed. They have chosen classic conservative policies which is a smaller state and lower taxes. Not sure that is "populist", its just standard conservative stuff. The "conservatives in name only" are pursuing higher taxes and bigger state interference and we already have a party for that called Labour don't we? When an actual conservative (Truss) was democratically elected to lead the party by its conservative members she was ousted as soon as possible to make way for the current globalist puppet incumbent which just goes to show where the conservatives are now. The 2 main parties should just be renamed to Globalist Party A and Globalist Party B to reflect the actual choice on offer for the UK public.

The reason Reform exists is due to the fact the conservatives are not considered centre right any longer. The conservatives are now just another globalist party lining the pockets of themselves and their globalist rich mates who like to employ cheap immigrant workers (at least until they can be replaced with even cheaper robots/AI) and Labour are no different. The conservatives were elected on a pledge to reduce immigration to the "tens of thousands". Brexit was also down to the fact that the EU was used as an excuse that immigration could not be controlled so the people voted to give that control to the elected government. Is mass uncontrolled immigration a "centre right conservative" policy? I don't think so. So of course there will be a party that emerges to fill the centre right void the conservatives have vacated in pursuit of globalism.

The person who "deserves this crap" is immune to the consequences of his actions. No ordinary person in the UK voted to go to war (the majority were against it), it was not on anyones manifesto and was passed through parliament on the back of a pack of lies. People of the UK engage in a meaningless charade every 5 or so years where they elect a party who then tear up whatever promises they made and follow whatever course of action lines either their own or their globalist elite buddies pockets, at the expense of those gullible fools who voted for them who believe the same old lies again and again by the 2 main parties.

So that makes pretty much every country in the non-western world "populist radical right" then, as all sensible countries prioritise the needs of citizens over non-citizens, including Thailand. The fact that this is even considered to be a controversial stance is why the west will fall.

He is far from a coward. It takes genuine courage to go against the narrative the sheep have been fed from what passes as journalism nowadays. It makes me laugh that the "left" are enthralled by the mass importation of anti-gay anti-jew cheap labour that lines the pockets of the richest in society at the expense of the working classes and the destruction of western values. One day the left will wake up in the totalitarian state they helped create where being gay is once again illegal and women are once again second class citizens. That is currently the future of the UK and it may or may not be too late to change this trajectory, but the people sounding the alarms are too few and are being drowned out by the bleating of the sheep who either lack critical thinking skills or who hate themselves so much that they just want to see the west burn.

Indeed.

Right got it. So if any drunken idiot decides to ask security for a fight over here then security has to fight and throw the first punch instead of just saying no and telling the drunken idiot to move along. Rules of engagement must be different over here. Guess it's just as well they don't carry guns I suppose.

The white t-shirt guy was drunk. He is not supposed to play the role of the sensible security guard who de-escalates and is simply fulfilling his role as the drunken idiot in this situation. Once the bills were paid and he was outside the bar the sober and in control security should have just waved him goodbye. There was no need to engage in the thuggery at all. The security thugs committed needless violence by escalating a situation that didn't need it and should face punishment for this.

White shirt was drunk on the fuel that the bar willingly sold him. It's the job of security to de-escalate not start launching punches of their own when he is already outside the bar after squaring the bill and not the job of the drunkard. I am somewhat of an expert on this kind of thing as I saw the movie "RoadHouse" when I was younger and if security had heeded the advice of Swayze then no-one would have ended up with blood on their hands: "If somebody gets in your face and calls you a cocksucker, I want you to be nice. Ask him to walk. Be nice. If he won't walk, walk him. But be nice. If you can't walk him, one of the others will help you, and you'll both be nice. I want you to remember that it's a job. It's nothing personal."

I'm far from a tourism expert on these matters, but considering the videos of this incident have made it into the national newspapers of the UK, I'd suggest that thuggery of this nature going unpunished or lessened by charging them under the "business security act" which is unlikely to cover attempted murder crimes would lead to a more significant damaging of the reputation of Thailand. I'm led to understand that one of the "security" thugs was wearing a knuckleduster which suggests the goal of the security thugs was to inflict violence rather than de-escalate any situation. By the time the security thug thew the first punch the bills (all of them) had been paid and the drunken idiots were out of the bar. Mission accomplished from a security perspective. Anything that happened after that was needless violence and thuggery.

I can't quite understand the point that the police made that they need the guy who took a penalty kick to his head to need to make a complaint before they will "investigate". The guy could well be dead by now and be incapable of making a complaint. There are literally hundreds of witnesses. There is multi-angled high definition camera footage of it happening available online. This is nothing short of attempted murder. Do they need murder victims to make a complaint before investigating as it is usually quite difficult for victims of murder to pop into a police station and fill out a form?

Yes I see what you mean about royalties but I do publish on a US based platform so get a 1024-S for the US based sales and the income category on there is 12 which is "Other royalties (for example, copyright, software, broadcasting, endorsement payments)", so hopefully that will satisfy this requirement. I forgot I get this so this is another tax doc in the documentation toolbox. Yes, I probably should think about getting some health insurance, but I can also just demonstrate that I have adequate cash in the bank to cover this anyway for self insurance purposes. Someone above mentioned that they are very helpful in the BOI office and I have plenty of time before I need to apply for this so next time I am in Bangkok I'll probably just go in and see if I can get some kind of confirmation before I submit the docs.

I have a couple of questions about this as I originally thought this visa would be too complex for me to get one of the skilled professional ones, but it seems I (might) be eligible for the "wealthy pensioner" one next year when I turn 50. This should coincide nicely with my Elite visa coming to an end. I will not be able to apply for this until May next year but I want to see if I can get my ducks in a row before then. 1. It seems the income requirement includes 'royalties' (which my income is classified as) which gets transferred to me monthly via PayPal. Would PayPal statements and bank statements suffice for evidence here, as well as screen captures or something from the online publishing platform where the sales and royalties for my work is listed? 2. The "tax return" requirement is mildly concerning as I have ceased to be a UK tax resident from last year and am technically a tax resident in Thailand. In preparation for the tax rule changes I transferred 2M baht last year to my Thai bank account so was not planning on filing a tax return here this year (due to not remitting any monies here in 2024) but perhaps I may need to rethink this. I'll file a UK tax return later this year anyway but this will just be to confirm I am still not a UK tax resident so will be zero based. So at best I'll have 2 tax returns (1 for UK and 1 for Thailand) that show I pay zero tax unless I do something such as remitting money here this year to change that. 3. Do people use agents typically for this or just go straight to BOI and submit the documents etc? Is there any advantage to using an agent to get the aforementioned ducks in a row and get this over the line? Would greatly appreciate any insight.

So 5-10 years of this clown show and then 15-20 years of the country trying to recover from the mess they leave after that, although with the expected increase in low skilled immigrants who will be a net drain on the nations income, infrastructure and culture it may never recover this time. I can at least relax in the knowledge that however much money they waste, not a single penny of it will be mine as I no longer pay any tax in the UK. Thankfully I will also not be dependant on the state pension when I am eventually old enough to receive it either so whatever damage they do on that front I will also be protected. I do feel sorry for those who are wise enough not to vote for either Labour or Conservative who only serve themselves or their fellow globalist elites, but not so much for those who continue to vote for the establishment parties.

I'm confused that you are confused. How can I clarify this situation to make it a bit easier for you to understand?

I'm confused too. The BBC reported that "April saw the hottest April day since 1949 when, on 19 April, the temperature reached 29.1C in London St James' Park." https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-44341030 So a high of 26C is quite a drop from the 29C reported on that day. Is it a cooling crisis or a warming crisis? Need to make sure I panic accordingly and stock up on budgie smugglers or ski jackets depending on which one it is.

There isn't a lot of forward thinking by this lot is there? They make a law to legalise this stuff (in policy terms) very recently and now there is a weed shop on every corner. These are businesses that have signed leases, landlords that have tenants and presumably a market for this stuff. Now they say they are going to close them all down. Why anyone chooses to run a business here is a mystery to me as it would feel like the sword of Damocles is constantly dangling over my head waiting for the next shot from the hip policy to come into effect.

Thailand is probably one of the most dangerous countries to walk in as there are hardly any pedestrian pavements/sidewalks separating squishy pedestrians from the motorised traffic. About one third of road accident victims in Bangkok are pedestrians.

I'd feel a bit trapped in the condo if I didn't have a bike. I don't use it often as I live centrally anyway but the traffic in Pattaya is horrendous for going any kind of distance whether in a baht bus or a car. At least on the bike you can filter through the traffic. People who don't ride bikes think it is dangerous. As long as you keep your wits about you and ride it with the expectation that everyone else on the road has the capacity to be a moron and avoid places where there are likely to be angry soi dogs that like to chase bikes, then it is not particularly dangerous. I often feel that I am in more danger walking on the side of the roads here than I do riding on the bike.

Every European country requires ID to vote. Are you suggesting that every European country is "gerrymandering" their votes or denying their citizens the right to vote? ID has also always been required to pick up a parcel from the post office amongst other things. I'd personally take it a step further and would want to see proof of paying tax before letting someone vote. No representation without taxation and all that...