herfiehandbag

How does that work then, do you 😀ring them up when you want to know the time, or do you have to go in and look? Who winds it up for you? 😀

Funnily enough, I drove a cab for a while, ( I was caring for my mother with dementia and it was a job with the complete flexibility of hours which that demanded). A motorcycle policeman stopped me for a "licencing check" (they used to hassle us when they were bored). He asked me where my torch was, he looked at it,"Ever Ready" supermarket checkout special, and said "nah, you want one of these mate" and produced a steel 6 cell maglite! It would in all honesty have come in handy a couple of times!

Looks like the collection stacked under the front seat of many pick up trucks! Not entirely sure that ten years is, umh, justified, in view of the sentences handed down ( or not as the case may be) in other crimes. Manchester Airport for some reason springs to mind...

1) He is talking about 20K a month, that is twice that. 2) he is talking about living frugally - although I don't really see the point of being in Pattaya if you have to live frugally. Elsewhere in Thailand 20K is entirely "doable"

Minimum wage ( effectively the standard wage) is about B350 a day. Assuming a 6 day working week that means B9500 a month or so. Plenty of Thais do so. Don't go to the gym - you don't need a gym to exercise. Don't have aircon but use fans ( I have a moderate size house (4 rooms, hallway and 2 bathrooms and my electricity is about B600 a month). If you buy Western food from city supermarkets they are expensive - shop in local markets. It is doable, you can live quite comfortably. After putting my daughter through university and paying off debts my ex wife left me with that (20K) is about what I have for the month

I'm actually quite surprised that 17366 supporters of a Palestinian politician were watching and listening to Julia Hartley -Brewer broadcasting! Like Heineken, Talk TV/Radio must reach into corners others don't!

Should have slotted the bastard.

You really do have a marvellous encyclopaedic knowledge of links for just about every topic which touches upon UK political topics don't you. Years ago I remember ( had some dealings with) the "news clipping agencies". They worked by collating all available press articles, one registered an interest and you could have access to all those articles. I know that Labour (and almost certainly the other parties) maintain an electronic version of such a database - I remember reading the job description for its manager, some time ago. So how does it work Chomper, do you call up your handlers, tell them that the "awkward squad" on the board you monitor has said "x y z", and they supply you with the links to answer it? Or do you devote every waking moment to reading and noting a wide variety of publications (some behind paywalls)? It must be quite a challenge, there are after all only 24 hours in a day!

Local elections are due to be held across swathes of England in May. I am unsure about Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The ruling Labour Westminster Government, whose popularity has collapsed spectacularly in the six months since they won power, and are accordingly expecting and expected to lose a great many local council seats in these local elections, are considering cancelling these elections in a number of councils, as they are "planning reorganisations of these local authorities". Put bluntly, and perhaps simplistically, the UK relies constitutionally, on the Government "doing the right thing"; in this case facing the electorate. The suspicion is that they intend to "dodge" facing the electorate, using the excuse of future reorganisations. Can they do it? They have a massive parliamentary majority, notwithstanding the collapse in public support, and Parliament is sovereign, so yes, they can, despite it not being " the right thing".

Personally I think that Reform would be foolish to accept funds from Musk - particularly in view of the way he has inveigled himself, without any electoral participation or confirmation, into the highest echelons of the incoming US administration. I think it would backfire spectacularly with the British Electorate, particularly that part of it which Reform is courting. However I think that the Electoral Commission would be immediately better employed reviewing the suggestions by government that a number of local elections should be cancelled in the spring of 2025 - that, I would suggest, is at least as great a threat to the integrity of the democratic process in the UK as interference by Musk.

Gracious me - I am a British conservative - and an interested observer of the current chaotic US political situation. To describe me as "far left delusional", apart from being utterly ludicrous as anyone familiar with my often evinced views on this forum in regard to UK politics, shows remarkable delusion on your own part!

Trump ran to stay out of jail. His various fines and legal antics have rather exhausted his funds. His assets are leveraged and beyond, he is broke, as is witnessed by his continued grifting even as President elect. I also rather suspect that he is not really interested in the nitty gritty of governing, preferring the "big ticket" stuff which puts him in the limelight. Elon has almost unlimited, no, (effectively unlimited) supplies of money. Trump needs, is impressed by and covets money. Elon is impressed by his own presence as he roams the corridors of power. Elon isn't going anywhere.

I athumed she came from Bartheloma! Does she have a hamster called Basil?

It is in a way darkly ironic. Trump won the election, the MAGA movement ( here and elsewhere) crowed and boasted of a decisive win, the comeback of a political titan, the people having spoken and must now be heard, a great new era dawning, and in the cold light of the new morning, instead of a Trumpian blaze of glory, we discover it is Elon Musk actually calling the shots!

I know, thank you. I realised too late to edit my mistake, although I corrected myself in my subsequent post.