Patong2021

No, and the format is reasonable. Nigel Farage had one of the strongest Reform votes, yet won his seat with a minority of the votes, less than 50%. Where Reform had strong showings, it was still trounced by Labour. Reform came second place in 98 constituencies. In 89 of these cases, it was second to Labour. 60 of these were in the north of England and 13 were in Wales. The Green Party strength was in London. There is no argument that the number of seats declared for Labour does not reflect the total voting results, but what it does reflect is the party which had the broadest support across the country, and that was Labour and parties which share a similar position on much of its economic manifesto. Regional dominance is muted in favour of a national result. The issue here is one of economic policy, and the Labour position can be argued to have been agreed to or understood would be implemented by a majority of UK voters. Here's why: the Greens 6.7%, Plaid Cymru 0.7%%, SNP 2.5% Sinn Fein 0.7% for a total of 10.6% all have economic policies similar or more "radical" than Labour. The Liberal Democrats 12.2% offered economic policies similar to Labour, although diverging on some issues. That's a total of 22.8% of the voters. Reform did not offer an economic platform. It was a one issue policy driven by immigration policy and Brexit insistence. In effect, the Conservatives occupied their economic policy territory alone. Former Conservative voters chose to split their votes migrating to Reform and the Liberal Democrats. The end result is what they were warned would happen: Labour was handed a land slide victory. The current Labour policies should not be a surprise to anyone. Consider it a good dosing of fiber needed to clear out the failed Conservative policies and to refocus the Conservatives.

Trump is 78 going on 79. Do you really believe that he will still be alive in 4 years? Or that he didn't reach a plea deal to stop inciting insurrections in return for charges being stayed?

Boris dreams of going back to 10 Downing. He thinks he will have a Churchillian rebirth. Offering empty innsincer words are a pathetic attempt to woo back the people who ran away to Farage at Reform. It won't work. He is seen for the scheming irresponsible pompous philandering buffoon that he is.

No, VP Harris was not tasked with that mandate. She had no authority over border policy. Repeating a Trump campaign lie will not change the reality.

Perspective and fairness please. Many of the EV recalls are minor issues that can be fixed without going to a dealership. They are software related. That's a very big difference compared to the Pinto exploding gas tanks or the Ford Explorer roll overs or the defective airbags of the Japanese and Korean vehicles. When OTAs were not included in the recall numbers, all four Teslas fell out of the Top 25 most recalled car list, as did the Rivian R1S. The Lucid Air moved from slot 5 to slot 25, barely making the list. Unfortunately for the Porsche Taycan it remained in the top spot, with all 70.7 recalls (apparently no OTA recalls happen for the Taycan). While EV (and particularly The takeaway is that the EV manufacturers can quickly resolve the issues without inconveniencing clients. It is a much better outcome than my having to wait 1 year for a defective vehicle component to be replaced in my Mercedes.

My Mercedes gasoline powered vehicle started having electrical problems in year 2 at 5,000km. The continued until I got rid of the vehicle. My replacement gasoline powered BMW was in need of 150,000 baht worth of mechanical and electrical work in year 4 at 12,000 km. In the early days of automobiles, the horse was still faster and more affordable and reliable than automobiles. Electric vehicles are at he start of their industry life and to date have delivered far more reliability and sustainability than than the conventional automobiles did in their prime of life from 1950-2000. The year on year advances of electric vehicle technology are much greater than what was seen and still seen with conventional vehicles. Electric vehicles may not be appropriate as a replacement for 100% of the conventional market, but if they can be used to replace 50-75% in the next decade, we will have made a tremendous impact in respect to air pollution and carbon emissions.

That is not how the parliamentary system works in the UK. Labour won 411 out of 650 seats. That is called a landslide election victory. It won a majority of the votes on those seats. Using your logic, because 76.3% of the electorate did not vote Conservative, it means that the electorate repudiated the Conservative election platform which included its financial policies. Liberal Democrat, Sinn Fein, Green, Plaid Cymru and SNP economic positions have more in common with the Starmer Labour positions than they do with the Conservative party positions. So yes indeed, Labour does have a mandate to govern. Your argument is one for proportional representation, which the Conservatives have been against for ages. Much of Reform and the Social Democrat vote gain come from former Conservative voters who wanted anybody other than the Conservatives. Economic policy was not their primary concern. Rather, it was the mismanagement of the country, the political infighting and the revolving door at 10 Downing that annoyed the electorate. If the Tories had any common sense they would let Labour implode and concentrate on rebuilding the nation's trust in the party. They merited being thrown out of government.

There is most likely a misunderstanding and miscommunication. Typically, pharmaceutical companies import the API and not the finished drug. (API-Active pharmaceutical ingredient). The API is then used at a fabricator that is European certified and sent to an European certified packager. The API supplier must be European certified. If a finished drug is imported, it will be for a generic, non complex product and it will be delivered in bulk, It must still come from a European certified supplier. Most of the EU imports come from the EU itself followed by the USA, India, China and to a lesser extent the UK and Israel. Because of China's inability to honour supply contracts during Covid, many western countries have tried to reduce supply contracts that come from China and have invested in local production. However, the reality is that some drugs are just too expensive to manufacture in bulk compared to China. For example, much of the world's aspirin is manufactured in China.

3 months since the chap asked his question and his visit. Since then we do not know the outcome. Did he wear his Rolex? If he did was it safe? was he beset by kathoeys and horrifically fondled resulting in the loss of said Rolex? Was it lost in some seedy beer par as he drank too many Leo's? So many questions, so many unresolved concerns. Please, sir let us know the outcome of your adventure in the magical big city of Krung Thep.

I am not a friend of labour, but they won a massive landslide election and deserve a chance to govern. Before predicting doom and gloom, note that the Albanese Labour government of Australia has just delivered its 2nd consecutive budget SURPLUS. Remember that a government called left wing balanced the budget and is paying down the deficit run up by Conservative governments. UK Labour has inherited a financial mess created by irresponsible successive Conservative administrations with Cameron and Boris being two of the worst financial offenders. Before savaging PM Starmer, give his administration an opportunity to try and sort out the very serious economic mess that his government has inherited. How much more instability with revolving PMs does the UK need?

It is sort of funny watching this anti Israel /pro Hamas guy twist himself in knots. He loves his Trump and anything Trump says. The thing is Trump has recommended that "Iran be blown to smithereens". See 3.39. My interpretation is that the hatred of Israel outweighs love for Trump. 🤭

The downfall of the German automobile industry started with its embrace of of cutting production costs through shortcuts and the embrace of cheaper parts with a built in obsolescence. German auto workers were trained for years and labour was respected. No more. Today's products reflect that embrace of short term profit , of greed over quality and pride of workmanship. That's "White Western Culture" . The British did not start out as pirates. The reality is that all countries with a ocean going capability were equally given to piracy. It was Great Britain which helped put an end to international piracy, and in particular with the Dutch, brought peace to the South China Sea. The "White" culture of the British is what ensured that some semblance of security was put into effect to protect shipping routes and the passage of people without constant attack. The accusations against the British as plagiarists and copyists (sic) is nonsense. The reality is that such behaviour was the norm throughout the developing world. We saw it with some of the great musical composers of all time where they often "borrowed" from students or lesser musicians. We have seen it in scientific R&D where scientists often borrowed from others. The fact is that the activities were all in their own cultural sphere. No one was copying or plagiarizing from the Arab world, or from Africa or from the Americas. The greatest barrier to R&D is the ease of Communication. Cultures that do not have a language basis that allows an ease in communicating and in disseminating complex concepts are at a disadvantage. The Chinese language is vast and inconsistent. The language relies on characters, which includes at least 50,000 characters, of which an estimated 10,000 are used in regular communication. Consider that the English and French alphabet has 26 letters, the German has 30, and the Russian alphabet 33 letters and it becomes obvious why some cultures have been able to share information faster and to advance quickly. Vietnam is an excellent example. It changed to a Roman alphabet in the early 1900's and that is what laid the foundation to its development. Instead of relying on cumbersome chinese characters to communicate with, the Vietnamese language could be communicated with a simplified and consistent easy to master series of 29 letters that preserved and respected Vietnamese tones and cultural meanings. You also ignore the fact that great scientific though requires a nurturing environment. The west offers its innovaters a place to think and live in freedom. China cannot offer its scientists this, nor will it. One need only look at the disappearing scientists of China during Covid to understand that point.

You selected a poor illustration. German automakers have fallen into the disgrace that once characterized the US automakers. BMW Reliability Rating: Reliability rating based on the cost, frequency, and severity of actual repairs. BMW Reliability Rating Breakdown The BMW Reliability Rating is 2.5 out of 5.0, which ranks it 30th out of 32 for all car brands. This rating is based on an average across 345 unique models. The China (and India) rely on theft of intellectual property. Western nations, especially universities are their accomplices. In their lust for foreign student fees, western universities have taken in people who have copied and stolen intellectual property. Canada and the USA have been particularly harmed by Chinese agents posing as students and workers.

The assumptions are invalid. Some are laughable. For example, "heavy focus on the British Empire." Seriously? Germans were once one of the largest ethnic groups in the USA. They now account for 12% of the US ethnic background. Italians are 6% . Neither has historically had much focus on the British Empire. Latinos make up 19% of the US population. Its a mix of multiple cultures . Spanish and many South Americans cannot be compared to cultures such as Hondurans or Mexican. A large portion of the population is "European" in its culture. And then you have the Asian cultures. The work and value ethics of Koreans and japanese can hardly be compared to those of some other Asians.

Gay people are unlikely to want to "mutilate" their genitals to make a fantasy come real. On the contrary, it is often "heterosexuals" who are proponents of fetish sex. Homosexual men are attract to other men and want to have sexual relations with MEN. Lesbians are attracted to other women and want to have sexual relations with WOMEN. Transgenders have their own preferences. Very few gay men want to be women. They are fond of the penis and want to keep theirs.

Nasrallah set the wheels in motion when he helped the responsible parties of the 1983 mass murder of US and French nationals in Beirut. Hezbollah was responsible for the planning and execution of the bombings, which resulted in the deaths of 307 people, including 241 U.S. military personnel and 58 French soldiers. Nasrallah had been been providing organizational cover and funding for terrorists. Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah operations commander recently killed in an Israeli strike, had a $7 million bounty on his head for the 1983 Beirut bombings Fuad Shukr also implicated in the Beirut bombings had just overseen the mass murder of 12 Druze children in a missile strike when he was eliminated in in July. Both were close associates of Nasrallah and leaders of Hezbollah. And now Nasrallah joins them. Remember too that Hezbollah was created by the Iranian Republican Guards, the militant anti western Iranian military group which has had a direct role in the murder of 500,000 syrians and the creation of 14 million Syrian refugees. Nasrallah actively supported the slaughter of Assad opponents. Anyone complaining over his death, is a supporter of the Syrian genocide.

Collateral damage? The Hezbollah bunker was intentionally located there. The buildings were populated by Hezbollah workers and associates. The people living there were all affiliated and part of the terrorist organization. Everyone knew what the risks of living at a Hezbollah HQ was. They did not care.

No he was not. He was a shia muslim leader. Most of the population have no loyalty to Hezbollah, nor its Syrian and Iranian masters. For reference sake, the lebanese demographics are approximately; Christian -32%, 4% Druze, 32% Sunni, 31% Shia, 1% other. Hezbollah dominates because Iran has armed it and provides its guidance. It is loyal to Iran, not Lebanon.

Why recommend something that almost no one will qualify for? To be eligible to apply for an ABTC you must hold a valid passport from an APEC economy (or be a permanent resident of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Hong Kong, China), engage in regular business travel throughout the APEC region and have no criminal conviction. Each economy has the discretion to impose additional eligibility criteria on their applicants. Most of the people on this forum are elderly retirees, or who do not have regular business travel in the region, or who do not live in one of the designated countries. Participating ABTC countries: Canada and the United States are transitional members and have additional requirements (e.g. Nexus membership). The other full ABTC members are: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, China, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Vietnam and Russia.

It also destroys the natural flora of the gut. All drugs have side effects. They are chemical compounds that are introduced into an environment where they are not normally found. Therefore, they should only be used when there is a certainty of a need. And no DoxyPep is not a panacea. It still requires a follow up to ensure that there is not an infection. The downside of only taking the limited dose is the creation of an antibiotic resistant infection.

VP Harris is neither Jamaican nor Indian. She is not a citizen or a national of either nation. She is a US citizen. Also, she was born in the USA. The hateful racist sentiment seems lifted out of a white supremacists for Trump pamphlet.

The primary system does not elect the Democrat (or Republican) presidential candidate. The candidate is selected at the convention by delegates. The delegates selected VP Harris. Delegates had the option to nominate anyone or to withhold their endorsement. No delegates did that. VP Harris was already on the presidential ticket and had already been validated by the US electorate because she was in the elected position as VP.

Why did you vote electronically. Trump says such ballots are unacceptable and are part of the great election steal. Trump says only paper ballots that can be counted by hand are acceptable. Why did you vote via a format supported by Democrats?

A response characterized by its envy, bitterness and general rudeness. The former Senator and volunteer has not sold out to anyone. To sell out , she would have to have been paid by the other party and her detractors have nothing with which to substantiate their vile claim. She has principles, something the Trump collective does not understand. To them, they judge others using their own value system, a system characterized by greed and selfishness. Former Senator Kassebaum is not endorsing Biden, not Clinton, neither of whom is a candidate for President. On what basis is she a "rotten creature of the Washington swamp? The woman hasn't lived in DC in over 25 years. It is so revealing that when Trump cultists disagree with anyone, they never have anything factual, just baseless insults. The former Senator is recognized for her community service, and considered a treasure of her state.

And the expat community thanks you. Please continue.