Jeff the Chef

Anyone who considers Keir Starmers Labour Party left-wing is clearly living in a dream world. Over 150k real Labour members left the party after Jeremy Corbyn was hounded out of the party, by the establishment, MSM and the Blairites. After the 2017 GE, At best the Labour Party is now a version of Tory light.

My experience at Phisanulok I.O. Booked an appointment the first time I went, which was for a change of residence, my partner did all the talking to be fair, signed a few forms, done and dusted in 10 minutes. I was then asked if he could do anything else for me in English to which I replied can I get an extension to my current on arrival Visa. Another look at my Passport and yes certainly, it will be 1900baht and I can do it now. All very pleasant, even had a laugh with his boss and another colleague about me trying to talk Thai. This was all back in February, since then, I've made the decision that I like it here so much that I want to stay, so made a visa run to Vietnam overnight and on return went back to same I.O. to renew the residence permit and to find out what my options were, I was then given two options of either Marriage or a Retirement Visa, the I.O. gave me a form explaining the rules for both in English. I opted for the Retirement Visa after reading on here some problems with the Marriage Visa, I also needed a Thai driving License as I had lost my International driving license somewhere on my travels, I also said about having a problem getting a Thai bank account to deposit the 800k. No problem says him and his boss, 20 minutes later I have 2 official letters for both. Took the driving test, took a week and opened a Bangkok Bank account and deposited the monies from my UK bank. Took a fortnights holiday with friends down to Bangkok, Hua Hin, Ranong and Ko Phayam, did a day trip to Myanmar where I had a small problem with a Lady I. O. on the return leg, something about a small slip that was missing but SWMBO soon put her right as the part she was after had been kept by her colleague, so got a fresh 30 days. On returning to home went back to Phisanulok I.O. to renew Residence permit and to show my bank book, mainly out of curtesy to show we were getting on with sorting things out. This was all at the beginning of May, I did have to go to the Bangkok Bank for an updated balance letter, took 20 minutes and cost 100 baht, returned to I.O. to be told to come back on the 25th May to change to a Non-Immigration "O" Visa with a view to getting the Retirement Visa, he did say before that that I might have to go to Vientiane to do this but as we were leaving he came out and stopped us to say his boss thinks he can save us the trouble of doing that, can we wait a minute certainly said I so we went out for some food and went back. Signed some more paperwork and was told to come back on the 25th May, this all happened on the 10th May 23. About a week later SWMBO had a call say Immigration wanted to visit us at home, Ok she says and along came 2 I.O.'s we hadn't met before, met them on the drive, invited them in where we had a chat and they spoke to our neighbors, Swimbo;s older sister, lovely lady but she cannot read or write, she is a big noise in the local Temple though, chatted with the older guy a lot. Had a few photos taken around the place signed some more bits of paper and generally had a few laughs, banter etc etc. The older chap smoked those slim fruit/menthal slim smokes same as my mrs so they swopped cigs, turns out he gets his from Mae Sot, 200baht cheaper than she pays so they agreed that next time we go in to Phisanulok I.O. he would get her 3 packs as he was going there soon, few more photo's and off they go, all very pleasant. Bright and early on the 25th May back to Phisanulok I.O. where I received a Non O Visa Stamp, a Retirement pending stamp and a extension of stay stamp till Aug 21st 23. So from my understanding, once the 60 days of over 800k in my bank comes round I should get my Retirement Visa, that will be after June the 18th. Just as we are leaving I said what about your cigs that the guy said he'd sort out for you after the visit, so she has a word in Thai and it turns out the older guy is a big boss, and the young girl I.O. says she'll try and get hold of him, 10 mins later in he comes with said cigs and it took 20 mins to get away but the looks on the other I.O.'s faces was priceless. It was as if we were all now all good friends, we'll see how it goes but to me it always pays to be nice with everybody.

I've heard of Chomsky and Musk and I'm sure they have their merits but to say Peter Sellers was not a funny man I can't agree with that, Bluebottle.

Brexit has failed, now who said that?

You can all faff about with Brexit till the cows come home, nothing will ever convince me it was a good idea to leave the EEC for the working man of the UK. I've held that view since it all began, the good thing for me was I was at the end of my working life and after 50 years of graft was lucky enough to get out of it while the going was good. I'm sure the usual subjects are all convinced that the sunny uplands are just around the corner in 10/20/50 years, I hope you're right for the sake of the old country but I think the arguments for and against will drag on forever, sadly.

If his lips were moving, of course he was, same as Farage

That's going well in it LOL

Okay, so Immigration had nothing to do with why we voted to leave the EEC.

Enjoy https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/net-migration-uk-hits-record-606000-2022-2023-05-25/

Carry a can of this and an inflater,

One of the biggest problems is a lack of HGV drivers in the UK, currently running at about 70k, Brexit saw 12.5 EU drivers leave UK employers mainly because of waiting times at UK borders. Most of the EU traffic is paid by mileage, so if the wheels aren't turning they don't get paid. 40years in the industry.

Pic of the bird might help, have a look here https://www.thaibirdspot.com/photo-albums

I'm sure there could be a lot more then those 3, I'm sure Tower Bridge has a weight restriction of 18tons, average amount of people in a ton is 12 to 15, so the whole of the Conservative Party MP's would possible bring it down. Might be a better idea to use the Tower of London walls to crucify the lot.

From the OP, what part of FAILED do you not get.

I think I know the answer to that one, being a know nothing Richard Head.

Soon as the body gets to the Morgue there will no doubt be a post-mortem but will there be a follow up report on here, I doubt it. RIP

The Krankies were on holiday in there new motorhome until it broke down or was it snatched back because of finance issues. LOL

Now, that would be funny, leaving all the little Englanders to stew in their own little world.

I left in October 22, after selling up, came here for a holiday on my way to Australia, long story short, did Aus and N.Z. visiting family over Xmas and New Year, wasn't impressed with either so came back to Thailand where I am very happy living out in the sticks. Judgement on Brexit I made in 2016 as soon as the result of the referendum was announced, my view was and always will be, that Brexit will be bad for the UK whichever way you look at it, unfortunately Covid came along before I could finalize everything, other wise I'd of been here in 2020.

Happily living in Central Thailand.

Have you been to the UK lately? Brexit is a disaster, whichever way you want to cut it and it will only get worse. As for your " if Thailand makes it difficult to get retirement visas " and moving back to Europe, never going to happen as far as I'm concerned, there are plenty of other places in this world I can live.

Whatever way you look at it Brexit is/was a failure for the UK. How so few could persuade your average man in the street to vote for it beggars belief. History will show that we joined the club, then did as much as possible to disrupt it. No fan of Thatcher but she did get us a better deal than we had, only for the Establishment to still keep whining about it until Cameron came up with the Referendum never expecting the Turkeys to vote for Xmas. So we are where we are, in the mire and it will only get deeper. Personally it did make me get off my backside and quit the sorry mess and come to LOS, best decision I ever made.

Labour had the ideal candidate before the MSM and backstabbing Starmer got the job but now we'll never know.

Was it ever going to be anything other than a failure, if the EU has any sense they will leave the U.K. where it is now, in deep do-do.

I was in a similar position to you, been in and out of Thailand twice, within the visa on demand dates, i.e. 2 x 45day, always left in good time. Went from DM to Saigon at the end of March for an overnight stay, flew back to DM the following morning with no problems with immigration, no questions, just presented Passport did the fingerprints and photo, quick look up and down, handed back stamped Passport and welcome to Thailand. 70 year old Englishman.