Guderian

The question in terms of voters isn't so much absolute numbers, but where they're registered to vote, and I'm not aware of any data in that respect. If most people were last registered in safe Tory or Labour seats, then the two main parties would be right in thinking that a few thousand expat votes isn't terribly important. In the marginal and swing seats, however, it's a completely different game, and both parties will fight like cats in a sack for any vote they can get. I've just registered to vote again in West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Labour doesn't get much of a look-in there but, over the last quarter-century, it's been held by Lib Dem, SNP and Tory MP's. I suspect they might all be keen on securing my support at the next general election. I'm not familiar now, though, with the official policies of Labour and the Lib Dems on the frozen pensions issue, while the Tories have made their position clear enough, and I shall enjoy rubbing the current MP's nose in the matter as, north of the border this time, they're mainly fighting a resurgent Labour Party rather than the SNP.

Well no I'm really miffed, nobody at Swampy has ever offered me champagne and caviar before my economy class flight, lol.

The government should get its act together and simply start taxing weed, like it does tobacco and alcohol. The cheap prices here will go up a bit, but not enough to really concern anyone, and the government will get more funds to buy its submarine, or whatever's on the current wish list. Everyone's a winner!

The Cambodians had a plan to build a cable car on their side of the escarpment up to the temple, so getting around Thailand's control of the easy access to it. Sadly, it never seems to have materialised, even with their friends in Beijing who could probably have built it in a year or two.

Blimey, the pickings in the girly bars are poor enough these days (I was going to say 'slim enough', but that's clearly not the case, lol), I wouldn't want to be a Gogo Bar owner in 2085.

With the numbers on the road in Pattaya lately, I can believe at least 50,000 of those were sold in this city, lol.

There's a language school up by the Machanu statue, on the south side of the 7-eleven and medical clinic. It seems to have a steady flow of customers when I'm in that area, try calling then and ask if they offer what you want.

Thanks. Looks like a Pattaya Beach-style, shade-free sun-drenched Hellscape.

Don't you mean the hot season? We've been in the dry season since November.

We've got a map of the one-way system, does anyone have a map or diagram or artists impression of what exactly it is they're going to do? I gather a large part of it is laying new drainage pipes, which we've seen often enough over the last 5 years, so nothing new there, but I've also read something about them 'improving' the area for tourists. In my experience, in Pattaya City Hall speak, that usually involves cutting down lots of big, shady trees and replacing them with mangy palms, because 'the Chinese prefer them'.

Why on earth do they have to rely on snail mail? My occupational pensions are worth far more and the provider sends out a proof of life certificate by e-mail every 3 years or so, and you have 6 months to return it. Now that's what I call reasonable. The DWP is a joke, but I shall get my revenge as I'm in the process of registering as an Overseas Voter again. The new legislation is effective now so no matter how long you've lived abroad you can still vote in general elections and referendums. Once I'm in the system, I shall pester my MP to ask the Secretary of State what in the name of all that's holy is going on with the DWP, at least he will if he wants my vote, lol. The government has given us the power to help vote them out, let's use it to help our cause as abused and ignored British pensioners living overseas.

It must be a female Thai social media thing, the GF and all the Thai women I know are the same, they never have any spare cash and are always hocked up to the eyeballs in debt.

That's Thailand just dropped another ten places down the league table of democracies... sigh It's already below Zimbabwe, for goodness sake, next it will be lower than Russia. https://www.democracymatrix.com/ranking

Yes, it makes you wonder what kind of an uninhabitable Hell-hole "the vibrant chaos of central Pattaya" has become, lol.

That would annoy the Thai families coming for a relaxed day out by the beach. I wonder what they'll do about the dozens of food vendors on sahmlors who partly blocked the road even before it's greatly reduced in width?

Check the Thai government's list of reserved occupations - only Thais are allowed to kick foreigners. lol

Yep, it seems to have started today. I just drove from Soi Wat Bun north along Second Road and it was very busy around the Soi 5 area, which had warnings about it being a one-way road but I'm not 100% sure that it had been implemented yet. Judging by the traffic snarl-ups and the general confusion, my guess is that it was. Enjoy the next 5-10 years of this endless SNAFU, lol.

Ten months away, it must be one of their main priorities then. <rolleyes>

There's a U-turn on Second Road just after Soi 7 so, if you're coming from the Thepprasit/Thappraya direction, just continue along Second Road past Rompho market then take the U-turn back to Soi 5.

It's only a short step from this to announcing that Thailand will become the leading hub in SE Asia for Indonesian food by 2030.....

Me too, but having been out of the UK for 20 years I no longer have an MP as my Overseas Voter registration ended two years ago (after 15 years, but somehow the ERO didn't realise I'd left until 2007, rather than 2004 when I told the council I was offski). Now, of course, the system has just been changed and we can register to vote in general elections and referendums for life, and get an MP with ears to bend once again. Which makes me wonder, if any reason were needed, whether the UK government has a clue what it's actually doing? On the one hand, it's desperately trying to win the votes of pensioners by refusing to abandon the unaffordable triple lock, yet at the same time with this careless and offhand message it's deliberately alienating hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions, I'm not sure, of potential expat voters, if they can be bothered to sign up as Overseas Voters. Perhaps this is what counts as "joined-up" policy-making in the UK nowadays, lol.

I remember my time working in Switzerland as a consultant fondly. A very generous day rate, 40% of which was declared to the local tax authorities, while the other 60% went tax-free into my offshore bank account. Good old Swiss, they've always known how to do things efficiently, lol.

A few months ago they announced that they'd remove the duty on imported wine, but so far the prices haven't changed a Baht that I've seen.

I've been surprised this last year or so to find the local 7-eleven selling certain beers cheaper than any other shop in Pattaya, including Makro. I've no idea how they do that as you're supposed to pay a premium for the convenience of buying stuff locally, but I'm quite happy to just go 200 yards down the road rather than all the way to Makro or Friendship.

When I read about the long delays last year I was already in contact with a lady at DWP via e-mail about another issue, which she was very helpful with, so I mentioned the problem to her. She hadn't heard anything about it and passed the info along to her manager who was supposed to look into matters. Apparently, they regard 8 weeks as an acceptable delivery time, but 16 weeks is not. If the form they're sending me now is likely to take north of 10 weeks to arrive then I'll hassle them some more about sending me an electronic copy.