Smee

^^ not defending the school but why have you kept your children there for 6 years if it's this bad?

Plus, Sarasas Witaed Romklao is located in Bangkok. http://www.swr.ac.th/contact-the-school.html

Reasonable question.

The answer is that I wanted to take him out years ago but up until a year or so ago, my wife stubbornly defended the school based on its graduation record, despite the traumas the schol inflicted on our family.

Now that she understands how the school works, pushing under-achieving students out at 15 years old and only keeping the top tier scholars to create the impression that it is a seat of learnng excellence, she wants to get him placed smewhere - anywhere - else. The problem is our son's grades are so low, and always have been it has t be admitted, that no other school would want him - this has been the experience of most of our son's friend's families, particullrly those that have alrady pulled their kids: the average grades are dismal troughot Sarasas. Only those that can afford to pay for much more expensive schools and who are willing to make up lost (academic) ground (typically going back a year for at least six months to catch up) have been able to transition relatively easily.

I don't think any expat with kids to educate in Thailand, regardless of the spouses's nationality, should seriously consider anything other than an internaitonal school if they can possibly afford it.

We have three kids. One, the eldest, currently (but not for much longer) goes to what is considered a "good" Thai bilingual school (Sarasas Witaed Romklao). Sparing everyone the 20 paragraph diatribe, the school, which is renowned amongst Thais for its "excellent" academic record (it gets rid of all under-performing students at age 15 we have now discovered to our ever-lasting chagrin, .is is fact utterly useless, staffed largely by unprofessional, abusive and, so far as the Thai faculty is concerned, almost wholly non-English speaking teachers (this is a BI-LINGUAL school??? HA!!!). if in the UK, this "school" with over 4,500 students would be held acountable for countless infractions and failures to perform or deliver academically.

Plus, the fact that it accepts only cash for its fees and does not issue official tax receipts might lead a suspicious mind to the conclusion that the Catholic (Jesuit reportedly) operators of the school may be stealing more than just its student's academic futures... Ths is one school that teh tax authorities really ought to be auditing EXTREMELY carefully...

By the time he was 9, it was already clear that our son would never qualify for entry into an interntional school as his English was non-existent. It remains the same today. His academic career, and thereforee any hope of his getting a good job or a position in any university at all, is essentially over at age 15.

Two have been lucky enough to be able to go the internaitonal route, and between then have attended three different schools over the last nine years.

They are both at Ascot now and love it - as do we.

If I had had the money to get our eldest into an Intetrntional school when he first started school it would have been a far better inestment than the close to one million baht Thai bi-lingual schools have cost me over the last 12 years. For our poor son, ging the bi-lingual route has been a complete waste of his time and effort and has led him - and us - to an uncertain and grey future.

Ascot. You just have to compare how the kids behave to one another and to others to understand that the school imparts far more sensitivity and self-awareness and consideration for others to its students than other, more expensive and grander schools.

Our experience with Sarasas Witaed Romklao has been appalling. Short list of grievances, and these are only some of the issues we have had to deal with over 6 years: they don't allow parents anywhere near the classrooms or the teachers.In 6 years, we have been allowed onto the campus just 4 times, once to see a 3 minute play performed by the class (then we were chivvied out rapidly), once to meet a teacher that claimed she wanted to help our son do better at school but actually just wanted us to pay to "fix" the boys poor exam results so he could continue "studying" at the school (she spoke no English, of course).

My wife was called to the campus on two other occasions, once for a sports event and another time to meet teachers regarding poor performance, low grades and "discipline" issues. On each occasion, not one single Thai teacher we met at this so-called “Bi-lingual” school spoke any English at all. Teaching English is left to "native" English speakers, many of whom you might see (and avoid) drinking on the streets and in cheap bars of an evening.

Certainly that has been our experience.

We once met a sweaty, disheveled, drunken Brit at a bar one weekend who volunteered that he taught English at the school to children of our son's age and then when asked if he knew or son he became very defensive and told us that he teaches "over 700 kids a day in many different classes and I don't know any of their names and they don’t know our names either.". He also failed to impart any knowledge of English to our son either.

Subsequently, this fellow got into a drunken bar brawl with a couple of other patrons, someof who were also Sarasas English teachers.

Our son returned home with a broken arm in a crude cast one day - broken while playing football at a school activity. No letter from the school. no explanation, no phone call, despite me sending letters and calling up trying to find out what happened and why no one thought it appropriate to communicate with the boy's parents.

Sarasas doesn't do communication.

On another occasion, the boy came home with an absurd military-style haircut We discovered that Sarasas accepts money from a training program for barbers/hairdressers to supply heads of hair - our children - for these students from outside the school to practice on. Of course, parents are not consulted or asked of they are willling to allow their kids to be used guinea pigs while someone pockets a fee for turing our children into laughing stocks.

As I say, Sarasas doesn't do communication.

So no response to that written and telephoned complaint either.

Mostc recently the boy's cell phone was taken from him, he claimed because he was "late" (my fault, not his), and so missed the time by which it is required to turn over a cell phone to the teacher. Accordingly we couldn't communicate with him where and when to meet him at the end of the school day. 45 minutes spent in the front office tracking the boy down, then finding the teacher to get the phone back, only to find that we were waylaid before we got to the classroom by a gaggle of Thai teachers, not one of whom spoke one word of English, and none of whom could offer any explanation as to why the phone was taken in the first place, or why it was not returned to him to call his parents to arrange his collection at the end of the school day.

Then a short, angry little man arrived, who I subsequently identified as a "coordinator" (and who it later transpired, unsurprisingly, is universally loathed by the students).

He ignored me and immediately started screaming at our son, wagging his finger in his face and spitting with rage, backed up by several other male teachers who surrounded my son in a menacing phalanx. This went on for almost two minutes before I stepped in and told him to stop shouting at the boy and tell me, his father, what was going on. Instead, he started wagging his finger and shouting at ME! I don't suppose he was expecting me to shout back, but of course I did, louder, longer and more pointedly than him and within 20 seconds, clearly intimidated and unused to anyone standing up to his vile diatribes, he ran away screaming he was going to call the police. I returned to the front office and demanded to know who this vile little man was, and why he thought it in any way appropriate to start shouting at my son in front of me and then to start on me and then to threaten me with the police. After a while, he was duly summoned and appeared, continued shouting at me before his colleagues insisted that he stop shouting and start acting reasonably as the children outside the office were getting scared. He finally offered the most insincere apology I have ever witnessed through gritted teeth and stormed off.

The following day, our son was called to the head teacher and forced to sign a letter binding him to leave the school and never return after the end of term - because, get this, his father shouted at a staff member!!! Needes to say, we were not infomred of this before, during or after the event.

Sarasas doesn't do communication.

Sarasas Witaed Romklao does not accept checks, credit or debit cards, bank transfers or any other financial instrument other than cash. It does not issue tax receipts. This could easily lead one to suspect that it is fiddling billions in undeclared income from the Thai government.

Its modus operandi includes accepting all-comers in age groups below 15, giving them risible academic support and then, at 15 years old or so, when the exam results start to really matter, expelling or refusing to accept under-performing students... so the senior years are greatly diminished and populated only by the rlatively few students that are likely to achieve good grades, thereby creating the illusion that the school's graduation records and grades are significantly higher than the national average.

This contrived "fact: is what persuaded my wife that a education at Sarasas was worth the misery and confusion it inflicted on parents and students alike. We know better now, but far too late to salvage our son's academic aspirations.

In case you might be thinking that our boy is somehow unique in this respect, the sad truth is that the vast majority of his former classmate/friends have already been taken out of the school and placed elsewhere by their parents, among them police and army generals and some extremely wealthy Thai business persons who all started off with teh same mistaken assumption that Sarasas is an icon of academic excellence but finally saw what was going on and were able, financially, to act accordingly and could afford to get their kids into proper schools such as La Salle or an International school.

Unfiortunately, we are not as wealthy as some of his friends parents, and our son’s academic career has been cynically and progressively compromised by the unprofessional, uncaring, over-bearing, abusive, uncommunicative and utterly unacceptable actuations of Sarasas Witaed Romklao school and its so-called “teachers”.

So, avoid Sarasas Witaed Romklao at all costs.

I can't speak for other Sarasas schools, of course, but if the comments of large numbers English teachers on various blog posts, easily found on the internet, are anything to go by, Sarasas Witaed Romklao, which as demonstrated above is an utter, utter disgrace, is hardly likely to be the only totally worthless school in the chain.

Our experience with Sarasas Witaed Romklao has been appalling. Short list of grievances, and these are only some of the issues we have had to deal with over 6 years: they don't allow parents anywhere near the classrooms or the teachers.In 6 years, we have been allowed onto the campus just 4 times, once to see a 3 minute play performed by the class (then we were chivvied out rapidly), once to meet a teacher that claimed she wanted to help our son do better at school but actually just wanted us to pay to "fix" the boys poor exam results so he could continue "studying" at the school (she spoke no English, of course).

My wife was called to the campus on two other occasions, once for a sports event and another time to meet teachers regarding poor performance, low grades and "discipline" issues. On each occasion, not one single Thai teacher we met at this so-called “Bi-lingual” school spoke any English at all. Teaching English is left to "native" English speakers, many of whom you might see (and avoid) drinking on the streets and in cheap bars of an evening.

Certainly that has been our experience.

We once met a sweaty, disheveled, drunken Brit at a bar one weekend who volunteered that he taught English at the school to children of our son's age and then when asked if he knew or son he became very defensive and told us that he teaches "over 700 kids a day in many different classes and I don't know any of their names and they don’t know our names either.". He also failed to impart any knowledge of English to our son either.

Subsequently, this fellow got into a drunken bar brawl with a couple of other patrons, someof who were also Sarasas English teachers.

Our son returned home with a broken arm in a crude cast one day - broken while playing football at a school activity. No letter from the school. no explanation, no phone call, despite me sending letters and calling up trying to find out what happened and why no one thought it appropriate to communicate with the boy's parents.

Sarasas doesn't do communication.

On another occasion, the boy came home with an absurd military-style haircut We discovered that Sarasas accepts money from a training program for barbers/hairdressers to supply heads of hair - our children - for these students from outside the school to practice on. Of course, parents are not consulted or asked of they are willling to allow their kids to be used guinea pigs while someone pockets a fee for turing our children into laughing stocks.

As I say, Sarasas doesn't do communication.

So no response to that written and telephoned complaint either.

Mostc recently the boy's cell phone was taken from him, he claimed because he was "late" (my fault, not his), and so missed the time by which it is required to turn over a cell phone to the teacher. Accordingly we couldn't communicate with him where and when to meet him at the end of the school day. 45 minutes spent in the front office tracking the boy down, then finding the teacher to get the phone back, only to find that we were waylaid before we got to the classroom by a gaggle of Thai teachers, not one of whom spoke one word of English, and none of whom could offer any explanation as to why the phone was taken in the first place, or why it was not returned to him to call his parents to arrange his collection at the end of the school day.

Then a short, angry little man arrived, who I subsequently identified as a "coordinator" (and who it later transpired, unsurprisingly, is universally loathed by the students).

He ignored me and immediately started screaming at our son, wagging his finger in his face and spitting with rage, backed up by several other male teachers who surrounded my son in a menacing phalanx. This went on for almost two minutes before I stepped in and told him to stop shouting at the boy and tell me, his father, what was going on. Instead, he started wagging his finger and shouting at ME! I don't suppose he was expecting me to shout back, but of course I did, louder, longer and more pointedly than him and within 20 seconds, clearly intimidated and unused to anyone standing up to his vile diatribes, he ran away screaming he was going to call the police. I returned to the front office
and demanded to know who this vile little man was, and why he thought it in any way appropriate to start shouting at my son in front of me and then to start on me and then to threaten me with the police. After a while, he was duly summoned and appeared, continued shouting at me before his colleagues insisted that he stop shouting and start acting reasonably as the children outside the office were getting scared. He finally offered the most insincere apology I have ever witnessed through gritted teeth and stormed off.

The following day, our son was called to the head teacher and forced to sign a letter binding him to leave the school and never return after the end of term - because, get this, his father shouted at a staff member!!! Needes to say, we were not infomred of this before, during or after the event.

Sarasas doesn't do communication.

Sarasas Witaed Romklao does not accept checks, credit or debit cards, bank transfers or any other financial instrument other than cash. It does not issue tax receipts. This could easily lead one to suspect that it is fiddling billions in undeclared income from the Thai government.

Its modus operandi includes accepting all-comers in age groups below 15, giving them risible academic support and then, at 15 years old or so, when the exam results start to really matter, expelling or refusing to accept under-performing students... so the senior years are greatly diminished and populated only by the rlatively few students that are likely to achieve good grades, thereby creating the illusion that the school's graduation records and grades are significantly higher than the national average.

This contrived "fact: is what persuaded my wife that a education at Sarasas was worth the misery and confusion it inflicted on parents and students alike. We know better now, but far too late to salvage our son's academic aspirations.

In case you might be thinking that our boy is somehow unique in this respect, the sad truth is that the vast majority of his former classmate/friends have already been taken out of the school and placed elsewhere by their parents, among them police and army generals and some extremely wealthy Thai business persons who all started off with teh same mistaken assumption that Sarasas is an icon of academic excellence but finally saw what was going on and were able, financially, to act accordingly and could afford to get their kids into proper schools such as La Salle or an International school.

UInfiortunately, we are not as wealthy as some of his friends parents, and our son’s academic career has been cynically and progressively compromised by the unprofessional, uncaring, over-bearing, abusive, uncommunicative and utterly unacceptable actuations of Sarasas Witaed Romklao school and its so-called “teachers”.

So, avoid Sarasas Witaed Romklao at all costs.

I can't speak for other Sarasas schools, of course, but if the comments of large numbers English teachers on various blog posts, easily found on the internet, are anything to go by, Sarasas Witaed Romklao, which as demonstrated above is an utter, utter disgrace, is hardly likely to be the only totally worthless school in the chain.

I had one of Ikea's meatballs yesterday - still got a bit between my teeth... my voice is a little horse, but I am in a stable condition...

Funny clip, typically hypocritical, hysterical response from Thai politicians who can't see the wood for the trees and will use any excude to attack foreigners to create a smokescroon to cover their own incompetence and misdeeds..

The ads interspersed with the comments pretty much give the game away though....

Meet Pretty Thai Girl

www.idateasia.com

Hi I am Alisa from Thai & I want to Seek a Date.Reach Me Now!

I wonder is Alisa uses Rosetta stone too...

"Like eating custard pie while sitting on the toilet" - Anthony Burgess, Malaysian Trilogy

So he didn't have a mobile telephone?

Probably had a Phony Ericsson.

Now that IS funny!

Good stuff.

Where was this and who are these guys ???

Check out www.thebetters.com for more info

they have stopped all surgerys at the provincial hospitals except emergncy in northern thailand

they sat that they are short on medical supplies like IV sets

doecn't thailand have an airforce that can deliver these needed medical supplies to the hospital in the north

then they could start distrubiting these supplies to the south also

this just seems like common sence to me

This is bad news. My wife's aunt and 4-year old nephew are in hospital in Nakhon Sawan after being attacked and bitten by a black and yellow snake, possibly a cobra or a krait, in their recently unflooded (after almost 3 months) house yesterday afternoon. I hope they are getting the treatment they need...

flood.htm

Made this file with the help of another TV-er.

can see Chaopraya and canals clearly. Lardprao canal rises and falls with chaopraya

Thanks so much, this is the most useful information I have seen by far. Great job.

Sorry about the smiley, I can't ged rid of it, its supposed to read X.3 ( b )

Aside from the political posturing, the core isue here is the purported avoidance of tax by Philip Morris. In fact, the evidence seems to suggest that Thailand's revenue dpartment has actually been OVERcharging Philip Morris for some years - certianly, the dispute between Thailand and the Philippines, where PM manufactures the cigarettes it sells in Thailand, has been arbitrated by the WTO, which found Thailand to be in violation of a number of GATT articles. Following is a report we publshed recenty (I wrote it, it there are no copyright issues Mr. Moderator):

Thailand: Case closed?

The Philippines has claimed victory in its long-running dispute with Thailand over the imposition of taxes on imported cigarettes. WTO case DS371, AKA Thailand -- Customs and Fiscal Measures on Cigarettes from the Philippines, was initiated by the Philippines in February 2008, The WTO panel released its 426 page report on November 15, 2010.

The case had to do with Thai taxes imposed on imported cigarettes causing a significant drop in Philippine cigarette exports over the two years leading up to the filing of the case. Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc.'s (PMPMI) sales to Thailand, primarily of Marlboro and L&M, account for an estimated 95% of its total exports, and the Thai taxes significantly impacted the export earnings. At the heart of the complaint is the fact that the Thai government owns and controls the Thai Tobacco Monopoly (TTM), which "is the only business entity authorized by Thai law to produce cigarettes in Thailand." The Philippines contended that Thailand was violating WTO national treatment provisions with its tax structure, specifically identifying "violations or inconsistencies" that purportedly exist between the Thai measures and various provisions of the Agreement Implementing Article VII of GATT 1994 and the GATT itself in areas of customs valuation, excise tax, health tax, TV tax, VAT regime, retail licensing requirements and import guarantees, along with the national treatment provisions of the WTO.

"Thailand requires that tobacco and/or cigarette retailers hold separate licenses to sell domestic and imported cigarettes, respectively," according to the Philippine complaint, which claimed that the dual licensing "leads to discriminatory treatment against the imported cigarettes and is thus a violation of Article III.4 of the GATT."

While the WTO panel rejected Philippine claims under Article X:3(a) of the GATT, as well as Articles 4 and 7.1 of the Customs Valuation Agreement, it did find that the Thais acted inconsistently with the provisions of Articles 1.1, 1.2, 1.2(a), 7.1, 7.3, 10, and 16 of the Customs Valuation Agreement; and Articles III.2 and III.4, as well as X.1, X.3(a), and X.3( of the GATT. "Thailand does not maintain or apply a general rule requiring the rejection of the transaction value and the use of the deductive valuation method," the panel found.

Thailand may appeal the decision.

Thanks for posting that Webfact, I almost forgot it was Teacher's Day. I think we sometimes forget that there are some real unsung heroes in the profession, who manage to defy the odds and teach underprivileged children in difficult circumstances.

Unfortunately, there are also many teachers who teach by rote and resort to screaming, ranting, raving and even beating children in their clasrooms, churning out under-educated, resentful adolescents whose futures are utterly compromised through lack of a decent, caring, appropriate education. Overall, educatoin in Thailand has a long, long way to go before it can compare with most of its regional neighbours - and by that time it may well be too late for Thailand to compete effectively against those nations with far more effectively educated populations.

Raising taxes will not work, and never has worked, if the intention is to curb smoking. All it does is to drive comsumers to buy illicit (tax unpaid/smuggled/counterfeit) tobacco products (cf Malaysia, where smuggled cigarette consumption has rised by 150% over the last few years, according to government reports in the Malysian press, and now totalling over 35% of total cigarette sales in teh country.

Another point that is consistently overlooked is that In Thailand, only 50% of tobacco products consumed are taxed or even regulated in any way. The majority of Thai smokers reside in the provinces and smoke RYO (roll your own) products - usually untreated tobacco leaf wrapped in a variety of paper products. So the regulations here - ALL of them, including the display ban - affect at most 50% of the smoking population, and simply serve to drive more consumers to the tax-unpaid market.

Within the last 12 months, independent brands, Texas 5 foremost among them, have captured 4% of the domestic market, according to a local source in then tobacco industry. Mainstream players in the market claim that brands such as these are often under-declared for taxation purposes, and it is clear that many cases are being smuggled in across Thailand’s porous borders. However the product is arriving, it is gaining market share at a phenomenal rate.

I could go on at leangth regarding this issue (I am a non-smoker, by the way), but I believe the following news item, although not about Thailand. makes the point clearly enough that rasiing taxes simply does not work. Replace the words 'Bulgaria' and 'Romania" with 'Thailand' and 'Roma' with 'smugglers and cross border traders' to get the point. And this is only one of many reported and verifiable instances demonstrating that raising taxes is counter-productive.

And don't get me started on graphic health warnings, display bans and grey packaging... they all serve to push business to criminal syndicates at the expense of governments and legitimate trade mark owners - and add to the health risks of smokers who opt for cheaper, unregulated illicit (often counterfeit) tobacco products...

Cigarette tax hike backfires in Balkan countries

Cash-strapped Bulgaria and Romania hoped taxing cigarettes would be an easy way to raise money but the hikes are driving smokers to a growing black market instead.

Criminal gangs and impoverished Roma communities near borders with countries where prices are lower -- Serbia, FYR Macedonia, Moldova and Ukraine -- have taken to smuggling which has wiped out gains from higher excise duties.

Bulgaria increased taxes by nearly half this year and stepped up customs controls and police checks at shops and markets. Customs office data, however, shows tax revenues from cigarette sales so far in 2010 have fallen by nearly a third.

"The government created something unique. We actually now have a whole industry that provides for a big group of people," said Tihomir Bezlov of anti-corruption think-tank Center for the Study of Democracy.

Bulgaria and Romania, the two poorest countries in the European Union, are struggling to recover from deep recessions and their deficit-stricken governments have a powerful incentive to let their populations keep puffing for the immediate future.

Bulgaria reversed a national ban on smoking in all cafes and restaurants in June, which analysts said was due to pressure from cigarette producers, importers and distributors and the need for tobacco sales as public revenue falls.

Only Kyustendil, a town of 70,000, retained the ban from July 1 and the discontent is palpable, with bartenders and club owners concerned about making ends meet and partygoers frustrated. Few believe the ban will survive the winter.

"This is a complete nonsense, given that 90 percent of the people smoke," said Kyril Mirchev, 22, grumpy because he cannot smoke while playing billiards. Dancing too just isn't the same without a cigarette, so discos are deserted.

Excise duties on cigarettes are an important source of income and accounted for some 10 percent of all Bulgaria's revenues last year, or 1.77 billion levs ($1.15 billion).

It is the most addicted European Union member along with Greece, with some 40 percent of the population smokers, a recent Eurobarometer survey showed. Nearly a third of neighbor Romania's 22 million population smoke.

"The steep excise hike shocked consumers and increased the demand for cheap cigarettes. We see brands we have never seen before," said Ivan Bilarev, managing director of state-controlled Bulgartabak, with a 38 percent market share.

Cigarette prices in Bulgaria and Romania, at 2.00-2.50 euros ($2.50-$3.20) a pack, are significantly lower than in many other EU nations but still painful for consumers given lower incomes.

A pack on the black market, however, is 1.00-1.75 euros.

Tried accessing the "Keep Us Strong" link on wikileaks (http://58.97.5.29/an...w.capothai.org/)

and got the following message from Big Brother:

การเข้าถึงข้อมูลดังกล่าวนี้ ถูกระงับเป็นการชั่วคราว

โดยอาศัยอำนาจตามพระราชกำหนดการบริหารราชการ ในสถานการณ์ฉุกเฉิน พ.ศ. ๒๕๔๘

ตามคำสั่งของศูนย์อำนวยการแก้ไขสถานการณ์ฉุกเฉิน

________________________________________

An access to such information has been temporarily ceased

due to the order of the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES)

under the authority of emergency decree B.E 2548 (A.D. 2005).

Most Tops stores also have chilled legs and other cuts of lamb, but usually the frozen New Zealand lamb legs and racks are tastier - my Aussie mates tell me its because the best lamb from Australia is produced in spring (September), and if its really "fresh" at any other time of year its likely to taste bland.

On another note, I believe the previous comments by Street Cowboy ("Using euphemisms won't save you. This topic is too close to the bone, and I expect it to be butchered any minute...") were intended as an attempt at humor, referring, no doubt, to the ongoing political debacle and intended to imply, I assume, that the majority of red shirts are being led like lambs to the slaughter... Actually, there's nothing very funny about that at all, is there, SC...

No, I was being less topical and more smutty. Good political interpretation, though. You try and portray me as more sypathetic than I really am; thanks very much for that

SC

Edit: I should have said "I expect the thread to be butchered" - given the political interpretation given above, the original text could have been misinterpreted as quite an unpleasant metaphor; my apologies.

Ahhh sorry... perhaps I got the wrong end of the stick because a red shirt barricade on Chidlom is in plain view of my office window and its affecting my thinking ...

Most Tops stores also have chilled legs and other cuts of lamb, but usually the frozen New Zealand lamb legs and racks are tastier - my Aussie mates tell me its because the best lamb from Australia is produced in spring (September), and if its really "fresh" at any other time of year its likely to taste bland.

On another note, I believe the previous comments by Street Cowboy ("Using euphemisms won't save you. This topic is too close to the bone, and I expect it to be butchered any minute...") were intended as an attempt at humor, referring, no doubt, to the ongoing political debacle and intended to imply, I assume, that the majority of red shirts are being led like lambs to the slaughter... Actually, there's nothing very funny about that at all, is there, SC...

Most Tops outlets have fresh Australian lamb, but frankly the frozen New Zealand lamb usually tastes better

Thanks, that was most helpful

In order to qualify for naturalisation as British the spouse or civil partner of a British citizen must, among other criteria, satisfy certain residency requirements.

1) They must be resident in the UK with no time limit on their stay; i.e. ILR or the equivalent. But there is no minimum time they must have held ILR.

2) They must have been legally in the UK for at least 3 years, and been in the UK on the exact date three years prior to submitting the application.

3) During the three years prior to submitting the application, they must have spent no more than 360 days in total out of the UK, with no more than 90 days in the final year.

Time spent in the UK with a visit or other type of non settlement visa does count toward this qualifying period; provided they now have ILR or the equivalent and can satisfy 2) and 3).

Please note that these criteria apply only to the spouse or civil partner of a British citizen; the requirements are different for other adult applicants, e.g. an unmarried partner. The main difference being that the residential qualifying period for others is 5 years, not 3.

See British citizenship and the appropriate links from that page.

Does a spouse have to reside in the UK in order to be eligible for a UK passport? Does the length of a marriage have a bearing, meaning if one is married for many years but has no wish to reside in the UK, is a spouse stil eligible for UK citizenship?