Living In England.........

[scousemouse]

just thought I'd share this and be thankful I'm living in LOS .

Girls get £80 fine for drawing on pavement

EXCLUSIVE

Girls get £80 fine for drawing on pavement

By Dominic Herbert

BONKERS Britain just got more barmy... when two schoolgirls were fined for drawing CHALK love hearts on a pavement.

Pals Hazel Mercer and Charli Lyth, both 16, sketched the pictures of stars, hearts and flowers using white chalk.

But as they admired their handiwork a policeman strode up and slapped instant £80 penalties on Hazel and Charli for "criminal damage". The pair were also threatened with an Asbo — and told they would end up in COURT if the money wasn't paid within 28 days. Yet within a few hours it rained, washing away the drawings from the pavement outside Hazel's home in Bangor, North Wales.

DEAR OH DEAR .

[blacklabel]

wonder how much will the BIB ask for?

[Rinrada]

Good.....now hopefully wont do it again......

[sierra01]

A couple of weeks ago an even younger girl was cautioned for drawing hopscotch numbers on the pavement!

Friday or Saturday a teenager was taken to court for barking at a dog, a higher court threw the case out.

This country is certainly going to the dogs (excuse the pun), 10 years of T Blair Esq has really messed the UK up. My misses had to jump through hoops to get a settlement visa, and jump through even more for ILR (including making sure she speaks reasonable English), yet Eastern Europeans that speak NO English at all get welcomed with open arms.

The first chance I get to make the final move to LOS can't come quick enough.

[scousemouse]

A couple of weeks ago an even younger girl was cautioned for drawing hopscotch numbers on the pavement!

Friday or Saturday a teenager was taken to court for barking at a dog, a higher court threw the case out.

This country is certainly going to the dogs (excuse the pun), 10 years of T Blair Esq has really messed the UK up. My misses had to jump through hoops to get a settlement visa, and jump through even more for ILR (including making sure she speaks reasonable English), yet Eastern Europeans that speak NO English at all get welcomed with open arms.

The first chance I get to make the final move to LOS can't come quick enough.

Sawadee cap sierra01' , I take it that your missus is thai and was just wondering how well did your missus have to speak english ????. My missus's english has gone downhill and I was hoping to get that settlement visa for her when I go back ( been in LOS 6 years and looking for any excuse not to go back to blighty ).

Hurry up and get back .

England is still crap .

[a2396]

I really doubt if UK could top USA for "nit-picking" idiotic crap. They often have no sense what is appropriate & not. Some case of a primary school students (6ys) taken away in handcuffs. Another student charged with a "hate crime" recently from leaving a ham sandwich (in a bag) next to a Moslem student. The list goes on & on, yet they seemed powerless to curb the wacko student in Virginia Tech, when warning signs were aparently evident to teachers, staff, & family for a long time.

[helicoptor]

I really doubt if UK could top USA for "nit-picking" idiotic crap. They often have no sense what is appropriate & not. Some case of a primary school students (6ys) taken away in handcuffs. Another student charged with a "hate crime" recently from leaving a ham sandwich (in a bag) next to a Moslem student. The list goes on & on, yet they seemed powerless to curb the wacko student in Virginia Tech, when warning signs were aparently evident to teachers, staff, & family for a long time.

Whats the latest regarding that Muslim teacher in the UK told to remove her Hijab when teaching her class and she refused, it was all going to court...

I love reading threads like this, they always quash any desires I get to return

[cmsally]

Spent many a happy weekend in Bangor when my friend was at the uni there.

I would have thought a few chalk hearts would have brightened up the place it can be pretty dark and boring

in winter! Since the Blair govt I suspect police are working to financial targets considering some of the things I have heard.

[mittheimp]

im not sure any English is required for a settlement visa as this is arranged in the British embassy in another country - unless its changed recently. To get British citizenship everybody needs to do a citizenship test - doing the test also proves a decent level of English competency. If the persons English is not good enough for a test then they have to show a willingness to learn English by enrolling on a TESOL course and improving by one level. All seems fair enough to me.

[mittheimp]

I really doubt if UK could top USA for "nit-picking" idiotic crap. They often have no sense what is appropriate & not. Some case of a primary school students (6ys) taken away in handcuffs. Another student charged with a "hate crime" recently from leaving a ham sandwich (in a bag) next to a Moslem student. The list goes on & on, yet they seemed powerless to curb the wacko student in Virginia Tech, when warning signs were aparently evident to teachers, staff, & family for a long time.

Whats the latest regarding that Muslim teacher in the UK told to remove her Hijab when teaching her class and she refused, it was all going to court...

I love reading threads like this, they always quash any desires I get to return

She was sacked - and the decision was upheld by local council.

There are crazy stories in all countries mind - UK is no worse!

[dumspero]

Wow, only one anti-US post out of nine in an OP about England...

How about this--maybe the kid should obey the laws and not graffiti the walk. Seems like some cities have found that stopping graffiti before it gets going is an important element of holding down real crimes.

Also, should the cops be choosing whom to cite, or is it less bad if they cite all offenders even if in a few exceptional cases it seems overboard?

And this--as with the seemingly crazy overboard enforcement examples from the US, don't the relative rarity of such incidents (a dozen or so in millions?) actually do more to prove there is no problem than the total absence of any reports of such incidents, which instead would suggest we're not hearing the truth?

[sierra01]

Hi scousemouse and mitteheimp

Sorry, it didn't come out very well. A certain standard of English is required for ILR.

mitteheimp

It's fair that people from one part of the world have to demonstrate a reasonable level of English, a certain knowledge of 'life in the UK' and a commitment to live there permanently when another section can just walk in unopposed?

More cctv than anyother country in the world, tax em til they bleed Brown, ID cards possibly going to be forced on us, the prospect of vastly increased fly tipping and your rubbish piling up next to your microchipped bin, the list is endless. Yeah, a good place tp live

[mittheimp]

Hi scousemouse and mitteheimp

Sorry, it didn't come out very well. A certain standard of English is required for ILR.

mitteheimp

It's fair that people from one part of the world have to demonstrate a reasonable level of English, a certain knowledge of 'life in the UK' and a commitment to live there permanently when another section can just walk in unopposed?

More cctv than anyother country in the world, tax em til they bleed Brown, ID cards possibly going to be forced on us, the prospect of vastly increased fly tipping and your rubbish piling up next to your microchipped bin, the list is endless. Yeah, a good place tp live

well that must be new then as my wife only had to demonstrate English ability when applying for Citizenship.

I somewhat agree that European nations shouldnt necessarily have an advantage over others - particulrly commenwealth countries which the UK has more of a historical link too. But that is the EU agreement, so its a difficult issue to reconcile.

[uptou]

i must admit,when i went back to the uk,i felt i was stuck in the george orwell novel,1984.

though i do have the comfort of knowing that if i get seriously ill,i would like to think that i could get on a plane back to blighty,to the nhs.its probably not untill you live in a place like asia for awile,that you actually feel lucky to have a security like that.

[sriracha john]

EXCLUSIVE

Girls get £80 fine for drawing on pavement

Pals Hazel Mercer and Charli Lyth, both 16, sketched the pictures of stars, hearts and flowers using white chalk.

But as they admired their handiwork a policeman strode up and slapped instant £80 penalties on Hazel and Charli for "criminal damage". The pair were also threatened with an Asbo — and told they would end up in COURT if the money wasn't paid within 28 days. Yet within a few hours it rained, washing away the drawings from the pavement outside Hazel's home in Bangor, North Wales.

In order to at least attempt to give this some sort of Thailand connection on Thaivisa, you should have included the rest of the article:

When questioned, Hazel admitted that she once saw a world map with Thailand on it and that she thought, "it must be cold there being so close to Antarctica and all that stuff."

Meanwhile, Charli remarked that she had seen a movie once shot "in Thailand... or Taiwan... or one of those foreigner countries."

[eek]

If this had been posted on April 1st I would have seen the funny side, unfortunately as it no joke, i can only wonder in disbelief at how anal the British police are becoming.

[glenbat]

A couple of weeks ago an even younger girl was cautioned for drawing hopscotch numbers on the pavement!

Friday or Saturday a teenager was taken to court for barking at a dog, a higher court threw the case out.

This country is certainly going to the dogs (excuse the pun), 10 years of T Blair Esq has really messed the UK up. My misses had to jump through hoops to get a settlement visa, and jump through even more for ILR (including making sure she speaks reasonable English), yet Eastern Europeans that speak NO English at all get welcomed with open arms.

The first chance I get to make the final move to LOS can't come quick enough.

I hope you get to make the leap soon Sierra, for you and your missus sake! I've only had an interest in politics and howthe countrys been run for 12 years (since I been paying taxes as an adult) and IMO the damage has been done in that time. Had your missus been an able bodied male between the ages of 18 - 40ish and of Eastern European origin she'd of been in no probs, with food vouchers and a free house to boot. How many females do you see scaling the fence in Calais or queuing up at various imm. centres for handouts? Exactly. If these people are really fleeing persecution and oppression in their own countries, would they all leave behind their wife, daughter, sister, mother, grandmother? I know I wouldnt. Sorry for going a bit off topic but I need a good rant this morning

EDITTED: typing too fast lots of spelling mistakes

Edited April 30, 2007 by glenbat

[helicoptor]

EXCLUSIVE

Girls get £80 fine for drawing on pavement

Pals Hazel Mercer and Charli Lyth, both 16, sketched the pictures of stars, hearts and flowers using white chalk.

But as they admired their handiwork a policeman strode up and slapped instant £80 penalties on Hazel and Charli for "criminal damage". The pair were also threatened with an Asbo — and told they would end up in COURT if the money wasn't paid within 28 days. Yet within a few hours it rained, washing away the drawings from the pavement outside Hazel's home in Bangor, North Wales.

In order to at least attempt to give this some sort of Thailand connection on Thaivisa, you should have included the rest of the article:

When questioned, Hazel admitted that she once saw a world map with Thailand on it and that she thought, "it must be cold there being so close to Antarctica and all that stuff."

Meanwhile, Charli remarked that she had seen a movie once shot "in Thailand... or Taiwan... or one of those foreigner countries."

Not exactly shining examples of the UK's supposed brilliant educational system, are they?

[glenbat]

i must admit,when i went back to the uk,i felt i was stuck in the george orwell novel,1984.

though i do have the comfort of knowing that if i get seriously ill,i would like to think that i could get on a plane back to blighty,to the nhs.its probably not untill you live in a place like asia for awile,that you actually feel lucky to have a security like that.

I'm afraid things have changed a little uptou, the last thing you want to do should you ever fall seriously ill (god forbid it never happens) is travel 6000 miles back here only to contract MRSA or have some other hospital breeding virus attack your already weakened nervous system....

[Shrubbery]

Vicky Pollard springs to mind. (Little Britain Character)

[Nignoy]

All this whinging about the state of the UK, If you dont like it , do what anyone else with a bit of Bottle would do!!cut your strings, leave your safety net behind,!! frigging move to another country, in february 96 we left UK, with out a proverbial pot to Pxxx in,I was 53 my wife was 51, the only capital we had was the ability to work,arrived in qld on wednesday morning both of us had full time jobs on friday, dont use having families as an excuse for staying in a rut,Everyone is the sculpture of their own destiny, there are still plenty of worthwhile opportunies in other countries, So give it a go!! Nignoy

[uptou]

i suppose there is the other side of the argument,regarding the recent news of the rise in youth crime in the uk.i was talking with my parents a little while ago,& even they said england is not what is was like in the 70's,in so far as there was community spirit,maybe you knew your neighbours,& the kids gave a $hit about something.

[soundman]

Just the type of stupid silly over regulation that inflenced my decision to come to Thailand and get away from. Next couple of years they'll ban farting in public.

Cheers,

Soundman.

[PhilHarries]

Aren't our policemen wonderful used to be a standard phrase in the UK. Now I have nothing for contempt for them. They do everything in their power to harrass motorists but if you are a victim of real crime like assault or robbery you'd better hope like hel_l it was caught on CCTV because detection is not a word in their vocabulary.

Last summer my youngest son in between sixth form and uni was helping a mate out with a project he was doing. The project was some kind of satirical video sequence that involved them running around some local scrubland with toy guns.

I appreciate that in these paranoia infected times that wasn't a great thing to do but these were TOY guns and the lads are educated, smartly turned out well spoken guys not some bunch of foul mouthed yobs from one of the dustbin estates.

Anyway someone called the police and the lads were taken into custody. This happened mid afternoon and they didn't get released from the nick, five miles (8km) from home, until after MIDNIGHT. They were told they'd likely get prosecuted, for what God only knows, and they had to make their own way home, well my ex was there with her car but if she wasn't they would have had to.

Anyway months later they got notified that the case had been dropped but I wonder just how much public money had been wasted when a quiet word in their ear telling them to sod off home would have been sufficient.

Mind you if they did come from a dustbin estate and were not white skinned they could have sued the police for harrassment and got legal aid from taxpayers money for it.

[sierra01]

Gone are the days when the local bobby would have clipped you round the ear instead!

[MarkBKK]

just thought I'd share this and be thankful I'm living in LOS .

Girls get £80 fine for drawing on pavement

EXCLUSIVE

Girls get £80 fine for drawing on pavement

By Dominic Herbert

BONKERS Britain just got more barmy... when two schoolgirls were fined for drawing CHALK love hearts on a pavement.

Pals Hazel Mercer and Charli Lyth, both 16, sketched the pictures of stars, hearts and flowers using white chalk.

But as they admired their handiwork a policeman strode up and slapped instant £80 penalties on Hazel and Charli for "criminal damage". The pair were also threatened with an Asbo — and told they would end up in COURT if the money wasn't paid within 28 days. Yet within a few hours it rained, washing away the drawings from the pavement outside Hazel's home in Bangor, North Wales.

DEAR OH DEAR .

I see the NOTW hasn't changed. White chalk?

[mittheimp]

A couple of weeks ago an even younger girl was cautioned for drawing hopscotch numbers on the pavement!

Friday or Saturday a teenager was taken to court for barking at a dog, a higher court threw the case out.

This country is certainly going to the dogs (excuse the pun), 10 years of T Blair Esq has really messed the UK up. My misses had to jump through hoops to get a settlement visa, and jump through even more for ILR (including making sure she speaks reasonable English), yet Eastern Europeans that speak NO English at all get welcomed with open arms.

The first chance I get to make the final move to LOS can't come quick enough.

I hope you get to make the leap soon Sierra, for you and your missus sake! I've only had an interest in politics and howthe countrys been run for 12 years (since I been paying taxes as an adult) and IMO the damage has been done in that time. Had your missus been an able bodied male between the ages of 18 - 40ish and of Eastern European origin she'd of been in no probs, with food vouchers and a free house to boot. How many females do you see scaling the fence in Calais or queuing up at various imm. centres for handouts? Exactly. If these people are really fleeing persecution and oppression in their own countries, would they all leave behind their wife, daughter, sister, mother, grandmother? I know I wouldnt. Sorry for going a bit off topic but I need a good rant this morning

EDITTED: typing too fast lots of spelling mistakes

they are not fleeing persecution, Polish particularly and a few other eastern european states are now full members of the EU and thus are able to travel and work in the UK. They are not able to get state benefit - they come to work and generally fill a big hole in the workforce. I dont completely agree with it - particularly as the British government completely underestimated the amount that would arrive. Having said that it does annoy me when people spout of the same tired myths about free housing etc etc - its completely ill informed. asylum Seekers and refugees in the Uk are primarily from African and middle eastern war torn countries - and increasingly China - they are entitled to very limited state help.

Can you name a time in the last 100 years when immigration was not being blamed for Britains problems by those who feel left behind?

Edited April 30, 2007 by mittheimp

[naka]

Any Thailand connection here ... Nah! just another whine.

Naka.

[Jockstar]

Glad i have no intentions to return to the Uk. You know where my folks live, theres no Thai restaurant and i can see a way to make money. Unfortunately it means me moving back to live in Scotland. No thanks. Think i'll soldier on where i am.

[glenbat]

Gone are the days when the local bobby would have clipped you round the ear instead!

My dads dad (passed away before I was born) was the local 'bobby' in the 50's and and I've had a few people come up to me in the local and buy me a pint telling me how my late grandfather had dragged them outside and give them a hiding for fighting!

I grew up as a teen being a little bit anti-police (as we all do) and now I think they're hands are too tied with red tape and paperwork but thats the Governments fault.. I know if I was a copper right now in the UK it would be toooo hard to refraim from dishing out beatings.. i know its wrong but how else do you treat someone who's just robbed/mugged/beaten an old lady close to death?