37 minutes ago, stargrazer9889 said:

My Brit friend moved to Thailand over 20 years ago, because he was tired of hearing the local mosque

doing their 5AM wake up call. His whole neighborhood was taken over by those

immigrants. He advised me to visit Scotland, where I had a better chance to see real

Scots. Maybr next June I will make a visit.

There are mosques in Thailand too!  Maybe your Brit friend should be more careful about where he lives!

I voted in 1975 to join the Economic Community, only to not be allowed to vote whether to leave the EU.

Voting is not fun when your vote doesn't count. 

1 hour ago, crazykopite said:

Its now called the United

No it isn't.  Doh

 

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland.

I have been in Thailand for 8 years and am registered to vote. In the 2019 election i received my ballot paper on the day of the election, too late to send back. When i contacted them to complain they said they are only allowed to send out the ballot papers 10 days before the election. Unless they change this rule you still can't vote.

15 hours ago, lungbing said:

The problem will be receiving the voting form from your home constituency and then getting it back to them in time to count.  A proxy would get round that, but do you trust your proxy to vote the way you want?

Lungbing  Yes of course the forms would be sent out, if indeed they will by ordinary post and that can take 6 to 8 weeks and would be deliberately sent out this way.
Then people state if you do not vote then you can not complain.
BTW we all despise 650 of the vermin and s--m and none more so that the frozen state pensioners and this year ONY AN ISSUE OF 8 DECADES and all colours of Government could have sorted this out decades ago.
Revoke Section 20 of The Pensions Act 2014/5 a fraudulent domestic act brought in and slyly goes through each year in the last week of Parliament.

4 hours ago, Muhendis said:

I agree entirely and would also add that the whole idea of using a proxy is totally wrong in terms of the personal and private nature of the vote.

There is no reason why electronic voting should not be incorporated. Using the internet is good enough for banks so it should be plenty good enough for election voting then we could all vote whenever there is a snap election. 

I totally agree about voting on-line and raised this with my Electoral Services office. This was after the election on 8 June 2017 when the ballot papers were sent to me in Thailand on 22 May 2017 - 17 days before the election. The form didn’t arrive until 2 June 2017 meaning that even with posting it back the same day there were only 6 days until the election. I doubt it would have arrived by election day. 
 

My Electoral Services office told me the election system is designed by central government and passed to local Returning Officers. The need to reform the process has been lodged by the Association of Electoral Administrators and the Electoral Commission on a number of occasions. New policy and subsequent implementation are required to deliver on-line voting. 

 

It seems clear there is no interest from the government in creating new policy to achieve this. 

 

2 hours ago, Bday Prang said:

Well there appears to be a minister for everything else  so why not?  They could start by giving the embassy staff a shake up , and then address the injustice of frozen pensions

Is there an Embassy here?

1 minute ago, Clarkey611 said:

Is there an Embassy here?

Yes.

 

https://www.gov.uk/world/organisations/british-embassy-bangkok

Maybe the 500000 expats on frozen pensions could register to vote and maybe have an impact. Doubt it but better than at the moment.

Labour WTF are they going to do any better ?

All politicians are in it for them selves!.

They forget constantly that they are supposed to  serve the people .

UK years of no investment failed systems and corruption in the high.

 Two many immigrants

UK has been sold down the river. 

Cup of tea time ☕

Finally! I voted right up to my limit and then a little beyond - I think the tenants in our hous were filling in the electoral register for me

It's a pity this wasn't in force for Brxit. There are about 4 million British expats worldwide, if we had all been able to vote the outcome may well have been very different. 

25 minutes ago, Clarkey611 said:

Is there an Embassy here?

There used to be but they sold the land it stood on , god knows where the money went, I heard it was one of the biggest land deals here at the time,, These days they probably have a virtual embassy "online"  of more likely "off line"

3 hours ago, RobU said:

If you go back and declare you will stay, your pension will be increased to the full state pension. It is no longer dependent on how many years you paid in.  Everyone now gets the same.

totally incorrect

A more welcome and indeed positive action would be the unfreezing of state pensions paid to UK pensioners in Thailand and elsewhere, time this UK state sanctioned theft from pensioners was stopped.  

1 hour ago, Denim said:

Thanks. I'll get on this. A little extra never hurts

it doesn't apply to expats in Thailand

20 hours ago, CharlieKo said:

And you really think Reform will do what they promise? Take The illegal migrants for example. The government make a big show of wanting to send them to Rwanda. But may have to listen to the high court to get it through or not. Yet it is  well know secret that the high court is controlled by the government. So it's all show. Why else would Julian Assange still be in a high security prison when they could keep him in a normal prison. Waiting for the Yanks to extradite him. Because the government being a good little lapdog follows what the US wants. 

 

Even with taxes, they promise to cut taxes. They give with one hand while taking it back with the other hand. Not to mention they have absolutely ruined the UK with sanctions that no one other than the politicians wanted. Our vote never counts!

 

The high court? Or do you mean the EHCR, which the UK can't ignore as the TCA with the EU locks Britain into a number of provisions relating to the human rights convention as a standard on policing?

 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/08/eu-could-terminate-police-and-security-agreement-if-uk-quits-echr

 

Even after the withdrawal agreement, the UK still follows much of what the EU wants. The TCA needs revising too.

 

Not sure if this is true or correct, but I think I did read a while back that Starmer promised to update expat pensions in all countries with every increase, if Labour got into power this time. Did anyone else have that understanding?

2 hours ago, RobU said:

There is no minimum contribution any more.

 

Yes there is, 10 qualifying years on your National Insurance record to get any State Pension and 35 years to get the full State Pension.

 

Quote

You’ll get a proportion of the new State Pension if you have between 10 and 35 qualifying years.

 

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/how-its-calculated#:~:text=Your State Pension will be,the full new State Pension.

10 minutes ago, pelagicpete said:

Not sure if this is true or correct, but I think I did read a while back that Starmer promised to update expat pensions in all countries with every increase, if Labour got into power this time. Did anyone else have that understanding?

Haven't seen anything about this from Starmer, Jeremy Corbyn was looking at in 2017

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-4346478/Jeremy-Corbyn-backs-vote-unfreeze-expat-state-pensions.html

 

Don't know if anyones posted it and I'm not wading through three pages of whinging and whining but you need to register:

 

https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

I believe, like myself, those on part pension because of zero increase in Thailand could get the full entitlement by returning to the UK for 180 days?

 

But could one return to the UK for a couple of weeks and then go to another country/countries where full pension is received for the remainder of the 180 days before returning to Thailand?

Just a thought!

Looking for votes?

Maybe start by giving all Brits my buddies living in Thailand  a cost of living increase yearly. 

Stop targeting them so government can fund their pet projects 🤑

 

I'm expecting Hunt to lay some land mines at the March budget for a Labour Government to deal with.

 

You might get lucky, unfreezing the State Pension would be a cracking land mine to lay.

1 hour ago, skorts said:

I totally agree about voting on-line and raised this with my Electoral Services office. This was after the election on 8 June 2017 when the ballot papers were sent to me in Thailand on 22 May 2017 - 17 days before the election. The form didn’t arrive until 2 June 2017 meaning that even with posting it back the same day there were only 6 days until the election. I doubt it would have arrived by election day. 
 

My Electoral Services office told me the election system is designed by central government and passed to local Returning Officers. The need to reform the process has been lodged by the Association of Electoral Administrators and the Electoral Commission on a number of occasions. New policy and subsequent implementation are required to deliver on-line voting. 

 

It seems clear there is no interest from the government in creating new policy to achieve this. 

 

 

Catch 22

 

The only way to change the system is to vote for it but you can't vote for it 'till it's changed

1 hour ago, Bday Prang said:

it doesn't apply to expats in Thailand

 

I'll be in the UK for a month or so next year so I'll look into it. I have a UK address , name on all utility bills , UK phone number and registered with doctor at local clinic .

If you are a retiree and you register to vote in Thailand you will be sure to have a frozen U.K. pension!!

On 1/18/2024 at 1:05 PM, NanLaew said:

Now, all you malcontents squatting in moobahns and bahn nawk, whining about how s**t your home has become, register to vote, vote Reform and let's get shot of the bloody Tories.

Does festering away in a bar count?

6 hours ago, jacko45k said:

6 hours ago, soalbundy said:

Why bother? what is the UK to me, nothing more than a supplier of my passport.

No state pension yet?

One which they'll freeze even though you've contributed equally AND won't burden the NHS for treatment 

1 hour ago, Thailand said:

I believe, like myself, those on part pension because of zero increase in Thailand could get the full entitlement by returning to the UK for 180 days?

 

But could one return to the UK for a couple of weeks and then go to another country/countries where full pension is received for the remainder of the 180 days before returning to Thailand?

Just a thought!

If you return to the UK you'll get the full unfrozen pension for the time you are there,same with say going to a EU country,but when returning to Thailand it'll go back to being frozen at the original rate ...if you tell them..