Visa-free access to the UK in new roadmap pact signed in Bangkok on flying visit by Cameron

[Sigmund]

Cameron-Cameron. They guy appreared in the tax evasion scandal of Mosek Fonseca and the Panama Papers as per the documentary of Netflix, right.? Amongst others that include the Ukrainian current president Zelinski.

[sambum]

3 hours ago, MicroB said:

 

When was that grandad, 1920?

 

Good old days, right.

 

https://eachother.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Mahesh-Upadhyaya1.jpg

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https://eachother.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-28-at-16.10.38.png

 

 

"When was that grandad, 1920?" Suggest you get a new calculator! If it was 1920, that would make me 104 years of age! You're only about a quarter of a century out!

 

No, I'm referring to the 50's and 60's when the world was waking up to a new age of Rock & Roll, colour TV (Am I allowed to say that?) the Beatles, and the Pill!

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

16 hours ago, DonniePeverley said:

 

Personally i've never understood why the UK government should be giving out handouts to people not living in the UK anymore. 

Because we have paid for them all our working life.

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

On 3/22/2024 at 2:56 PM, digbeth said:

 

The UK Royal Family could learn a thing or two from Thailand on how to manage scandals

I guess you have not read the Bangkok Secret?

[kimamey]

On 3/22/2024 at 6:00 AM, Mike Teavee said:

 

I'm all for easy travel & this is great news for me personally if it comes off as I plan on taking the GF for a trip to the UK next year, but I can't stand Cam-a-moron.

 

 

No idea how he was let back into the government never mind Foreign Secretary (Though it wouldn't surprise me if he's prime minister once Sunak gets the push).

 

Life is the farce which everyone has to perform

 

He's one of the best performing ministers to be honest. Shows how shallow the talent pool is these days.  Sunak isn't doing too bad but he's not got the ability to enthuse people.  Plus he's come in at a time when the Torys are unpopular and it's not really possible to turn things round. 

 

As for the visas, that sounds good excerpt I've just paid for a 10 year visa for my wife. It'll probably last longer than me. 

[MicroB]

5 hours ago, sambum said:

 

"When was that grandad, 1920?" Suggest you get a new calculator! If it was 1920, that would make me 104 years of age! You're only about a quarter of a century out!

 

No, I'm referring to the 50's and 60's when the world was waking up to a new age of Rock & Roll, colour TV (Am I allowed to say that?) the Beatles, and the Pill!

 

Parrot whoosh. Sarcasm doesn't travel. But certainly, you are nearer the end than the beginning. My dad pegged it 2 years ago, aged 82.

 

You forgot Smallpox outbreaks in Bradford, London bombsites, 50s rationing, Union Movement, Mods v Rockers fights every bank holiday monday, Myrah Hindley and Ian Brady, 10 Rimington Place, Billy Graham, Cuban missile crisis, the Great Smog, the Great Flood of 53, Suez, Korea, Mau Mau. Drugs? The mods were into poppers; drug culture started with your post-war generation, and then you all went on strike in the 70s and became communists or joined the NF. Extra dark rose tinted spectacles I suspect, due to too much sun.

 

 

The world you described in the 1950/60s is a fiction. HMT Empire Windrush landed its famous load of passengers in 1948, mostly to help out in the nascent NHS, drive the buses that had no drivers, build the council houses where there were no builders. All to help people enjoy their rock and roll, colour tellies (you must have been from a very wealth background to enjoy that, no wonder you lived in a 100% white environment), having consequence-free sex (with Caribbean and Indian nurses no doubt helping to clean you up from that dose of the clap).

 

The only people trying to convert me are the god bothering Holy Joes from the  Jehovahs Witnesses and Mormon Church banging on my door. I enjoy the ensuing banter as I eviscerate their beliefs and their book, in a polite manner. I'd do the same with others, but they keep to themselves it seems.

[Mike Teavee]

35 minutes ago, kimamey said:

He's one of the best performing ministers to be honest. Shows how shallow the talent pool is these days.  Sunak isn't doing too bad but he's not got the ability to enthuse people.  Plus he's come in at a time when the Torys are unpopular and it's not really possible to turn things round. 

 

As for the visas, that sounds good excerpt I've just paid for a 10 year visa for my wife. It'll probably last longer than me. 

I agree with you that there's not much talent to choose from on either side but my main issue with Cameron was the complete lack of planning for what should happen if people voted for Brexit. 

 

No matter how remote he thought the chances of it happening were (& as we all know it did happen) he should have had a plan (or at least a plan for how to put a plan together) for what to do, but it felt like he had nothing & just ran away leaving it to others to pick up his mess. 

 

 

I'm not saying that achieving Brexit is easy, nearly 8 years later there still doesn't seem to be a truly workable solution, but to be in that position & have absolutely no plan for what to do following the referendum is unforgivable.

 

 

 

Edited March 25 by Mike Teavee

[sambum]

52 minutes ago, MicroB said:

 

Parrot whoosh. Sarcasm doesn't travel. But certainly, you are nearer the end than the beginning. My dad pegged it 2 years ago, aged 82.

 

You forgot Smallpox outbreaks in Bradford, London bombsites, 50s rationing, Union Movement, Mods v Rockers fights every bank holiday monday, Myrah Hindley and Ian Brady, 10 Rimington Place, Billy Graham, Cuban missile crisis, the Great Smog, the Great Flood of 53, Suez, Korea, Mau Mau. Drugs? The mods were into poppers; drug culture started with your post-war generation, and then you all went on strike in the 70s and became communists or joined the NF. Extra dark rose tinted spectacles I suspect, due to too much sun.

 

 

The world you described in the 1950/60s is a fiction. HMT Empire Windrush landed its famous load of passengers in 1948, mostly to help out in the nascent NHS, drive the buses that had no drivers, build the council houses where there were no builders. All to help people enjoy their rock and roll, colour tellies (you must have been from a very wealth background to enjoy that, no wonder you lived in a 100% white environment), having consequence-free sex (with Caribbean and Indian nurses no doubt helping to clean you up from that dose of the clap).

 

The only people trying to convert me are the god bothering Holy Joes from the  Jehovahs Witnesses and Mormon Church banging on my door. I enjoy the ensuing banter as I eviscerate their beliefs and their book, in a polite manner. I'd do the same with others, but they keep to themselves it seems.

I'm impressed with your list of the negative things about the 50's and 60's, and I'm sure if I could be bothered, I could dig up an equally impressive things of positive things, but I have to say that your statement "The world you described in the 1950/60s is a fiction." is a load of codswallop - I lived through it, so I have first hand knowledge, whereas you being of a younger generation do not.

I had a reasonably good education, but my father having brought up 3 boys on his own (due to my mother passing away when I was 7) could not afford to send me to University (or either of my brothers, but that didn't stop one of them from ending up as an Interpreter in MI 6!) Not like my daughter who went to University and got a degree in English and can't spell! So your assumption regarding a wealthy background and "colour TV's" (Yes, "parrot whoosh" on that one - you missed the double entendre there about "TV's and colour" didn't you - admit it!) is way off the mark, and the absence of "brown, white and yellow skins" was due to the fact that I lived in the far North West of England, where the expeditions of "newcomers" hadn't yet reached, and when I had my tonsils out there was not a West Indian or any other kind of Indian nurse or doctor to be seen!

Soooo, I left school just as the Beatles came to prominence, and had the best teenage years I could have hoped for, and yes, helped along by a few pills along the way, and later on, a bit of "Wacky Baccy"! I also played in a group with  proper musicians playing proper instruments  - LIVE!!! But I never saw (or wanted to see) a needle in anybody's arm apart from hospital, or the Doctor's Surgery, when it was a simple job to get an appointment with your own Doctor - on the same day should you need it.

But, hey, "man" I'm sure that the "younger generation" of today have their good times - it's just very hard to see them through the cataracts!

Edited March 25 by sambum

[transam]

49 minutes ago, MicroB said:

 

Parrot whoosh. Sarcasm doesn't travel. But certainly, you are nearer the end than the beginning. My dad pegged it 2 years ago, aged 82.

 

You forgot Smallpox outbreaks in Bradford, London bombsites, 50s rationing, Union Movement, Mods v Rockers fights every bank holiday monday, Myrah Hindley and Ian Brady, 10 Rimington Place, Billy Graham, Cuban missile crisis, the Great Smog, the Great Flood of 53, Suez, Korea, Mau Mau. Drugs? The mods were into poppers; drug culture started with your post-war generation, and then you all went on strike in the 70s and became communists or joined the NF. Extra dark rose tinted spectacles I suspect, due to too much sun.

 

 

The world you described in the 1950/60s is a fiction. HMT Empire Windrush landed its famous load of passengers in 1948, mostly to help out in the nascent NHS, drive the buses that had no drivers, build the council houses where there were no builders. All to help people enjoy their rock and roll, colour tellies (you must have been from a very wealth background to enjoy that, no wonder you lived in a 100% white environment), having consequence-free sex (with Caribbean and Indian nurses no doubt helping to clean you up from that dose of the clap).

 

The only people trying to convert me are the god bothering Holy Joes from the  Jehovahs Witnesses and Mormon Church banging on my door. I enjoy the ensuing banter as I eviscerate their beliefs and their book, in a polite manner. I'd do the same with others, but they keep to themselves it seems.

Great times, the 60's........

[MicroB]

2 hours ago, George FmplesdaCosteedback said:

Because we have paid for them all our working life.

 

Not all of them. One could have gone to 6th Form college (Labour Party reform in the mid-70s); 2 years NI credited. Then 3 years undergrad, on a full grant (zero NI, unless you got a summer job), then postgrad (zero NI, no summers off), paid by the state. Then a job in the US, followed by middle east. Come back elderly, sick and impoverished because you've blown the lot on a wild life. Straight away get full NHS cover. You won't have much of a state pension, because you never paid in, but you will be entitled to pensioner's credit. NHS cover is nothing to do with how much you pay in, otherwise you are denying treatment for the chronically sick.

[MicroB]

59 minutes ago, Mike Teavee said:

I agree with you that there's not much talent to choose from on either side but my main issue with Cameron was the complete lack of planning for what should happen if people voted for Brexit. 

 

No matter how remote he thought the chances of it happening were (& as we all know it did happen) he should have had a plan (or at least a plan for how to put a plan together) for what to do, but it felt like he had nothing & just ran away leaving it to others to pick up his mess. 

 

 

I'm not saying that achieving Brexit is easy, nearly 8 years later there still doesn't seem to be a truly workable solution, but to be in that position & have absolutely no plan for what to do following the referendum is unforgivable.

 

 

 

Retreading an old path, his weakness was to have a referendum in the first place, to placate some idiots in his party, who then proceeded to undermine him throughout the campaign with frankly lies, inspired by an individual who had previously spent most of his working life in Russia. I understand why Cameron resigned; Brexit wasn't something he believed in, because it was idiotic, and has probably doomed the UK as a unitary state. Useful idiots indeed.

[beautifulthailand99]

Most of our Thai friends and contacts in the UK are desperate for Thai staff - working holidays under the radar would be a big thing for sure.

[MicroB]

48 minutes ago, sambum said:

I'm impressed with your list of the negative things about the 50's and 60's, and I'm sure if I could be bothered, I could dig up an equally impressive things of positive things, but I have to say that your statement "The world you described in the 1950/60s is a fiction." is a load of codswallop - I lived through it, so I have first hand knowledge, whereas you being of a younger generation do not.

I had a reasonably good education, but my father having brought up 3 boys on his own (due to my mother passing away when I was 7) could not afford to send me to University (or either of my brothers, but that didn't stop one of them from ending up as an Interpreter in MI 6!) Not like my daughter who went to University and got a degree in English and can't spell! So your assumption regarding a wealthy background and "colour TV's" (Yes, "parrot whoosh" on that one - you missed the double entendre there about "TV's and colour" didn't you - admit it!) is way off the mark, and the absence of "brown, white and yellow skins" was due to the fact that I lived in the far North West of England, where the expeditions of "newcomers" hadn't yet reached, and when I had my tonsils out there was not a West Indian or any other kind of Indian nurse or doctor to be seen!

Soooo, I left school just as the Beatles came to prominence, and had the best teenage years I could have hoped for, and yes, helped along by a few pills along the way, and later on, a bit of "Wacky Baccy"! I also played in a group with  proper musicians playing proper instruments  - LIVE!!! But I never saw (or wanted to see) a needle in anybody's arm apart from hospital, or the Doctor's Surgery, when it was a simple job to get an appointment with your own Doctor - on the same day should you need it.

But, hey, "man" I'm sure that the "younger generation" of today have their good times - it's just very hard to see them through the cataracts!

 

You inferred the link between colour tv and race. Yes I did note your unintelligent quip; I get it. You refer to Afro-caribbean people as "coloured". You claim to have lived in a British city and never to have seen a yellow, black or brown face in the sixties. Not true.

 

You admit to taken illicit narcotics, but drew the line at heroin.

 

Better times now than those hateful years.

 

I was born in the 60s. My mum and dad were army. They couldn't afford to buy a TV until 1974, and even then, it was a B&W portable in Hong Kong. They managed to rent a colour TV by 1979. So if you had a colour TV, which you probably made up, in the 1960s, you were well off. And you probably saw "coloured" people in your North Western English City.

 

The reason you struggle to get an appointment is too many old people, and the government, on and off, blocking imported doctors.

 

Your time is over. By the time the next UK government works out this deal, you will likely be the proverbial 6 feet under.

[beautifulthailand99]

On 3/22/2024 at 7:05 AM, Scouse123 said:

 

 

With Thailand's corrupt courts, governments, Police and day-to-day practices, xenophobic and racist behaviour it is a long way off from becoming equal to the UK.

 

How's life in your ' woke world '

And yet it seems you left Blighty for such a place. Forgive me if I called wrong.

[Nick Carter icp]

1 hour ago, Mike Teavee said:

I agree with you that there's not much talent to choose from on either side but my main issue with Cameron was the complete lack of planning for what should happen if people voted for Brexit. 

 

No matter how remote he thought the chances of it happening were (& as we all know it did happen) he should have had a plan (or at least a plan for how to put a plan together) for what to do, but it felt like he had nothing & just ran away leaving it to others to pick up his mess. 

 

 

I'm not saying that achieving Brexit is easy, nearly 8 years later there still doesn't seem to be a truly workable solution, but to be in that position & have absolutely no plan for what to do following the referendum is unforgivable.

 

 

 

 

  Cameroon wanted to Remain in the E.U , he voted to remain .

As he was a remainer , he did think that he should participate in the leave negotiations 

So, he resigned and handed the reigns over to a Leaver 

[stuandjulie]

25 minutes ago, MicroB said:

 

You inferred the link between colour tv and race. Yes I did note your unintelligent quip; I get it. You refer to Afro-caribbean people as "coloured". You claim to have lived in a British city and never to have seen a yellow, black or brown face in the sixties. Not true.

 

You admit to taken illicit narcotics, but drew the line at heroin.

 

Better times now than those hateful years.

 

I was born in the 60s. My mum and dad were army. They couldn't afford to buy a TV until 1974, and even then, it was a B&W portable in Hong Kong. They managed to rent a colour TV by 1979. So if you had a colour TV, which you probably made up, in the 1960s, you were well off. And you probably saw "coloured" people in your North Western English City.

 

The reason you struggle to get an appointment is too many old people, and the government, on and off, blocking imported doctors.

 

Your time is over. By the time the next UK government works out this deal, you will likely be the proverbial 6 feet under.

I lived in a mid sized town in the North West growing up and never saw a person of colour until I went to sea aged 16. My daughter (we lived in a suburb of Liverpool when she was growing up) was amazed to see her first person of colour aged 6. 

[josephbloggs]

On 3/24/2024 at 10:23 AM, sambum said:

 

I read Enoch Powell's speech "Rivers of Blood" speech occasionally just to refresh my memory to remind me of how things were, and what they have become.

I grew up in an era when (in my city at least) there were no brown or black or  yellow faces. There was nobody to "offend" with Christmas nativity plays, and nobody hid their faces behind face veils or masks. I could go out and play alone in my street without fear of abduction or interference, and drugs were something you got from the doctor when you were ill. Knives were something you only had if you were in the Boy Scouts, and guns were things that soldiers used in wartime. There were no boatloads of illegal immigrants trying to get into my country in order to get clothed and fed and housed by my Government, and then try to change the religion of my country into the religion of the country they were desperately trying to escape from.

So, yes, I would like to go back to that era now, and as a certain pop song would put it "Those were the best days of our lives"!

Bring back the Empire too, coal mines, steam railways, racism and bigotry, and free gammon for all! Ra ra ra!

[liddelljohn]

UK aint going back to 50-60s   its going back to 1820s poverty , government massacres  and inequality  but without the industrial revolution or empire to back it up just  more faliure and decline

[DonniePeverley]

3 hours ago, George FmplesdaCosteedback said:

Because we have paid for them all our working life.

 

No you haven't - they just tell you have made contributions. You still have dual citizenship too, something that should also be stopped. So you have that security of returning back home. 

 

If a Thai leaves the country they don't get a pension from the state. 

[Scouse123]

59 minutes ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

And yet it seems you left Blighty for such a place. Forgive me if I called wrong.

 

 

Not getting into it as this has veered off course when I was answering a post where a guy said that Thailand was equal in status to the UK and I pointed out why it wasn't and the areas in particular regarding governance, corruption and policing.

 

BTW, I refuse after 30 years plus to look at this place with the rose coloured glasses unlike many, who wish to criticise Europe and what it has to offer but refuse to acknowledge this country also has plenty of issues.

 

Incidentally, I am staying because of my Thai partner of 27 years plus, who will not leave her mother, otherwise, both of us would have gone from here a long time ago and come here only for visits.

 

I am well-travelled and have been reasonably successful so there are several countries I can go to, including the UK, so I am neither trapped here nor facing Hobson's choice.

 

Many things have changed in 30 years, and other countries in the region are coming into their own with fewer policy changes and flip-flopping.

 

 

[beautifulthailand99]

1 minute ago, Scouse123 said:

 

 

Not getting into it as this has veered off course when I was answering a post where a guy said that Thailand was equal in status to the UK and I pointed out why it wasn't and the areas in particular regarding governance, corruption and policing.

 

BTW, I refuse after 30 years plus to look at this place with the rose coloured glasses unlike many, who wish to criticise Europe and what it has to offer but refuse to acknowledge this country also has plenty of issues.

 

Incidentally, I am staying because of my Thai partner of 27 years plus, who will not leave her mother, otherwise, both of us would have gone from here a long time ago and come here only for visits.

 

I am well-travelled and have been reasonably successful so there are several countries I can go to, including the UK, so I am neither trapped here nor facing Hobson's choice.

 

Many things have changed in 30 years, and other countries in the region are coming into their own with fewer policy changes and flip-flopping.

 

 

Fair enuff as good answer even for a scouser, I come from Preston, and we regard you guys with suspicion ! I used to love Alan Beswick who used you troll you guys on local radio.

 

[MicroB]

1 hour ago, stuandjulie said:

I lived in a mid sized town in the North West growing up and never saw a person of colour until I went to sea aged 16. My daughter (we lived in a suburb of Liverpool when she was growing up) was amazed to see her first person of colour aged 6. 

Once again, no time frame, so meaningless statement and the previous correspondant claimed to have lived in a "city" in  the North West of England, while ranting on about kids being kidnapped (ignoring that the most notorious case that happened when he was a kid), heroin (while saying taking pills was totally fine, and elsewhere, supporting cocaine usage), moaning about having his religion being changed (and he's probably like 90% of Britons, not really religious anyhow). He also ignored we tried to change their religion as well (missionaries etc).

 

This discourse started because Sam Bum decided, on a thread about the UK and Thailand exploring a possible partnership, to bring in a well known anti-immigrant (anti-Muslim) trope about a supposed Swiss mayor refusing a mosque to be built. He brought up the Muslim faith for some reason only known to himself. And then he brings up Race. Completely random and off topic to the matter in  hand. Thread hijackers have to suck it up, when I see it for what it is, and he doesn't like it with home truths.

[jacko45k]

On 3/25/2024 at 12:06 AM, DonniePeverley said:

 

Personally i've never understood why the UK government should be giving out handouts to people not living in the UK anymore. 

Personally I am perplexed why the UK government should be giving out handouts to people who never having lived in the UK before, who just arrived illegally! 

Edited March 25 by jacko45k

[edwinchester]

3 hours ago, jacko45k said:

Personally I am perplexed why the UK government should be giving out handouts to people who never having lived in the UK before, who just arrived illegally! 

People in the UK without a legal right to be there are not entitled to claim any benefits.

[josephbloggs]

5 hours ago, edwinchester said:

People in the UK without a legal right to be there are not entitled to claim any benefits.

But but but all the gammons say they do get whatever they want, 5 star luxury, houses, benefits - it was in the Daily Mail so it must be believed!

[sambum]

22 hours ago, MicroB said:

 

You inferred the link between colour tv and race. Yes I did note your unintelligent quip; I get it. You refer to Afro-caribbean people as "coloured". You claim to have lived in a British city and never to have seen a yellow, black or brown face in the sixties. Not true.

 

You admit to taken illicit narcotics, but drew the line at heroin.

 

Better times now than those hateful years.

 

I was born in the 60s. My mum and dad were army. They couldn't afford to buy a TV until 1974, and even then, it was a B&W portable in Hong Kong. They managed to rent a colour TV by 1979. So if you had a colour TV, which you probably made up, in the 1960s, you were well off. And you probably saw "coloured" people in your North Western English City.

 

The reason you struggle to get an appointment is too many old people, and the government, on and off, blocking imported doctors.

 

Your time is over. By the time the next UK government works out this deal, you will likely be the proverbial 6 feet under.

 

You seem to know an awful lot about my life for somebody who doesn't know me!

Firstly  - you say you got my double entendre about colour TV and race - you obviously missed the TV (Trans........ite bit!)

 

I was trying to keep our communication on a lighter level but you seem intent on implying a lot of untrue slanderous things about me:-

 

I "claim" to have lived in a British city in the 60's? Why on earth would I want to lie about that? And "never to have seen a yellow, black or brown face in the sixties. Not true." How do you know it's not true? For all you know I could be blind, colour blind, or as it happened - I DIDN'T SEE ANY IN MY CITY! Don't make me out to be a liar.

 

I didn't say anything about heroin - you did! (For your information cocaine can be injected as well - or "snorted".)

 

"So if you had a colour TV, "which you probably made up,...."  There you go again - I didn't say I/we had a colour TV, I said it was the age of colour TV. As a matter of fact, I and a few kids from our street used to go to a friend's house who was fortunate enough to have one.

 

"The reason you struggle to get an appointment is too many old people, and the government, on and off, blocking imported doctors."

Similarly, my comment about having to wait for a doctor's appointment was based on what I have heard from several friends who are in the UK, and one or two here, who have been back to the UK and tried to get an appointment for a non urgent procedure. An example is a friend who has had both knees replaced here recently as it was going to take YEARS in the UK to get an appointment with a consultant, and the procedure done. On the same tack, I have another friend who has had one knee replaced (in the UK) and has had to wait 4 and a half years to get the other one done. And the problem is not just too many OLD people - it's too many PEOPLE - and that includes all those coming in on boats illegally, and the number of Immigrants that heve been let into the country legally (by virtue of the fact they have family there)

 

"Your time is over. By the time the next UK government works out this deal, you will likely be the proverbial 6 feet under."

 

I find your final sentence unnecessarily insulting, hurtful as well as antagonistic, and it will be put on report.

Edited March 26 by sambum

[Hornell]

What a load of off-topic rubbish!

[DonniePeverley]

13 hours ago, jacko45k said:

Personally I am perplexed why the UK government should be giving out handouts to people who never having lived in the UK before, who just arrived illegally! 

 

I agree with that too. But it's the same logic giving money to 'British' people who live abroad.

 

Why does the UK allow dual nationality ? I have a baller uncle living in Canada - lived there for 40 years. Get's a pension in Canada , and unbelievably gets a pension from the UK too. He then comes back to the UK to get all his dentistry done too, because as he states 'he's still a british citizen too'. 

 

You also have guys in Pattaya, who have never been back to the UK for years, barely done any work in the UK, and are on pensions too, with the added security of returning home.

 

They need to close dual citizenship, and stop being a british citizenship if you live more than 6 months outside the UK.

 

Ridiculous THE WASTE. 

 

 

Edited March 26 by DonniePeverley

[jacko45k]

19 hours ago, edwinchester said:

People in the UK without a legal right to be there are not entitled to claim any benefits.

I believe they land and are accommodated, taken care of. Once they have applied for asylum they are (they get refugee status). I am very much of the belief the UK really does not tell us the true total cost of all this, it is politically a hot subject.

[jacko45k]

10 hours ago, DonniePeverley said:

I agree with that too. But it's the same logic giving money to 'British' people who live abroad.

In my case, working overseas, I deliberately kept paying for my NHI stamp to qualify for a UK pension later. They are not giving me money so much as returning my 'investment'. Having been born, raised and worked, paying taxes, in the UK, plus paying the NHI stamp when not, I feel I am more entitled than someone sneaking in on a boat from Calais, stepping foot there for the first time. Sometimes my direct debits got messed up, and on a subsequent UK trip, I would be paying over 1000 pounds to get my 'qualifying years'......which happened multiple times. 

Beyond my student grant and old age State pension, I have claimed no other benefits. I am penalized by having my pension frozen to the level it was about 3 years ago. 

If state pension was not available to those non-resident, I would expect to see a flood of old ones back to the UK, a further burden on UK health service and benefits systems.

Edited March 26 by jacko45k