[KnowItAll]

My problem with laws like this is that countries assume just because they're considered developed nations or members of the G-whatever, they can ignore the poverty, illiteracy and other problems in their own country and start waving their political dicks in others faces.

What I get from nonsense like this ...

All our problems are with foreigners.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...hildren111.xml

http://www.poverty.org.uk/summary/key%20facts.shtml

The irony of all of this is ... I used get so much "With all the starving people in India, how can you guys afford to have a space program".

[Boris]

It makes me wonder if anybody ( apart from the poster ) actually read this article or used the " more about this author " link in the same article.

Any Brit Expat should have immediately heard alarm bells ringing --- its a DAILY MAIL article. The unofficial Facist Times. Maggie wasn't right wing enough for them and Norman Tebbit / Enoch Powell are worshiped as idols. Any Labour PM should be hung from a lamp post like Mussolini - someone they admire for his taste in Black shirts..

Also click on the author link and you may understand more about his focus in life.

For those who don't know this " newspaper " then its akin to Fox News in print, without the smokescreen of " fair and balanced ". So I would judge the article as being based on certain elements of truth but with a lot of " China Daily " embellishment.

FYI - I vote Tory but my father was a card carrying Old Labourite and my Mother the same but with the Liberal Party. Now thats what you might call a fair and balanced home life and the reason, maybe, why I never take things like this at face value.

[shilo507]

Point taken, Boris but in today's Daily Telegraph (or should that be Daily Torygraph?) there is another interesting article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...15/nemi115.xml

Britons are leaving the UK in record numbers. The whole social make-up of the UK is changing fast. Record numbers of Brits leaving and record numbers of people arriving. Emigration still exceeds immigration in terms of numbers but this must be putting a huge strain on local authority services such as housing and education, especially in the greater London area.

I have a problem with New Labour implementing new screening laws for people exiting the UK yet at the same time having an open door policy on immigration with few questions asked.

I would not blame any Brit with any sense and a bit of cash from the sale of over-inflated property who decided to leave.

[KnowItAll]

Boris - Take your pick from the newspapers.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ne...nG=Search+News

[jonnye]

Originally Posted by KnowItAll

My problem with laws like this is that countries assume just because they're considered developed nations or members of the G-whatever, they can ignore the poverty, illiteracy and other problems in their own country and start waving their political dicks in others faces.

What I get from nonsense like this ...

All our problems are with foreigners.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...hildren111.xml

http://www.poverty.org.uk/summary/key%20facts.shtml

The irony of all of this is ... I used get so much "With all the starving people in India, how can you guys afford to have a space program".

The poverty report looks at the numbers of people/families with annual income 60% or more below the average (median) income. Any good statistical analysis should also provide their figures for all the averages (mean and mode) of income. That way we get to see they're not cherry picking. Despite that, this 60% threshold kicks in at £108 per week which is approximately HK$1620 per week for a single adult with no dependent children. This figure is after housing, income tax, and council tax have been deducted.

You're certainly not going to live the high life on this amount, but considering it's, by the report's own admission, well under the average (median) amount it probably compares favourably to many other countries. Not forgetting that the NHS is still free - especially to those on lower incomes. I'm not saying it's the envy of the world, but it does perform a service.

You certainly shouldn't starve on £108 per week. You probably also shouldn't smoke or drink too much, or have cable/satelite television either...

The UK space program is also pretty laughable, unless you count making craters on Mars after piggy backing on someone else's rocket as a 'program'.

I'll give a nod to you on the education point, however I'd say that some of this is down to barmy educational policies pursued over decades that have systematically tried to provide an identical education for everyone. This has just resulted in the affluent middle classes scrambling in a post code lottery to live in an area where there off-spring can go to a 'good' school, thereby raising property prices, or simply sending them to private/public schools. For everyone else, they're left to do their best with what is left in the state sector*. [I'm not saying the previous system was perfect, but what has happened is that we have essentially a split schooling system now] I could go on, but I'll not

*Caveat: I should admit that I benefitted from a selective (at 11) state school education

[jonnye]

Originally Posted by Boris

It makes me wonder if anybody ( apart from the poster ) actually read this article or used the " more about this author " link in the same article.

Any Brit Expat should have immediately heard alarm bells ringing --- its a DAILY MAIL article. The unofficial Facist Times. Maggie wasn't right wing enough for them and Norman Tebbit / Enoch Powell are worshiped as idols. Any Labour PM should be hung from a lamp post like Mussolini - someone they admire for his taste in Black shirts...

Interesting - because recently there has been a lot of noise in the UK about Brown cosying up to Paul Dacre (editor of the Daily Mail). The general feeling is that Labour (who seem to have dropped the New bit) are trying to keep the Mail voters on side. Maybe the influence is more Mail --> Labour though. Especially as Labour seem to be more 'Big Brother' on this issue than the Conservatives.

And I know you didn't mention the Torygraph, but apparently it's staff has a lot of ex-Mirror journalists join recently. There was a clear out after Charles Moore stepped down as editor, and new faces came in predominantly from a more left wing background. They've still got a fair few mad right wingers though... e.g. Simon Heffer

[kombuchakid]

All you guys so down with TB and now GB should consider moving to Auroville.
After all many thousands of Europeans have over the years.

And the best part?

Its in India.

http://www.auroville.org/

[Sigga]

I can't find anything about the "53 questions" in any other paper.

typical Mail hyperbole. If I remember, they put this story up yesterday next to "Shy squaddie sees lesbain sex romp furore".

The UK's much as it's ever been. The political focus on terrorism is OTT, of course.

But the expat perspective that mullahs and gangster chavs run the place is ridiculous, as ever.

"What's happened to the UK?" *Snigger*

[shilo507]

Originally Posted by Sigga

But the expat perspective that mullahs and gangster chavs run the place is ridiculous, as ever.

I don't think that is what most Brit expats think. I just think the UK they left was very different to the UK now. I now live in HK but had been coming to Asia frequently (including HK) on businesses since the mid-90s and many expats I met during that time spoke fondly of the UK as home and did not discount returning once their stint was over. In the mid-90s UK property was affordable and any expat who had made a bit of money abroad had an incentive to return.

There is now no way I would return to the UK to live however well remunerated I was. I may not end up in HK but I will certainly remain in Asia.

[ontheroad]

I'm surprised Bush didn't think of it first!

This is under a Labor government- imagine if the Conservatives were in power!
It's like Kevin Rudd's department of Homeland Security in Australia, is it "upside-down World"?