It's official - Britain is shit.

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Originally Posted by astasinim

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Originally Posted by Caxa

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Originally Posted by pattayardm

They all seemed to know about Thailand. The impression I got was many of them have dreams of going to live on a paradise island but haven't gotten around to living out their dreams. So when they meet someone who really has lived out their dreams they find it hard to comprehend why anyone would want to return to live in England.

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I am from the UK.
Whenever I tell a Brit that I live in Thailand, they say "you lucky bas***d"
I reply "There was no luck involved. I decided what I wanted to do and made it happen".

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We all know the dream, and the reality are two completely different things. Once people realise the reality of Thailand , it becomes too much hassle for many of them to stay. I would guess most of the ones saying lucky B`stard, are the ones who have never been, so lets not get too carried away, and slap ourselves on the back too hard eh.

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The point I'm trying to make is for all these people to have to ask why someone returned to live in the UK only goes to show how bad the quality of life is. If it was a country with a better quality of life not everyone would be asking why someone came back to live there.

^
Simple really. Its the grass is greener syndrome. Look at it from another point of view. How many people have said they would never go to Thailand because its one giant brothel? Again, uneducated decisions.

UK is still a great place. I lived the past 9 and a bit years in Bangkok and returned to the UK at the beginning of May. I have really enjoyed the past few months here, but will be traveling to the Middle East next month to work and will probably rotate between their and Thailand, 4 - 6 weeks working then 3 - 4 weeks in Thailand relaxing. Will do that until the new contract in SE Asia comes up in about 6 months time and then should have more time in Thailand. However, I will be coming back to the UK to visit, and will enjoy coming back here for business and to live if circumstance dictates it's the best option.

I can't stand Brits who stand in the bars of Thailand saying how awful the UK is. They are usually the ones who could not make a proper go of it here, despite all the advantages they were dealt at birth.

It used to be nice , now you have to move to an area where there are few immigrants ,and chavs eg the Lake District or where Bower lives

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Originally Posted by English Noodles

saying how awful the UK is. They are usually the ones who could not make a proper go of it here

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Many southerners just don't make good dole scroungers, it is against their nature.

Well i'm about to hand my resignation to my boss in four weeks time giving a months notice and shall be fucking off to Asia for a year .. It's horrible here can't wait to get out , thing is in a years time i'm going to have to return and start all over again ...
I will think about that when the time comes ...

But untill then !! Get me on that fucking plane ....

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Originally Posted by English Noodles

I have really enjoyed the past few months here, but will be traveling to the Middle East next month to work and will probably rotate between their and Thailand

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Not working as an English teacher one hopes, but maybe that's the way they spell there "up in't north"? :rofl:

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Originally Posted by pattayardm

The point I'm trying to make is for all these people to have to ask why someone returned to live in the UK only goes to show how bad the quality of life is. If it was a country with a better quality of life not everyone would be asking why someone came back to live there.

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You might be able to make your point if you could string together a simple sentence in English! :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by khmen

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Originally Posted by nostromo

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Originally Posted by khmen

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Originally Posted by nostromo

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Originally Posted by The Bold Rodney

Some f*cking survey..too late many people worked that out long ago and NOT just the UK in Europe by the way!:england:

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UK is probably best place in europe

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Really, what do you base that on? I'd rather be in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, or even Greece in its current state than in the UK. For various reasons including sun, women, weed, and general quality of life.

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Why do you include Netherlands in your chart with italy etc? Oh I see weed. Fucking drug addict

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That, as well as the fact I have good friends who live there and it's a much nicer, more relaxed lifestyle than in the UK. And you didnt answer my perfectly reasonable question.

Fucking drug addict? Fucking square.:)

https://teakdoor.com/images/smilies1/You_Rock_Emoticon.gif

Try it, you never know, you just might like it and it might stop you being so fucking uptight.:rolleyes:

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Sorry but I dont do drugs. Your kind of fucker shite brings down the UK. How much do you get in benefits every month?

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Originally Posted by Lorenzo

^ Nevertheless Britain would be better without the immigrants. Either way it sounds like it is a shit hole and getting worse ... like phuket

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That may well be the case but I am afraid the rest of the enlarged Europe has been allowed to dump all and sundry here ,, I would,nt put the thousands of Fillipino,s and Thais who do all the jobs here that the indigenous folk wont do

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Originally Posted by blue

It used to be nice , now you have to move to an area where there are few immigrants ,and chavs eg the Lake District or where Bower lives

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Gun rampage taxi driver kills 12
PA
Wednesday, 2 June 2010SHARE PRINTEMAILTEXT SIZE NORMALLARGEEXTRA LARGE
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Police stand next to a body covered by a blanket following a shooting on Duke Street, Whitehaven, Cumbria

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A taxi driver went on a shotgun rampage today, killing 12 people and wounding at least 25 before turning his weapon on himself.

Divorced father-of-two Derrick Bird, 52, shot several colleagues in Whitehaven in Cumbria, then drove his cab through the countryside of the Lake District blasting other victims apparently at random.

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Following a frantic manhunt, police found his body 20 miles away in woods near the hamlet of Boot three-and-a-half hours later.

Cumbria Police said there were 30 separate crime scenes.

Witnesses spoke of their terror as Bird drove through Whitehaven with the shotgun hanging out of the window of his taxi.

Police said that, after leaving the town, the gunman travelled south along the coast, shooting people in Gosforth, Seascale and Egremont before turning inland and ending up in Boot. Officers later recovered two weapons.

Rod Davies, landlord of Gosforth Hall Inn, said the close-knit Cumbrian communities were shaken by the tragedies.

"There's a lot of very strong feeling of absolute shock. There's a lot of fear - a lot of people are expecting to hear names of people they know," he said.

Bird was said to be close to a fellow taxi driver he killed in Duke Street, Whitehaven, as he started his rampage at about 10.30am.

Glenda Pears, boss of L&G Taxis, said: "We just don't know what's happened. The lad that's been killed was friends with him. They used to stand together having a craic on the rank.

"He was friends with everybody and used to stand and joke on Duke Street."

One Whitehaven cab driver said he understood a total of three taxi drivers had been shot, two fatally.

The man, who did not want to be named, claimed an argument broke out between Bird and the other three men last night at the Duke Street taxi rank.

He said: "All of the taxi drivers were friends. But I heard last night there was an argument on the taxi rank.

"I don't know what caused it, but something must have happened last night. Derrick Bird took off in his car and went home. I don't know what time of night it was."

He said he knew one of the victims, describing him as "a real character".

The taxi driver, who had known Bird for 10 years, added: "He was quite a friendly person. This has been a shock to all the taxi drivers. It's just a tragic thing."

One witness said the gunman drove up alongside him at traffic lights by Whitehaven police station in Duke Street.

Alan Hannah, 68, of Great Broughton, told the Whitehaven News: "A car pulled up on the left, stopping at the lights.

"I saw a man with a large shotgun and his windscreen was smashed. I drove through the red light to get into Lowther Street and get out of the way. I got home safely but was very shaken."

Bird went on to murder popular rugby player Garry Purdham as he worked in a field near Gosforth, local residents said.

Mr Purdham, a farmer's son, was in his early 30s with two young children, according to neighbours.

He played for Workington Town Rugby League Football Club, whose chairman, David Bowden, paid tribute to a man who was "honest and industrious" on and off the pitch.

Bird also shot an elderly single woman, who was one of twins, on Drigg Road in Seascale, locals said.

Boot Inn landlord Sean King said that fellow publican Harry Berger, who runs the Woolpack in Boot, was shot in the arm in Seascale and was recovering in hospital.

A member of staff at the Woolpack Inn said a girl received minor buckshot wounds.

A man reported finding the body of another of Bird's victims - a woman in her 60s carrying shopping bags - outside his house in Egremont.

Billy Boakes, 23, did not see the shooting but heard two gunshots at around 11am.

He said: "I thought nothing of it at first, I thought it was just a trailer banging as it went down the lane but then I looked out the front window two minutes later and saw a car and a push bike parked up and thought there had been an accident.

"I went outside and saw the body of the woman lying outside my house."

Another Egremont resident said she saw the body of a man, thought to be in his 60s, lying on a road bridge in the town.

Bird crashed and dumped his car at the Boot Inn, continuing on foot into the woods where his body was found.

The vicar of Eskdale, the Rev Anne Baker, said she heard that two people had a lucky escape when they approached him after the collision to see if they could help.

She said police were tracing the gunman's route to the wood where he apparently shot himself, hoping not to find any more victims.

Early reports suggested that Bird also killed his mother, but Cumbria Police later confirmed that she was alive and being looked after by her family.

The emergency services in Cumbria were inundated with appeals for help.

A North West Ambulance spokesman said they received 51 emergency calls in the three-and-a-half hours Bird was on the rampage.

West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven declared a major incident, while the accident and emergency department at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle was on standby.

Cumbria Police set up a casualty bureau line on 0845 3300 247 and appealed for anyone with information about Bird's movements over the last 24 hours to contact them.

People who are worried about friends and family can call a police helpline on 0800 0960095 .

As he began his first Prime Minister's Questions today, David Cameron said the House of Commons would be "alarmed and shocked by the events unfolding in Cumbria" where at least five people had died in the shootings.

He said: "When lives and communities are suddenly shattered in this way, our thoughts should be with all those caught up in these tragic events, especially the families and friends of those killed or injured."

The Rev John Bannister, from St James Church in Whitehaven, said it was "an awful time" for the town.

He said: "We are still reeling from the disaster with the Keswick school bus. The majority of children on that bus were from here in Whitehaven and surrounding villages and to be faced with this in such a short time is truly dreadful."

Local MP Jamie Reed said the community was "exceptionally close-knit".

He said: "You hurt one of us, you hurt all of us.

"It's the kind of place where you can leave your door open, so it's the kind of thing that really does shake the very foundations."

Three people were in a critical condition in hospital, sources said.

Chillingly, Bird told his friend Peter Leder last night: "You won't see me again."

Mr Leder told CNN that the taxi driver, who lived in Rowrah, near Frizington in Cumbria and was known as "Birdy" to friends, was "an outgoing, well-known guy, who everyone liked".

Cumbria Police have launched a "full and thorough" investigation into the tragedy, looking at Bird's history, access to guns and motives for the shootings.

The Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant was closed while the gunman was on the run.

One of Bird's victims in Seascale was named by a family friend as Jane Robinson, 66, who was shot dead in Drigg Road, just yards from the home she shared with her twin sister, Barrie.

One of the taxi drivers killed by Bird was named locally as Darren Rewcastle.

A fellow cabbie said he had known Mr Rewcastle, whom he described as being in his 30s, for five years.

The driver said: "It was the first I heard about it this morning, when I was told that one of the taxi drivers had shot another one.

"It's been a massive shock for all of us."

West Cumbria University Hospitals Trust deputy chief executive Kevin Clarkson, speaking from West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven, said: "The hospital's trust is part of the community it serves and our staff share in the grief.

"The following is an update on those who are most seriously injured. Three casualties are in a critical condition, five are in a serious condition.

One woman told tonight of the moment she was shot at by Bird from his car in Whitehaven.

Ashley Gastor told ITV News she felt the gunshot brush past her hair and miss her, before running to her sister's for safety.

She said: "I thought he was just going to ask me for directions or something. He said something to me and I didn't hear him so I said 'What did you say?' and I turned around and he said 'Do you like...' and I couldn't hear what else he said and when I turned round to look at him he was holding a gun at me out of the car window.

"I held my ears and ducked down to protect myself and the gunshot was fired. I tried to run down the hill and he fired another one, and when I'd run down the corner he went off in the car."

She added: "I felt it go past my ponytail on the back of my hair when I bent down. I was terrified but I was happy at the same time that he'd missed me.

"There was only me on the road at the time - me and his car - so I ran down to my sister's house, crying, and I just heard another gunshot when I was at the bottom of the hill, running away from him."


Errrr? even the "Tuk Tuk" drivers in Cumbria appear to stressed out at times! :rolleyes:

The lifestyle in the UK is to masculine.

In Thailand its too feminine.

Both are out of balance.

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Originally Posted by nostromo

Sorry but I dont do drugs. Your kind of fucker shite brings down the UK. How much do you get in benefits every month?

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You still havent answered my question, you ignorant little shit. Yeah, me smoking a bit of weed to relax at the end of a hard days WORK is really bringing the UK to its knees, even more so than the pissed up shitcunts fighting and mouthing off every Friday and Saturday up and down the country.:rolleyes:

And FYI, I have never claimed a single penny in benefits from the government and I pay in thousands in tax each year. So, you can fuck off with your judgemental, boring, conservative, Daily Mail reading bullshit.

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Originally Posted by khmen

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Originally Posted by nostromo

Sorry but I dont do drugs. Your kind of fucker shite brings down the UK. How much do you get in benefits every month?

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You still havent answered my question, you ignorant little shit. Yeah, me smoking a bit of weed to relax at the end of a hard days WORK is really bringing the UK to its knees, even more so than the pissed up shitcunts fighting and mouthing off every Friday and Saturday up and down the country.:rolleyes:

And FYI, I have never claimed a single penny in benefits from the government and I pay in thousands in tax each year. So, you can fuck off with your judgemental, boring, conservative, Daily Mail reading bullshit.

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My parents were Hippies and I turned out OK :) I got a touch of ADD, but hell the pills keep me fluid ....

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Originally Posted by nigelandjan

That may well be the case but I am afraid the rest of the enlarged Europe has been allowed to dump all and sundry here ,, I would,nt put the thousands of Fillipino,s and Thais who do all the jobs here that the indigenous folk wont do

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I would. I would guess that at last 50% are here because of what they can send home. Absolutely no interest in this county`s future what so ever. Its all about the £££, thats all, pure and simple. It could be the same shit hole they`ve come from so long as the £££`s are rolling in.

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Originally Posted by English Noodles

I can't stand Brits who stand in the bars of Thailand saying how awful the UK is. They are usually the ones who could not make a proper go of it here, despite all the advantages they were dealt at birth.

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Quite. If someone wants to relocate for an expat package, start a business, or just retire, then fine, just dont forget who and what gave you those opportunities.

https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2011/09/3858.jpg

In Britain Cannabis may have been a hippy middle class pursuit years ago
that's no longer the case
most of the smokers are scabby low life male chavs
the last thing they need is a drug that makes them even less likely to get off thier arses and do something.

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Originally Posted by The Bold Rodney

Not working as an English teacher one hopes, but maybe that's the way they spell there "up in't north"?

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No, Rodders. Some of us actually have real skills and transferable assets. We are not all dumb idiots with limited options who think working for a few hundred bucks per week is a career move.

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Originally Posted by dodge

^^ But luckily buddhism teaches them that if they put up with this lifelong crap with a forced smile, as well as tolerate being lorded over by losers from the west who want to achieve the illusion of success by emigrating to Thailand, they'll eventually reach nirvana.

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Are you talking from experience then ?.:england:

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Originally Posted by English Noodles

We are not all dumb idiots with limited options who think working for a few hundred bucks per week is a career move.

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So, you're palling around with Smeg then? Ask him how the villa in Italy is coming along...

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Originally Posted by Carrabow

I got a touch of ADD, but hell the pills keep me fluid ....

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No such thing. ADD is just a populist modish term for a feckless, ill disciplined trait that in the old days would have been cured by a swift blow to the back of the head and the threat of worse if the culprit transgressed further.

Unpalatable though it may be, most modern labels are simply euphemisms for weakness and inadequacy.

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Originally Posted by astasinim

Quite. If someone wants to relocate for an expat package, start a business, or just retire, then fine, just dont forget who and what gave you those opportunities.

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Your parents.

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Originally Posted by thegent

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Originally Posted by Carrabow

I got a touch of ADD, but hell the pills keep me fluid ....

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No such thing. ADD is just a populist modish term for a feckless, ill disciplined trait that in the old days would have been cured by a swift blow to the back of the head and the threat of worse if the culprit transgressed further.

Unpalatable though it may be, most modern labels are simply euphemisms for weakness and inadequacy.

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Gent...

A.D.D
always
degrading
dumbsh*ts :)

I don't think the problems that the UK has can be blamed simply on immigrants. Many immigrants (the majority? I don't know.) just want to make a better life for themselves and their families and are prepared to work (often much harder than UK citizens) to do it and, by so doing, make a positive contribution to British society. Of course there are many who just want to take advantage of 'the sytem' of benefits that the UK has. But then there is also a significant number of 'native' British citizens who want to do the same - sponge off the system. I'd be interested to know, if it is possible to find out, what proportion of benefit claimants are 'immmigrants' and what proportion are 'native' British.

I have as much interest in apportioning blame as anyone. I am retired and live in Thailand principally because I can't afford to live in the UK. I still pay tax, as I did throughout my pretty full working life, on my pension and on the (very) modest rental income from the flat I still have in the UK. Yet I receive none of the benefits (I have never claimed benefits in the past) that resident UK citizens take for granted. I get no free healthcare, even when I return to the UK on 'holiday', and my state pension will not be indexed when I get it (too soon, unfortunately!) - to name but two.

It's a natural gut reaction to target immigrants in receipt of benefits but, if the UK didn't have the comparatively generous benefit system it has, then perhaps at least, the immigrants and the UK natives who just sponge off the system and DON'T make any contribution would be discouraged and people like me can then only lay the blame for Britain's economic and social woes on successive British governments where it really belongs.

The question of integration of immigrants into the British 'way of life' is wholly another question raising similarly negative gut reactions and is, perhaps, even more insoluble a problem. I'm as guilty as many others of fearing and resenting many immigrants 'ghetto' mentality and refusal to become 'British' (whatever that is). But that's another story and I've prattled on long enough!

I do enjoy the GBP exchange rate!

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Originally Posted by IceSpike

I do enjoy the GBP exchange rate!

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Ouch!!