British Expat Newsletter

25 November 2004

Hello, and welcome to those who have joined up since our last newsletter.

In this issue

This week: ID cards
Virtual Snacks
Bizarre Searches
Joke and quotation

This week

First of all, sorry we've been away for some time. Part of the problem has been that our automated email sending process hasn't been working properly. We've been working with our new hosting providers to fix the problem, and it should be sorted out now. But if you think you might not have received some newsletters in the interim you can find them on the site: Newsletter archive: July-Dec 2004

The other thing that's kept us busy has been our first visa run, to Penang. As bad luck - or bad planning - would have it, our three months in Thailand came to an end at the same time as Diwali and Eid-ul-Fitr (or Hari Raya, as the Malaysians call it). So we thought we'd better go away for a week just to make sure that the Thai Consulate would have enough time to issue our visas before we were due to return. As it happened, we presented ourselves at the Consulate with our paperwork and fees at 1100 on the first day of our visit, and got our passports back, complete with shiny new visas, at just after 1600; leaving us with six days to kill before our flight back to Thailand. But it wasn't all wasted time - we took the opportunity to do some sightseeing, take some photos, and review some restaurants and bars. So if you're thinking of visiting, you can find out something about George Town, Penang's capital, here:
Hotel 1926
Restaurants and bars
Penang Walking Tour

Meanwhile, the latest session of Parliament in the UK has just opened, with several controversial new measures in the Queen's Speech. The Government's promised to allow universities to charge students "top-up" fees of up to £3,000 for their tuition, above and beyond the £1,000 tuition fee they already have to pay. A large number of Labour MPs have already said they intend to vote against the Bill when it's introduced. A planned measure to prevent abuse of the political asylum process includes provision to stop benefits to failed applicants who refuse a free flight home - but also means that the children of any such applicants could be taken into care. Child welfare experts have already warned that this could breach the Human Rights Act. And plans for a national ID card scheme look likely to go ahead, although with no firm date for making cards compulsory set as yet.

Personally, I don't have a problem with the idea of an ID card, if it's properly run - with safeguards as to who may have access to the information held on the central database and under what terms. Indeed, some have argued that if the scheme were broadened in scope to include electronic identities on the Internet, it could cut down substantially on fraud, spam and adults in children's chatrooms. But I am worried that the scheme's being rushed into, on the basis of a dubious political argument that it's needed to fight terrorism (its impact will be negligible), and at substantial cost (£3bn initially, and the figure looks likely to rise). So I hope that, whatever scheme eventually makes it into Parliament, there's a good deal more public debate before a system's finally adopted.

Virtual Snacks

Just a couple of suggestions if you have a little time to spare:

To find out more about the debate on ID cards, here are a couple of links you can try:
Home Office: identity cards
Liberty: identity cards

Or if you're not in the mood for hard news, try something that's still newsy but not necessarily up to BBC standards of journalism:
www.thisistrue.com

Bizarre Searches

Some strange search terms which led people to visit British Expat recently:

how to smoke smarties
men in tutus
animated bisto
knowing canada way of leaving
what is the difference between hypertufa and cement
jesus s lifestyle
angry cats
duk sex

Till next time...
Happy surfing!

Kay
Editor
British Expat Magazine

Quotation

"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets or steal bread."

- Anatole France, author (1844-1924)

Joke

A tourist climbed out of his car in London. He said to a man standing on the footpath, "Listen, I'm going to be only a couple of minutes. Would you watch my car while I run into this shop?"

"What?" retorted the man loftily. "Do you realise that I am a Member of Parliament?"

"No," the tourist said, "I didn't realise that. But it's all right. I'll trust you anyway."