Bloody Uk Goverment

[Admin]

My wife sent off her British Citizenship Application 2 weeks ago, and it has just bee returned.

WHY? Because on the 28th July without telling anyone they changed the law so that you now need a ESOL Entry 3 in English language to apply, otherwise forget it.

No speaka da English, no entry.

My wife speaks better English than me, but we now have to find an ESOL teacher who can issue the certificate. The problem is, the ESOL is so new, not many teachers are qualified to give it!!

Head - Wall - Banging spring to mind in a sentence.

Why don't they just say foreigners GO HOME?

On top of that once you are a citizen, you have to then attend a town hall meeting for a ceremony to 'welcome' you to Britain. More like make you feel like a git!!

[ginapeterb]

ok Keith we have to run with the flow. and rally round and get one for you....ESOL ? Hmmmm they are better qualified than we are !!, hahahaah. and this town hall ceremony crap is a citizenship ceremony, that they are doing now...what a joke.

Well just get one and send it in mate.


Pete

Thats ok...when I applied for a U.S. Visa in the old days, they sent it back 6 times, before they accepted it....every time I sent it to Gosvenor square, they ping ponged it back again.

[Admin]

We've spoken to a few teachers today, they haven't a clue?? Figures with this goverment.

As for the ceremony, they get to sing 'God save the Queen'....!!!! A Queen which has little if any British blood in her, and as the majority will be muslims what is with the 'God'?? Something else that hasn't been thought through.

I wouldn't mind, the IND office is in Liverpool, but they don't do one to one meetings!! If they done that they'd know she speaka da English within minutes.

I think it's time to go back to Singapore. Oh, hold on we can't the immigration will have our passports for around 8 months :P :P

[Admin]

Just to porve how inept our goverment departments are, this is an answer from the Welsh Assembly Education Dept

"Dear Keith and Roberta

I am afraid that this new ruling will have taken most of the further and adult education sector unawares as most institutions were closed when the ruling came out. I have had little more information than that available on the Home Office website. As I understand it a letter from a qualified teacher of English for Speakers of Other Languages [ESOL] should be sufficient. Copies of English language qualifications obtained overseas are also acceptable, as are other qualifications eg the equivalents of GCSE or higher levels which were obtained through the medium of English.

I attach the information from the Home Office - with apologies if you already have it. I have also contacted the Home Office for further clarification and shall get back to you as soon as I hear from them.

Yours sincerely

Celine"

It's nice to know that every one gets along just honky!!!! ???

[Admin]

Well this is going well.

We went to a meeting at Llandrillo college today with the English Lecturer, and told the wife she has to sit a 3 month daily course to get a certificate, but it's a ULCES not a ESOL which they don't know much about.

Great eh? The UK immigration is on another planet from the UK Education!!

All she needs to prove according to the immigration is that she can hold good conversation in English, which she does better than me, not 'written' English as the college seem to think!! >:( >:( >:(

Complete joke the lot. Anyway, we should have it all sorted by the year 2014, when one of the other rules will be 'Must change skin color to white, and have nose raised'!! :P ???

[ginapeterb]

Not to worry mate..its those tossers over at the Home Office, pen pushers....all of these buzz words, like citizenship ceremony...what a lot of crap...they are all about targets...targets targets...and you know its ike the lights are on but nobodys home...they are of their trolley..I might start doing a political satire on UK Government shortly...something else to make your day...hahahahaah ah dont worry its not the Philippines this time..its the UK..dont loose your cool.

[ginapeterb]

A recent letter sent to John Prescott, our Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Regions, Transport, and responsible for formulating our new public transport policies, and looking ahead in the next 10 years in our country.


Right Hon Mr John Prescott MP
Deputy Prime Minister
House of Commons
London SW1



Dear Deputy Prime Minister,

May I take this opportunity of writing to you with regards to your 10 year plan for the environment and your transport blueprint.

I have recently returned from the Far East mainly visiting third world countries, and Hong Kong.

I have recently returned to work, and had occasion to visit one of our prospective clients in the centre of London.

On this occasion I Decided to work along in harmony with your transport policies, by leaving my private car at home, and to take public transport.

I have to inform you, that this was a mistake, but let me explain to you why I believe it to be so, firstly I had to take a bus from my home to the Railway Station in the centre of town, I stood for some 20 minutes at 8.30am in the morning, and paid £2.10 to go 2 miles into town, on a dirty, jolting bus, with a gruff driver, who seemed to think that he was doing me a favour in letting me on the bus.

When I arrived at the Station, I waited in vain for train to arrive bound for London Liverpool street station, this train was delayed, and arrived 20 minutes late, when I stepped on the train, it was overcrowded, dirty, cold and having bought a ticket, I had to stand for 45 minutes, until I reached Liverpool Street Station.

On continuing on with my journey, I then headed for the Circle Line tube and found that I had to stand on the platform for20 minutes, as the Circle Line trains were late, and finally when it did arrive it was filthy, overcrowded and cold.

This journey by public transport, took 3 hours using the methods, you have asked the general public to undertake, on the way home, I tried to use the toilets in Chelmsford Bus station, I had to leave them when I found their general state to be disgusting, apart from used condoms on the floor, bags of waste and the floors wet with Urine, when I enquired to the station office, I was told “Its not our problem”, and a “What can I do you for mate” ??

I have to say Deputy Prime Minister that this experience, makes me ashamed to live in this country, the attitude of public service officials, and public transport workers, appears to be one of “Shrugging their shoulders” and looking the other way.

What a contrast this is, to the excellent transport infrastructure, of Malaysia, Thailand, and Hong Kong.

In particular have you Deputy Prime Minister had the privilege of travelling from Hong Kong’s Chep Lap Kok International Airport on the Island of Lantau, Hong Kong, if you have no doubt you will have noted the Automatic Electric train service, that takes passengers, from the airport, on a beautifully clean train, with impeccable service, attendants, who hand out personal flannelette’s sitting on perfectly clean seats, and having plenty of room to deposit one’s luggage.

Having bought ones ticket, the ticket shows you where to stand on the platform, and you enter the train and find that your seat is exactly in the right place, for you to enter the train, there are video screens in the rear of the seats, showing information about Hong Kong, play station games and other information.

On arrival in Hong Kong at central station, this links with the Impeccably clean MTR Network of the Tsuen Wan Line, and the Chai wan line, the trains travel through immaculate stations, clean, smelling fresh, with automated ticket recognition systems.

No one seems to want to urinate in public on these services, or leave Burger King boxes, with coke cans under the seats, no one here seems to want to leave dirty sweet packets, folded newspapers, or popcorn boxes.

On reaching Liverpool Street Station, I await the Circle Line Services and stand on an outdated overcrowded platform, noticing that someone had thrown up the contents of their stomach in the corner, noticed the filthy dirty, garbage thrown down on the line, after waiting around with a jostled crowd, the circle line train bound for the Embankment finally turned up some 20 minutes late, which in turn made me 10 minutes late for my appointment with a foreign embassy.

Apart from the embarrassment of being late for my appointment with a foreign embassy, the whole journey had taken 3 hours, the journey was not much different, after arriving back at Chelmsford bus station, I noted youths hanging around, intimidating people, using foul and abusive language, I decided to use the public facilities, but found them to be disgusting and apart from the used condoms in the cubicles, and the bags of garbage, the cubicles were awash with urine, and towelettes thrown down on the floor.

At night bus services stop at around 18.20 which means there are no buses to my final destination, therefore the use of a taxi is required, which goes completely against your policy of public transportation methods.

If public transport, is expensive, unreliable, dirty, and bus stations are no go area’s unsafe at night, how do you expect the travelling public to embrace your policy, and yet in far east Asian countries, I have found public transport, to be delightful, beautiful clean public transport services, with happy smiling attendants, to be constantly greeted with a polite “Sir let me take your bags” and contrasting this with the UK, where a “Whats your problem” is it any wonder, that people have lost all interest in your policies for transport, where our inner cities, are plagued by foul mouthed youths, dirty transport services, non existent services at night, inner cities, characterized by late night drunkenness, crime, shootings and vandalism.

Unless your policies include a radical shake up of public services, and a crack down on late night binge drinking, cleaner public transport, everyone is going to stay with what they know to be safe and quick, that is their own private cars, which get them from A to B, in safety, and security.

Blair and Prescott’s Britain is a country which is ill at ease with itself, a country which has lost its respect in the world, is vastly becoming a 2nd world country, vastly inferior in every way, to the Tiger economies of the Far East, a country which has lacked investment for years, in public transport, a country which has lost the respect for its most basic unit - the family, your government continues to pursue policies of self destruction for the family, pitting Fathers and Mothers against each other in an adversarial system that seeks to create a nation of one parent families, because you lack the moral courage to change the laws and create 2 parent families, in situations where relationships break up.

Your government continues to pursue policies that criminalizes fathers of children, presiding over an Orwellian society, with more and more state interference in peoples lives, with ever increasing council tax bills, which provide less and less for more and more, your government continues to care more about the life of a fox than it does about the lives of people, there is little wonder then that up and down the length of this country, in a recent survey, over 1 in 4 people said, given the opportunity that they wished to emigrate away for a better life, if this survey is true, what does that tell you about your policies, people are not just sick of public transport, they are fed up with being taken for mugs, ripped off in their own country, taxed out of their hard earned income, with little to show for it, worried about their pensions in retirement, when you and yours enjoy the best pensions money can buy.

Public transport is just the tip of the Iceberg, but for once, I have to tell you, I am ashamed to be British, given the right circumstances I would gladly move to Malaysia, Hong Kong, well in truth just about anywhere other than here,

Yours Sincerely,

[ginapeterb]

Further to that letter maybe I am being a little hard, because recently I have experienced some of the most advanced rail travel services in the world.

That is the High Speed Train Service between London and Manchester on the East Coast Line, for the 1st time I have been on the Tilting 125 Mph train, and once you have travelled on this train, there is really no other way to travel.

Perhaps, their are some sectors of our public transport system, that are in need of more investment, but soon we will have in this country for the firsrt time, our greatest rail buidling project ever, that is

the 68 Mile connecting line from St Pancras Station in London to the Chennel Tunnel at Folkestone, this will mean you can take a Eurostar train service from London, have lunch in Paris and be back for teat, making a journey from St Pancras at 180 miles per hour for the first time, costing 7 Billion pounds to be completed in 2007, it will be the greatest rail building project in the word, having 5 tunnels, and 152 bridges which will allow our Eurostar services to run on the greatest rail journey ever, and through to Paris, or Bussels.

Yes there are some things to moan about, but there are some things to be proud of too, Rule Britannia hahahaha

[Admin]

I haven't used public transport since the 80's, and never will. Besides the fact we only have two buses a day here, using 4x4 gives me safety and freedom.

From my working experience in the 80's in Liverpool, public transport was a joke then, and they are still using the same buses now.

Yet when I go to Singapore, it's a happy experience to use the trains and buses. Clean and reliable.

As I keep saying, once my kids leave school I'm out of here.