Your Post-Brexit wishes

Of course we have to get back to pounds shillings and sense, and imperial measure will be compulsory. Screws will be on Whitworth threads. A new British three-pin plug, compatible with existing sockets, will be designed with retractable pins so that they are not quite so sodding painful when you step on an upturned one in your bare feet.

The warnings on cigarette packets will be extended to every other consumable, so that a television will have a 20% warning stripe saying "HMG Surgeon-General warns this ruins your eyesight" and things like that, packets of cereal will have a big warning on them saying "This stuff contains dietary fibre which you can't digest but makes you fart". If you're going to have warnings, might as well be consistent.

Smoking will be made legal everywhere it is now illegal and vice versa, for an experimental period of one year. The warnings on smoking packets will, occasionally, say things like "Non-smokers die every day", "Smokers pay less for life assurance", "if you smoke, the chances of your lifetime partner dying of your habit are 4,280-1 over their lifetime, which is statistically insignificant", "smoking reduces your chances of dying of carbon monoxide poisoning" and other cheery messages like that.

It will be made very illegal to put union jacks on items of clothing.

English will be the official language of England. (You thought it was? No, England has no official language.)

Chewing-gum will be made illegal as it is bad for your health, litters the streets, and makes your breath smell. Sticking used chewing-gum under a desk or billiard table will be very illegal.

It will be legal to take any drug you want, providing you don't hurt anyone else. This will immediately cure 95% of the drug problem, which is not the drug but the crime required to pay for it. Britain will import cocaine direct from Columbia at wholesale price, so that it can assure its purity and so on. Heroin and other synthetic drugs like that will just be manufactured by the pharma companies  under licence, like they do every other drug.

New immigrants will be taught usefull things like British shoe sizes and what went on on The Archers on Wednesday instead of the useless stuff they have to learn now to pass the "British test". The national anthem, at Billy Connolly's suggestion, will be change to be Barwick Green the theme tune from the archers, because it is just far more jolly than the dirge we currently have.

Television soap operas will be abolished.

We will reorder the verses of the National Anthem so the bit that goes "And with a mighty rush rebellious Scots to crush" comes first. Marshall Wade, the only person named in the National Anthem, will be on all the stamps and coins.

We will allow anyone who wants to come to Britain or stay in Britain, to come to Britain and stay in Britain. Like we used to. This will immediately solve the looming pension crisis because we will get lots of hardworking, young immigrants attracted by the high wages and paying lots of taxes.

Weather forecasters telling you what the weather was yesterday will be made illegal or they must call themselves "weather postcasters" instead.

Any pretence that taxes are hypothecated (i.e. separated out for specific purposes) will be made completely illegal.

Suicide will no longer be considered a moral sin but a personal choice. Arson in Her Majesty's Naval Dockyards will be made compulsory, just for the fun of it.

CCTV cameras in public places will be removed and destroyed.

Since homosexuals may now be married, civil partnerships will be abolished, or in the alternative, heterosexual people will be allowed to enter into civil partnership. At the moment it means homosexuals have more rights than heterosexuals, which was never the intent of the Civil Partnerships Act. Everyone should have the same rights.

There will be one age of majority for everything. If you decide you can't bet on the gee-gees until you are 18, then you can't bet on the national lottery until you are 18. You can't drive until you are 18. You can't get married until you are 18. You are not criminally responsible for your actions until you are 18, and you can't get married or enter the army until you are 18. Also you can't drink until you are 18. (The legal age for drinking in the UK is five years old, unless the alcohol is administered by a doctor, in which case your tot can have a tot.) You can make it 16 if you want, but we will have one age of majority for everything. That means you can leave school at that age, and so on. It will be for everything.

Double doors of which one is inexplicably locked will be required to carry a sign saying "This door is locked for no reason".

Gambling commercials aimed at bored housewives, and gambling by mobile phone, will be very illegal. You have to make the effort to go to the betting shop.

And all cash machines will have a "Gamble" button, double or nothing.

SimonTrew wrote:

Of course we have to get back to pounds shillings and sense, and imperial measure will be compulsory. Screws will be on Whitworth threads. ....

Is this your manifesto?

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

Of course we have to get back to pounds shillings and sense, and imperial measure will be compulsory. Screws will be on Whitworth threads. ....

Is this your manifesto?

Seems like it. Will you vote for me? UKIP seems to have lost a lot in the local elections so there might be a gap in the market...

SimonTrew wrote:

Of course we have to get back to pounds shillings and sense, and imperial measure will be compulsory. Screws will be on Whitworth threads. A new British three-pin plug, compatible with existing sockets, will be designed with retractable pins so that they are not quite so sodding painful when you step on an upturned one in your bare feet.

The warnings on cigarette packets will be extended to every other consumable, so that a television will have a 20% warning stripe saying "HMG Surgeon-General warns this ruins your eyesight" and things like that, packets of cereal will have a big warning on them saying "This stuff contains dietary fibre which you can't digest but makes you fart". If you're going to have warnings, might as well be consistent.

Smoking will be made legal everywhere it is now illegal and vice versa, for an experimental period of one year. The warnings on smoking packets will, occasionally, say things like "Non-smokers die every day", "Smokers pay less for life assurance", "if you smoke, the chances of your lifetime partner dying of your habit are 4,280-1 over their lifetime, which is statistically insignificant", "smoking reduces your chances of dying of carbon monoxide poisoning" and other cheery messages like that.

It will be made very illegal to put union jacks on items of clothing.

English will be the official language of England. (You thought it was? No, England has no official language.)

Chewing-gum will be made illegal as it is bad for your health, litters the streets, and makes your breath smell. Sticking used chewing-gum under a desk or billiard table will be very illegal.

It will be legal to take any drug you want, providing you don't hurt anyone else. This will immediately cure 95% of the drug problem, which is not the drug but the crime required to pay for it. Britain will import cocaine direct from Columbia at wholesale price, so that it can assure its purity and so on. Heroin and other synthetic drugs like that will just be manufactured by the pharma companies  under licence, like they do every other drug.

New immigrants will be taught usefull things like British shoe sizes and what went on on The Archers on Wednesday instead of the useless stuff they have to learn now to pass the "British test". The national anthem, at Billy Connolly's suggestion, will be change to be Barwick Green the theme tune from the archers, because it is just far more jolly than the dirge we currently have.

Television soap operas will be abolished.

We will reorder the verses of the National Anthem so the bit that goes "And with a mighty rush rebellious Scots to crush" comes first. Marshall Wade, the only person named in the National Anthem, will be on all the stamps and coins.

We will allow anyone who wants to come to Britain or stay in Britain, to come to Britain and stay in Britain. Like we used to. This will immediately solve the looming pension crisis because we will get lots of hardworking, young immigrants attracted by the high wages and paying lots of taxes.

Weather forecasters telling you what the weather was yesterday will be made illegal or they must call themselves "weather postcasters" instead.

Any pretence that taxes are hypothecated (i.e. separated out for specific purposes) will be made completely illegal.

Suicide will no longer be considered a moral sin but a personal choice. Arson in Her Majesty's Naval Dockyards will be made compulsory, just for the fun of it.

CCTV cameras in public places will be removed and destroyed.

Since homosexuals may now be married, civil partnerships will be abolished, or in the alternative, heterosexual people will be allowed to enter into civil partnership. At the moment it means homosexuals have more rights than heterosexuals, which was never the intent of the Civil Partnerships Act. Everyone should have the same rights.

There will be one age of majority for everything. If you decide you can't bet on the gee-gees until you are 18, then you can't bet on the national lottery until you are 18. You can't drive until you are 18. You can't get married until you are 18. You are not criminally responsible for your actions until you are 18, and you can't get married or enter the army until you are 18. Also you can't drink until you are 18. (The legal age for drinking in the UK is five years old, unless the alcohol is administered by a doctor, in which case your tot can have a tot.) You can make it 16 if you want, but we will have one age of majority for everything. That means you can leave school at that age, and so on. It will be for everything.

The Health and Safety at Work act will get back to what it was meant to be, to protect yourself and others around you, not the nonsense that gets tacked on by companies fearing litigation.

Postage stamps will immediately be halved in price. Public toilets will be reinstated, open all hours and be free to use and kept passably clean, out of local taxes. Or if not, it will be legal to piss in the street without being charged with "urinating in a public place" providing of course one does it discreetly up a tree or whatever. Dogs cats and every other species are allowed to, why can't I?

People who pretend to pick up their dog's mess but don't actually do it will be named and shamed nightly on television.

Litter bins in public places will be provided and emptied regularly like they are in Budapest.

Double doors of which one is inexplicably locked will be required to carry a sign saying "This door is locked for no reason".

Gambling commercials aimed at bored housewives, and gambling by mobile phone, will be very illegal. You have to make the effort to go to the betting shop.

And all cash machines will have a "Gamble" button, double or nothing.

SimonTrew wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

Of course we have to get back to pounds shillings and sense, and imperial measure will be compulsory. Screws will be on Whitworth threads. ....

Is this your manifesto?

Seems like it. Will you vote for me? UKIP seems to have lost a lot in the local elections so there might be a gap in the market...

As we all know, all politics are local.

No, I won't vote for you as I'm a convert from smoking and as we all know there's usually no-one more enthusiastic than a convert. 

I'm also OK with metric threads.  It was a nightmare having to have different socket sets and spanners.  I've still got some imperial sockets and spanners and I actually bought two sets of brake pipe spanners last year because brake pipe nuts are still imperial except ones that are not. 

I'm not really bovvered about pints either, good enough in new money. 

Who really wants to  move back to letter sized paper, foolscap and odd envelope sizes?  And quarts, what is that about?  Imperial and US measures.  Cups in recipes?  What the hell is a cup? Teacup? Mug? Expresso?

These two systems are dangerous  - people have almost died because of it. Many instances of lost money because of the confusion.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Cups in recipes?  What the hell is a cup?

A cup is half a pint, as any fule kno. And a pint is sixteen ounces... or is it twenty ounces...? The American jug says this but the British jug says... oh well. Look a pint weighs a pound in US Customary and that makes a US gallon be 3.8 litres instead of 4.54. It is perfectly easy when you get the hang of it. There are 6400 rads in a circle and by rile of thumb that makes one rad over one arc of beam equal one yard at one mile. Perfectly simple, Everything is binary except when it isn't, fourteen ounces to the pound, sixteen pounds to the stone, eight stones to the hundredweight, ten hundredweight to the ton. What could be simpler than that? Twelve pence to the shilling, twenty shillings in a pound, which means that your 100/30 comes out exactly as eight and fourpence to the pound which it won't do in decimal. I don't know, this new-fangled metric system just makes life far too difficult. You have nothing between a centimetre and a metre and you need something about THAT sized, about two foot long.

I just find imperial easier really they come in handy sizes. My balance scales are in imperial, and the missus goes nuts saying how much is two ounces well it is about fifty grammes how mch is it, it is 56 grammes if you want but look it's a recipe it ain't exact, two ounces will do. Recipe is the latin for "to take" i.e. take some of this, take some of that, never mind what do you need a teaspoonful. That is 5ml there are teaspoons in the drawer. Yes but it might not be 5ml. There are measuring spoons in the drawer get the small one and measure 5ml and add a bit for luck. But it doesn't say 5ml. Look a teaspoon is 5ml and a tablespoon is 25ml. Look here, it says quite clearly, take a heaped tablespoon of water just follow the instructions.... and so life goes on.

The weights on the balance scales came in quite handy to prop up the splashback tiles while they set in place. Now you can't do that with a digital scale. But it is just easy they are quarter ounce, half ounce, once i.e. binary and so you move that one over that side and so on and that is how you balance and measure. I suppose these days people just stick it on a digital scale sorry but I find it quicker and easier to do it on a balance.

It is the same with carpentry she always wants to get the tape measure out but most you can do by simple geometry and that is how I was taught it, hardly ever take a measure. Look, THAT is to THAT as THAT is to THAT. Only later do I learn that is the Law of Similar Triangles, if you do a bit of carpentry you are always going look that is the same length as that. (missus: how long is it? I get a measure. Me: you don't need a measure, that is the same as that. Her: I need to measure it. Me: No you don't. That is the same as that. Look, get that T square, put that on there, over you come now that is square. Her: I get the protractor. Me: No, the T square is definitely square. My grandfather made it and used it since 1932. It doesn't matter if the T square is not square, because it will be similar angles on all sides, look, if you've got a parallelogram the opposite corners are the same angle aren!t they? So even if the T square was out of square, which it isn't, then the two would still add up and it would all come square. Her: I need to measure it.... Me: No you don't. You do not need to measure it. Look, cross that over there that's the centre. Her: I need to measure it. Me: No, you don't you take a cross over the corners and that is the bloody centre.  Her: Are you sure, how do you know that? Me: By fucking definition of fucking pythagorus for fucks sake and he didn't even have zero or one or decimal points and even he could work that one out. You do not need a tape measure, that is the centre. Her: How do you know that? Me (brandisihing handbrace as gun) BECAUSE IT FUCKING IS, NOW SHALL I SHOOT YOU SOMEWHAT INEFFECTIVELY WITH THIS 6mm DRILL BIT OR PUT THIS HOLE APPROXIMATELY IN THE MIDDLE

So life goes on.

SimonTrew wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

Cups in recipes?  What the hell is a cup?

A cup is half a pint, as any fule kno. And a pint is sixteen ounces... or is it twenty ounces...? The American jug says this but the British jug says... oh well. Look a pint weighs a pound in US Customary and that makes a US gallon be 3.8 litres instead of 4.54. It is perfectly easy when you get the hang of it. There are 6400 rads in a circle and by rile of thumb that makes one rad over one arc of beam equal one yard at one mile. Perfectly simple, Everything is binary except when it isn't, fourteen ounces to the pound, sixteen pounds to the stone, eight stones to the hundredweight, ten hundredweight to the ton. What could be simpler than that? Twelve pence to the shilling, twenty shillings in a pound, which means that your 100/30 comes out exactly as eight and fourpence to the pound which it won't do in decimal. I don't know, this new-fangled metric system just makes life far too difficult. You have nothing between a centimetre and a metre and you need something about THAT sized, about two foot long.

So life goes on.

That's not right.   I was almost a teenager when it changed over in the UK.

It's 14  pounds to the stone and 16 oz to the pound.  Except when it's fluid ounces, 20 fl oz to the pint.   

And you missed out guineas for the dosh.

As for cups....obviously filling a cup with kidney beans gives a different result to filling it with say, flour. Totally nuts (which is a different size again)! 

I've been here for years and I've gone metric but I'm still snookered when it comes to hearing stuff quoted pricewise in deca-grams.  And don't  get me started on Hungarian land area in "nols" (or whatever it's called...).

fluffy2560 wrote:

Many instances of lost money because of the confusion.

Mostly NASA. Had they stuck to Imperial there would not have been a problem.

It is still quite amazing though to look at the moon and think, wow, we went there and then gave it up and never went again. To think, people walked on that beautiful thing up in the sky, wow, that is just amazing in every degree. We made Concorde, the US went to the moon. what happened to that sixties ambition, why are we so straightlaced now? Concorde will never fly again, I have been on the one at duxford aerodrome the test one and I have also flown the Concorde simulator at BAE Filton which is incredibly crude, literally you have a load of wires and pulleys with a camera on them to do you the view from the cockpit and you literally fly a little plane on wires etc i.e. the simlator does it is incredibly crude. Yet we did it, and got that bastard up and flying. We had ambition then, you could have breakfast in london, lunch in new york, and your luggage in bermuda. We will never be able to do that again. And we will never go to the moon again. Perhaps the Chinese will. What happened to all our ambition, grand projects? Some time in the nineties we got humble and decided we are not the only creatures on the planet and we should cut our cloth according to our means. But that was throwing away the baby with the bathwater, we lost, every human on the planet, all of our ambition too. There aren't enough  big ,wars ()thank God) to spur a decent investment into space stuff , stbut there are things that we can do down on Earth that are so fucking easy to do. Malaria is nearly eradicated in Africa thanks to your buying Microsoft Windows, and we are so nearly there. We managed it with polio and smallpox, and it will fail because no Churchill or Roosevelt will stand up and eradicate it. We are so nearly there, and yet governments, the people we pay our taxes to to look after us, cannot be bothered to eradicate that disease once for all. The scientists know how to do it, the people on the ground know how to do it, all it needs is a bit of our money to do it. Not a penny in the pot, that won't help, it needs government money. And that won't happen.

I really wonder what the government, any government, thinks what it is for. I know what it says it is for, to serve the people. I wonder what it really thinks. There is an obvious trite answer to that but I don't believe people are evil. How can they not see what is in front of their nose?

Sad, really.

fluffy2560 wrote:

And you missed out guineas for the dosh.

Only lawyers, used-car dealers and prostitutes get paid in guineas. You can rank them in your own order of dislike. I quite like prostitutes, I have known many, not to fuck them of course, but have lived in some seedy areas and hallo Sal are you all right tonight? Give us a fag Si cos I'm going spare. all right, do you fancy a cup of coffee? Yeah it's a bit slow if you don't mind. No problem how you doing, blimey slow tonight it is. All right well take the weight off your pins chocolate digestive is it? Yes my favourite. Milk and two? Lovely.

My solicitor has a big habit of asking about cryptic crosswords, since I tend to have one on hand while I am waiting around.  "Did you get 14 down in the Times" yes I think so what was the clue again? 'Child's dad was famous cartoonist', twelve letters. Oh, yes, that's Bairnsfather, he drew cartoons in world war 1 and 2 for the evening standard, mentioned in Orwell. OK I put that in now six across... well mr hellewell I did actually come here to discuss this exchange of property, yes yes of course but six across four letters an island according to Donne. OMAN, Barry. No man is an island. Oh thank you. Right, this property.... (tick tick tick goes the meter at fifty guineas an hour)... did you see yesterday's bellylaugh six and nine it goes around connecting stories together? Yes Barry, Mr Hellewell, spiral staircase. Now can we get on...

SimonTrew wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

And you missed out guineas for the dosh.

Only lawyers, used-car dealers and prostitutes get paid in guineas. ....... (tick tick tick goes the meter at fifty guineas an hour)... did you see yesterday's bellylaugh six and nine it goes around connecting stories together? Yes Barry, Mr Hellewell, spiral staircase. Now can we get on...

Having run several businesses, I will not sit around chewing the cud with accountants, barristers and lawyers. 50 guineas an hour is cheap.  Last time I had a lawyer on a specific job, it was £250 an hour. I always said if I was in that position again I'd just get in an in house counsel or fixed price retainer.

Getting invited to lunch by the accountants and then getting billed X hours for it was the last straw.  6 minute intervals my ass.   Same kind of thing as prostitutes. Don't bother with the pre-dance niceties and preamble.   "Let's get straight the point...what about this, that and the "other"?".   

With those types there's no concept of foreplay.  Wham bam, thank you Mr Accountant (or insert your selected job) for that advice, there's the door,  now go forth and multiply until the next time.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Wham bam, thank you Mr Accountant

Oddly enough I had an accountant who kinda seemed to forget that I should pay him. I had a tricky year that year, and was due back about £14,000 from Her Majesty, I had all the receipts etc but was tricky to do it all on the self-assessment. (I also worked for a company down on what Fawlty would call the English Riviera, that does rules-based tax software for small accountants, so I kinda know that from the inside out). So I got in the accountant, P. G. "Tips", and he did it for me and got me back my £14,000 and some extra. I kept asking him look you need to send me a bill for your time etc so I can pay you, I asked about fortnightly for three months, but "Tips" never bothered to get back to me so he never got paid. Cobbler's children going unshod, as usual.

SimonTrew wrote:

I thought I would start a topic on what I want the UK to be like after Brexit.

Really scratching my head, how is this an expats in Hungary topic. 

Maybe better in one of the UK forums.

SimonTrew wrote:

Of course we have to get back to pounds shillings and sense.

LSS, that just wouldn't work for the Beatles.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Getting invited to lunch by the accountants and then getting billed X hours for it was the last straw.  6 minute intervals my ass.

Oh, we did better than that. I worked for a small software company that did products and services and we would do on-site "consulting", which we would bill by the decimal minute i.e. 100 minutes to the hour. So if you were there for three-quarters of an hour you would bill them 75 decimal minutes, natch. Usually their own accounts department didn't recognise decimal minutes so we would get paid an hour and a quarter (75 old-fashioned minutes) instead, at £quitealot per decimal minute.

If we were there all day we we would tend to take the customer out to lunch. And, yes, bill them for it of course.

Actually, I never liked those tricks. I would pay out of my own pocket, not my company's nor the client's company. If I was there for a day I would make sure that I drove to arrive before they opened for business, and worked until close of play, the travelling - sometimes a couple of hundred  miles  each way - was on my own time not theirs, they're paying enough already. But other "consultants" seemed to have no morals whatsoever. (sings)Charge them for the lice, extra for the mice, three percent for looking in the mirror twice...

Am I the only person in the world who still when he is converting metric to imperial or vice versa says "that's about six foot two in real money"? At the doctors where we got registered she asked my height of course I said about five foot ten. Oh have you got a bit of scrap paper call it 30cm right carry the two, er about 172 centimetres. And your weight? Oh about eleven stone. Er, fourteen pounds to a stone so that is this in pounds, then divide it by 2 and take off a tenth, oh I think that is about 75 kilos.

I have absolutely no idea of what my height, or shoe size is in metric.  Hat is six and seven-eights, no idea what that is in metric. Yes I can do the conversions but I dunno I always just get second-hand (second-foot?) shoes from Hada where they all come from Britain anyway, so makes life easier. Britain has never really got round to doing the metric thing properly, and that is fine I kinda have parallel systems of units which I understand both of them, but converting between them kinda makes  them seem very "artificial", I don't know how to put it, that they become kinda unreal numbers because I just use metric/SI all the time for work, and imperial at home and never the twain shall meet.

Dekagrams and decilitres does seem peculiarly Hungarian, you don';t see it so much in other European countries, although you don't see it as often in Hungary as you used to, either. When I first lived in Hungary I spent a long time wondering what this measurement unit was, "db". The forint dropped one day that I realised it means "each" (darab).

klsallee wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

I thought I would start a topic on what I want the UK to be like after Brexit.

Really scratching my head, how is this an expats in Hungary topic. 

Maybe better in one of the UK forums.

Could be an idea to change the direction of the thread. 

Personally I think I'd like to know if any one has any definitive knowledge of the government or EU policy in HU post-Brexit either for the UK contingent here or for the HU people there.

I am getting used to using kilos and cm but at times I go blank and can't figure it out.
I know I enjoy 3 deci of wine...
Let's see, my metric shoe size is 39. Height 175 cm, weight , well, used to be a steady 54 kilos but lately it's around 57.
Hat size, no idea, I'd say "Pin head" have a small head , full of air mostly.
I hate business scams that charge a client for lunch when it was their idea to go eat.
That's just rude.
I even had a hard time selling good quality beauty products to clients when I worked in salons.
People would come into a budget salon for a cut and then a bottle of shampoo to go cost twice as much as the cut.
I owned my own salon for a short time, business was slow due to being a  bad location.
I would sometimes make rent by just the selling of products, usually there is a 50% mark up on products.
I worked in a family style salon in New Mexico, was close to home and the hours were good, just a casual salon that sold high end products.
We got a call from corp. to be on the lookout for a "product scammer".
Some women would go into different salons in NM and buy hundreds of dollars worth of products daily from different salons.
She would then remove the product and fill the bottles up with cheaper products and then try to return the bottles for cash.
What a low life, she was taking out the product and reselling to friends etc. and trying to make the salons eat the loss.
She was caught, what a dumb scam anyway.
Some people could of really used these products for their hair, tea tree shampoos etc. do work for skin and scalp issues. Other products are a waste of money, can by knock off brands that work about as good or even better in some cases.
I used to hate trying to sell to a person I knew really couldn't afford it. Some stylists made allot of extra money on their paychecks just by selling products, not me, never had the heart to push them.
I would of made a terrible salesperson. if not for actually doing the hair and getting tips for my work,I would of gone broke if my only income was selling products.
I'm not even sure why I was able to sell so many products when I had my salon, I slightly under charged compared to other salons but not by much. Can't "break the code" and mess up the industry, you almost have to sell for the going rates or you could be cut off from suppliers.

klsallee wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

I thought I would start a topic on what I want the UK to be like after Brexit.

Really scratching my head, how is this an expats in Hungary topic. 

Maybe better in one of the UK forums.

Maybe, maybe not. That would be presumably what immigrants in the UK think of Brexit, which is not what I wanted at all. Most British expats in Hungary have a right to vote if they bothered to use it (I voted 'Leave', by the way). The way these topics tend to drift is we will end up talking about where you can get the best mature cheddar cheese (Aldi at the moment; Lidl was better last year but Aldi's this year takes the fillings out of your teeth it is lovely) and stuff like that anyway. I realise that not everyone in the Hungary forum is British. That is why I started a new topic and not put it on the "Everything else" thread. If you don't want to contribute, nobody's forcing you to. The aim really was to say "what do you like about Hungary and are glad you moved away from?" or something like that, but hey ho. I'd assumed "Brexit" is a well-known phrase outside of just the UK community.

SimonTrew wrote:

Most British expats in Hungary have a right to vote if they bothered to use it .

Hungarian forum is about living in Hungary. IMHO, discussions about specific topics that are really about other national topics are best left to other forums. There are other forums that are all just about British expats where you may get a far better and more dynamic discussion going. 

SimonTrew wrote:

The way these topics tend to drift

Actually, they shouldn't. That is why the topic "Everything Else" is there. A place to go with things start to go off topic. Just saying. Many of us tend to drift. But, IMHO, best to resist that temptation and move to Everything Else when one starts to drift. Else it is like littering the forums. Let's stamp out litter.

SimonTrew wrote:

If you don't want to contribute, nobody's forcing you to

True. But you are missing my point with that comment. 

klsallee wrote:

Hungarian forum is about living in Hungary. IMHO, discussions about specific topics that are really about other national topics are best left to other forums. There are other forums that are all just about British expats where you may get a far better and more dynamic discussion going.

Yeah I do accept it was kinda not right for the HU forum here, I really should have put it in Everything Else. I don't really know how to move/rename a thread (if that's possible) so actually I thought deleting it was a wise choice but now others have contributed to it (drifting rather off the point, I agree) so I guess a mod reinstated it. But fair point, I'll try to put things in the right forums in future. I don't even really consider myself an "expat" in the sense that I have never been a member of those British expatriate clubs/associations etc, I don't even know where the British Embassy is (never needed to), I'm just a common-or-garden immigrant.

SimonTrew wrote:

klsallee wrote:

Hungarian forum is about living in Hungary. IMHO, discussions about specific topics that are really about other national topics are best left to other forums. There are other forums that are all just about British expats where you may get a far better and more dynamic discussion going.

Yeah I do accept it was kinda not right for the HU forum here, I really should have put it in Everything Else. I don't really know how to move/rename a thread (if that's possible) so actually I thought deleting it was a wise choice but now others have contributed to it (drifting rather off the point, I agree) so I guess a mod reinstated it. But fair point, I'll try to put things in the right forums in future. I don't even really consider myself an "expat" in the sense that I have never been a member of those British expatriate clubs/associations etc, I don't even know where the British Embassy is (never needed to), I'm just a common-or-garden immigrant.

It's possible for individuals to self-police the forums themselves and there is a way to actually stop users posting for a short time. Everyone can do that via the Report button. 

But we have no way to move topic or even rename them.  We need the moderators for that.  We work around it by cross posting between different threads. 

Reading and posting is voluntary.  No-one has to read a particular thread if they feel it's not relevant to them. On the other hand some measure of self-control is required.  I certainly do not read all the threads.  I sometimes look but I often just ignore ones I am not interested in or I have nothing to say about the subject.  But I reckon anything really is fair game and if it stretches into Hungarian connections even vaguely, then why not?

This is just my opinion and I'm not a moderator.  Only the folks back at Expat.com HQ are doing that.

I am interested in a discussion on Brexit. I would have called the thread "Brexit - how it affects the British in HU and Hungarians in UK" or something else.  Hopefully everyone would contribute something relevant.  The more the merrier.

BTW, I know where the Embassy is now.  I was looking at street view.  I think they share the building with the Dutch as the signs on the gate are in Dutch.   I never know what those people are doing in the Embassy - snooty buggers most of them.  Since they stopped issuing passports and no more kids have arrived for the past X years,  I've never had a reason to go there.

fluffy2560 wrote:

we have no way to move topic or even rename them.  We need the moderators for that.  We work around it by cross posting between different threads.

I don't know how to do that yet. I should learn the markup language better I guess, I tend to slip into Wikimedia markup language if I am not careful.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I would have called the thread "Brexit - how it affects the British in HU and Hungarians in UK"

Yes, I tend to try to get "snappy" titles but I suppose that is more descriptive.

fluffy2560 wrote:

BTW, I know where the Embassy is now.  I was looking at street view.  I think they share the building with the Dutch as the signs on the gate are in Dutch.

Oh, looking it up on the Internet is just cheating... it is far more fun with WifeNav, who was born in Budapest and hasn't quite worked out that things might have changed a bit since then. She is forever telling me to get buses or trollies whose routes no longer exist, then  "you just go past the place where the cinema used to be, and it's diagonally opposite, take the third-to-last turning on your right..."

I have a great picture I took for the M3 métropotlo, a sign at the bus-stop. It says "DROP OFF POINT. Please board the replacement bus in front of the old swimming pool on the other side of Árpád út."  Well actually it is diagonally opposite and they are demolishing the swimming pool...

I saw a nice sight the other night, about 1.30am. An (electric) shunter was hauling one of the M1 metros I presume from the depot at Méxicoi út (Erszebet Kiralné utc) to the depot at Bosnyák tér. I think they are on different electrics so presumably it couldn't haul itself. No doubt just a routine overnight cleanup or maintenance and back in service in the morning, but it was kinda nice to see it, again sometimes in the early hours (in any city) you feel that you have the whole city to yourself when everyone else is in bed.

SimonTrew wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

we have no way to move topic or even rename them.  We need the moderators for that.  We work around it by cross posting between different threads.

I don't know how to do that yet. I should learn the markup language better I guess, I tend to slip into Wikimedia markup language if I am not careful.

Just get the link for the thread, insert it into the new posting using the link button with the caption say,  "moved from here", and then cross reference  back the same way from the continuing location ("moved to here").   Be easier if we could move threads but that'd be quite a complex system to maintain if the links database gets lost and needs to be rebuilt.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Reading and posting is voluntary.  No-one has to read a particular thread if they feel it's not relevant to them.

Correct.

But forums, being Web 1.5 technology, are for asking question and getting help.

So I was mostly trying to be "helpful", if this was a serious topic, to where it may get better and more helpful replies.

Forums are not so much a chat room. But most forums have "off topic" or "general chit-chat" sections for those in the community to do so -- here we have your "Absolutely Anything Else" topic.

klsallee wrote:

....Forums are not so much a chat room. But most forums have "off topic" or "general chit-chat" sections for those in the community to do so -- here we have your "Absolutely Anything Else" topic.

I may have started it but I am not sure I "own" it as such. Anyone who writes something owns their own posts....surely?!

fluffy2560 wrote:

I may have started it but I am not sure I "own" it as such. Anyone who writes something owns their own posts....surely?!

By "your" I meant you started it.

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

I may have started it but I am not sure I "own" it as such. Anyone who writes something owns their own posts....surely?!

By "your" I meant you started it.

Bit like a fight - you started it!   Yes, I did and like Edif Piaf, "Je ne regrette rien".

I fully believe the Pound with go wildly high as money people realise what a boost Brexit is for the UK.
My wish is as above as, whilst I'm disinterested in UK politics, I do have cash over there and a crackpot high exchange rate will be a very nice plus for me.

There is a facebook regarding Brexit https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishineurope/

Useful posts in there...

Fred wrote:

I fully believe the Pound with go wildly high as money people realise what a boost Brexit is for the UK.
My wish is as above as, whilst I'm disinterested in UK politics, I do have cash over there and a crackpot high exchange rate will be a very nice plus for me.

That's a bit short term.  What about if you go back to the Mothership? 

If Sterling fell, we'd have an export boom and it'd be dead cheap to visit.

I am concerned about maybe having to get a visa everytime I fly back to Hungary.
I amm  also a bit worried about losing some rights and being discriminated against.
For example will we still get free public transport and museum entry once we are retired?
Once I really thought I would retire here but health care is currently far more available to me in the uk.

anns wrote:

I am concerned about maybe having to get a visa everytime I fly back to Hungary.
I amm  also a bit worried about losing some rights and being discriminated against.
For example will we still get free public transport and museum entry once we are retired?
Once I really thought I would retire here but health care is currently far more available to me in the uk.

I agree.  We could find ourselves caught out with a lot of these things.

I was hoping for some benefits but I expect we'll get nowt. 

My relatives do get travel insurance when they travel here but they also have their EHICs.    I suppose they won't work any more.

I suspect UK citizens won't need visas but maybe, UK people will only get 30 day stamps in their passports.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Fred wrote:

I fully believe the Pound with go wildly high as money people realise what a boost Brexit is for the UK.
My wish is as above as, whilst I'm disinterested in UK politics, I do have cash over there and a crackpot high exchange rate will be a very nice plus for me.

That's a bit short term.  What about if you go back to the Mothership? 

If Sterling fell, we'd have an export boom and it'd be dead cheap to visit.

That's true, but my only interest is sitting in a UK bank and that would be boosted in a large way if the Pound went crazy high.
Selfish? Big style

Fred wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

Fred wrote:

I fully believe the Pound with go wildly high as money people realise what a boost Brexit is for the UK.
My wish is as above as, whilst I'm disinterested in UK politics, I do have cash over there and a crackpot high exchange rate will be a very nice plus for me.

That's a bit short term.  What about if you go back to the Mothership? 

If Sterling fell, we'd have an export boom and it'd be dead cheap to visit.

That's true, but my only interest is sitting in a UK bank and that would be boosted in a large way if the Pound went crazy high.
Selfish? Big style

If you are looking to spend elsewhere, then sure. Swings and roundabouts.

They are always thinking about changing the free transport for seniors here, the ages to apply keep going up.
Very soon one has to go into SS here in Hungary and get a special travel card, this is for citizens of Hungary only so no idea how it will go down for others.
The cards were suppose to already be issued but things work slowly and so far a local ID is working but one has to be either 65 or 66.
Not sure about people without a local ID card.
The age requirements keep going up, maybe they are hoping we drop before we use the system.
Not a big deal either way for us "rich" foreigners.
It was never set up in the first place to help us but to aid those HU citizens who are dependent on gov. programs.
BKK is a  business so whatever they have going on with the gov. to provide passes for seniors is up to them. They are always looking to save money and cut programs.
I personally think they deserve it more then I do. What have I ever done for HUngary in my lifetime? Not much unless taking care of 2 of it's citizens most of my life counts .
Mostly I have gained by living here overall.
Some retirees get so little every month, I think they are the people who should be helped first.
Never even knew they offered such a thing when we thought of moving here, not my main  MO to ride the rails for free.
Don't ride the bus in the US and really dislike doing it here too.
Only use it if the weather is too cold or too hot to be on the streets walking.
Long trips a car is better for us.
Health care here is still affordable even if you are not on national health.
Of course I am used to paying at least $98. to see a doctor in walk in clinic in the US, sitting and waiting to get in and then paying for any meds on top of it.
No free rides in the US figuratively or literally.
Getting to be the same here in Hungary.
Not a big deal to buy a monthly pass to travel, just rather hoof it as long as I am able to walk on my own.
Carry tickets with me for the odd time I don't feel like walking.
My sister in the US just broke a tooth, she is looking at between $1,300 to $2,500 just to fix one tooth.
They have no special care in the US for seniors,fixed income doesn't matter same price to everyone.
At least here in Hungary they try to help their low income seniors.
They have places all over the city that give free meals daily and even do home delivery to low income people who can't get out.
10% off meds for seniors and nurses will come in to your home if you are a shut in all included in the national health.
No such thing in the US, you  only get part A for free but they take out every month for part B if you want better coverage then it's pay for parts C and D. A small fortune for most people.
They do not cover any dental either.
I think for a small country Hungary at least tries.

One more thing, besides changes to the free travel coming soon with needing a card from the HU SS offices it is already impossible to get many senior discounts unless you have another special card, not a special travel care but a card from the HU SS offices stating you are retired from Hungary and only from Hungary to get this card. This is needed to enter furdos and attend senior events as free Danube party boats they have with food included etc. Many events for seniors who have the card showing they retired from working a min. of 15 years in Hungary. This card is used to enter many spas at discount to seniors only .
This is not new as been that way for a long time. Totally not related to the travel pass card.
So even if your 100 and have not put in at least 15 years into the HU SS program you do not qualify  for many freebies here.
My husband put in only 9 hard years but no  furdo card for him either.
Once you read the fine print in Hungarian you find out that nothing really is free here afterall.

Long story short,
Slowly it appears that most of these senior free programs are only for people who have paid into Hungarian SS for a min. of 15 years.

Those of us married to citizens may qualify for some things but it requires going into the SS office and seeing if you can get them or not.
If we qualify at all we must meet age requirements and be a dependant of someone who has put in 15 or more years of work in HU.
The "good stuff" for free after age 65 or 66 is only for those who have paid into the system for at least 15 years in Hungary, no other country.
By good stuff, I mean super discounts for strands, free bus trips to package deals, hotels and events for seniors, free boat trips on the Danube with music and food.
Most of these special events also have limited space so one has to sign up early and keep up on what is going on month by month.
The travel pass is a different program.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

.....
My sister in the US just broke a tooth, she is looking at between $1,300 to $2,500 just to fix one tooth.
....

Might be easier just to do a dental holiday here, fly in and out.  People are doing that a lot.

I just had a root canal (yesterday), two X-rays and etc etc and it was about 40K HUF.

Implants and associated work are around the  150-250K per tooth.

Much cheaper than the UK and definitely cheaper than the USA.

fluffy2560 wrote:

If you are looking to spend elsewhere, then sure. Swings and roundabouts.

Dude, I've just got rid of my house in the UK so the bank account is looking fat at the moment.
If the exchange rate goes to silly and a bit, the chunk in my local bank will be bigger than it otherwise would have been,
As I'm pretty sure the people that matter will see how strong the UK will be without the EU millstone around its neck, I fully expect to be in the money.

My wish is to have a bigger sack of cash.

Fred wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

If you are looking to spend elsewhere, then sure. Swings and roundabouts.

Dude, I've just got rid of my house in the UK so the bank account is looking fat at the moment.
If the exchange rate goes to silly and a bit, the chunk in my local bank will be bigger than it otherwise would have been,
As I'm pretty sure the people that matter will see how strong the UK will be without the EU millstone around its neck, I fully expect to be in the money.

My wish is to have a bigger sack of cash.

Not really a HU topic thing but the usual thing is to:

1/3 cash (Premium Bonds OK as redeemable and always a chance of the £1M)

1/3 property (house or land)

1/3 investment (for diversity, shares etc)

That's what they say anyway.

I think the EU benefits will be shorter term (<5 years) but in the "stabilisation phase", I reckon there will be an upswing but probably unsustainable in the long term unless the UK can get its act together and becomes Switzerland.  Knowing how much the UK government messes up stuff with regularity, I doubt that'll happen.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

.....
My sister in the US just broke a tooth, she is looking at between $1,300 to $2,500 just to fix one tooth.
....

Might be easier just to do a dental holiday here, fly in and out.  People are doing that a lot.

I just had a root canal (yesterday), two X-rays and etc etc and it was about 40K HUF.

Implants and associated work are around the  150-250K per tooth.

Much cheaper than the UK and definitely cheaper than the USA.

Yes, that was my first thought, I have invited  her here many times.




Open invite to all my family , anytime.
I mentioned her coming again just a few days back .
We know a couple of dentists here that could see her private and perhaps do more work then just the one broken tooth for less then a ticket here would cost.
Issue is like so many people with "property" and "pets' who is going to take care of them while she is gone?
She has friends but her pets are so darn spoiled they only like their own home and her friend would wish to take them to her place.
Boarding the "brats" is out of the question.
Think she will look into dental schools in Minn. First or just pull out the old credit card once again...
No one in my family seems very interested in coming to Hungary to visit.
My cousin did twice and my other cousins daughter was here last summer but only because her air ticket stopped here first before going to Italy.
They have a big connection to Italy, they are half Italian, speak Italian and their father was born there and they have always had contact with that side of the family.
They are from N. Italy, very blonde and light eyed Italians.

Speaking of rip off doctors... About 15 years back my husband and I both got a bad case of the flu in Vegas. 
We both had to get well quick because of work, we both worked with the public and couldn't take too many days off of work, they don't like it when you call in sick in the US. Have to get a doctors note if you miss more then a day or so.
So we go to a walk-in clinic for $98. each just for the office visit, pay up front before being called in.
Our son had gone to the same clinic in the past and they had a file on all of us.
So the doctor starts to go over my chart is reading and asking questions for a couple of mins. then he starts to swear out loud.
The nurse had given him my sons chart and not mine. Big difference between a 27 year old man and a
48
year old women, or maybe not so?
Lost all faith in doctors after that, plus we walked out with a grand total paid to the clinic of $365. with out meds! They gave us each a shot of something plus a script which was
another $40. some bucks.
Hope your tooth feels better now, at least your wallet doesn't hurt too much.
Really one can't afford to get ill in the US.