Selling off the UK rail franchise has been a disaster

[walrus]

Off topic but I took a train in China from a small city to Beijing. It was a 19hr trip. The train had those sleeping cars, looked like our trains I see in the movies from the fifties. Dinner service to your room.

Bet it was cheap as chips to ride on it.

Cheap as chips, good one. Yes, with the western conversion you don’t need much money to live like a king in China as long as you are not scared to leave the spots that cater to westerners. Master if u are looking for real cheap living I can recommend a few spots in Afghanistan

[Master]

Off topic but I took a train in China from a small city to Beijing. It was a 19hr trip. The train had those sleeping cars, looked like our trains I see in the movies from the fifties. Dinner service to your room.

Bet it was cheap as chips to ride on it.

Cheap as chips, good one. Yes, with the western conversion you don’t need much money to live like a king in China as long as you are not scared to leave the spots that cater to westerners. Master if u are looking for real cheap living I can recommend a few spots in Afghanistan

I have my backup place. India. 29p for a haircut and that is with a tip.

[Gandalf]

Ironically foreigners cannot buy property in India which is kind of unfair considering how many Indians own property in the UK. I have thought about retreating to somewhere cheap and reclusive, but it's temp contracts, restrictions and uncertainty. Impossible to do a Robinson Crusoe anymore.

[Master]

Ironically foreigners cannot buy property in India which is kind of unfair considering how many Indians own property in the UK. I have thought about retreating to somewhere cheap and reclusive, but it's temp contracts, restrictions and uncertainty. Impossible to do a Robinson Crusoe anymore.

I think you can cheat that law by paying someone to use their name.

In Saudi Arabia I think it is the same?

[Gandalf]

It's hardly comparable though Master. Don't be an apologist for unfair policies towards countries full of white people. Walrus cannot build his church in Saudi Arabia and I cannot buy a house in India. Yet millions of Indians and Middle Easterns own property and exercise their religious rights in the West. Then some have the gall to say 'We don't like it. We want our own laws too'.

[Master]

It's hardly comparable though Master. Don't be an apologist for unfair policies towards countries full of white people. Walrus cannot build his church in Saudi Arabia and I cannot buy a house in India. Yet millions of Indians and Middle Easterns own property and exercise their religious rights in the West. Then some have the gall to say 'We don't like it. We want our own laws too'.

Then Trump should sort that out the church issue with Saudi Arabia when he is negotiating arms deals with their royal family.

Just because some brown people say they want their laws here, you stereotype the whole community as ungrateful. There is a word for that.

[Gandalf]

It's hardly comparable though Master. Don't be an apologist for unfair policies towards countries full of white people. Walrus cannot build his church in Saudi Arabia and I cannot buy a house in India. Yet millions of Indians and Middle Easterns own property and exercise their religious rights in the West. Then some have the gall to say 'We don't like it. We want our own laws too'.

Then Trump should sort that out the church issue with Saudi Arabia when he is negotiating arms deals with their royal family.

Just because some brown people say they want their laws here, you stereotype the whole community as ungrateful. There is a word for that.

At University we rented a home and the Indian chap was making an absolute fortune from us who had all taken on loans to pay our rental costs. Yet, I cannot go to India and behave like this. It's hardly racism, it is a home truth and a valid comparison and has nothing to do with Donald Trump. 4 bedrooms cost us something like 800 pounds a month between us and you are talking a long time ago. I cannot remember exactly, but it was a lot. Now after years of immigration property prices are beyond reach for most and to go to Uni the debt levels are much higher. It is opportunism. Even if you could buy a house in India, you couldn't make the same in rent you can in the UK. How many properties are owned by foreigners in the UK? It is one reason prices are so high. Where can a Brit buy? He can move to China and marry a Chinese person and he is not even entitled to work. He can go to India and not be allowed to buy property. Foreigners going to the UK have it made.