Editor,

I am replying to the letter from Eric S. Chonburi in January regarding UK non-residence, sorry for the delay but I have been out of the UK.

I will try to explain as best as I can, but it can be a bit hard to interpret the tax system and relay it in layman’s English.

The Inland Revenue’s looks at your last 4 tax years to calculate the amount of time you have spent in the UK.

(a) In your example you state that you have been out of the UK for 6 years. If you went back to the UK for up to 183 days in this tax year, the IR would look at the previous 3 tax years and as long as you did not stay longer than 91 days in any of those tax years and the average for all four tax years was less than 4 x 91 days there would be no problem.

(b) Looking forward, presuming you had been back for up to 183 days in the tax year of 2000-2001, you would have to average less than 4 x 91 days in that year and the next 3 tax years. Then you could spend 183 days in the UK again, etc.

With regards to the more fundamental question of how the IR know if you are in the UK and when to start the clock: it is up to you to log down for yourself when you are in the UK.

I work for myself and am an employee of a company, the company has given me my P45 and has filled in form P85, this helps to show that I am not working here and left the country. You should be able to provide some sort of proof that you have left the UK, passport, visa statements, etc., if you can’t...?

It is highly unlikely in any event that you will be asked to provide anything to the IR.

The IR will not investigate your claim to be a non-resident unless they think something is fishy or are given a reason to. If they do investigate, your passport should show you entering other non EU countries. To try to see if you were in the UK, they can look at your bank statements to see if you have done any transactions in the UK, they can look at your visa transactions to see where you were, etc.

Dear Editor,

On behalf of hundreds of tourists I have to take care of I only can say all of them look forward to this “Gay” Parade. Everybody loves parades of what kind so ever!

Be it the fruit-parade at Chantaburi, the wax castle parade at Ubon or the Songkran parades all over the country, just to mention a few.

What is wrong with a gay parade? Did the many people opposed to it and writing absurd letters in your honourable newspaper ever looked in a dictionary to find out what gay actually means? Funny, full of joy, well feeling - oh, so many descriptions. This word was used for homosexuals because they are exactly this. And now these people which bring so much colour in the boring lives of heteros organise a parade which, as we have seen worldwide, is beloved by the whole population, be it straights, lesbians, gays or whatsoever else.

It is beautiful to see the colours of their dresses, the make-up, the joy they have and give to us; they let us join at least for a parade once a year. We should be very, very thankful.

All persons opposed should visit Boyz Town first and write a letter later. This place in Pattaya is one of the few where men/woman can go and not be disturbed by animation of all kind as at girlie places.

Unfortunately none of the writers ever has been there and that’s why they have an absolutely wrong view of the wonderful gay people - or maybe because they themselves cannot be gay...

Let’s have fun, fun, fun! And such a parade is much better than a “hooligan” festival from 12 to 19 04 2001 (except the also most stunning parade) which does certainly not draw tourists to the city but keeps them away for 7 days.

Dear Sir,

Whilst reading the many letters regarding traffic flow in and around Pattaya City, I wondered if anybody had previously considered the idea of marking areas at the end of each Soi and other dedicated areas where motorcycles must park.

The amount of parking spaces taken up by mopeds and the like is most frustrating, whilst it would not eliminate the traffic problem it may help the issue somewhat.

Regards,

Sir,

Have I been making and enjoying ‘Mailbag’ contributions under a misapprehension. Isn’t it a forum where views on matters concerning Pattaya may be aired? Just what is it that ‘One who can’t believe it’ can’t believe? That people do in fact have views and choose to air them in a perfectly appropriate place? In a hysterical knee-jerk reaction to fair criticism he brands anyone who supports any sort of festival other than a gay one homophobic? Isn’t that typical of the willy-nilly and oft misplaced use of the word? Are the many critics (including gays) of the forthcoming Songkran hydrophobic? Of course not and to suggest such would be plain stupid.

The anti gay festival letters I’ve seen do not in fact appear to take a homophobic line but merely profess an opinion that a festival dedicated to a sexual state can’t be good for the image of a place with Pattaya’s reputation. Isn’t it people like ‘John’ who perpetrate a homo versus hetero issue? I’d hazard a guess that one would be hard-pushed to find even a small number of people, gay or straight, never mind ‘millions’ who actually think that a male fancying a younger female is anything other than very, very normal and comparing it to homosexuality is nothing short of wishful thinking.

Given the self-contradiction in his letter I can’t believe many will find his attempted psychoanalysis of myself and ‘Rory’ very convincing either. It’s a fair bet John applies his theory that we ‘fear’ homosexuality to anyone who rejects the state for themselves. ‘Denial’ of course is a usual recourse to perceived criticism and in this instance is being practiced by him refusing to concede his sexuality is somewhat at odds with the natural order of things. What is homophobic’s correlation and for people reject heterosexuality as normal anyway?

The ‘tags’ applied by Rory and myself were not put forward in a critical way and I suggest were no more than fair comment unlike John’s ridiculous lumping into the same category of all Pattaya ex-pats. He clearly didn’t absorb Rory’s comments either. As this contributor’s letter correctly pointed out there are no anti-gay laws or movement in this fair land so why should gays here have the burden John refers to?

The gay festival matter is a local one so isn’t John using the attitude of “the majority of the world’s inhabitants” as just something to crow about? Is he actually surprised that some of his kind wanting to scream, prance about and proclaim their sexuality to all and sundry is attracting a backlash of adverse comment, becoming far more vehement outside Mailbag’s pages than inside I can say with a degree of confidence?

A ‘celebration’ by gays attempting to relieve themselves of the burden of homophobia might be far more suited to places where it is itself celebrated. Isn’t it the truth that like the female of the species many gays just hate to be ignored and yes ‘One who can’t believe it’, resistance does attract attention and as does holding a gay festival.

Don’t the letters on the subject indicate that by being desirous of flaunting their state of being, gays might well be shooting themselves in the foot by propagating an anti movement which until the idea of a gay festival was canvassed was largely non-existent here. Very well done!