bannork

Radio Luxembourg, late 60s, early 70s, played wonderful music. Imprisoned at boarding school, we would listen at night in our dormitories on tiny radios with earphones, beneath the covers to avoid detection by the patrolling prefects. One night Radio Luxembourg played the whole Abbey Road album with Ringo talking between the tracks. Magic.

Not only in the party list, MF won some constituencies in Chiang Mai, Issan and around Bangkok, ie Samut Prakan and Chonburi, previously dominated by local clans. If PT side with the dinosaurs, their future will be the same.

Still makes me feel good.

A conscience.

Banyat was briefly a leader of the Democrats when they lost heavily to PT back before Aphisit's tenure To correct this article, all they have to do is substitute the words Democrat Party for Pheua Thai

The heart of rock imo. Chords and rhythm to get the feet tapping and the head nodding in agreement. Then there's a wonderful tune with superb lead guitar accompaniment. This is the tops folks.

Doing some gardening and decided to put on Echoes to encourage seed growth. What can I say? Far out, tremendous. Gilmour in top form

The deal could be PT plus the parties in the last government on the condition they let Thaksin come home and play Lego with his grandchildren. Outrage of course from MF but ultimately what could they do? A general strike would only lead to another coup. But then in the next election PT would be deservedly further decimated, the senators gone and MF could hopefully have an absolute majority

And the Shinawatras lost some seats in Chiang Mai, their stronghold. Excellent news. The clans can't take anything for granted anymore

The best piece of advice for MF

He's a workaholic, money was not his motivation, running a ministry was.

It's a new dawn, as Grace Slick once remarked. MF won every seat in Bangkok. Even with all their guns and legal manoeuvres , I'm not sure the old guard could pull off denying MF a chance at government.

Sad to see him go. One of the hardest working and experienced politicians in Thailand. Clean as well, he lives modestly. Imo his ambition and The Democrats' inability to see and act accordingly to the winds of change proved their downfall. For a party that contains many intelligent people, it bewilders me they failed to see the rise of FF as a sign of the times. Jurin voted for Prayuth to be PM because he wanted to be a Minister again but that signalled the death of the party. The royalists would stick with the diehards, Prayuth and Pravit, the reformists would go to MF. Amazing Jurin couldn't see this

I think Professor Thitinan got it right. PT focused on their populist policies as usual whilst MF stressed real institutional reform. FF and MF didn't come about because of Thaksin. Educated and politically active Thais saw there was simply no party interested in real reform in Thailand. Hence their creations, breaking on through to the other side.

Jim, your man in the sand could still come home if PT team up with Bhumjai Thai and all the other conservative losers. Of course this would infuriate the entire middle and working class Thais who want reform in Thailand. This is a test for PT. Do they genuinely want to change Thailand or will they stick to the fading brand of Thaksin? I can't see your hero coming back by July, by the way. PT are the only party that want him back and they fell far short of the landslide they wanted. Thaksin is 'out here on the perimeter (where ) there are no stars.'

Saw them at Bardney Festival in 72. Terrible weather but their sheer exuberance won the audience over

Tremendous stuff, Tippers. Thanks for that.

Even Ubon Joe couldn't answer that question. But if there is anything beautiful beyond, he would surely have got permanent residency with his extraordinary number of helpful posts. Great rain, eh, Owl

'Forward he cried from the rear' Ah Roger, wish you were here

Been raining cats and dogs in Ban Dung for the last couple of hours

I read somewhere that F-16s require longer airfields than Ukraine currently has, and if built they would become an obvious target for the Russians

Great news if true https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65529511

Truly sad news for so many of us. As with voices on the radio in the past, prior the internet, where I would conjure up a picture of the speaker from his / her voice, so I imagined Ubon Joe, but from his proficient and prompt, to the point, and knowledgeable replies . His sheer volume of responses conjured up someone in his 40s to me. A person with experience but still full of energy. In fact he was much older, altruistic to the end.