Dogmatix

Public hanging and flogging and deportation to the colonies. That should bring law and order back to merry England.

"Thailand is gearing up to dangle a glittering economic carrot". With this effusive imagery about dangling glittering carrots the AI program seems to be stuck on the settings for its last assignment which may have been to write the screenplay for a porno movie. No specifics about these glittering carrots. So we are none the wiser about what the government has announced.

The proper way to resolve this is not to harass pensioners who are being defrauded of their pension increments by the British government. despite having made NIC contributions their entire working lives, but to pay the increments to everyone regardless of residence. There is no justification for paying increments to someone in the Philippines but not to someone in Thailand or paying someone in the US but not someone in Canada. My brother lives in the US and gets the full UK triple lock, having continued to pay in voluntarily after leaving the UK, and US social security and medicare.

Yes; Your 30 million baht investment is all gone once your 30 year expires. It's not really an investment, it is paying rent for 30 years up front. In addition, if the land owner dies or sells the land, the new owner is not bound by the lease because it is a contract between two parties and not automatically binding on new owners. It might say that it is in the agreement and it might also say you have an option to renew but the Land Department is not empowered to enforce anything but the basic Land Code provisions and what is registered at the Land Dept and written on the title deed. The Land Dept is not allowed to register the lease agreement or any details over and above the provisions of the Land Code. This all means that you cannot go to court and get the Land Dept to enforce provisions like registering a new lease for you, based on an option to renew or bind a new owner to the terms of the lease agreement. What you can do, is sue in the civil court for financial damage caused by the other party reneging on the lease agreement. So you have to present evidence of the financial damage, e.g. the cost of new lease. However, if the land owner is dead or is a company that is bankrupt or dissolved, it will be difficult to sue. Basically lease law needs to evolve a lot more before it is an attractive alternative to freehold, not just extend the time period allowed. However, their are loads of farangs who have chucked away their money signing 30 year leases. I know someone who bought the family home, a nice condo right in the CBD with about 25 years to run on a 30 year lease on the basis that the owner, a prominent institution in Thailand, had given verbal assurances that the leases could be renewed for another 30 years. The units were sold at auction and the sellers came up with that tall story . Friends advised not to buy or accept that it would not be renewable. Anyway the long and the short is that the lease expires next year he is now looking for a new family home.

Makes sense. Saves a lot of trouble and expense. Thailand's prisons are overcrowded enough. I think the crime is quite minor in Thailand anyway - exporting a legal substance without an export license.

I think a German court might have been more lenient on the smuggling charge because possession of certain amounts is now legal there. He should have taken a direct flight to Frankfurt. I guess the Thai authorities don't want to bust these guys for illegal exports because it is still export business for them nonetheless.

555. That's right. The motorcyclist was a hero for being clipped by the truck, even though he probably would have scooted off pronto, if he knew he was dealing with a huge truck bomb. I don't remember any consequences for the plods who were too lazy to inspect the contents or the truck that had been abandoned in suspicious circumstances by a Middle Easterner and left it for days with the potential to blow up and the whole cop shop plus some surrounding buildings, including the Israeli embassy. A few years later there was an incident where Iranians who had set up a bomb factory in a house in Ekkamai on behalf of their government had a shoot out with police. I think someone had reported them as acting suspiciously in that house. One of them tossed a home made bomb at police and instead of harming police blew off his own private parts. The Thai police managed to arrest a few of them on that occasion but the government decided to exchange them for trade benefits with Iran after short spells in prison. Thai police and government performance have been very comforting for Israelis on both occasions.

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Israelis should have full confidence in the Thai plods ability and willingness to protect them from any dastardly plots from nefarious Middle Eastern characters. Some years back there was a plot to blow up the Israeli embassy in Bangkok. Some malefactors rented a house in the suburbs of Bangkok and prepared to make a huge truck bomb using a large metal tank on the back of a pick-up truck. A large quantity of liquid bomb making chemical was ordered and the plotters took the precaution of murdering the delivery man, who was probably suspicious when he saw the order was from a group of Middle Easterners with no obvious commercial use for it, and dumped his body in the tank, so the evidence would be blown to smithereens. Once the bomb had been prepared and armed one of the plotters was tasked with driving it into town to look for a convenient spot to park it in close vicinity to the embassy. He decided to stop off in Central Department Store, Ploenchit on the way. But, as luck would have it, he collided with a motor bike taxi as he was exiting the car park onto Chidlom. Some minor damage was done to the bike's paintwork and within seconds a crowd of motor cycle taxi drivers surrounded the truck demanding compensation. The driver apparently panicked and said he would go to an ATM to get cash to pay for the damage but ran off, leaving the truck blocking the exit and never came back. The plods were called and drove the truck bomb to Lumpini Police Station and parked it not far from where the Israeli embassy was at that time. They didn't bother to inspect the truck or its contents but just waited for the driver to come back with a wad of cash to reclaim the truck. After 10 days still no one came and someone complained there was foul stench coming from the truck. So the plods finally decided to investigate it and discovered the body of the hapless delivery man inside a huge truck bomb they had parked outside their own cop shop and within possible striking distance of the Israeli embassy. All the plotters had by this time fled the country and no one was ever arrested.

No satisfied with legally selling weed, he sells illegal substances and brings weed shops into disrepute. What an idiot.

They are pumping raw sewage into the sea. So why not?

The Firearms Act doesn't say you have to be Thai and, until only 3 or 4 years ago, it was quite easy for foreigners living in Bangkok to get permits for guns, if they had PR or at least a WP. As a PR I got 5 going way back without any difficult questions asked. There are still many foreigners with legally owned guns, quite apart from the embassy guards and DEA and other foreign agency types on secondment. It all got very difficult after the Paragon incident, even thought that was nothing to do with legally owned guns. Now it is virtually impossible for anyone with anything about them that the racists in the gun licensing office consider foreign. Thai includes Thai look krung and naturalised Thais.

It's possible. I think the Astra 5.35 25A went out of production in the late 60s. So perhaps he bought it here new and has had it ever since. But I couldn't see a Thai serial number on it and the writing on the slide is wrong for the original Spanish made Astras. Might even be a blank gun.

I remember Patong in the early 80s when there were just a few friendly bars along dirt streets and duck walks were put down in the rainy season to avoid the mud. I went back 10 years ago and found it was totally unrecognisable - a totally hideous and nightmarish place.

Another idea might be to use it for collateral with a gold shop or someone and let them foreclose and deal with it themselves.