Dogmatix

There are far worse places she could end up in. Flying into Moscow, for example, even the immigration and customs officers can't speak or understand a word of English but hassle you in Russian nevertheless. Trying to buy a ticket at the Moscow railway station was a complete nightmare.

Nothing new. Vietnam's economy has been growing at a faster rate than Thailand's for many years already.

He may be right but who would listen to someone agitating for a casino in Thailand? Shows what kind of tourism he wants to promote. If you have ever been in casinos in Macau, Monte Carlo, Genting or Las Vegas and seen the seedy characters that are attracted to this mindless form of losing money, you know what I mean. Macau is the worst and would probably be the model for Thailand.

Perhaps Eden should have flown to Phuket without him and looked for another bloke without water damage to his passport.

Perhaps the prosecutors will do a better job than in the court of first instance where they were somehow unable to present convincing evidence to the court in what would probably have been an open and shut case, if the defendant were a mere mortal. Whether you agree with the existence of an LM law, as it stands, or not, it does exist in Thailand and, as such, should be applied equally to rich and poor.

You nailed it. It is time that Thai people were allowed to move on from this toxic family. Hopefully this will finish Thaksin and his family can just enjoy their billions in peace and not inflict themselves on public life any more.

You can argue the merits of a lese majeste law but, if there is one and it is enforced, it should be applied equally to rich and poor. The evidence in Thaksin’s case looked much more robust than many others which resulted in stiff sentences for lesser mortals and it is correct that the new Anutin appointed AG should appeal. He was caught out on the tax because he stupidly believed that Temasek would buy his offshore companies with the SHIN shares in them ( and god knows what other liabilities) deposited at Singapore with UBS Bank. Most serious investors refuse to do that and It was obvious that a government wealth fund could not do that, even though they did some dubious stuff to conceal the illegal foreign majority ownership in SHIN afterwards. Then he was forced to transfer off market at an artificial price below market price and sold to Temasek on market at the tender offer price. It is a totally clear cut tax liability and there are precedents where others had to pay tax on similar off market transactions at below market price. Thai listed shares sold off market are liable to tax and only exempt if sold through the market.

It is complete BS that this to protect Thai businesses. Thai businesses cannot make any of the stuff I import from China and no one stocks most of it here. Thai sellers have shop fronts on Lazada and Shopee and get the products drop shipped from China. So they will be affected. Since so much is bought this way, the impact will be inflationary.

No point in these regulations. The 2-5pm dry period is a revolutionary decree from a military government that seized power in a coup d'etat and it would make more sense to just repeal all such revolutionary decrees in a spirit of democracy. It had fallen into abeyance by the 1990s but the arch convict decided to revive it for reasons better known to himself.

Have they choked their way through noxious fumes through Chiang Mai's pollution season yet?

https://metro.co.uk/2025/10/22/prince-andrews-nights-dozens-floozies-uk-funded-thai-visits-24485849/ The article has a photo of Andy visiting Father Joe's orphanage in Klong Toey with the British ambassador at the time, James Hodge. It also mentioned he eschewed accommodation at the wonderful but now demolished British ambassador's residence in favour of a hotel with a disco full of hookers in the basement. I think most Bkk residents can figure out which hotel that is.

That should do the trick. Never mind about shoddy buildings collapsing after approval by corrupt officials and 60 metre sinkholes plus Chinese citizens being abducted by Immigration connected gangs to be shipped off to call centres in Burma and tourists being shot in shopping malls, blown up at the Erawan Shrine or drowned in unseaworthy tour boats.

This is all exaggerated as part of the Thaksin PR machine. He benefited from the tough steps taken by the Chuan government to get Thailand to meet all the IMF requirements which were already met when he took office and took the credit for that, stupidly repaying the loans early as a PR exercise when he could have kept the low interest rate rates to maturity and made profits for Thailand just by buying US treasuries. He benefited from the rebound from the Tom Yum Kung crisis in Thailand and the rest of Asia and from strong global growth with low inflation. He had some good ideas but they came from his dynamic advisors, not him. The Yingluck, Srettha and Ung Ing governments were disastrous for Thais. Yingluck's rice pledging scam drove Thai farmers to suicide when her government took their rice and didn't pay them for it, leaving their families with no money and nothing to eat. In the Srettha and Ung Ing governments all the dynamic advisors were long gone and he surrounded himself with elderly yes men like Phumtham and acted on his own ideas - handouts, landbridges and casinos etc, none of which moved the needle. Then there was the massive corruption from someone who came to power with more money than he and his descendants to the Nth generation could ever use in their lifetimes which freed him to do something useful for Thailand, such as reforms. Yet his only interest was in enriching himself further.

555. Thaksin was the perpetrator of a power grab that led to the unelected and farcical Srettha and Ung Ing governments that dumped the Thai economy and living standards deeper into the toilet. Good riddance to bad rubbish, including the useless Phumtham. At least we won't need to see him dressed as an elderly ice cream salesman in daily in the media any more.

There's no doubt THC and CBD can control certain types of epilepsy and can reduce inflammation and joint pain as well as deal pain caused by cancer. Medical science has made little progress on this though due to the US federal ban and bans in most Western countries. Not re-criminalising it in Thailand will help refine those uses for Thais.

There will definitely be some leniencies starting with separation from the prison population and a comfortable aircon private cell with food delivered from famous restaurants. Serving the sentence at home is not beyond the bounds of possibility. But, if criminal cases are initiated against corrupt officials relating to the 14F case, they may be more cautious this time. Thaksin has a reputation for not taking care of most of the people who do prison time for him.

No appeal. It is not a criminal case. It was just a determination of whether the sentence previously handed down had been served or not.

I feel sorry for four year old Cairo, not least because he has to grow up with such an unkind name. Four year olds need lots of TLC. I wonder if she got the huge silicon boobs on the NHS. Her mental health disabilities are otherwise know as daft as a brush.

I guess is the main thing is that is will not be recriminalized under Anutin. It's unlikely that he will give his Cannabis and Hemp Bill that was shot down by the Dems under the Prayut government another try, as he doesn't have enough votes to pass any legislation without PP which vowed to recriminalize before the 2023 election. His cannabis theme was popular with the rural votes before the 2023 election because he promised he would make farmers rich with it but, since that turned out to be BS, his cannabis policy not longer has the same popular support. I guess he may just ease up Ung Ing's regulations a little and lave it as that.

His cheques have been cashed. He's in the clear.

It's a file photograph. The same one was shown when when he returned to Thailand to "Serve" his prison sentence.

Pol Gen Somyot is a billionaire not least due to his mysterious stock trading that took place during his tenure as police chief and amazed the market. Under flimsy SEC rules that were changed soon after this period, listed companies were permitted to issue private placements of new stock at a discount to market price without offering pre-emptive rights to existing shareholders. A number of smaller, little known companies, that appeared to be floundering with share prices down in the dumps suddenly started issuing such private placements and Somyot and, I think, his daughter appeared on the new shareholder lists of a number of them. Often the companies suddenly announced good news soon after the placements and share prices soared for a while. During this time the new shareholders sold out completely. Somyot used to tell journalists that stock trading was a long term hobby of his and he possessed a good nose for an undervalued situation. Some scurrilous market hacks suggested that companies were strong armed into offering placements to Somyos and lending him money to subscribe to them but they never offered any evidence for these clearly untrue and outrageous allegations.

Tax clearance certificates for foreigners were abolished in about 1990. In those days there wasn't a huge number of farangs on retirement and marriage visas who were living in Thailand long term without working. For expat workers it was an inconvenience which prevented spur of the moment overseas trips but not insurmountable. Since they are talking about getting all foreign tax residents file tax returns, this could be hugely inconvenient for foreigners living in Thailand long term but not currently filing tax returns. Demanding certified copies of latest tax return will be no brainer for long term visa renewals and they could easily do the same as they do with WPs, i.e. set a minimum income declaration by nationality that you have tax on, regardless of whether you have that income or not.

That Lavaron guy who is proposing this is the same person who introduced the reinterpretation of the Revenue Code section on foreign remittances in 2023. It has been a total bust and they are now desperately trying to revise this disastrous rule that didn't raise the incremental taxes Lavaron promised and choked off productive capital inflows that could have generated more domestic income and taxes. Now he proposing at least another 27 million fruitless tax returns from low income earners who don't earn enough to pay tax in return for some unspecified level of handouts. Most of these people are incapable of filing a tax return and certainly cannot pay for a tax advisor to do it, if they have little or no income. They will have to go the RD and ask the ladies behind the counter to do it for them. I seriously doubt they have the manpower to do this and it is uneconomical to hire more to process fruitless tax returns. The PT government just lets the bureaucrats announce this nonsense and goes along with it, whereas bureaucrats should be implementing key tax policies, not formulating them publicly announce them, as if they are ministers. In what Western countries would we see announcements like this from the permanent secretary for finance or the head of the RD, or even know their names.

It's fair to allow visas for non-degree courses for up to three months or so but it is also fair to be quite demanding asking for evidence, if someone wants to stay longer than that learning Thai or boxing etc. If they are not of retirement age, they are likely to be supporting themselves through illegal work or criminal activities. If they have skills and qualifications that Thailand needs, let them get WPs and contribute to society by training Thais and paying taxes. If they have legit money, let them apply for LTR visas. If none of the above, why should Thailand keep fake students?