EnglishJohn

Speaking for myself, as a general rule I love Thailand, it's people and the general laid back way of life.

But I hate the corruption, especially from politicians who basically steal a very large portion of the taxpayers money instead of using it to make the country better, especially for the poor.

And by extension of that, I'm not too keen on those who support it - presumably because they think they might get to steal a little bit at some point as well.

I thought democracy was banned?

No, you are confusing it with 'Winner takes all'.

You will get another try with a different version soon. Hopefully you won't twist this one to be unrecognisable through greed and corruption.

But I am sure you will find a way.

Standard procedure in the UK : cut the prices of essentials then load it onto everything else they buy while they are in there.

Some things in Tesco are ridiculously expensive. A single blade fuse for a car is 59 baht. Even in rip-off Halfords in the UK, they are only 25 baht.

I couldn't read past the Nazi sympathizing author's propaganda.

And Suthep should be happy at his own creation.. he clamored Yingluck and the army to give them exactly what they've created.. a version of feudalism where the people get no say and having a conversation with more than 4 people at one time is reason enough for the Gestapo to be called.

Wow, thank you for giving us the distorted view of an ignorant red-shirt.

1) Yingluck had nothing to do with the coup. It was UDD terrorism murdering protestors. If they didn't there would have been no coup. Certainly ordered from Dubai as was the protest escalation in 2010.

2) The Junta are NOTHING like the Gestapo. Go read up on your history.

Did you forget the 'red villages' encouraged by Thaksin ?. Designed to encourage hate of those not of the same 'faith' ?.

Have you forgotten the intimidation thugs outside the courtrooms whenever one of their own was in there ?.

Have you forgotten the grenades and drive-by shootings of newspapers who printed anything they didn't like ?.

Thaksin and his red-shirt UDD mobs have a lot in common with Hitler and his brown shirts.

The difference is that Hitler genuinely believed he was doing it for his country and if they were stronger, they would triumph. Of course he went mad eventually as all with absolute power do.

Thaksin was doing it for personal greed and power. Not single shred of nobility or honour in his body.

"said it would only be fair for the military government to give his group permission to discuss a topic of their choosing."

Typical red-shirt logic.

How about his group join in the discussion about reforms and maybe set up something to give their own input to balance what Suthep comes up with ?.

What about Sutherp join the UDD conference on red-shirted Bulbuts to initiate reconciliation.

Because red-shirts don't want reconciliation. They want the 'elite' kicked out then all their money shared out between them.

It's called communism and it doesn't work. You end of with an 'elite' far worse than things are now.

The only way forward for Thailand is to have electoral reform to avoid another Parliament full of dirty cronies then have another shot at democracy. But it's clear red-shirts much prefer to have their votes bought.

"said it would only be fair for the military government to give his group permission to discuss a topic of their choosing."

Typical red-shirt logic.

How about his group join in the discussion about reforms and maybe set up something to give their own input to balance what Suthep comes up with ?.

Agreed but unfortunately when the Phue Thai and reds respond it usually means killings and violence.

ah, cut the BS, ... just for once, please.

No b.s the reds are the most violent of the groups, I believe up to 4 children killed by them when they went after the anti government protesters. You just have to look at the Trat massacre and how the reds on stage responded to it. It clearly shows they like and condone violence.

If they could protest peacefully and in their own backyard nobody would care about it. But no they need violence and need to protest in BKK.

you guys really can't help yourselves, can you... ?

alright, go ahead and do the math, then come back with your numbers...

Here's a tip : if you want everyone to stop thinking red-shirts are semi-literate medieval throwbacks, stop posting nonsense.

"Reds vow response to Suthep"

Just what we don't need.

True, but put yourself in their place. How can they just sit idly by while the other lot are allowed to rub their noses in it? They HAVE to react.

Agreed but unfortunately when the Phue Thai and reds respond it usually means killings and violence.

I can not see the reasoning to allow the PDRC to make this group unless the current gov is hoping for trouble. Maybe to use as an excuse to stay in power. Maybe I am wrong about this assumption and I would hope the current gov wouldn't go to such extremes. But one has to wonder.

Wouldn't you be feeling pretty damn violent under the circumstances if it were you on the receiving end of an orchestrated demonisation campaign?

Thanks for the insight. You don't even realise do you ?.

It doesn't need anyone to demonise red thugs : you can manage that perfectly well by yourself. We've all seen enough evidence for that - but I see you just blame it on someone else as always.

Nothing will happen unless someone ponies up some money for bus rides and a free party. We're all waiting for this big uprising you have been promising for months now.

So will Pheu-Thai and the red-shirts set up their own organisation and try to come up with reforms to balance those from Suthep ?

Or will they just try to intimidate others with threats and violence ?.

Stories like this remind us farang of just how backward attitudes and beliefs can be in Thailand sometimes - especially red-shirts red-necks from out in the boonies.

I can live with that as far as it goes, but the thing which amazes me the most is how sure they are that they are right. Even down to spirits in the trees.

I suppose ignorance really is bliss. They all seem happy with it.

Whatever happens in the public eye, I've noticed Cameron quickly makes big statements which he thinks the public want to hear then does precisely nothing.

Look at his immigration targets fiasco. And next is the referendum on the EU : I realise now that there will be zero chance that we can actually vote to leave. Either the question on the ballot will be ridiculous (Like "Do you vote to sever all ties with the EU') or he will keep stalling if it looks like we might vote NO.

They only won because the alternatives were too awful to even contemplate.

Send a white guy onto the streets at night in a black area and you will find out what hate crime is.

But I forgot, whites don't have the multitude of groups whose only purpose in life is to try and find events against minorities and shout about them.

People like me in the majority have no rights when it comes to racism and discrimination. Why is that acceptable ?.

I think it would be better if they sent 4 experts from Boeing instead of Malaysia !.

Do they even have 4 experts over there ?.

I hope it gives Chris Evans with his monstrous ego another lesson in humility when he starts his sycophantic suck-ups to all the famous guests on the new top-gear and it bombs.

I'm not the biggest fan of these guys, but at least they each have their own depth of character.

Good luck to them.

If North Korea started a war with a nuke, or it was certain they were going to very soon : I wonder how many minutes that country would have left to exist in it's current form.

I think even fat-face himself will appreciate that.

Iran is another kettle of fish though. When people are quite prepared to blow themselves up in large numbers because they think Allah wills it, you dealing with a very unpredictable opponent. I think this deal just buys time : all bets will be off and the deal thrown in the bin if they look like they are getting close. Hopefully by then ISIS will be exterminated like vermin and Iran will not feel so confident.

Absolutely Correct, hes Greek. Residing in England.Just like any immigrant.

I suppose that could be said about much of the royal family given their roots.

Anyway they made an immigrant the Lord High Admiral of the Navy. Something to which other immigrants can aspire (and which would probably spark some new opera by Gilbert & Sullivan if they were still around)

Queen makes Duke of Edinburgh head of the Navy as 90th birthday gift The Queen sprang a 90th birthday surprise on the Duke of Edinburgh yesterday by making him Lord High Admiral, the titular head of the Royal Navy.

Good grief, drop it will you. His point is that Britain is full of all the dross from the rest of the EU and we are fed up with it back home.

I bet everyone rushes to be the furthest away from you in the pub.

This guy stole a pensioner's money and ran away to spend it. Low life whatever anyone says.

GUILTY.

They know it, the world knows it and in the true spirit of dirty international politics, they deny it.

That way they do not have to take any responsibility for it.

Strange how all these action groups had nothing to say when the 'democratically elected government' was using terrorism to murder woman and children who were exercising their right to protest.

Obviously no money available to support that cause ...

I have no respect for any of these jokers (or anyone on this forum) who are crying foul now and kept silent during the murders.

I wonder if these people would accept the explanation that their relatives were killed because someone put them between MIB and soldiers on purpose to try and incite an uprising by the resultant bloodbath.

These people are not interested in the truth. They have been programmed by red-shirt propaganda that Abhisit and Suthep are guilty and that is the only 'justice' they will ever accept.

I wonder if any red-shirt has wondered why Chalerm made it official policy that the MIB did not exist and nobody (including the DSI) were allowed to mention or investigate them.

I'm pretty sure that the army didn't want them investigated either...

In much the same way Thaksin never wanted Abhisit or Suthep to actually appear in court either.

Absolutely right.

The end result of all of those deaths was for Thaksin to get a bargaining chip for his own amnesty.

Trouble is, that won't go down well with those 'demanding the truth'.

Should read murder not crckdown

Utter BS, the only reason the army were called in the first place was because many of the red shirts armed themselves with an array of weapons, add to that a number of affiliated persons had resorted to terrorist tactics to have their super tailored demands met.

I personally have little sympathy for those who were shot and killed, obviously the temple shootings are a different kettle of fish and I believe the families of those victims do deserve a better explanation.

And weren't many of the bereaved families also compensated handsomely already by ptp back in 2011?

Exactly what the yellow shirts did in the last protests isn't it? The difference being that the Reds could be trusted to actually hold elections in the time period given as they knew they would win them. No reason to trust the yellows would have done the same without cooking the book.

And did you not notice anybody in the last protests with guns? So if the military had come in and slaughtered the people protesting last time would you have been equally lacking in sympathy?

Wow, you have no clue what you are talking about do you ?.

The only people murdering others during the last protests were red-shirts with M79's. And the police didn't arrest a single one despite the attacks being in broad daylight and even a full face shot on CCTV. Nobody in that organisation would do such a thing without being told to from the very top. Which means it was Pheu-Thai using state sponsored terrorism against it's own people.

And to answer your question, few of us would have been upset if the Army shot those UDD terrorists who murdered the young children. You remember don't you ? : the time when the red-shirts at their free party cheered when they heard the news.

Put away your hypocrisy and grow up. Unless you can't see the truth which is staring you in the face of course. In which case I advise checking yourself into a home for the mentally challenged because life is too difficult for you.

Normally the best way to regulate the media is to have a kind of code-of-practice which draws the boundaries for what is acceptable behaviour and what isn't. In a developed society it leads to kind of regulation without directly restricting them by law and the implications on free speech which come with it.

But as ever in Thailand, the people involved have shown themselves to be as dirty and politicised as the politicians and just about everybody else. I was unaware of the extent of this until the recent protests when I got to see the truth on social media then the articles on Bangkok Post which hardly resembled it at all. Now we have constant sniping at the junta over issues where Pheu-Thai were far, far worse but never got held to account. No doubt financial punishment or grenades on gateposts would have followed if they did.

It's clear the whole industry is bought just like everything else of political importance here. How do you even begin to sort out a country where the fabric of society revolves around corruption ?.

I wonder if these people would accept the explanation that their relatives were killed because someone put them between MIB and soldiers on purpose to try and incite an uprising by the resultant bloodbath.

These people are not interested in the truth. They have been programmed by red-shirt propaganda that Abhisit and Suthep are guilty and that is the only 'justice' they will ever accept.

I wonder if any red-shirt has wondered why Chalerm made it official policy that the MIB did not exist and nobody (including the DSI) were allowed to mention or investigate them.

I'm pretty sure that the army didn't want them investigated either...

Well, as long as you are sure, it must be true.

I can't argue against evidence like that.

The PM says he will respect the report however I see a lot of BUT's coming as in :

BUT we are doing out best

BUT the US doesn't understand

BUT everybody else does it and we get punished, and on and on.

The PM should check the music archives for a pop song from the '50s, regret the name escapes me, with a rebellious teenager singing about the problems in his life and includes the line

" why is everybody always picking on me ? "

So you think this problem is down to the PM and he should be taking direct action personally ?.

He inherited this dirty system along with all the scumbags from the previous governments who did precisely NOTHING to stop it. Do you think he can just say the word and the hundreds of people involved (including no doubt lots of tomato police who are on the take) will suddenly shift their attitude and conform ?. A naïve viewpoint at best.

You miss the point completely. The answer to this is not for Prayuth to go out and do everything himself. The answer is to reform the entire system which he is trying to do. Of course he is going to fail because Thailand is full of people like you (and lots of others here) who are unable to see the bigger picture (or don't want things to change) and just whine at anything he does.

I wonder if these people would accept the explanation that their relatives were killed because someone put them between MIB and soldiers on purpose to try and incite an uprising by the resultant bloodbath.

These people are not interested in the truth. They have been programmed by red-shirt propaganda that Abhisit and Suthep are guilty and that is the only 'justice' they will ever accept.

I wonder if any red-shirt has wondered why Chalerm made it official policy that the MIB did not exist and nobody (including the DSI) were allowed to mention or investigate them.

Another piece of half-assed journalism : is he in worse trouble for carrying an unregistered gun, or is this a clumsy Thai attempt to excuse him ?.

Are we expected to believe someone slipped a gun into his checked-in baggage without him knowing, then he slipped that same gun into his hand luggage on the way back - again without knowing ?.

Only the truly gullible could believe such a story. They probably think the Junta followed him to Japan just to plant this gun when he wasn't looking.

The rest of us think he carried an untraceable gun because that is how dirty lackeys like him take care of business. He was so arrogant+stupid, he forgot he doesn't have the protection of the government any more.

He should get the book thrown at him.

I hope they test that gun and see if anyone has been shot with it. I expect it will go missing before anyone gets around to thinking about that.