mfd101

The winds are shifting.

11 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Are Thai customs officers still making careful inspection of any 'little red books' they come across in people's luggage? 

 

On arrival at Don Muang in the late 80s I was held up for half an hour while and increasingly be-meddled succession of customs officers leafed through a 'Loeb Classical Library' copy of Martial's Epigrams I had in my carry on bag. 

 

Had they chanced upon some of the more 'colourful' epigrams they might not have let me enter the Kingdom.

I remember when I emigrated to Oz from NZ in 1974: I had, in my packing case of books, a copy of Castro's famous speech at his trial in (from memory) 1954 - 'History will Absolve Me'. Which I thought, rightie though I already mostly was, was a pretty good speech - impressive all round. Anyway, some 9 or 10 years later, after the Hawke government came to power, I read in the newspapers that a whole lot of books 'forbidden' to be imported or sold in Oz had been removed from the 'Index' (so to speak). 'History etc' was amongst them.

So it took a rightwing Labor government to start bringing Oz culture into the late C20th, as opposed to the conservative do-nothing government of Malcolm Fraser.

4 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Are Thai customs officers still making careful inspection of any 'little red books' they come across in people's luggage? 

 

On arrival at Don Muang in the late 80s I was held up for half an hour while and increasingly be-meddled succession of customs officers leafed through a 'Loeb Classical Library' copy of Martial's Epigrams I had in my carry on bag. 

 

Had they chanced upon some of the more 'colourful' epigrams they might not have let me enter the Kingdom.

Don't worry, they were just practising their Latin. But it was all Greek to them ...

1 minute ago, zzaa09 said:

You might have a much different perspective if one was to purely make and spend Baht, instead of the phony-baloney existence based on false ideals of currency rate exchanges....

Obviously anyone whose income is in baht needn't worry about exchange rates, though they might worry about their bank loan(s).

As for phoney-baloney, I have personally experienced over the last 3 years what happens as you build a new house on imported funds and your home currency slowly sinks in the west ...

I see that one of the numerous Deputy PMs hinted today that the BOT may be getting close to lifting its base rate. Which wouldn't do much for all of us who derive our income from outside Thailand ...

But he might be just mouthing off, of course.

5 minutes ago, melvinmelvin said:

The whole world is following Brexit with great interest.

After having seen the UK cabinet in action or inaction over the past couple of years it will take quite

some effort to dig up the necessary trust needed for entering into any large scale trade deal with the UK.

Yes, and the EU will never trust the Brits again, even if they do decide to stay in! Wonderful basis for a strategic partnership of any kind - economic, cultural, military ...

37 minutes ago, My Thai Life said:

And those countries need "frictionless" trade much more than we do

And why is that? I should have thought that that applied to ANY country that had its collective head screwed on!

5 minutes ago, Jip99 said:

 

 

Naagh!  You are too materialistic in your views.

 

Just think how rich you will be in your heart, knowing that the UK is no longer controlled by the EU.

 

I will sacrifice a few Baht for that.

Ha ha. I'm an Aussie so it doesn't affect me one bit. Just watching, bemused, from a distance.

What will be fun will be watching the trade deal negotiations with Oz & NZ. The Oz government has been making polite noises so far but we know where the devil will be, and those of us with long memories remember the 1960s EEC negotiations.

The Kiwis of course will be panting eagerly to oblige Mother with anything she wants ...

8 hours ago, mommysboy said:

Methinks you protest too much.  The reality is that EU will have a hungry, and liberal competitor right on its doorstep, looking to undercut at every turn. The average Brit would be relegated to second world status I think, but the country would thrive after a few years.  I guess that would be a win win for the ardent Brexiteers on this forum?

So the country will "thrive" by making 9/10 Brits considerably poorer longterm.

Great outcome. Shows real good forward thinking, clever management. In a word: strategic. I'm impressed.

Brexiters will be delighted to learn that the French PM has instructed his Ministers to prepare for a no-deal exit of UK from the EU. They will take this as proof of a conspiracy ...

For the rest of us, it merely shows a major EU government preparing itself and its people sensibly for what is an increasingly likely outcome over the next few months, the exact repercussions of which are difficult to predict in micro-detail.

9 minutes ago, Chassa said:

Time for an Army takeover?

Your dream, is it?

6 hours ago, Jonnapat said:

An ""Evangelical Christian "" PM?

Asking for trouble.

SnM? He'll soon have us whipped into shape ...

I use the XE.com midrate &, depending what system I'm using on the day, work out from there approximately what I'll get.

$A now at 23.92 midrate. Much depends on political events in Canberra over the next month ...

7 hours ago, Cats4ever said:

I hope Morrison does OK. He is a happy clapper*, and that causes concern

I think of him as 'SnM'. Should have everyone whipped into shape in no time ...

Let me try my hand at a prediction (I may of course be completely wrong):

If there is a deal, the UK economy in 2019-20 will diminish in size by around 5%;

if there is a no-deal exit, it will diminish in size by 8% to 10%.

Either way there will be massive unemployment and the British economy will take at least 10 years to recover to its present size.

18 minutes ago, Aussieroaming said:

Compare the Australian GDP global contribution to Mexico, Brazil and Spain since the 1970's until now. All are pesos currencies and all are regularly ahead of Australia in regards to global gdp contribution. The Australian powerhouse contributes between 1.5 and 2 %, similar to the those mentioned above. As stated, Australian Peso. Sorry to deflate your fantasy about the dominant Australian Economy, but in world terms Australia is a minnow, like most nations.

Spain (population 47 million) is 14th on nominal GDP measures; Mexico (130m) is 15th; Brazil (210m) is 8th/9th.

10 minutes ago, Aussieroaming said:

No wonder we are a third world nation with a dollar as strong as the peso.

And what a ridiculous exaggeration that is!

A country with a mere 25 million people but has the 12th or 13th largest economy in the world on nominal GDP or 19th/20th on PPP measurement, and it's a "third world nation"?

If you were living on pesos you'ld know all about it.

6 minutes ago, zydeco said:

How much Chicom money behind all this instability? 

None. Let's not get too paranoid!

45 minutes ago, keith101 said:

Going from a smelly egg to a rotten egg Morrison will be a much worse Prime Minister than Turnball ever was i hope this ends in a fed election so these Liberal idiots get turfed out .

He probably has more political nous than Turnbull turned out to have, and he's better positioned between left & right in the Liberal Party than Turnbull was so has a better chance of achieving some kind of at least public unity as they stagger towards the next election.

The question now is whether MT will actually resign his seat now (which is likely to precipitate either a switch by the GG to Shorten if he can assure a majority in the House, or an immediate (October) election). Places Cosgrove in a difficult position (shades of 1975). Still, this is his reward for being the Hero of Dili ...

Morrison will have to have Dutton & Abbott in his cabinet to keep them busy & to keep an eye on them. Basically he's a good (moderate & sensible) choice. But there's still a question whether he'll have a majority in the House of Reps - assuming Tumbril resigns from his seat.