mfd101

And this cost structure will never evolve over time?

We are told that hydrogen is the future. Hope so. Still some years away before practical for everyone. When that happens I'll probably abandon my petrol-driven Mazda ...

I don't think you'll find all that much water that was dropped on or around Hanoi over the last few days moving to Thailand least of all Bangkok. I think the geography of Vietnam and the laws of physics would suggest the South China Sea as a more likely destination.

No. More people voted for MFP than for any other one party. But not more than all the other parties put together. So you can scarcely call it 'overwhelming'. What it means is that no one party had a majority so, to form a government that can pass legislation in the Lower House, you have to form a coalition. And MFP & PT did form a coalition for 5 minutes till PT got what it thought was a better offer from the dinosaurs. Will that do PT any good in the long run? Well, we'll have a fair idea after the next 'election'.

Agreed, but people keep writing things like 'The public voted overwhelmingly for Pita'. Well, they didn't.

No. Winning more votes than any other party is not the same thing as winning 'a majority of votes' (ie more than all the other parties put together). Which is why we don't have an MFP (or now PP) government. In parliamentary democracies - and even in pseudo-democracies such as Thailand - 'winner takes all' is NOT the underlying concept or process.

Yes, so all those here who think they'll escape the new evil tax by quitting Thailand for some other Third World country are barking up a gum tree. Wait a year or two more and the international agreements now about to be enforced here will be enforced in every vaguely liveable country.

Those who wish to tear down the current 'government' in one form or another never seem to consider the current likely consequences, which are unlikely to be an improvement.

Why would anyone want to iron anything in the tropics? The only candidate for ironing anything anywhere these days would be cotton shirts and they show no creases after you've sweated in to them for 3 minutes.

Mmmm, hard not to think there might be some lessons here for 'Western' countries ...

In a well-organized democracy, assorted dinosaurs of all varieties would be fleeing the country in fear of their lives.

My impression is that any Thai with the requisite skills is likely to be living anywhere but Thailand ... Either that or the government is simply unwilling to pay for the requisite skills (too much funds - usually around the 33% mark - having disappeared before the project actually gets underway).

Good question. I look forward to the answer in due course.

As more and more medical tourists fly in expecting the very best of everything, two things will happen: Costs will skyrocket, and service will decline for everyone unable to pay the skyrocketing prices.

The whole report reads as though all this happened over the last 3 or 4 days! Ridiculous.

Population-control measures vary from one country to another.

Oh dear! I wouldn't be crossing my fingers, I'ld be laying in supplies of sandbags.

If they were silly enough to let him back in (unlikely), the next thing would be a demand for more money ...

Boeing looking increasingly like a once-great company with an ever-diminishing future ...

Actually hard work, amidst MUCH self-restraint. Which she was entirely unprepared for and unwilling to learn. As for him, he's just a nitwit.

The left-over scraps of empire. But also a major military base. Oh dear!

Um, you can't have it both ways. Either talk is cheap - in which case promises don't amount to anything - or it isn't, in which case they do.

Noone cares.

When in doubt, shoot the messenger.

If we talk about it long enough, sooner or later it'll come true ... It would be nice to think though that the lower ranks of the army might face in the opposite direction next time, guns cocked.