herfiehandbag

You must sleep soundly knowing that you pay B1000 for the privilege!

The Thai people have decided. They are being ignored.

I didn't say that, did I? It does however put the initial police action - stopping the car - in, at least some context. France has an essentially effective judicial system which will hold, is holding, those who killed this boy to account. That is true. It also has a large and racially motivated urban population of young ( predominantly immigrant, notionally Muslim) young men, who are prepared to riot on this scale. That is true. That community is heavily involved in crime, racketeering and drug distribution. That also is true.

And decisions like these serve to prevent any attempts to regain control. They also go a long way towards explaining how and why control was lost.

The Photograph has been carefully edited or selected. The full picture showed the judge facing two rows of bewigged berobed barristers, at least a dozen of them, all on the taxpayers "dime".

It just slipped out ( his mother complained) that he had been stopped numerous times over the last two years. So he had been driving since he was 15!. This in a country where the legal age for driving is 18! Let's stick my neck out - nice car, driving without a licence, drug dealer/courier?

I've heard worse: "Who cut your hair, the council?"

If memory serves, Carlsberg set up a brewery and bottling plant in Thailand, trained up brewers and we're all set to go, when in some sort of quasi-legal sting operation they were forced to hand it over, at way under the market rate, to Mr Chang, who promptly got rid of all the Carlsberg staff. For the first couple of years, until the Thai brewery techs settled in, Chang was very hit or miss, it's alcohol content varying from batch to batch. They took over both the brewery and bottling plant, which is why many of the bottles for some considerable time had the Carlsberg motif. It probably goes some way towards explaining why Western brewers, distillers or wine makers are reluctant to get involved in Thailand.

My local 7/11 has undergone major refurbishment and extension. It retained its (Bangkok Bank) ATM. So now our small town/big village has 2 Krungthai ATMs (one with deposit and one a brand new replacement machine at Sinthani), Bangkok Bank (7/11), Green Bank/KBank ADM ( although the branch closed a few years ago), Government Savings Bank ( and branch) and Farmers Bank (and branch office). My problem is that I rarely have any cash!

What is required to move and pass a constitutional amendment? I understand that Chapter 15, Section 256 (3), of the 2017 Constitution requires that a majority of the combined two chambers of parliament, the House and the Senate, as well as no fewer than one-third of senators, or 84 of the 250 senators. The Senate vote is guaranteed, that would give them just under a year to create the majority.

And doesn't look like she spends much of her time under a flat stone in a damp place!

And another straw floats past on h90's political river - quick, clutch it!

Lucky so and so - got a seat right at the front! I hope that the lass with the denim shorts jumping up and down gets a place in his cabinet!

They will appoint a new Senate. Rinse and repeat. It will (for them) have the great advantage of keeping the appointing of senators and the holding of elections in step. Perhaps a constitutional amendment to introduce a fixed term parliament, so that elections will always take place a safe period after a new Senate is appointed. It would tidy things up a bit!

Possibly they have done their number crunching, and reckon that with the police and military available to them (remember April's draft intake will have just about finished their training) they can withstand the inevitable protests. Once he is installed as Prime Minister, his government will use the inevitable widespread protests as the excuse for the inevitable state of emergency, and take wide ranging powers to rule bypassing parliament. They desperately need to hang on for a year until they have their new set of senators ( who will probably look remarkably like the old set of senators! It will all hinge on whether they can weather the inevitable storm. I doubt that they can.

The major imperative is probably to hang on, somehow, to appoint the next Senate. I'm not sure how they can do that. Perhaps annulling the election meaning fresh elections, themselves delayed by a long period of mourning for a significant person, topped up possibly by a suitable state of emergency. As I said, I'm not sure how they can do that, but I am sure great minds (Wissanu?) are working on it.

I flew into Kai Tak half a dozen times. It was always in RAF VC10s, which made for an even more mind boggling experience, as the RAF had the seats fitted facing the rear of the aircraft. They reckoned it was safer - although I suspect that if you flew into a mountain at whatever the cruising speed of a VC10 was, it really made little difference! Anyway, the whole dodging skyscrapers Kai Tak experience, but backwards!

Many moons ago there used to be an establishment on the upper reaches of Sukhumvit Road, staffed by young ladies who gave a memorable haircut! Or so I am told.

Cash potential (B500,000)! One can surmise, now it appears that he was a fairly wide ranging operator ( Koh Samui, Phuket, Pattaya) that the authorities were aware of him, and aware of how much he could be squeezed for...

I regard myself as reasonably well educated, with good written and verbal English Language skills. Quite erudite really; and with might I add, considerable enthusiasm and a keen appreciation of the proper place and roles of punctuation in the written language. I have never heard of the word "externality"; I looked it up and discovered it applied to concepts ascribed to philosophy and economics. I think you should face it, the "waning" you describe is a manifestation of age.

If I remember, any opposition or debate on the offered constitution was stifled, no alternative was on offer and it was not exactly enthusiastically endorsed. In known " opposition supporting areas" (cue, perhaps, hysterical comments about "red villages") it was made very difficult to vote. The constitutional referendum was actually little more than a smoke and mirrors trick.

The inclusion of McMurdo Station in Antarctica (!) and Kai Tak which has been closed for 25 years rather reduces this reports credibility!

Dismantling such an ingrained monopoly, with all the laws and regulations designed to prevent an effective challenge will take time. I wouldn't imagine that the situation on the ground will change for at least six months, maybe more. The monopolies contacts run deep. Do you remember the Police General who was so concerned by the crowd he observed at a pub and craft brewery in Bangkok, seen from the back seat of his staff car, and assessed by him to constitute a risk to the structure of the building, that he very public spiritedly ordered it closed with immediate effect! Nothing to do with him being on a handsome retainer from one of the big two brewers of course - perish the thought, it was unworthy of me!

Oh how ironic, showing off to a woman (in his universe "pussy grabbing") could well be his downfall!

"Do you know who I am" doesn't work half as well with a private, non-public airline!