herfiehandbag

It is very, very, simple. The big booze producers have lots of political clout. The small bar owners and restauranteurs don't.

What is BTC? I thought that they were the British Transport Commission - the long defunct quango which oversaw British Railways and the National Bus Company!

It looks like Mr Anutin had a lucky escape the other day then - I understand Switzerland is absolutely rammed with restaurants serving booze!

I particularly liked the concept of throwing a loaded, cocked automatic weapon 12 metres off a tower to land at the feet of the bloke standing below!

Well he should know, he has spent the last few years meandering around the capitals of the world as the amiable political emissary of a government with less than convincing democratic credentials!

It does rather depend on the crime though doesn't it? Child sexual abuse for example is chargeable and can be dealt with by UK courts. Draping yourself in the national flag, however inappropriate some may consider it, would not.

She is most welcome to violate or abuse me...

And this month's "Mandelson award" for spinning Brexit abuse into the most obscure topic goes to... Back on topic, barely a week goes by without some authoritarian buffoon redefining stupidity!

Don't test? Don't report? Don't mention the war?

She is part of a government which was put, and is maintained, in place by amongst others the people responsible for such practices. All she can do is whine ( and not too loudly!)

I think that you will find that the vast majority of the unvaccinated are amongst the rural population, or the urban poor. They resent being expected to take the less effective vaccines, whilst the more prestigious ones are openly available to more favoured sections of the population. I will quote: " Why should I have Sinovac - in the town they have AZ or Pfizer, if you are important you have Moderna!" Because of where they live they have effectively no access to any public areas anyway, including gyms, cinemas, shopping centres, condominiums. They already live like lepers outside the city areas and buy their food at roadside stalls, markets, or grow their own! They have long since realised that this government doesn't really care about them, and in turn don't care about what the government wants. It's a "disconnect" which is of the government's making. Photographs of uniformed officials standing to attention in front of backdrops rather sum it up!

It is a bit premature by my reckoning. Property prices in Pattaya and other "tourism centres" have not finished falling yet. Bide your time...

Warning or declaring that supporting a proposal will put MPs in breach of an ethical code applied to Parliament strikes me as an eminently effective way of suppressing all sorts of proposals disliked by "the powers that be". I am sure that this will be trotted out again in future. The whole point of a Parliament is that it is sovereign. If it is bound by rules made and applied by other interest groups then it can not be so.

"Now that's all sorted, let's all go for a beer or two, I hear there are some choice places..." Prayut and Prawit look awkward and shuffle their feet. "Oh well, never mind, off to Cambodia tomorrow, that will be better!"

Indeed. And once that pulse has faded, discussion will turn to the urgent need to regenerate those areas. Someone ( or more likely several ) will point to Cambodia ( Sihanoukville) and their casino cities as a shining example of how to cater for wealthy (gambling mad) visitors from not too distant very large countries with close links...

Perhaps some fundamental orifices are going "sixpence, half a crown, sixpence half a crown" when they contemplate the failure of the great re-opening, and it's likely effect upon public opinion? Perhaps not so much for the foreigners benefit, but millions of Thais, especially the younger ones, may be getting awfully tired of "house arrest"!

Eventually the people will have had enough. For those that don't manage to squeeze into the convoys to whichever airport is used for the evacuation flights, ( escorted by the "Strikers" and under an air umbrella provided by the new light attack aircraft) then perhaps the lamp posts await...

My understanding is that there is the same concept of establishing "mens rea" - although obviously they do not use the Latin term. However, the practicalities in Thailand, and the absence of a jury who have to be convinced of the "mens rea", means that a wide variety of other factors, often very specific to the individuals accused, come into play.

You haven't stood next to those little kiosks where they "supervise" the traffic lights then?

He went on to say (unreported) "and I decide what culture is, you don't think that I paid for this job (as our culture demands) and am not going to make sure I reap the benefits? Besides, my brother has a whole factory making polyester traditional feudal clothing!"

Ah, but will it inspire awe amongst the surrounding nations?

I don't think that every country in the world has destroyed their economy to allow a few favoured people to make money from the pandemic, no of course not. I do think that here in Thailand, groups within the " influential" have manipulated the pandemic to make money, with no care for the consequences. These manipulations, in my opinion, include: procurement supply and provision of vaccination, the potentially ( they thought) lucrative provision of quarantine and insurance, the opportunity to clear away large areas of the existing tourist industry to allow a rebuild in the style they wish to see ( Sihanoukville style casino operations perhaps) together with real estate speculation, the ever present search for new opportunities to "shake down" small business and the ingrained desire of officialdom to boss people around because they can. These "programmes" are of course often contradictory. That is a result of the almost total self interest driving these groups, who don't pause to consider the effects on their colleagues let alone the rest of the population. The result of a government placed in, and sustained in, power by a variety of competing influential parties, which neither care about nor are remotely accountable to the people. That accountability has been driven from the country's life in the last two decades. The result is an utter mess.

Perhaps many, virtually all even, have placed themselves in suspended animation, temporarily stopped trading. Easier to claim you are full and not taking bookings than to close down and then go through the hassle of relisting if/when you start up again?

As ever, the elephant in the corner of the room in all such discussions of who should rule Thailand is that no one considers the Thai people's opinion, which has repeatedly preferred and chosen the "Shinawatra dynasty" over the military/establishment.

In my "neck of the woods", which is generally strongly opposed to this government, when it was a straightforward coup appointed junta (and now in it's "democratically elected" form), they got round expected opposition to the new constitution by simply not holding the referendum!