herfiehandbag

The whole business is as dead as a Monty Python Parrot. The coffin lid was nailed down when "influential vested interests" started offering quarantine facilities, testing services, insurance policies and so on. This government is beholden to them, and so have no choice but to require any intending tourists to use these grotesquely overpriced services. They cannot simply allow unrestricted entry to vaccinated and tested tourists - they owe their mates the opportunity to gouge them. It is over. Let's face it, unless and until you can fly into Bangkok, show your vaccination certificate and test result as part of the immigration entry process, go to the taxi queue and start your holiday, no one is going to book, or think about coming.

I honestly don't think that they would be bright enough to think of that one. No, the whole "Moderna pay up front for delivery by October" was a straightforward scam. They knew that they would not have a chance of getting any until next year, but could not resist the opportunity to get the cash early. If you have paid up front I sympathize, but I doubt you will see your vaccines until well into next year, if ever!

I doubt it, if he works out how much people dislike him, he will "stay indoors".

And the only way you will get effective education is through regime change...

Don't give them ideas! " Sod this injection lark for a game of soldiers, let's just rub the stuff on them. We'll get loads more out of the bottle then!"

Dear Whutthiphum Jurangkool. How can I break this to you? There are no bloody tourists! Regards, Herfie

I have this recurring mental picture of a frantic bucket chain of khaki clad government officials stretching from the river bank just north of Bangkok to the beach at the head of the Gulf of Thailand...

How long have they been trying to flog those 9 A340s? Maybe they will come as a BOGOF deal?

I realize that you are jolly clever, and have insights denied to us lesser mortals, but I really do wish that instead of this regular flow of enigmatic hints you would just simply explain exactly what you mean! So what is the basic picture?

I wonder if he will (have the money) this time round? I doubt that the people of influence will accept cryptocurrency!

Many regimes worldwide have always assumed that they can hold on to power, irrespective of the popular feeling, indefinitely. When they fall, it is often very fast. I am often reminded of the look on Caecescea's face when the wheels suddenly came of in Romania back along! I don't know what will be the catalyst with this lot, but I am pretty sure that it will happen.

Perhaps because we all suspect we know the answer. For an authoritarian regime, with discredited democratic legitimacy, a growing protest movement in their capital ( political heartland), a legacy of hostility to their rise to power over some 8 years ago within much of the rest of the country and public disenchantment with their performance at a level whereby the manipulation of any electoral process would have to be so widespread as to lead to widespread resistance, a permanent "State of Emergency" is an end to itself. But if they were to design to offer any answers they would probably include: 1) there is a state of emergency, so under these circumstances it is not practical to hold an election. 2) Due to the state of emergency we shall have to continue in power and rule by decree, but don't worry, we are only doing it for your benefit. 3) Due to the state of emergency it will prove necessary to control and curtail any opposition movements. We must all pull together for the benefit of Thailand. 4) Does anyone know where we can get any more shipping containers?

I hadn't realised that Chiang Rai was closed actually, I just thought that there weren't any tourists!

I wasn't aware that the State Railways of Thailand were set up as a "not for profit" undertaking. In that respect at least they seem to have been remarkably successful!

No need for a band - take a Sony Walkman or whatever they are called these days...

"Numbers don't lie" This was a poll commissioned by a government supporting media group, using a statistically miniscule (no doubt carefully selected) sample. It is "Superpoll" for crying out loud! That is virtually a definition of the numbers lie!

You could call them what you like. I don't really follow football, but I understand from those who do that they are usually blind and deaf!

In your opinion, if I could suggest a caveat or qualification.

I presented some possible reasons for why, in my opinion, Thailand has failed to meet the criteria set by the UK. before You don't agree with them. Fine, that is absolutely your right. Ignore them then, but as I said before, if you are going to issue a blanket dismissal of them as "complete rubbish" and "errors" you could offer alternative suggestions?

No I can't, because I ( like everyone else) do not know the criteria which the UK is applying to accepting vaccination. If, as I suggest the criteria which Thailand has failed to reach are in the areas of the way in which the process is being conducted: mixing vaccines, "stretching" the contents of the vials, refusal by the ultimate authority ( the Minister of Health) to accept any responsibility for "unconventional" methods of injecting the vaccines; then I assume that those countries which you mentioned have met those criteria.

So, what are your suggestions as to why the UK has taken the position it has? It would help to know them, before dismissing other, reasoned, suggestions out of hand as " complete rubbish" wouldn't it?

Well, obviously, once unloaded ( and therefore empty so faster and more fuel efficient) the ship can nip round past Singapore and up through the Malacca Straits, arriving just in time to pick up the containers which have been trucked over the "Malacca bypass", and deliver them to their eventual destination. They're not daft these chaps ...

Oh, I expect that there is already a queue of ex Naval types for management and consultancy roles.

Nipped out with his trusty shovel to clear a couple of ditches...

I think it is the sheer disorganised way in which the campaign is conducted, and the lack of transparency. For example, my first jab was Sinovac, the second was supposed to be AZ. The date of the second jab was changed several times, and then suddenly it was Pfizer, at 18 hours notice. When I got there, at the exact time and place they specified, nobody knew anything about me. I eventually was jabbed, but I had to throw a wobbly ( quite easy as I can only stand with crutches) as they kept me standing in front of a desk whilst three MOPH officials argued and took turns examining my passport page by page. Couple this air of chaos with the Health Minister, no less, discussing alternative ways of injecting, and "getting more out of the bottle", yet not taking any responsibility for the decisions involved, along with the very limited testing and it is perhaps not surprising that their is a lack of enthusiasm for Thailand's claims? These decisions are made after having carefully considered all the available information, both that which is in the public domain, and that which is kept out of the public domain. For example the situation surrounding Siam Bioscience's efforts to produce AZ vaccines, which is virtually (perhaps it actually is) a state secret here; if the UK authorities were unable to ascertain the situation, ( I imagine they probably have done) then they will assume a "worst case scenario", and decide accordingly. The bottom line is that there are big red question marks against the conduct, planning and efficacy of the vaccination programme, along with testing and the actual as against the expected, as announced or hoped for supply of vaccines. Hence the decision.