herfiehandbag

That should guarantee several full blast renderings at the next international match! Mind you I am quite surprised that Rugby is on the "woke" radar!

Election coming up, rice subsidy scheme extended! I wonder ( purely out of curiosity) what (and who) is involved in getting one's 15 rai classified as "organic". At a potential pay out of B60000 I should imagine there are a variety of interested parties...

The Thai influence is clear - some good "pointing"!

I can certainly believe that there was "no budget" for transporting the children. It is mandatory that schools send the pupils to scout/guide camp, but they are given no funds to provide transport (or food, tents and so on). The school I taught at was lucky, the camping ground was just outside the city so the children hiked, teachers manning the crossing points at roads, and a couple of us driving the baggage in our pick up trucks. If the school is in a fairly remote rural area then it is a major problem. If the Ministry of Education is insisting on the children going camping ( they do rather enjoy it by the way) then perhaps some thought should be given to giving the schools some resources?

The tourist police are certainly limited in effectiveness, however you have more chance of getting one than you do of getting a consular bod, especially outside a 500m radius of the British Embassy.

Pah! Mere amateurs! Where is the polished table, microphones, elaborate yellow flower arrangements and large vinyl backdrops. They don't even have a SWAT team in view, or any forensic blokes in white Noddy suits. Those uniforms could be a lot tighter as well. Long way to go chaps...

Just topping up the trough!

If he pushes his luck too far someone may risk that knowledge dieing with him.

???? Noise cancelling headphones to peruse their mobile phones.????

What is more, at present it doesn't allow you to register as a foreigner. It tells you to go to a branch for verification of your identity. So on Saturday off I went, queued for an hour, and was told that the app has a problem, "IT" were trying to fix it,and to try again " next week".

Perhaps this is the struggle to inherit General Prem's position?

Let us not mince words then - I suspect that the standard fine is laid down, and the police operate a corrupt "dual pricing"system for foreigners for their own benefit. You however, and the tenor of all your posts in this thread supports this conclusion, are quite happy to support open corruption in the police force, whether because as @internationalism has suggested you have links with senior ranks in the RTP, or because for some other reason you feel it justified. I am, far from clutching at straws, happy with my position( far from crazy) which I have held for quite a number of years - I presume you are with yours.

It may be Standard Operating Procedure, but is it provided for in the legislation? Or is it a system set up for the direct benefit of the police? So, in the example I described, would the B750 extra be "declared" and paid in? I would be very surprised if the legislation or decree setting the penalties for minor infringements of traffic rules - in the example we are discussing - stipulates that a foreigner ( driving on a Thai licence) should be fined four times the rate for a local. Far less extreme than the performance which sparked this whole thread, but indicative of the extraordinary extent of the corruption and extortion which is such a feature of police practice.

Well, the 75% reduction in the "fine" levied and the informal nature of its application suggests at the very least an "irregular" process, wouldn't you say?

I was "shaken down" for a minor infringement several years ago, ( tax sticker on car was three days out of date). The initial asking price was B1000. My daughter was with me. She looks Western but Thai is her first language. As soon as she spoke the price went to B500, then B250.

They will mull, await committee reviews and generally drag their feet until it all goes off the boil, then file everything away.

Not to mention tarnishing their enviable reputation!

Remember it took place on the 4th of January. By the time she got home and thought/was prompted/found out how to it may have been too late. As for "talking to Interpol" that is probably a misunderstanding on her managers part, who probably was the one who made a complaint from abroad.

Whilst the defence budget allocation may at least in part go towards ships, I think we can be confident that any revenues from U-Tapao will be destined for "other hands".

At the risk of being accused of being a conspiracy theorist, I would suggest that the police were aware that she and her friends were in that taxi - likely having had someone outside the club identifying suitable targets - that may also account for the.presence.of a group of South Korean women in the police station. After all, a quick random look inside at a check point in both cases would only reveal a group of female Asian passengers. They probably didn't know that she was a well known actress, just that she was one of a group of well dressed affluent foreigners leaving an expensive nightclub, possibly returning to an upmarket hotel, and therefore worth shaking down. The same is likely true of the reported Koreans. If this is a regular "sting operation" then it would be worth having a "dicker" at the nightclub - perhaps the doorman or whoever fetches the taxis? Unlikely, on reflection, that the taxi driver was in on it - very difficult to ensure that he gets the right passengers. Quite lucrative though - pull it off two or three times a night, with a take of 20k ore more a hit, and the team ( and quite possibly their bosses) are on a good little earner! Bad luck hitting on someone with a high enough social media profile to get noticed. Still, keep your heads down for a week or so and it will all die down.

A frontal lobotomy, or a bottle in front of me?

I believe that 20k is the maximum you can withdraw from an ATM in one hit? I suppose that she may have had 7k on her, and she "offered" to withdraw another 20k. Do all ATMs have CCTV? I was under the impression that only the ones outside banks did.

We are now in the 8th year of this, effectively, military government. If the upcoming election is gerrymandered in the same way as the last one, and there is no revolt, then to all intents and purposes the junta which seized power in 2014 will still be there 12 years later. In that time one could have expected 3, probably 4 elections, fresh faces and probably at least one change of governing party.

I do hope that you are Australian!????

Not bothering with Taiwan then?