kimamey

The election actually started last Sunday on the 1st. Before the disqualification.

That won't work for those who voted early last Sunday.

Actually that's not true. Early voting was last Sunday, so everything set after the elections.

It's interesting that you need to explain your post at the end. It's so difficult to tell the difference between sarcasm and stupidity these days. What's more worrying is that if governments are watching us, and in particular on here, then some may well end up having a visit from the police. Just to be clear that's a joke as well. Sort of.

I think just using a card is better and faster. Having said that, that method can be used in Thailand and my wife uses it sometimes. She used it at Topps a while back and it took ages but that was probably just a technical issue. I think paying by QR code is a better for people such as market traders as they don't need a a card reader. In 7/11 Lotus ect then tapping a card seems to make more sense due to speed.

This is a bit difficult to comment on as the figures don't give enough relevant information. The increase mentioned is from 2019/2020 to 2024/2025. That's 5 years, most of which was under the Tories, so it must be Labour and Keir Starmer who are at fault. Why aren't there figures showing the increases broken down into years so we can see if there's a difference under Labour. Is it because Labour aren't doing any worse than the Tories, or is it because the further back you go the bigger the percentage increase is so big numbers like 165% can be put out. 'In 2024/25 alone, it reached a jaw-dropping £133.9 million, compared to just £50.6 million a few years back.' So someone went to find out the amount in 2024/2025, £133.9 million, to compare it to the £50.6 million in the year? Well it was a few years back anyway. Would some of the problem be that the Tories slowed asylum applications and underfunded the justice system which caused a huge backlog. I think it was Robert Jenrick that said that was deliberate. Will leaving the ECHR help? How many deportations are actually stopped by the ECHR, which other countries seem to cope with. No figures on that. There may be problems but I doubt Keir Starmer can take credit for it on his own. It's a bit like Tony Blair who invaded Iraq, with a bit of help from some American guy. I think his name was George or something. Not to forget Gordon Brown who orchestrated a Global Financial crisis starting in the USA. Labour PMs punch well above their weight.

But But But you're avoiding the facts as well.

I've only ever seen a problem once, on a Qatar Airways flight. They were a couple of rows ahead of me from London to Doha. Didn't seem too bad although some of them did disappear into business for a long time. Doha to Bangkok they were directly behind me and seemed to have been drinking. They looked to be picking a fight with a guy, I wouldn't want argue with, after he politely asked them to calm down. The flight crew were doing their best as well. I leaned back and pointed out they could be denied entry and locked up until they could be flown back to Doha where they might not be too welcoming either. They seemed to calm down after that. After we landed I heard one of them asking the flight crew if they were going to have a problem.

I'm with you on this, except for making flights more expensive.

It might be difficult for sellers of alcohol to check for eligibility I would think. Besides, if the alcohol ban is like the others during the year you'll be able to get it anyway, just not from main shops like Lotus or 7/11.

Oh I believe it. Once a Thai driver has pulled onto a road they control the speed. If they want to go slow, they will.

Of course you'd need to have some information about at least one family member. You wouldn't need anyone on the ground after that as the prospective courier wouldn't know anyway. I thought that was so obvious that it didn't need explaining, but clearly I was wrong. A British man was mentioned as being involved.

Actually there are darker skinned Thai actors and actresses. They play the poor people.

I'm sure you don't mind the look and nowhere near a temple is better but they probably didn't know where you live.

A lot depends on whether he is telling the truth about being forced by threats to his family and himself. If it is true then I'm not sure how education and basic reading knowledge would help. If I were part of a criminal gang wanting someone to transport drugs, and if all the warnings about getting caught were making it difficult to find couriers, I think coercion using threats, including to family members would be my first option.

I don't know if he's lying or not, but presumably your opinion is based on some understanding of the case.

I thought that as well. The US might, if it thought China may get in first, and the price was right. I think they both qualify as possibly not in their right mind. In either case they would include safeguards so they could control if the missiles were used, and against whom.

I live about 10km south of Khlung in Chanthaburi. I've only just changed my phone to a 5g one and my contract is only 4g but I have trouble even getting that. It runs out soon so I'll see what happens when I change it. One of the issues, as well as newer tequipment, might be due to transmission towers. In a lot of western countries there is opposition to radio towers, especially near schools which may not be the same in Thailand. I have a house in Mahasarakham and there's a tower in the Post Office car park across the road from a school. In Chanthaburi I can't see any nearby, which is unusual.

I 've only had my licence checked once as far as I can remember, and that was years ago and never been fined. That's around 17 years, although in the early days I wasn't here as much.

It's probably common in Europe to not take large payments in cash due to money laundering legislation.

Does anyone know how that Catch Offenders app they seem to use works?

12 would have been a bit late for me. I also foresee a full size model of a person that connects to your phone and reacts according to whatever you would have been watching. I'm guessing blind people are already dealing with this anyway.

I don't use my UK Visa debit card often but I've used it without problems, including in September. I did use cash to buy my car in 2012, but that was because my sister in law wanted to see what that amount of bank notes looked like, between 700K and 800K I think. Now if I tried to do that in the UK I would have questions to answer.

De La Rue also produce the polymer substrate, plus they print banknotes for some countries, including the UK I think. I don't know how much they cost to produce, but I know they last longer, so that has to be taken into account. I think they are harder to fake as well, which if true, will have some financial benefit. I'm not sure any of this will impact on the effectiveness of the plan in question.

I only have a bank account for my 400K visa money but I've used my UK Visa bank card, and possibly Mastercard as well, on a few occasions. The last time was to draw cash in September and the first was around 2007/8. I've used it to pay for goods as well, but it does come with foreign currency transaction fees as well. I have had cards where there were no fees but I don't know how common they are. I applaud the intention of this plan but I doubt it would be successful in practice.