jayboy

Excellent post.Thai Airways is now out of rehabilitation but as far as i can see, the many management and financial structural issues have not been properly addressed.

all fair comment.

More nonsense from you, The high tech aspect is that in a modern volunteer army soldiers have the opportunity to learn a trade and acquire expertise that will be useful in future civilian life. There is no need for the army to introduce rural people to urban people.This might have been the case in the 1950's which seems to be your mindset period. However the economic transformation of Thailand since then means that there is a constant flow of people into Bangkok and big cities. The army has no role as a socialization tool, whatever that is meant to mean. You skim over the reality that the Thai army's purpose is to make money for its senior officers.The bloat and corruption you speak of is not some trifling side issue.They are defining characteristics.There is much prattle of love of country, but where these clowns feel their position is threatened, they will mow down Thai citizens in the street. Thailand has no foreign enemies. Anyway keep on drinking the Kool Aid.

Agreed.I don't believe it will be. But there's the certainty that long term residents and PRs on say a 1-2 day business trip to Singapore or HK may need to seek a TDAC approval for re-entry before they have even departed Thailand.

You have obviously no experience of a modern well educated all volunteer army.

You are talking nonsense.If conscription was dropped there would be little difficulty in attracting the numbers to service a moderately sized efficient military.The opportunity to acquire technology skills would be a significant attraction and the social disadvantaged types you mention would not pass muster in the first place.It is not the task of the army to teach recruits to wash themselves anyway (but perhaps your NCO friend had a special interest). Senior officers in the Thai army like a large number of underemployed soldiers to act as servants - and the scandals associated with their abuse are a matter of common knowledge. As a fighting force the Thai army is third rate.Individual soldiers often perform well but the senior office corps is a corrupt incompetent disgrace.Their purpose is not to to excel militarily but to engage in business and make money, and of course stick their noses into politics - conducting coups when they think appropriate.They need cutting down to size which means among other things cutting down on the laughable number of generals - more than the US military. Your comment on gunfire on the Myanmar border is laughable.Of course Thailand needs to protect its borders but that is a different thing altogether from having a bloated corrupt massive military which holds democracy in contempt, and sticks its nose into the business trough.

Why does Thailand need conscripts at all? It has no enemies and there are plenty of volunteers available.

Including people like yourself who don't understand the basis of a nuclear deterrent - mutually assured destruction. A Russian nuclear attack on a major UK city would at very least result in the incineration of Moscow or St Petersburg.The whole point of nuclear weapons is to deter.

Don't know I'm afraid.I was given access when I opened my account twenty years ago.

On a slightly related topic I notice that Krungsri will not be giving new customers access to their website Krungsri Online with effect from the end of April.Existing customers can carry on using the site. I wonder what is going on.I hardly use the website because I can deal with all my banking needs on the Krungsri mobile app.Is the long term objective for banks to only offer banking services on their mobile apps which I understand have better security specifications?

Why on earth should they? They have nothing to do with how Immigration processes arrivals at Thailand entry points.

Departing airline will definitely not want to see the TDAC though they will probably want to see the visa if applicable.The TDAC can be completed on arrival if not obtained in advance - as in Singapore. By the way Singapore exempts PRs as well as citizens from completing the pre-arrival clearance.My hunch is that PRs will eventually be exempted here as well.But who knows given the quality of thought that has apparently been associated with this exercise? "Against stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain". - Friedrich Schiller .

That's good to hear and mirrors my own experience in Cambodia. The one exception was the immigration guy at Siem Reap airport whose surly rudeness and indifference was at a comically high level.

It's clear PRs will have to fill the form in. However it's worth noting that in other countries with similar TDAC type arrangements (eg UK), PRs are not required to fill in these forms. I don't think PRs should start getting paranoid.It's just that they obviously weren't thought about when the form was designed.Not much of a burden for PRs to take on.

No, they're not.

Leading Bangkok developers have confirmed there is no problem. That's reassuring given their known standards for morality, business ethics and concern for the public good.

This event emphasized the importance of maintaining strong working relationships with local organizations in the interests of British residents and visitors. There.Fixed it for you.

Because the perpetrators are invariably part of the feral British chav variety - entitled,beer guzzling, thick as mince,ugly, tattooed and with horrible accents. Many live off the state and would not dream of investing their (ie taxpayers') money in anything as sensible as insurance.For these pikeys delayed gratification is an incomprehensible concept.

Same for me but about 20 years ago.Allopurinol at just 100 mg daily since then.No recurrence.

What a disgraceful article.

I didn't argue consular activities were more important than other functions.I argued that in certain countries with very large British populations/visitor numbers, Embassies pay as much attention to consular activity as anything else. Thailand and Spain good examples.This is not even controversial so I don't know why you are reduced to foolish comments like it's just Ambassador's PR. In countries like China,Saudi Arabia etc it's obviously not the case. I have never thought or argued this.

No, his position was made clear in obituaries in most of the British major newspapers.

Depends on the country, and the number of British residents and visitors. Thailand has a large number of both.As I have just pointed out, the former Ambassador to Spain (a much more senior position that the Ambassador to Thailand) saw his responsibilities to British subjects as important as any other area.

You have better information than I do, but it confirms my belief that the high flyers have as little to do with DBS (distressed British subjects) as possible). Actually I have no beef with the Embassy consular staff in Bangkok who do an often thankless job as well as humanly possible.I see no evidence of laziness, lack of interest etc as some of the sillier posts on this thread suggest. Having said that, Thailand has a large British expatriate population and a massive number of visiting Brits.It's important that leadership comes from the top, and that means the Ambassador.During the COVID crisis there was a clear failure in leadership on the part of the then ambassador - in clear contrast with the efforts of representatives of other countries.He went on to Hong Kong and got a CMG so his employers presumably thought well of him.The present (much more personable) ambassador picked up the pieces, and I think does pretty well. Interesting to see in the recent obituary of Giles Paxman (brother of Jeremy) who was British Ambassador to Spain, that he took his duty to the millions of Brits in Spain extremely seriously and one of his major responsibilities.

Neither.Financial inducement was not necessary.It is just the craven surrender to the Chinese gangster state's pressure.Get used to it.