• OPINION

  A good time to 'keep calm and carry on'

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 23/10/2022

  » There is definitely a "shifting the deckchairs on the Titanic" feel to the situation in Britain at the moment. If recent political events had been presented as a soap opera script it would have been rejected for being totally unbelievable.

• OPINION

  There have probably been better years

  Oped, Roger Crutchley, Published on 27/12/2015

  » Well, we've just about scraped through 2015, although there have been a few dicey moments. Most of us will be happy to see the back of the Year of the Sheep, or was it the Goat? I never did quite work that out. It is customary at this time to look back on the past 12 months, although there are some events you might prefer to forget. If nothing else it serves as a reminder that Thailand will always be Truly Amazing.

• OPINION

  When great debate went into extra time

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 05/09/2021

  » No-confidence debates like that taking place during the past week have become something of a tradition in Thailand, but it is rare for them to be successful. Perhaps the biggest excitement came some years ago when in the middle of such a debate one MP called a leading a politician a "toad", which didn't go down too well. But at least it livened up proceedings.

• OPINION

  No dodgy dealings today, thank you

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 06/09/2020

  » Thailand marks its annual National Anti-Corruption Day today, which might possibly prompt a few wry smiles in certain quarters. Still, for 24 hours at least, we can be assured no one will be on the fiddle, or at least seen to be on the fiddle. No shady deals or siphoning of funds. No oiling of the wheels. It is indeed a time to rejoice.

• OPINION

  Bald pride and the curse of the comb-over

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 26/01/2020

  » Last weekend, the Bangkok Post published an entertaining letter from the always perceptive S Tsow, who delivered an impassioned defence of being bald. Mr Tsow, who proudly describes himself as "a person of baldness", was particularly upset after observing on television one of Rudy Guiliani's associates (Lev Parnas) brazenly displaying a "cowardly comb-over".

• OPINION

  If lost for words, you can try a bit of Latin

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 13/10/2019

  » In the sometimes entertaining, but often mind-numbing, impeachment debate in the US, something we have been repeatedly hearing lately is the Latin expression "quid pro quo", signifying a favour given in return for something of equal value. Dropping a few Latin words has always been popular amongst politicians, possibly because they think it makes them sound smarter than us ignorant hoi polloi.

• OPINION

  Ministry of Wishful Thinking might help

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 16/06/2019

  » All week we have been eagerly awaiting the announcement of the new cabinet, although maybe eagerly is not quite the right word. The selection of cabinet ministers has always been a tricky affair for any new government. It is hardly a secret that certain ministerial posts are a lot more popular than others, owing to what could be politely termed "fringe benefits" -- and we are not talking about free rides on the skytrain.

• OPINION

  There's a time and a place to take a leak

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 12/02/2017

  » A reader relates that he was in a branch of a home improvements store in Thailand recently inspecting toilets for a new bathroom extension. There were several rows of toilets and while he was strolling around, two young boys, aged about six or seven, came running down one of the aisles. No parents were in sight. The boys stopped, giggled, lifted up the lid of one of the toilet bowls and proceeded to pee in it, right in the middle of the store. Still giggling, they ran off.

• OPINION

  Taking a leak in Bangkok not such a strain these days

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 26/01/2014

  » The news hasn't exactly been uplifting for the first few weeks of the Year of the Horse has it?

• OPINION

  Another year gone, and it's still amazing

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 30/12/2012

  » The year 2012 was promoted as a ''Miracle Year'' in Amazing Thailand, although no wondrous happenings immediately spring to mind.

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