<p>The revelation by the Pheu Thai party that the Democrat-controlled Bangkok Metropolitan Administration purchased more than 1,300 dummy cameras has led to further revelations.</p>

<p>Just days into her Premiership, Yingluck Shinawatra has ruffled international feathers by deciding not to make Lao PDR the destination of her first trip abroad.</p>

<p>The nation can rest safe. Despite the machinations of an insidious anti-monarchy network of immeasurable proportions, daily spreading its poisonous propaganda among a population which, we are constantly re-assured, reveres the institution in perfect and unshakable unanimity, the forces of virtue and morality are tireless in their pursuit of miscreants and malefactors.</p>

<p>&nbsp;(For those readers who have trouble telling the difference, this week&rsquo;s piece is the genuine article.)</p> <p>The constitution of the old Soviet Union was, I am reliably informed, an impressive document, outlining the rights and freedoms of all citizens. Until you got to the last clause, which said that the constitution could not used in any action to protect those rights and freedoms.</p> <p>Something similar is happening in Thailand.</p>

<p>&nbsp;The discovery of 169 corpses that had been transported from temporary graves in Chumphon to similarly temporary graves in Rayong has led to widespread speculation about the identity of the dead bodies.</p>

<p>The young foreign volunteers were asked to reflect on their year of teaching in Thailand&rsquo;s schools and to recount what had most surprised them. The answer came quickly.</p>

<p>&nbsp;British Prime Minister David Cameron was forced to return from his Tuscan holiday a second time to deal with the widespread turmoil in the financial markets. Night after night, mobs of out-of-control investors had been roaming the markets at will, looting and pillaging with impunity.</p>

<p>Having had my progressive, liberal, egalitarian credentials brought into question last week, I feel that this week&rsquo;s article must further discuss the pro and cons of a substantial increase in the minimum wage.</p>

<p>It&rsquo;s one thing for these ridiculous populist policies to spend government money on all and sundry, whether they deserve decent health care or not.&nbsp; But it&rsquo;s quite another when they start telling private businesses to start shelling out and, horror of horrors, propose a whopping increase in the minimum wage.</p> <p>Let&rsquo;s just get a few things straight about this minimum wage.&nbsp; </p>

<p>The Thai government won a landmark ruling this week at the International Tribunal for Compensation and Arbitration at The Hague, in a long-running case filed by Somchai Khoyuthitham, Wanida Songmathrathan and 63,537,248 other Thais.</p>

<p>You wouldn&rsquo;t perhaps guess this from looking at the streets of Bangkok, but Thailand does have traffic rules. The rather bemused Dutch gentleman who I recently assisted at Lumpini Police Station where he arrived carrying a traffic ticket, was not convinced.</p>

<p>OK, I&rsquo;ve called this special editorial meeting so that we can all make sure this newspaper doesn&rsquo;t go the same way as the News of the World and &hellip;</p> <p>Excuse me, sir, but who is that?</p> <p>Ah, glad you asked.&nbsp; Let me introduce, er, Tu. &nbsp;</p> <p>(The meeting turns to look at a dishevelled bespectacled figure crouched over an i-Pad.) &nbsp;</p>