Withholding of royal assent has cast a spotlight on Senate’s sham NCCC nomination process. The Senate majority and Senate Speaker Suchon Chaleekrua have only themselves to blame for the sham process that led to the selection of nine nominees – several of whom had close ties to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and other government leaders – for the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC). Their mistake was laid bare for all to see when the nominee list that was approved by the Senate failed to receive royal approval after being submitted by Suchon.

STOPPAGE TIME: Forget about PM’s unpaid tax bill, the government already has

I will certainly get lynched for this, but shall we just forget about the alleged unpaid taxes by the prime minister’s family? Surely the money could have built thousands of schools or fed the poor billions of free meals, but with half the state’s employees stopping their routine work trying to figure out how to defend the leader, maybe it’s time we cut our losses and got on with it.