PAD is no alternative, |even to bad democracy

It's easy to waver in one's support for democracy with a crew like this in charge ... until you consider the alternative. And the PAD is ever ready with its glaring negative example. Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

JOHN FRANCIS LEE

CHIANG RAI

Please don't rush to |extradite Thaksin

Re: "Please keep Thaksin there. We don't want him here", Opinion, October 29.

I agree with Tulsathit Taptim that we should let the British hold Thaksin Shinawatra for as long as possible. To talk about extradition is a waste of time. To rush to extradite Thaksin back to serve his jail term would be an invitation for trouble. He has always been the cause of division here.

The government should be allowed to drag its feet on this matter. A fugitive is a fugitive. This is the path chosen by Thaksin when he jumped bail and fled before the trial and verdict. The diplomatic passport he holds should be confiscated, since he is a convict on the run. Don't let him take political points by talking of returning it and doing nothing about it.

CHAVALIT VAN

CHIANG MAI

UK must muzzle violence-provoking Thai fugitive

Re: "Please keep Thaksin there. We don't want him here", Opinion, October 29.

Please, Khun Tulsathit, what makes you think the British have any responsibility whatsoever for that wretched man Thaksin Shinawatra, except for giving him a visa?

One of the most pernicious acts I can think of is to incite violence in your own country from within a host nation. And that is exactly what he wants to do this weekend.

I have already alerted the UK Conservative Party to this and have received a reply from a spokesman, saying: "... but I will continue to monitor the situation carefully in the forthcoming weeks and table questions to the government regarding their policy and action".

Instead of wishing him there, it would be a far more positive approach if you wrote to the opposition and requested not extradition, as that would take years, but that it ask questions of the British government to take remedial steps to prevent the broadcast of his violence-provoking, mealy outpourings this coming Saturday. We don't want to see any more Thai people with their legs blown off.

JAMES GROVEWAY

BANGKOK

Why the concern now |with candidate quality?

With less than a week to go before the US presidential election, candidates are exchanging barbs about one another's suitability. We hear adjectives such as "heroic", "experienced", "knowledgeable". Can anyone tell me why these qualities are seen to be so important for the choice of the next president when precisely the same attributes were ignored when American voters elected George W Bush to office in 2001 and 2004?

A WARNER

BANGKOK

Dirty tricks a staple of presidential campaigns

The US Republican party is well known for dirty campaign tricks. Amongst them, sending out a mass paper version of spam letters, one of which was printed by The Nation, ostensibly from Theodore Soderberg in San Francisco, regarding the issue of Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin being given an enormous budget from party coffers to buy designer clothing. These are not donated clothes as the writer asserts, but purchased from expensive department stores with party funds, in direct violation of John McCain's own bill regarding campaign contributions.

 And the writer's assertion that Barack Obama is "Nothing more than a terrorist masquerading as a Democrat ... and Americans will be eating gruel" (which many already are, after eight years of Bush & Co) should he win, is patently absurd.

 McCain/Palin certainly can't win in an honest debate of the issues, as their policies will benefit only the wealthiest of Americans.

CHRISTY K SWEET

PHUKET

Financial woes could lead us all to the soup kitchen

Leaders from Asia and Europe have ended a summit in Beijing with a call for thorough reforms in the global financial system. But with the Bank of England putting the paper cost of the global crisis at a staggering US$2.8 trillion (Bt97.8 trillion) - the equivalent of purchasing billions of bowls of tom yum gung - with Thailand's withering political situation no nearer to any resolve, and with 10-15 per cent of Thai workers in the export sector expected to be out of a job next year, it may force the hands of the power-brokers. Time is running out. Certainly the government is going to need some of those prawns in the near future to feed the people.

MICHAEL BISHONDEN

BANGKOK