Bridge Between Nations

Police in Thailand may have misapplied British values by arresting a number of migrants in what sources said was a gambling den. Thirty-two people, mainly British but including lesser ranks, were taken into custody in Pattaya after a special unit from the interior ministry raided their bridge club. Like Westminster with warmer rain, the resort town is much valued by foreign mafias and is famous for its sex tourism; and, like the United Kingdom, Thailand is run by some not very elected people who have promised to mend what they claim is a broken society, and to that end have given the police unprecedented public accountability by abolishing the distinction between worthwhile tip-offs, malicious denunciation and crank calls. Fortunately, Thailand's wog disposal methods are less enthusiastic than Britain's, especially when the gambling migrants in question turn out to be bridge-playing expats instead.