Things are still relaxed. It was a bloodless coup (plenty of people went and got their photos taken in front of the tanks), and so far there has been very little in the way of protest. One elderly gentleman, interviewed as he was standing at Government House showing his support for the army, said he’d been to a lot of coups but this was the best one ever.

In Bangkok the general opinion seems to be in favour of the military action, as long as the army keeps its promise to restore democracy. According to the Administrative Reform Council, the king has endorsed it. We only have their word for that, but if it’s a lie it’s a pretty bold one.

Basically, Thaksin had undermined the electoral process - buying votes in poor rural areas, and appointing election officials who could be counted on to turn a blind eye. It looked like he was planning to install military cronies in Bangkok, so that come the election, protests in the capital could be easily put down, so the army may have done the right thing by acting now. Time will tell.