So, for the last decade or so I have been a member of my works savings cooperative. A bit of my salary automatically gets stashed in it every month. I could, if I wished, take out a loan in multiples of the amount I have saved, I get dividends etc.

No longer. I have just been informed in a registered letter that the law governing savings cooperatives has recently been updated, and one of the new things is that savings cooperatives are limited to Thai citizens only. My account will be terminated in January and the money returned, and obviously I can no longer contribute.

Yet another tightening of the noose.