There was a report on the BBC last week detailing how much it costs to go watch a game of football in England these days. We weren’t that interested—sure, the B280 Manchester United charges for a pie and a cup of tea is pretty steep, but we watch the games for free via a dodgy Indonesian feed with a plate of B80 naem and a Leo. But then we read that our dear House Speaker Somsak Kiatsuranond and eight other Pheu Thai MPs had recently blown B4.8 million of taxpayers’ money on a trip to the UK. A trip that just happened to include an essential fact-finding mission to Old Trafford, conveniently scheduled while a game was on.Even accounting for the UK’s high prices, that’s a lot of pies, but we’re confident that the team picked up some useful tips ahead of the Futsal World Cup arriving in Bangkok next week—you know, like what a finished stadium looks like.And it’s not as if Somsak was completely selfish; we hear a good chunk of the B2,892,320 he personally spent on the trip was on souvenirs. Apparently, his wife had always wanted one of those Harrods bags and the PM put in a request for a new pair of rubber boots; just in case they got it wrong again.Of course, B4.8 million is pretty small change compared to the B16 billion that the Democrats claimed an unnamed Thai politician transferred to Hong Kong. The Anti-Corruption Network leader Mongkolkit Suksinthara-nond was adamant when making the accusations, only he couldn’t give any more details because it was a secret, but it really, really was true.Still, even if certain people in power might be spending our money unwisely, it’s not like the government is short of cash after the whole 3G lottery extravaganza. What’s that you say—didn’t get enough money? Collusion? To be honest, we really don’t care; this incredibly tedious story about something technical we don’t really understand has been dragging on longer than it takes for us to download a YouTube clip on our iPhone. Of course, we all know the biggest trick that the NBTC has pulled is getting anyone to pay anything for 3G. We’re all going to want to upgrade to 4G next year, anyway.