They were all not exactly sailing under false colours, but deceiving themselves as to their motives—and one another, to a lesser degree, by their actions.

He gazed around until on the lid of a spinet he spotted a promising collection of bottles, […] a meerschaum pipe and a jar half-full of wasps and apricot jam. He found some glasses which didn't look very clean and polished them on a chintz window curtain.

Simplistically, he was fired with pay.

The case is the latest chapter in a decade-long struggle by the nation's elite minority to crush the powerful political machine founded by Yingluck's brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in another coup in 2006.