I have just returned from a visa trip to the Thai consulate in Vientiane, Laos to obtain a double entry tourist visa but they only gave me a single because I only had two pages left in my passport is this a new rule?

I would not say this is a new rule I would say it is more about if you were to utilize the double tourist visa in your passport you would need more than two pages, the reason being that when the tourist visa is issued it takes one full page and then you need room for entry stamps and extensions within Thailand, in most cases you would then do a Cambodian visa run to activate your second entry and then Cambodian entry visa utilizes a full page of your passport, hence not enough pages I would advise if you are going to a Thai consulate for a double entry visa have at least 4-5 empty pages in your passport, all the clients we take to Laos we check the status of the passport first.