Time for Change: Campaign for an Independent Green Thanet MP and Ramsgate Mayor

Khun Tanyatorn Tongwaranan makes some typically elegant points in her article on Green Smart Cities with Delhi as an example: https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1504266/the-battle-for-greener-cities That struck a chord in my Mayor and MP campaign here in East Kent to: "Stop the Pollution. Stop the Corruption. Stop the Construction". Green issues a vital but somewhat neglected in Kent as the Garden of England and East Kent with its array of orchards and Blue Flag beaches. And new Garden Cities but more of those later. A countryside and seascape perhaps familiar to Thai eyes via The Darling Buds of May television series with a pre-Hollywood Catherine Zeta-Jones or films such as A Canterbury Tale or Contraband by Powell and Pressburger, perhaps most famous for the Red Shoes film, a favourite of Martin Scorsese. Leaving aside my EKFOS - East Kent Film Office and Studio project - the Hollywood connection is vigorous through East Kent with Ian Fleming's Jame...

POTUS Trump got off to a quick start on NATO derailing even before the Summit in Brussels while still in USA that the European nations should pay more for their defence. Something that plays well into the rustbelt States of the Trump heartland and - as with Brexit and ending the EU gravy train - repatriating USA taxes back to USA. Except there are a few problems. One is that the USA military presence is at one of its lowest ever levels since US Army Europe was first founded and sent overseas in 1942. Just 35k US troops in Europe and many of them office staff is hardly a massive saving if reduced to say 25k or 15k. That 35k troop level is really the minimum to act as a Russian deterrent and tripwire for say Donetsk and the Baltic states. If there was any substantial danger of a Russian invasion beyond Russophobia and sabrerattling for the military-industrial complex increased budgets. Similarly US navy and Air Force cuts have already been made eg closing Mildenhall in Sussex...

As if anybody could have missed the soaring drama of England's victory over Sweden in the World Cup. England progressing to Croatia and then almost France in the final. Already the young team with the most England goals (11) since the 1966 win. And Kane, with Hurst and Thailand and Japan and Leicester's Lineker, the only England hat trick scorers in a World Cup. But the drama was almost eclipsed by the Wild Boars football team trapped in a Chiang Rai cave. And the sad death of Navy Seal UDT demolition expert. With the young footballers now released from captivity, the Wild Boars in future surely in demand by football and UK and Thailand fans. Muangthong United already with a tribute and the FIFA CEO inviting them to next week's World Cup final if they are fit enough. An invite to the England celebration party too no doubt or at least next year's FA Cup Final and a visit to the National Football Museum in Manchester. And Amy Sawitta Lefevre on BBCTV detailing ...

The latest Kent Police drugs raid of a supermarket(!) full of cannabis plants (over 1,000) in Ramsgate town centre here in East Kent raises several concerns. A supermarket full of drugs puts Boots and Superdrug almost to shame - the cannabis site was previously a Blockbuster video store (shades of old technology) and then a Morrisons supermarket (in its strategic search for different formats in the discounter wars with Lidl and Aldi). With Helmand in Afghanistan producing 90% of heroin for UK - again the highest ever production which raises issues over what NATO have been doing for years. And Shan heroin in Myanmar - the remaining 10% of UK heroin - and flooding across the border to India and China and damaging their citizens without an Airbase Heroin similar to Khe Sanh. And Frontline Kent's role in the Golden Triangle of Europe with London and Paris and Amsterdam nearby. The Thailand cave rescue of the Wild Boar youth football team in Chiang Rai in what was the Golden Tr...

Surely USA's UN Ambassador Nikki Haley has galvanised both India and USA with her tour last week. Paypal launching an extra 600 jobs into Chennai and Bangalore. While Krupp’s (TrumpDavos15)merger with Indian Tata steel rolling ahead smoothly. And with UK as a founding partner of the Commonwealth with India a resurgent emphasis on India trade important beyond tea and biscuits. Or chai. The importance of India in the world hardly surprising as already on some measures it has the largest population ahead of China. And is forecast to be the world’s largest economy in the next decade. A golden opportunity that UK in particular would be foolish to idly fritter away. Whether with Commonwealth support not just in India but also neighbouring Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Over 200 years of trade from colonial times - and before and after - with the outstanding success story of India’s railways, or Indian support in World War One and two. And of course the Indian su...

Terrific news that the Songkhram River in the Isaan region of Thailand and a tributary of the Mekong is being considered for RAMSAR protected status as detailed in The Nation newspaper and NY Times on the Chaopraya: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30346983 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/10/travel/thailand-river-tour.html RAMSAR being the natural and water equivalent of UNESCO Heritage Status developed from the Iran summit of 1971. And here in East Kent, just down the road from Ramsgate's Royal Harbour and opposite the Julius Caesar landing site and just up the road from the White Cliffs of Dover, Pegwell Bay already has RAMSAR status. A status often neglected in the past: runoff from Manston airport, cabling from the new Thanet Array windfarm, the disused Hoverport and the now-demolished Richboro power station undermining the wetlands considered Britain’s Camargue in the white horse county of Kent. Even now the extraordinarily foolish blight of a disuse...

Certainly a few tears must have been shed in the Casa Rosada with the IMF having to step in with a $50BN loan to prop up Argentina's banking system and currency. Shades of UK in the 1970's and the 2008 Crash. But especially galling for Argentina with it happening in the middle of the G20 Finance Ministers Summit and just a week before the G7 Summit in Canada. And it reinforces the economist's joke that there are four types of economies: growing, falling, Japan and Argentina. Japan exceptionalism in weathering the storms of the financial markets, and Argentina unfortunately too often not. Yet there is a glimmer of a silver lining to the peso woes, for surely the IMF and G20 action is a spur to greater trade with Argentina and Latin America in general. UK's DIT dept this week confirming for the first time 25,000 UK companies exporting to ASEAN a positive amid the ongoing David Cameron former PM target of an increase of UK trade. The dark days of the Falklands-M...