It is perhaps apt for the 5th anniversary yesterday of the Returning Happiness to the People coup in Thailand that politics returning to normal with battle lines drawn up in Parliament rather than the streets (the Ratchaprasong Junction anniversary of 2010 earlier this week a reminder on what can happen outside Parliament).
One can argue Thailand more stable than UK at the moment with the collapse of the political parties even before EU elections - those elections a strange sop to ending the Brexit shambles. While hot talk of coups is merely PM May being replaced in Parliament. Although the strange democratic twist of a second unelected PM via a new Tory leader in 3 years.
Let's gloss over the Battlebus election fraud for the previous election and Kent endemic corruption as the County Barn rots.
And business in Thailand is returning to normal with the announcement of two bridges across the Mekong to Laos and repairs to the other Friendship bridges.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asean/1681504/minister-to-push-for-two-more-mekong-bridges
The new bridges strategic in knitting together Thailand with Laos and Isaan with Bangkok from the Charter referendum. For the Nong Khai bridge ready to link with the new China-Laos rail. That something of a boondoggle without connecting to Isaan and Bangkok.
And perhaps even more importantly the second bridge by Transport Minister Khun Arkom linking the Ubon region with The Four Thousand Islands of southern Laos and Northern Cambodia.
And there seems a strange disconnect in the Khun Surinya Bangkok Post article with Thai tourism sites:
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1679852/must-visit-cultural-sites-evoke-pride
A Japan World one of the leading tourism sites in Thailand? Then surely improved rail links through Isaan are the motor in the engine not just of the Future Forward Hyperloop one debate, but also Thai tourism and UNESCO sites.
### UNESCO and Royal Road ###
UK perhaps overly full of UNESCO sites such as Parliament and Canterbury Cathedral here in East Kent, but a Lego World with an Eiffel Tower surely wouldn't feature in the UK must-see sites?
But Thailand has an opportunity with the Royal Road of temple sites, not just Angkor Wat in nearby Cambodia (or the almost limitless supply of new temples found nearby) but the temples across the Mun River plateau to Preah Vihar and Pakse and The Four Thousandx Islands.
All of which are both slightly neglected as a tourism package and UNESCO rankings: Thailand rather badly served with only 5 sites but more on the Tentative List including the Royal Road in Isaan.
And the new bridges, as with the new Thailand-Cambodia railway through Battambang opened by Prime Ministers Chanocha and Hun Sen, leave a trail of tourism breadcrumbs. The bridges launched in Buriram apt given that city's aims as a Sports City not just with the Thundercastles succcess (the Manchester City of Thailand?) and new sports stadium and motorcar racetrack - not dissimilar to Kent's Brands Hatch.
While Surin further on has its elephant festival with the Isaan silk and silver shared with Sisaket and then the Ubon Candle Festival.
That Royal Road tour and rail link from Surin to Siem Reap and Battambang would open up much of southern Isaan. As would improved rail links to Roi Et and Kalasin.
Khun Arkom probably oiling his bicycle chain for both pedestrian-friendly and healthy Smart Cities and cycle races. A Tour de Isaan or Tour de Deep South to rival Tour de Yorkshire?
The latest Great export ads for UK focusing on Advertising for the Cannes festival week - not a bicycle but a speedboat surging through Union Jack waves. Probably on the Tonle Sap lake. Or Lake District UNESCO site. Isaan from space and textiles featuring previously.
### Newcastle University Rail and Kasetsart ###
And with the successful launch of the new LNER East Coast fast trains in UK with Hitachi (here in East Kent and Sunderland - just down the road from the Newcastle University and Kasetsart rail dept venture) from London to Edinburgh, surely UK, flush with the $600M sale of the Bangkok Embassy, the largest-ever land sale in Thailand, would be pumping some of those funds back into greater working with Thailand?
Certainly some of those funds a useful pump-primer with AIIB and ADB, on the former Danny Alexander former LibDem Treasury Chief active as AIIB Vice President alongside Nick Clegg former Deputy PM and Facebook advisor, George Osborne former Tory Chancellor and Black Rock director in establishing the AIIB with former Prime Minister David Cameron, fresh from the shepherd hut in finishing his memoirs, to reverse the Who Lost China concerns. Danny long advocating infrastructure in Asia beyond merely pouring tarmac.
A shame if UK lost ASEAN too - that would be a lot of Manchester University graphene water filters and Crossrail-style London SuperSewers to waste. The German PM last year and Ambassador this year wasting no time in emphasising Germany's Rolls Royce engineering skills.
Ja, ja, achtung Heathrow und Thai Air, das ist smooth as silk.
All that rather galling given I for one built Concorde with my Dad, the real thing of Great British Engineering, not just an East Kent Airfix kit.
And extra Jollibee restaurants or Gails Bakeries or Thai sticky rice or Quorn of scant consolation for the doldrums of the UK High St with the collapse of Jamie Oliver restaurants and Patisserie Valerie.
### Ramsgate Weekend of Blood. Ting Tong. ###
Best to be quick before Chief Constable Pughsley places an order for more champagne on the rates for Kent Police. I am convinced he could be a major contribution to Road Safety. Especially after the disastrous Ramsgate Weekend of Blood if he patrolled more and kept away from the gypsy encampments and leave the incessant tarmacking of driveways and highways to the KCC County Barn.
The positive of Ramsgate's first Asian female Mayor Raushan, after the dark days of UKIP and Ting Tong Janice MEP, no doubt keen to ensure a grip is taken on the town centres and councils after years of failure.
Indeed what better time than this year with Thailand's ASEAN Chair 2019 of Connectivity but also leading into the Vietnam ASEAN Chair of 2020 for completing the HCMC-PP-BKK link. And UK and Hitachi Kwai rail upgrades all the more fitting for UK and Japan and Thailand to forge closer links in the 21st century after the disastrous conflicts of the 20th century.
Indeed, with the new Philippines Space Agency close to being ratified by the Senate, surely UK and Thailand with ASEAN and Commonwealth friends as at the Australian Space Agency be working closer on not just Richard Branson's Hyperloop but his Space plans. As a minimum a Thailand Space Agency could participate with UK and EU Space Agencies such as Surrey Satellites just over the Kent border, and Woomera rocket ranges near Adelaide.
### Space City Glasgow and Moscow just a hill of Heinz beans? ###
With Glasgow the Space City of Europe with more manufacturing than anywhere else, even to rival Boeing Sheffield's new HQ, Thai Resilience would be on firmer ground for 5G flood forecasts etc with dedicated satellites in the skies over the Royal Road of Isaan?
And those hitech tools not mere pie in the sky, or the moon is made of cream cheese fantasies, with POTUS Trump and NASA - as well as China - dedicating to new Moon bases and Mars colonies by 2030.
Prince Charles staging a coup of his own with not just the riproaring success of his Cuba visit galvanising UK efforts in Cuba and the Caribbean (the new James Bond movie already creating EKFOS-style jobs for 500 Jamaicans), but also leading the State visit for POTUS Trump in the next few weeks around the DDay landings commemoration. Prince Charles no doubt securing a few packs of Duchy Original biscuits at the 19th hole vending machines in Donald Trump's UK and Eire golf clubs.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20190518/jamaicans-working-all-areas-bond-film#
Maybe in his golf bag to share with Tiger Woods out on the course. But also galvanising USA infrastructure with a booming USA Steel economy and rather soggy British Steel industry.
In the last few months before the frenzy of 2020 elections, POTUS Trump no doubt keen to keep the economy on the boil without bubbling over and kickstart the economies of the Rust Belt Swing States with length after length of rail-line and if not a hill of Heinz beans for Virginia-style school dinners, then a mountain of rocket parts ready to be supplied and assembled. Whether in USA or Thailand or UK. Thailand's Senator Tammy Duckworth and Anna Eshoo must certainly want to secure some of that NASA supply chain to their states.
And Californian Kamala Harris and Kent Pocahontas Elizabeth Warren (now teaming up with Kent Puerto Rican spitfire AOC) gaining far more traction in UK than other Democrat Presidential hopefuls.
Trump infrastructure reforms so far a bridge to nowhere beyond border wall tweaks.
Those Boeing and Elon Musk and Richard Branson and rockets need to be built somewhere to hit Mars in the next decade. And with USA and Russia on speaking terms after the froth and fury of the Collusion McCarthyism, POTUS Trump and President Putin warmer telephone chats (don't tell him the nuclear codes Donald!) might encompass the growth of the Russian Space industry too.
And John Deere tractors across the steppe aside, even or more of those lengths of railway steel across OBOR and the Bering Strait tunnel.
That certainly a coup for both Trump and especially Putin in returning happiness to the Russian people.
Perhaps Thailand but certainly UK having to wait longer.
@timg33
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