Uncle Tu and ASEAN workaday politics for UK and Thailand

So it’s all over bar the future shouting and debates as Uncle Tu is crowned PM last week by King Rama from the lengthy election campaign.

And more twists and turns of the election than a nest of cobras as Cabinet roles are handed out in the 20 party coalition and Senate majority of Uncle Tu.

Khun Thanathorn and the Future Forward party settling for second place in opposition with Pheu Thai - and a majority of House of Representative votes.

And not one but two Prime Minister Shinawatra’s settling for the booby prize of exile in Dubai and Hong Kong and warm praise and support from Princess Ubolratana.

The non sequitur of Democracy by Dictatorship rearing its ugly head in UK too not just with the S44 King Henry VIII laws of the Executive changing parliament laws at random but also the threat of a proroguing of Parliament (ie closing it down) to pass any Brexit laws.

Is the Tower of London big enough to hold 600 MP’s?

That last prorogue one of the most peculiar bids for support by Dominic Raab in the Tory PM election as Theresa May now resigns as Tory leader for a caretaker PM role.

The PM elections rather dismal beyond Brexit and more Brexit so far, with tuppence off tax and hospital car park charges featuring as in a parish council election.

Govey with an aim of abolishing the regressive VAT sales tax perhaps the most sensible point on taxation to emerge from the clouds of cannabis and opium smoke and torpor surrounding the candidates. Maybe lashings of cocaine and shaba would spark them all up.
Perhaps Eton isn’t what it was if this is the generation of future leaders it has minted so far.

###UK pseudo elections? ###

While the second if not third unelected PM in recent years with May and Brown previously suggests Thai democracy is on a firmer footing than UK.

And the pseudo-elections of the hereditary Lords as they die off – a tiny electorate of just 92 Lords is worthy of the rotten boroughs of old UK.

Lord Fowler fouling the Lords’ nest as Speaker in failing to deliver 21st century basic reforms.

Co-opting all the senior military and police chiefs into the Thai Senate is perhaps a canny move by Uncle Tu in reducing the potential for a future coup.

Unless a Young Turk with a tank fancies his chances as PM and Democracy by Dictatorship.

But with the elections over and the semblance of normal democracy in place and a further coup improbable then Uncle Tu faces the cut and thrust of politics as normal.

The only light at the end of the tunnel for PM Tu a new song making a whole album of ditties (and regular airplay on Thai radio and the Government House tannoy and Khun Apirak’s barracks?).

Questions already raised over reforms of the new Constitution.

A vote of no confidence aired for next year potentially.

The economy weakening to 3% growth.

The ASEAN Chair of this year frittered away in the kerfuffle of the elections.

And a longer election count even than East Kent with the ballot boxes stored overnight in the council offices with promises not to run the preferred votes through the photocopier. Or the Battlebus of supporters bussed in.

### County Barn £280M scandal ###

UK democracy certainly not what it was with the bizarre Swindon Borough Council election cack-handled by CEO Susie Kemp detailed in Private Eye of 10 Tory candidates being given(!) an extra(!) 2,385 votes each, and despite public outcry taking up their seats(!).

Kent maintaining its reputation for corruption and incompetence against such competition with the £280M loss of KCC pensions in the Woodford scandal ow being reviewed by the Lords. That mismanagement after the £500M pensions scandal of the Icelandic banks at the County Barn.

Worth remembering that the sale of the British Embassy in central Bangkok , Thailand’s largest ever land sale yielded the smaller amount of £400M, far larger sums routinely wasted in the County Barn as it struggles to fill potholes. Probably cheaper to fill them with five pound notes.

And the peculiar Manston airport application by Riveroak funded by not just a Belize mystery company but Delaware, Panama and BVI too and the Swiss Helix bank, that claims it has issued financial information to the public enquiry that yet remains unknown and unseen.

But on that point of the ASEAN Chair not the UK Battlebuses, surely lies the green shoots of recovery for Uncle Tu and Thailand?
Vietnam wisely already preparing for its Chair of ASEAN next year and its UN Security Council membership.

The theme of A Seamless ASEAN and sub themes of Defence and Community surely playing to Tu and Thailand’s strengths.

Kun Thanathorn and Future Forward also no doubt calling for a defence review with its anti-conscription policy too.

And lese-majeste reforms must be on the cards given the witch hunts detailed in the Bangkok Post of Khun Pannika by the royalist parties on petty issues of clothing and Facebook posts. Even King Bhumibol before his death railing against the frivolous use of the lese-majeste laws.

The Thai monarchy treated with far more deference than the UK monarchy – Prince Charles vehemently criticised for years over his green policies before being proved right.

While the massive success of both Thai and Cambodian Prime Minsters opening the BKK-PP rail link for the first time since 1970 is surely galvanising the extension of the link from PP-HCMC under the Vietnam ASEAN Chair.

Cambodia aside, the strategic linkage of Saigon and Bangkok for the first time by rail is a massive trade coup for both nations – and connecting all of the ASEAN mainland’s deep sea ports.

That softening of the Thai economy steeled with extra trade potential – certainly with UK given a 35% downfall in trade since the closure of the Thai SSI steelworks in Newcastle.

### Smart Cities on track? ###

In my Sincerity Advertising role I receive several emails from the Thai Board of Investment in UK for a Sincerity office in BKK and ASEAN – but those emails written only in Thai which must dampen the possibility of UK investment in Thailand and EEC.

And that ASEAN rail infrastructure whether to HCMC or to Kwai and Yangon must be sparking a surge in smelting. Also even for True and AIS 5g mobile internet transmitters in Thailand.

UK this Summer rolling out 5G to the first six main UK cities and that expertise could easily be tapped into by the Tu government to get Thailand 4.0 and its digital superhighway back on track.

And all those concrete rail sleepers from Kwai to Yangon must spur on ItalThai and Siam Cement growth et al. Even restructuring with the Six Companies.

The UK banking and mobile industries in need of further competition beyond just Metro Bank or one Bangkok Bank branch: 50k Thai expats and booming Thai tourism into UK surely calling for better calls and better banking facilities.

While Thailand and UK each with 35M tourists could well collaborate on programmes such as OTOP and Kitchen of the World from the successful launch of the Bangkok Michelin guide.

Thai Red Cross surely working with UK Red Cross on OTOP and GI geographical indications as Ulster Weavers featured in aprons and tea towels and hessian reusable bags. While The Independent in its antiplastic/oceans/recyclable work highlighting not just paper cotton buds, but bamboo toothbrushes and bamboo toilet paper.

While both Uncle Tu and Khun Thanathorn could at least agree on channelling their inner Richard Branson with Hyperloop rail possibilities Yangon-BKK-HCMC or to Ubon and Udon, or Chiang Mai-BKK-Singapore.

The ASEAN Chair becoming unglued with the delays on KL and Singapore rail despite the Connectivity theme.

And on Cambodia, surely it’s the work of moments for Thai and Khmer cross border cooperation in extending the Battambang rail to Siem Reap and Angkor for Thai tourists, and the Royal Road to Isaan.

The animal welfare ban on elephants at Siem Reap surely an issue for depressing Thai tourism receipts and jobs, as at the Surin Elephant Festival or Phuket dolphin shows with changing Western tastes and tourism company animal protection policies.

And Battambang and those other ASEAN Smart Cities sinking into the swamp of failure or at least inaction at the moment.

Forest dwellers highlighted by veteran journalist Khun Sanitsuda, and Blue Flag welfare card are surely an ASEAN revolution for land registration and the banking of the unbanked from Satun to Solomon Islands by companies such as HSBC and Prudential if SCB or GSB are unwilling.

Resilience is not so resilient in Thailand if another tsunami or earthquake or volcano would send seismic shockwaves through the Tu premiership far more than crop haze.

And if Sports Diplomacy is still little more than bread and circuses here in East Kent with the financial bread of investment lacking as the Dreamland circus only just refloats. While the 13-0 drubbing of Thailand by USA in the Women’s World Cup suggests greater possibilities of links with UK as a Sporting Superpower.

Thailand wouldn’t walk alone in not just promoting Leicester’s Siam Foxes or the Carabao cup or Chang’s latest shirt sponsorship or the Premiership in general but community work to rival Khun Tippy’s Million Footballs CSR at King Power Leicester. And sports science and training for athletes translating into innovative healthcare in an ageing society.

Argentina’s VR company Vrify launching into London exactly the sort of tech-health activity that may well be on prescription beyond just e-sports or Thai medical tourism in future.

And if it’s too early to detail the Hyde Park Corner English language schools, the new Tu government must surely want to put a rocket under Thai English language skills and school links.

Thai FDI surely worth exploring with EEC for the Thames Valley Gateway from The City and London Docklands down the Kent coast to Dover Europe’s largest port.

An interesting Asia Foundation report on Isaan highlights not just farm debt but the potential for increased farm machinery sales and Doitung-style crop diversification if Thailand is too reliant just on a glut of rice against China and India exports.

UK exports aside (especially designer rice varieties) to restaurants such as Surin here in Ramsgate a top ten UK Thai restaurant and part of the Kent Cuisine Culture (try the sea bass!). And The Sportsman Michelin rated bistro).

Uncle Tu must be pondering the possibilities for Thai rice exports to the famine-hit regions of Sahel and East Africa in the wake of Thai peacekeeping with Kent Royal Engineers in South Sudan.

Thai rice exports and hungry Africans and UK DFID and USAid funds and UNSDG hunger goals seem an ideal combination. Rice rotting in warehouses as people go hungry seems an easy problem to solve in the 21st century.

And those East Kent Core Company Saga cruise ships and tourists surely should be wending their way to Asia’s wats and waterways more frequently. Thai tourism already expressing concern at cruise ships docking at cargo terminals rather than dedicated tourism berths.

While Thai SME companies from Tshirts to makeup to coffee beans, as well as DHL shippers surely taking a leaf from dynamic blogger Lhyzie Bongon in the Philippines in Asia-Europe trade.

Foodstuffs from Baanson coffee in Chaiyaphum to United Fruit pineapples in Hua Hin must be surely keen to rack up more UK exports and sales.
With Finland as EU chair and Helsinki one of the main cargo hubs to Thailand, DHL along with Thai Air must be keen to expand exports as well as detail the potential air slots in the London Heathrow expansion.

The UK PM debates yielding concerns on the BBC over Boris Island airport being revived and the third runway at Heathrow debate. The Scotland-Ireland bridge far more productive for the UK economy than a Boris Island but a grain of truth in considering an airport in the sea as Hong Kong. And a review of the strange second Gatwick runway overbuild that emerged as well as a third Heathrow overbuild runway and half-empty Gatwick, Birmingham and Stansted airports.

Vietnam’s ASEAN Chair probably concerned about underperforming Vietnam Air at Gatwick.

Much as Finnish companies from Nokia to Suunto can see the growth potential in both UK and Asia with Helsinki cargo airport as stability returns to UK and Thailand.

Time for Change
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