I could not resist adding this photo of Leila getting her Msc in Voluntary Sector Management at Southwark Cathedral last week.  It was a great day and I was very proud of her.

Thailand’s new parliament yesterday elected Samak Sundaravej, the leader of the PPP, as the country’s new Prime Minister. Cabinet appointments are expected to follow once the appointment of the new Prime Minister has been ratified by King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Aside from the problems of running a six party coalition government and handling the tricky issue of Thaksin Shinawatra’s potential return to Thailand The Guardian reports that “Samak, a right-winger in several army-backed governments that arrested and killed opponents, is himself fighting a two-year sentence for defamation and is the subject of corruption allegations over the purchase of fire trucks while he was Bangkok governor”

Poyet gone

Wise gone

Just Bates to go and we will have got the Chelsea out of Leeds.

Of course you can’t blame Wise for going to a job with a reported salary of £1.5m a year albeit a job whose role does not appear to be entirely clear and where the new manager does not seem ecstatic about his arrival.

Main question now is who will take over as manager of Leeds

A fascinating headline in this mornings Bangkok Post grabbed my attention.

Surayud calls for peace talks

Presumably this would be about trying to bring peace to the southern part of Thailand where the government and insurgents have been waging an ongoing battle.  But no this was about peace talks between the military and the incoming PPP coalition government.

This seemed to imply several possibilities

1)  The outgoing military junta is worried about possible reprisals from the incoming PPP coalition.

2) The outgoing military junta is worried that the rumours about the incoming PPP coalition are true and that they propose to rewrite the constitution before dissolving parliament and holding further elections.

3) The military really do wish to try and reach some compromise solution between what one might term the pro and anti Thaksin forces in the country to try and achieve some longer term stability

4) The statement is actually a veiled threat.  If you need peace talks then that kind of implies that you are at war.  If you are at war then of course that might be a justification for a further military coup if things develop in a way which is not to your liking.

Hopefully it is number three and not number four.  Assuming it is number three then I suspect a lot of compromises will have to be made on all sides none of which will sit particularly well with the respective groups supporters. 

For a start I guess the pro Thaksin side will want to see all charges against him and his wife dropped.  In return the anti Thaksin side will want assurances that the outgoing military government and those who supported it will not be pursued and prosecuted.  So far so good aside from the obvious fact that all parties ought to face the consequences of their actions. 

The anti Thaksin forces will want Thaksin to promise to stay out of politics which he may agree to but I suspect that even if he does agree he will remain very active behind the scenes and the anti Thaksin side will not trust him in any case.  The anti Thaksin side will also want guarantees that the constitution will remain unchanged and it may be this that proves to be the sticking point.

Yesterday the Supreme Court threw out all the cases against the PPP and the Election Commission which could have blocked the PPP’s attempts to form a government.  Oddly the Supreme Court rejected three of the cases on the grounds that it did not have the power to do so.  Without the detail it is difficult to tell why this might be so.

The People Power Party leader Samak Sundaravej has today held a press conference to officially announce a six-party coalition government.  The government will include the Chart Thai, Puea Pandin, Pracharaj, Ruam Jai Thai Chart Pattana and Matchimathipataya parties and will have 315 out of the 480 members of parliament.

According to this mornings Bangkok Post the new Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan has gone on record as having told the press that “ambitious billionaire owner Mike Ashley has made a bottomless pit of cash available to help transform the club’s Premier League fortunes in what remains of the January window”

I am sure that Mike Ashley will not be impressed with such statements and with targets said to include Wayne Bridge. Jermaine Defoe and Wes Brown that statement about a bottomless pit could cost the club several million extra in transfer fees

Juice Seller

Tuk Tuk in Nathon

Leila at Layla’s on Koh Samui

I was surprised to see that my letter to the Bangkok Post was published today especially as there was a letter in yesterdays edition hinting that the author thought that letters in a simialr vein were a put up job!

My letter was as follows:

As a regular visitor to the Kingdom and a keen observer of Thai politics, I have to admit to being somewhat disconcerted at the current state of play with regard to formation of the next government.

It seems that investigations by the Election Commission could lead to the dissolution of one or more parties including the PPP. Cases in front of the Supreme Court could also lead to the nullifying of votes or the disbandment of the PPP.

What is not clear at all is what such a dissolution would lead to. If individuals involved in the elections have committed electoral offences (such as vote buying) then clearly they should be barred from taking their seats.

However, the disbanding of political parties that have been voted for by millions of people does not seem a sensible way forward. If the disbanding of these parties leads to another election, then it is inevitable that yet another party will spring up to pursue the policies espoused by the PPP and Thai Rak Thai before them.

If it does not lead to a further election, then millions of Thais will effectively be disenfranchised.