IT’S more than a year since the UK voted to leave the EU, but debate over that decision, which comes into effect in 2019, continues to rage among Brits. With politicians and advocates on both sides of the divide bombarding the public with their often widely differing opinions and views, it is hardly surprising there is still much confusion about Brexit and what will happen to the UK over the next few decades or so.
Meanwhile, British diplomats in Thailand are getting on with Brexit and giving it a positive spin. In an exclusive interview with The BigChilli, Richard Porter, the new Commercial Counsellor and Director of Trade and Investment at the British Embassy in Bangkok, explained its position: “We are very much concentrating on the benefits this (Brexit) brings. Among these is that we will finally be free to negotiate directly with Thailand. In time we also want to negotiate some trade agreement with Thailand. This will be a priority, but it will likely take many years.”
Mr Porter sees no reason why the UK can’t start forming bilateral agreements with this country right now and “hope they will eventually lay the groundwork for the comprehensive trade agreements in the future.”
Is there any reason why the British public can’t expect similar accords in other non-EU member countries?
Meanwhile, British diplomats in Thailand are getting on with Brexit and giving it a positive spin. In an exclusive interview with The BigChilli, Richard Porter, the new Commercial Counsellor and Director of Trade and Investment at the British Embassy in Bangkok, explained its position: “We are very much concentrating on the benefits this (Brexit) brings. Among these is that we will finally be free to negotiate directly with Thailand. In time we also want to negotiate some trade agreement with Thailand. This will be a priority, but it will likely take many years.”
Mr Porter sees no reason why the UK can’t start forming bilateral agreements with this country right now and “hope they will eventually lay the groundwork for the comprehensive trade agreements in the future.”
Is there any reason why the British public can’t expect similar accords in other non-EU member countries?
New Jim Thompson theory is too convenient and very implausible
| SINCE his body will never be found, no one can say for certain what happened to Jim Thompson on that fateful day in 1967 when he walked into the Malaysian jungle, never to return. That has not deterred an endless succession of ‘experts’ speculating on his disappearance. They are all theories, and nothing more. Even though most theories about Thompson have little credence, there is no question they perpetuate the mystery, the man and the myth. The latest comes in a movie ‘Who Killed Jim Thompson,’ conveniently released on the 50th anniversary of his disappearance which claims to have new evidence based on a deathbed confession, corroborated by a second source. And who killed Thompson? The Communist Party of Malaya, according to the film’s producer. Thompson was not on holiday with a group of friends in the Cameron Highlands but on a secret mission to meet one of Malaysia’s most wanted men. Frankly, that is about as believable as the theory that he was eaten (without a trace) by a tiger or slain by angry indigenous tribesmen. | There are several people alive today who knew Thompson and probably have their own far more plausible theories about what really became of the former American intelligence officer-turned millionaire Thai silk tycoon. But they’re not saying, for good reasons. Many followers of the Thompson saga reckon the book ‘The Ideal Man’ written by Joshua Kurlantzick and published in 2010 comes close to unravelling the mystery by stripping away the glamour and highlighting Thompson’s various personal as well as his business conflicts. Others who have studied the case suggest that his enemies in Thailand chose to eliminate him in Malaysia in order to throw the spotlight off them. But who knows? The truth is, Thompson’s famous disappearance remains the great selling point of the company that bears his name. |
