A number of less charitable and cynical souls have been leaving abusive messages alluding to my sporadic appearance in the office this week, but in fact I have been hard at work and last Friday seems about a year and half ago. During that time I have been to a performance of Dido and Aeneas at Rugby to witness Hen as a witch chasing boys about the stage with a couple of kippers in her hands. Doesn’t get much more classical than that. Wednesday was a busy day down in Wiltshire playing with shotguns and it was only a chance remark when I was down that explained why the stunningly witty joke I had been cracking - to the effect that whilst the Americans were eating turkeys we would be shooting clay pigeons - had drawn such blank stares. I’m told the 4th July is Independence Day not Thanksgiving….and I’m meant to have a global perspective! Worrying. Then Wimbledon yesterday and a life changing recommendation given to me by one of my guests to watch channel 295 on Sky. The “Horse and Country” channel. It’s fantastic. I was up till the early hours last night watching the poultry tent and egg judging at the Royal Show. The tennis was a bit of a wash out really. The incessant rain is now becoming boring. Even my 6 year old is somewhat disenchanted with this English summer. “I thought God told Noah he would stop the rain” she complained last night. This is the same child who greeted me earlier in the week with joy all over her face and the news that we were going to have a new addition to the family…. “and I’m hoping for a boy”. This was surprising for me and I hastened into the kitchen where I found Sophie with tears rolling down her cheeks. The smell of curry hung in the air and it transpired that Lottie, an inquisitive soul, had been watching the preparation of supper and asking what the various jars of spices and herbs were. After she pointed at one particular small jar Sophie told her it contained cumin seeds. “Human seeds???” said Lottie. No doubt storing all sorts of trouble for the future, Sophie simply stood there, watching in astonishment as Lottie gleefully gathered one up and rushed off to the garden to plant the younger brother she had always hoped for.
Thursday morning we had a breakfast video conference link up with the Leader of the Thai Democrat Party, Khun Abhisit Vejjajiva and Deputy Leader, Khun Korn Chatikavanij. Hopefully you saw the invitation to “Congee or Croissants with CLSA” ( catchy eh! ) I can’t tell you how complicated it was to get a supply of congee for Thursday morning, but with the help of my brilliant colleague, May Kwong, this was achieved. Pretty interesting. To my mind the key point is that these gentlemen were prepared to give us their time, but as you may be aware, I have been arguing that the market should perform well in the run up to elections and that beyond that, assuming a Democrat led coalition government, they will quickly work to restore foreign investor interest and confidence in Thailand. During the call Khun Abhisit pledged to straightaway remove the remaining capital controls imposed by the interim government, albeit he was a little more reticent on that old chestnut of foreign ownership limits. Suffice to say they will look at the Alien Business Law, but are more inclined to act to streamline the process by which foreign businesses can obtain licences to set up in Thailand. Significant investment in education and infrastructure will be a key priority of a Democrat led administration and we could expect interest rates to be cut significantly too. All in all it was an encouraging discussion although I also came away with the view that whilst the Democrats are probably still favourites to be the largest party after the next election it is not a given. They themselves target 150 seats as an “ambitious, but acheiveable” target. “So long as we get one more seat than the second largest party we’ll be happy”. Oh, and if you are Thai, the Democrats are in fund-raising mode and need your money……some things never change!
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