Thai Protest Over

It looks as though their may be a respite in the troubles in Thailand after the protest leaders surrendered to the government. The government troops were said to have killed at least five people this morning when they stormed the camp where the protesters were holed up.

The protesters are protesting at having a government they see as illegitimate after they came to power in a parliamentary deal rather than as the result of an election. The Centre-Right and Liberalist coalition (Thankfully this is where the similarities end.) was formed after previous Prime Minister Thaskin Shinawatra was convicted of corruption and was removed by a military coup.

Personally I think that if there is a coalition formed from a military coup rather than an election then they should have an election at the earliest point. (Obviously This is different to our current set up where there is a democratic legitimacy to the government.) but I just hope that there will be a solution without further blood shed.

Labour's Scortched Earth Policy, The Police and Thailand

I am off to Weston-Super-Mere today for a meeting regarding a new database and so have had plenty of time to look through the paper (Metro on this occasion) and a couple of stories leaped out at me.

First, there is a story about civil servants having their bonuses stopped, in fact it states that only the best performing 25% will get a bonus, surely this is right, as if you are under performing why would you get a Bonus? Whilst I think perhaps just the top 25% may be a bit tough after all I am sure the people in the 26th percentile are probably still doing a good job, we are in unprecedented debt levels so it will take some pain for all to get us out of it.

It was also pointed out that Labour rushed to sign off 14Billion of contracts leading up to the election including 420Million on new schools, 13Billion on a tanker aircraft programme and 600Million on a computer contract. One former advisor to the old government is quoted as saying "The atmosphere was pull up the railways, burn the grain stores, leave nothing for the tories." - is this governing in the public good? Anyone involved in this kind of destructive, malignant government should be barred for ever holding public office again.

Second story to grab my attention is about Police to civilian ratio. The Chairman of the Police Federation, Paul McKeever has said that the increase in the percentage between Police and civilian staff can lead to danger to public safety. Now I have to declare that I am not neutral in this debate as my brother is a police officer as were my father and uncle before him. I am therefore quite pro police officer, however I do feel that we use far too many police officers in far too many back office positions. My personal view is that I would like to see all non-command office positions filled with civil servants and all officers out on the street replacing PCSO's (not that I think pcso's do a bad job, I have met many as a councillor and found them all very competent.) But why should a fully trained warranted PC be stuck in an office filling out paperwork for more than half their shift?

Finally I was upset to see that the death toll in Thailand has increased to 30 with 232 injured after another day of violence, in what is a mostly ignored topic. There are around 5000 supporters of the former Thai prime minister in a camp in Bangkok who have been advised to leave as the government troops have stated they will escalate their response. With over 200 of them already shot by the armed services I can't even imagine what the week will bring for them.