UK Permanent Under Secretary pays official visit to Thailand

[webfact]

U.K. Permanent Under Secretary pays official visit to Thailand



BANGKOK, 3 February 2016 (NNT) – The United Kingdom’s Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs has paid an official visit to the Kingdom of Thailand to discuss bilateral cooperation in various areas.

Sir Simon Gerard McDonald, Permanent Under-Secretary of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, met with Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, both pledging to promote trade and investment between the two nations.

Other areas of cooperation include tourism, transnational crime prevention, and science and technology. Sir Simon also stressed the need for every sector in Thailand to help achieve political reform and restore democracy.

The British representative is scheduled today to meet Deputy Foreign Minister Virasakdi Futrakul to exchange their views on foreign policies. He has also expressed his support for a health and road safety insurance campaign for all British nationals in Thailand.

Sir Simon will later visit the British Embassy and meet with British businessmen as well as high-profile academics.


-- NNT 2016-02-03

[Morakot]

Obviously the Secretary of State did want to go to meet the Junta; the PS had to fill in here ...

The Right Honourable Philip Hammond, MP (not) meeting unelected military leaders.

Edited February 3, 2016 by Morakot

[nong38]

No mention of the frozen pension for UK pensioners or reciprical agreement discussion then!

I expect they exchanged football shirts.

[Thongkorn]

Last seen down soy 7 in Pattaya in drag, On a fact finding Mission.

Edited February 3, 2016 by Thongkorn

[MorristheRunt]

Who is picking up the tab of Dear Leaders ever increasing, bad taste wardrobe?

Edited February 3, 2016 by MorristheRunt

[eliotness]

Obviously the BAE Systems ship deal is just a start, official backing, just look what comes next in a month or so !!!

[Baerboxer]

Obviously the Secretary of State did want to go to meet the Junta; the PS had to fill in here ...

The Right Honourable Philip Hammond, MP (not) meeting unelected military leaders.

Hammond might be a tad busy after choosing to attack Putin, verbally of course. Not one of our star FM's somehow.

The Permanent Under Secretary is an important diplomat. Not doubt the good ole'boys at the Embassy and BTTC will be enjoying the back slapping and G&T's.

There was a large British University show case last weekend, so the academics might still be around. Not sure if any famous British academics are based here, unless he's counting some of the TEFL's

[nong38]

Obviously the BAE Systems ship deal is just a start, official backing, just look what comes next in a month or so !!!

How many ( paper ) planes can it take.

[Ricardo]

Pity we didn't know he was coming, British citizens living in Thailand might have turned out to welcome him, and lobby for unfreezing our pensions & giving us back our votes ... which might have generated bad-publicity ... which is probably why we weren't given the opportunity.

Isn't the UK supposed to be a shining example of democracy ? !

[jayboy]

Pity we didn't know he was coming, British citizens living in Thailand might have turned out to welcome him, and lobby for unfreezing our pensions & giving us back our votes ... which might have generated bad-publicity ... which is probably why we weren't given the opportunity.

Isn't the UK supposed to be a shining example of democracy ? !

I'm not sure there is much political mileage in protecting the interests of what is perceived as a bunch of geriatric former sex tourists who whine about their rights and yet by any rational criteria shouldn't as a result of their relative poverty be in Thailand anyway.

Not my view at all but we should bear in mind we are not a particularly important constituency.

[Ricardo]

Pity we didn't know he was coming, British citizens living in Thailand might have turned out to welcome him, and lobby for unfreezing our pensions & giving us back our votes ... which might have generated bad-publicity ... which is probably why we weren't given the opportunity.

Isn't the UK supposed to be a shining example of democracy ? !

I'm not sure there is much political mileage in protecting the interests of what is perceived as a bunch of geriatric former sex tourists who whine about their rights and yet by any rational criteria shouldn't as a result of their relative poverty be in Thailand anyway.

Not my view at all but we should bear in mind we are not a particularly important constituency.

Happily I'm one of the entrepreneurs who made his money, and retired early to a better place, just the sort a Conservative-government should try to tempt to return, not that I ever will now of course.

My/our assets are gone forever, from the UK/EU tax-net, and my grandchildren will thank me for it.

But I find it sad that 'they' don't even realise that the best brains have voted with their feet and emigrated !

Perhaps pretending that we're all "a bunch of geriatric former sex tourists" is their way of denying, that we were more far-sighted & thrifty & successful, than the ones who stayed behind ?

Now, where did I put my Viagra ?

Edited February 4, 2016 by Ricardo

[jayboy]

Pity we didn't know he was coming, British citizens living in Thailand might have turned out to welcome him, and lobby for unfreezing our pensions & giving us back our votes ... which might have generated bad-publicity ... which is probably why we weren't given the opportunity.

Isn't the UK supposed to be a shining example of democracy ? !

I'm not sure there is much political mileage in protecting the interests of what is perceived as a bunch of geriatric former sex tourists who whine about their rights and yet by any rational criteria shouldn't as a result of their relative poverty be in Thailand anyway.

Not my view at all but we should bear in mind we are not a particularly important constituency.

Happily I'm one of the entrepreneurs who made his money, and retired early to a better place, just the sort a Conservative-government should try to tempt to return, not that I ever will now of course.

My/our assets are gone forever, from the UK/EU tax-net, and my grandchildren will thank me for it.

But I find it sad that 'they' don't even realise that the best brains have voted with their feet and emigrated !

Perhaps pretending that we're all "a bunch of geriatric former sex tourists" is their way of denying, that we were more far-sighted & thrifty & successful, than the ones who stayed behind ?

Now, where did I put my Viagra ?

My point was that there is no political mileage in the UK for support for our cause.I don't think there is any difference between the parties.

It's a bit of a stretch in my view to argue that we represent the best and brightest.I don't see many real entrepreneur types among expats.The few that are couldn't care less about their UK state pension.

It's also the case that anybody whose state pension is really that important for them probably shouldn't be here anyway.If they want to be expats on the cheap they should move to countries where there are reciprocal pension arrangements.I realise that's impractical for those hooked up with and supporting a Thai family - and I have real sympathy for those struggling financially in this category.It's not going to get any better.

[Ricardo]

I understand about the politicians needing to pay some attention to their voters, those ones who bother to turn out, and that's why I see it as important that moving overseas should not mean that we lose (eventually) our voting-rights. Many of us still pay a bit of tax in the UK, and there should be no taxation without representation/influence, in a healthy democracy.

In that ideal world there would be UK-MPs specifically representing the several millions of voters/citizens who are currently out-of-the-country, working overseas or retired or whatever, but I don't see that actually happening. Pity, but then that the UK's flawed-democracy, for better or worse.

Regarding who has the brains, I've long thought that those who've earned the marketable-skills & got the self-confidence to risk all and work-overseas or emigrate, must surely on-average have something that the time-servers or safety-firsters who stayed behind don't. They don't rely on 'the system' to protect & look after them. They look beyond Friday-night or the next holiday. Perhaps it's evolution and natural-selection in action ?

I don't meet many expats who would willingly move back, for all that their new countries-of-choice aren't perfect either, why should they be. But then again, logically I wouldn't meet them, because they wouldn't still be here.

Agree completely that things in Europe aren't going to get better any time soon. The move to a post-imperial world & global-economy is still working-through, and while current living-standards may not slide much, I don't see them advancing far either. This was clear (to me at least)15-20 years ago, which is why I planned & then voted-with-my-feet, while I still could.

Anyway I hope the PUS enjoys his visit, and gets something for Britain, and who knows but that he might even meet a few ordinary Brits while here, although I doubt that they'll be hanging-round the Embassy waiting.