Thaksin Shinawatra - gotcha!

So Thaksin has finally got his come-uppance from Her Britainic Majesty's Government!

According to today's Bangkok Post (and probably all the others in Bangkok that support the Peoples' Alliance for Democracy), the British Embassy in Thailand has revoked his visa, effectively banning him and his wife, Khunying Potjaman, from entering Britain on their Thai passports.  The British have also circulated airlines that are members of the Airport Operations Committee.

The letter made it clear that the visas issued to the couple were no longer valid and the illustrious couple should be prevented from boarding planes to Britain.

There will be many cheers in Thailand today.

Personally, I am delighted since I never liked the guy!  A little like Dubya, he has done huge damage to Thailand.  He is enormously wealthy thanks to his corrupt connections.

True, he has done good things for the poor of Thailand eking out a living as best they can.  But even there, his policies on support for poor people were badly thought out.  There was no clear definition of poverty to define who was eligible for any handouts.  It was left to people themselves to make claims and to risk the embarassment of being turned away - a good technique if you want to discourage poor people from claiming.

Also, his policy of cheap medical care soon ran out of funding since it as badly calculated. Some hospitals risked being bankrupted as a result.

Of course, it will not mean much to the Thaksin family.

They will be welcomed in the Bahamas;  or they could go to Africa (not that they are very likely to accept that invitation.

Since addressing the crowd of supporters at Rajamangala Stadium last weekend, it is thought that the couple left Hong Kong for China, although no one is sure.

It is embarassing to be turned away from the United Kingdom.

But then, Thaksin is used to embarassing events.