Monthly Archive for December, 2008

Jingle bells unheard in Thailand until Santa shops child abuser

Published
by
Andrew Drummond
on December 19, 2008
in The Times
. 15 Comments

Andrew Drummond - Bangkok December 19 2008 - blog

Thailand’s education authorities have been duped once again, this time by a man with a record dating back 45 years for sexually abusing children, who ran a child-sex tourism operation for profit under their noses.

The widespread abuses committed by Canadian John Wrenshall are so mind boggling it comes as no surprise this time that the U.S. authorities chose to arrest him somewhere from which he could easily be deported for trial.

He was shopped by a part-time Santa Claus, but nobody in Thailand noticed the warning bells ringing about Wrenshaw, arrested at Heathrow airport London this week, who was hiring out and also abusing young children in Bangkok.

The arrest comes after voices at Thailand’s Ministry of Education insisted it would be checking the credentials and background of foreign teachers, as they did too at private schools and universities.

Wrenshall was one of the bosses at A.U.A in Bangkok, which has the country’s leading Thai and English language programmes. The U.S. authorities want to put him on trial in New Jersey, the home of one of his client child abusers, Wayne Corliss, 59, a part-time actor and occasional Santa Claus who spilled all.

Canadian Christopher Neil, 32, a teacher at the Ramkhamheang Adventist school, and also in Korea, who was on Interpol’s most wanted list, is currently serving some eight years in prison in Thailand, leaving little hope for a ‘show trial’ in Canada, where authorities wanted to demonstrate their ability to show their sex-tourism laws are working. They won’t get Wrenshall either.

The US authorities did not, I suspect, want him bogged down in Thailand, where inevitably victims, as in the case of Neil, will be found in retrospect.

Wrenshall, according to his CV, was a consultant to ‘Travel Alberta’ and gave up a promising career and his own computer software company in Canada to teach in Thailand at a fraction of his previous salary.

Wrenshall, was Supervisor of Assessment and Supervisor of the Academic English Language Program.  He had been there just short of ten years - straight from a prison sentence.

He also taught at Mahidol University out on their Salaya Campus.

Had either of these bastions of education bothered to check they may have discovered that in fact, he had left Canada in something of a hurry and rather cash strapped.

He had lost his company and had to sell his house and his car to settle civil suits by five Albertans who said he had molested them when they were minors.

At least 20 boys as young as nine were indecently assaulted by Mr. Wrenshall, from 1961 to the mid 1980s, according to court evidence in Calgary, Canada’s Globe and Mail reported.

“A former scoutmaster and Anglican choir member at Calgary’s Cathedral Church of the Redeemer, Mr. Wrenshall has a master’s degree in sociology. He lured his victims on the pretence that he was conducting a study on preteen boys’ sexuality , the court was told.

“After receiving a suspended sentence in 1970, he undertook two years of counselling. After he reoffended, a judge sentenced him in 1997 to one year in jail and two years probation, saying that would be a “satisfactory deterrent.”
“Two years later, he was pimping young Thai boys, charging up to $400 a boy and recruiting his johns in an Internet chat room called Boy Love and Chat”

Wrenshall was arrested at Heathrow on Tuesday on a warrant issued after he was indicted by a grand jury in New Jersey, USA.

———————————————————————————

Footnote: On December 22 2008 after CEOP officers had returned to the UK the Bangkok Post published a report by Wassayos Ngamkham. Thai police were quoted that the major player a Brit had escaped arrested during the operation.

”It’s an organisation deeply involved in the sex trade with a British man as the mastermind,” Pol Lt-Col Panya said. ”He contacts customers through a website and has a Thai transvestite procure children for customers, most of whom are Europeans who have businesses in Thailand or retirees who have settled here.”

According to the inspector, the British man is a big procurer in Pattaya. However, on the morning of Dec 11 when police arrested four foreign paedophiles there, they did not find any evidence linking them to the mastermind”.

The newspaper was supplied with photographs by the Royal Thai Police.

I ,of course hope Thai police have not given the game away and that ‘Mr.Big’ has not skipped off, but if he was not around for the December 11th raids, the chances are he had already.

Old Etonian takes Thailand on a ticket of ethics and principals

Published
by
Andrew Drummond
on December 15, 2008
in The Times
. 0 Comments

Old Etonian takes Thailand on a ticket of ethics and principals

Link to Evening Standard

Link to Daily Mail  Oxford Grad and former classmate of Boris Johnson is new Thai PM

From Andrew Drummond,
Bangkok, December 15 2008

A former Eton scholar and Oxford University graduate was today elected Prime Minister of Thailand by a slim majority of 37 votes.

MPs elected Abhisit Vejjajiva, leader of the country’s Democratic Party, putting an end to rule, by telephone, of ousted Premier Thaksin Shinawatra, and the successive governments he attempted to control in his exile.

His opponent was a former Thai police chief Pracha Promnok of the Puea Pandin Party, a small party which at the last minute offered to accept the nomination for P.M.

Promnok accepted the nomination on behalf of supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra, after the ruling Peoples Power Party was dissolved for vote-buying.

A special session of the Thai Parliament was held for the vote. But the country will in any case soon have to go to the polls and put the issue to the people.

Vejjajiva became Thailand’s 27th Prime Minister with 238 votes, over Pracha’s 198.

But to achieve victory, the soft spoken, good-looking, classmate of Boris Johnson,  had to do a deal ‘with the devil’ and form a coalition with factions run by old ‘Godfathers’ in Thai politics.

It was hoped that the election would bring an end to Thailand’s woes, which has seen the country split in two, by yellow-shirted followers of the People’s Alliance for Democracy, who recently occupied Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport, and the red-shirted followers of Thaksin Shinawatra.

But immediately after the result was announced angry red-shirted protesters picked up railings outside Parliament House and began throwing them. They also threw stones at cars leaving Parliament House.

Members of the Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship believe Vejjajiva is a supporter of the PAD because of his anti-Thaksin stance.  They also believe that as Abhisit Vejjajiva is a member of Thailand’s old influential families, he will side with the country’s elite.

In fact he was against the military coup which ousted Thaksin and kept clear of politicking about the recent demonstrations. Traditionally he has always leaned to the left.

However the PAD put their support behind Vejjajiva, a class mate of Lord Mayor Boris Johnson both at  Eton and Oxford and a year above David Cameron,  because they regarded him as ‘clean’.

Born in Newcastle, Vejjajiva, 45, married with two children, entered Thai politics in the nineties, and became better known for his good looks rather than his policies, and became something of a pin-up in Thai women’s magazines.

His strong British connections, rather than help, may have actually hindered his path to power, in a political system which has been so riddled with corruption that it has ended in the recent demonstrations.

He has campaigned on a ticket of ethics rather than authoritarianism, better education, an increased minimum wage,  and will now almost certainly have to adopt and progress some of Thaksin Shinawatra’s policies to support the poor people in north eastern Thailand, who brought Thaksin Shinawatra to power.

Meanwhile Thaksin Shinawatra has clearly not given up his ambition to return to the political throne.
Convicted of corruption, and banned from Britain, Thaksin has been broadcasting to the nation from abroad  effectively running the People’s Power Party by phone.  He has told his supporters to be patient and wait adding that Britain ‘would feel sorrow’ from banning him from the U.K.

Meanwhile, while Abhisit , known at school as ‘Mark Vejj ‘  has not been brought up in the political mould of his friend Boris.

During his formative years in the Britain, where he mastered in political science and economics he has admitted: “I took part in many demonstrations against Margaret Thatcher.”

Boris Johnson has been quoted as saying of him: “He was an exact contemporary of mine at school and is a seriously clever fellow. I’m probably the only person in Parliament at the moment who can spell Vejjajiva, but that won’t last as I’m sure he’s going to do great things in Thailand. I spent a blissful time with him and his family in Bangkok one summer in the mid-Eighties.”

 Pictures: Andrew Chant

Right: Abhisit the Newcastle United supporter

 

 

ends

 

CEOP’s Thai coup - Now you see them

Published
by
Andrew Drummond
on December 12, 2008
in General News
. 11 Comments

CEOP’s ‘Operation Naga’ provides hope for solving Thailand’s paedophile problem

Andrew Drummond, Bangkok – blog -Updated December 15 2008

Pictures: Andrew Chant

The raids this week by the Women and Children’s department of the Royal Thai Police together with officers of Britain’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre have given some hope to those who are bored with repeatedly seeing child sex abusers getting off scot free in the resort of Pattaya.

CEOP’s Press Office worked through the night in London and Press Releases were sent out to all the media in the early hours of Thursday.

After the arrests of two Britons, a German and an American, CEOP boss Jim Gamble went on television extolling the fact that now nowhere in the world were child sex abusers safe from their clutches.

“You don’t know which police force in which country we will be co-operating with next.”

Operation Naga was clearly being promoted as an outstanding example of successful police co-operation.  In fact CEOP praised the Thai efforts in every statement issued.

I’m all for publicity if it gives paedophiles the feeling that Thailand is no longer a safe country to operate in. 

In an earlier blog I wrote that it was time CEOP got down and dirty in Pattaya. It has now happened….Nothing to do with me.

They have been operating in Thailand since November 17th.  So you can bet your bottom dollar that they have a lot more names in their little black book.  The figure of 50 has been mentioned.

But what is interesting is what they did not say, and no doubt continuing good relations with the Thai police and authorities had something to do with it.

Of the two Britons arrested one was Malcolm Henry Payne, aged , 59,pictured above, and the second was Robert Alexander Horsman.  Robert Horsman?  Wait a minute, that name rings a bell.

Yes. Robert Horsman , pictured left, was arrested in Pattaya in March 2006 and accused of indecency with five boys, one aged 10, two aged 11, and the others aged 13 and 14.

It was one of the ‘bang to rights’ arrests Pattaya Police are so fond of  - treated very seriously at the press conference they gave – and like many of their ‘bang to rights’ arrests Horsman, from Ipswich, Suffolk, was acquitted in the Pattaya court system in April this year.

Convictions are a rarity. And the most famous convicted paedophile, Maurice Praill, 77, from Harold Hill, Essex, is still free despite being sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for child rape four years ago. (Authors’s update: Maurice Praill was finally jailed on January 28 2004 see here

He was arrested again while bail appealing his conviction. Where is his case now? Search me!

I first started writing about the release of child sex abusers in Chonburi Province 20 years ago. There have been classic cases.  One of them even gave a newspaper interviews as to how much he had to pay to get off.  Others have told me how much they had to pay, but they insisted they were innocent.

My initial reaction was outrage. I still am outraged but now this has been tinged with resignation. Having a young daughter now however focuses the mind.

The system is foolproof.  Any criticism of a judge in Thailand carries a heavy jail sentence.  It is not for nothing that they are addressed by lawyers as ‘tai taow’ ( an abbreviation of ‘ I am mere dust under your feet’).  And you cannot necessarily blame the judge.  There are a number of ways child sex abusers can avoid punishment in Thailand - see note at end of story.

In many ways the recent arrests are a two fingered salute to the Pattaya Police and authorities, though nobody in authority is going to say that.

For the British CEOP officers its a case of winning hearts and minds. The same policy adopted adopted by most foreign police forces here.  They play the game with a mix of flattery and encouragement and a few beers to Thai police. It’s in the rule book.

But if you’re reading this, already sold on the generalisations that Thai police are dumb or corrupt, you would be wrong. There are some very smart cops out there capable of getting information in minutes. Straight too.

But the pressure of ‘passing the money up the chain’ is very strong and is in all provinces. 

Thailand’s Immigration Department records would knock spots off many police forces for the information they have at their fingertips and the powers they possess.

The strange thing is, although child sex abusers in Pattaya are more cautious than 20 years ago, I never cease to be amazed about how open they can be about their activities.

Whenever a paedophile is arrested there are usually cries on blogs in Pattaya to have them ‘lynched’ or ‘castrated’ or worse.  But these more often sound like the utterances of  Pattaya’s prowling or resident ‘sex tourists’  which  I guess gives them some sort of feeling of normality.

So, seriously, if you do know about British child sexual abusers in Thailand and those pictured here, and are cautious about approaching the Thai police, you should get in touch with CEOP where your information will be treated in confidence  (www.ceop.gov.uk) . 

Or, of course, I suppose you could call The SUN!

Although this week’s news is good, I think I would have to be an eternal optimist if I thought CEOP are going to change what has been standard practice in Pattaya since, well, the local police started to bother to arrest these people,  rather than just taking the money and asking them to move on or owning the bars and trading in children themselves.

(The famous ‘Charlie’s Boys’ bar - now closed - was  run by a local sergeant for years and offered door to door service of children driven like Pizzas on the back of a motorbike)

But hope springs eternal.

 ———————————————————————————

“The Royal Thai Police has demonstrated an unerring commitment to making Thailand a hostile environment for UK offenders.” Jim Gamble, CEOP, December 11 2008

—————————————————————————

Footnote: On December 22 2008 after CEOP officers had returned to the UK the Bangkok Post published a report by Wassayos Ngamkham. Thai police were quoted as saying that the major player a Brit had escaped arrested during the operation.
”It’s an organisation deeply involved in the sex trade with a British man as the mastermind,” Pol Lt-Col Panya said. ”He contacts customers through a website and has a Thai transvestite procure children for customers, most of whom are Europeans who have businesses in Thailand or retirees who have settled here.”
According to the inspector, the British man is a big procurer in Pattaya. However, on the morning of Dec 11 when police arrested four foreign paedophiles there, they did not find any evidence linking them to the mastermind”.
The newspaper was supplied with photographs by the Royal Thai Police.

I ,of course hope Thai police have not given the game away and that ‘Mr.Big’ has not skipped, but if he was not around for the December 11th raids, the chances are he has already.

 

 

 

 

How they get off

Child sex abusers are arrested so frequently in Pattaya, Thailand, that a cottage industry, has been built around the cases, from bail bondsmen, to avaricious lawyers, to some police ,who believe a financial penalty is the best solution all round, provided that they get a slice of the cake.

Abusers, not used to the system, may well be first approached by the bail bondsman. He offers to give the offender liberty, by say putting a land title down if the cases goes to court, and for this the defandant, pays a hefty whack.

Quite often the bail bondsman will have a contact in the police or judicial system and will continue negotiations which could result in any charges being dropped before cases get to court.

They usually warn the defendant that the longer he delays putting the cash down the more he will have to pay in the long run. If he can keep payments just to police then its going to be cheaper.  Of course that’s not guarenteed and quite often the defendants still have to go to court and faces other financial charges.

Also lurking around are members of the ‘One-Stop’ shops advising foreigners on everything from visa, and land purchasing problems. They say they can do anything.  One such person was a reporter on a local newspaper, who was also a local volunteer policeman, ran a one-stop shop, and would offer for extra fees to keep the matter out of the news.  This does not work any more because he cannot control all the new newspapers and television channels.

But at one stage when he was interviewing defendants,  on behalf of both the police and newspapers (armed with an electric stun gun for the former) and then fixing deals, he seemed to be all powerful.

There are also a number of lawyers who regular fix cases.  And cases can be fixed in many cases. I know some of these lawyers but I am not going to advertise their services here. They have been known to threaten local children’s charitiy caseworkers.

1. For a consideration the police investigating officer can arrange to give such a poor performance in court that the defendant will be acquitted for lack of evidence.  However somebody else in the judicial system has to be forwarned, or the judge may convict anyway.

2. Police can also screw up the case so much that the prosecutor may decide not to proceed with it. And needless to say the prosecutor can screw it up himself too.

3. Payment can be made to the victims. This is the Thai version of what Gary Glitter did in Vietnam to evade charges of the rape of two juveniles and often the easiest way out. None of the juveniles wants to go to court. None of the parents want their kids to go to court. So payments can be made as compensation, and provided the police are looked after as well, this is often seen as a good solution all round.  Afterwards the children tend to go back on the streets again. If the childen are required to appear in court the evidence they give will not implicate the hands that have fed them.

This method is also easy because until recently nobody has wanted to shoulder the costs and responsibilty of provided protection for the victms in the long lead up to a trial and thus they and their families can be easily approached.

* In the CEOP cases described above I should note that CEOP say that the victims are all being ‘cared for’ by local social services and charities (Except for one child witness who recently ran away).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weary stranded Brits join BA’s first flight home. Ladyboys beg tourists to return - Evening Standard

Published
by
Andrew Drummond
on December 4, 2008
in The Times
. 3 Comments

From  Andrew Drummond
Bangkok
December 4 2008

Link to Stranded tourists face weeks of delay - Irish Independent

Link to - Gruelling trip for stranded Britons - Evening Standard

Some 200 weary Britons set off from Bangkok today to board the first British Airways rescue flight from Thailand
.
Ahead of them they face a gruelling 33 hours journey back to London after being stranded in Thailand during the siege of the airports by anti-government demonstrators.

 

 

And as the the Britons and others left the country’s emptying hotels, Thais, fearful of the blow to their tourist industry, laid on bands and transvestites shows imploring ‘Please come back again’

The Britons, some frustrated, some angry, and others  ‘just going with the flow’  having enjoyed some extra days holiday, set off from Bangkok today to board BA1010, a Boeing 777 which has been flown out to the southern island of Phuket.

The passengers checked in for flight at special desks set up at the Bangkok Shangri-La hotel and then boarded buses for the ten hour journey south to Phuket.

From there they will join 72 and depart at 4am Friday, and  fly  first to Chennai (Madras) and on to London arriving shortly after 2.10 pm.

A retired army colonel, from Stratford-on-Avon,who asked not to be named as he was doing security work for the U.N. in Laos, smiled chuckled to himself before boarding one of the buses said: “A good quartermaster sergeant major could have sorted this out in no time.  He would have got the transport by hook or by crook.
 
“I would have got to Singapore on the roof of a train if they had let me, but its been impossible to get out of Bangkok”

Paul Wicks, 24, travelling with his girlfriend Rebecca Cavaliero,23,  both from Guildford, Surrey said: “The waiting has not been bad. We have been in a good hotel and our room and food has been paid for.

 

“But by the time we had left there were not many people left in the hotel –and it was only Brits. All the Germans and Scandinavians had gone. It was getting like a ghost hotel.”

Barry Parkinson, 55, from Barnard Castle, Durham, agreed. “Our hotel was getting quieter by the hour too.  We are retired and not so much in a hurry, we have just been going with the flow, but Brits certainly seem to be the last out of this mess.

“We could not understand the explanations BA gave as to why they could not fly here when others could.”

Geoffrey Hyde, 54, from Eastbourne, a carpenter , was worried about the dog he had left his kennels and his job.

“I have taken unpaid lead and was due back at work this week. There has been a lot of confusion. The BA office was shut at the weekend.  I hit the roof and my wife was crying earlier when the airline later told us we could not go home until December 10th. Luckily the situation changed”.

Adam Brooks, 18, and Jessica Bilton, also 18, both from Nottingham, were not so lucky. Although they joined the busses to Phuket they were told they would have to fly to Singapore and wait another day for a flight from there.

“We did not know about the offers to provide hotel and food accommodation. We had to borrow money to get by, even to call home. We called the Embassy and they said they would see what they could do. But we never heard from them again.”

Both British Airways and the Foreign Office have been criticised for not coming to the aid of the Britons. Both have vehemently denied the allegations.

Other airlines including Holland’s KLM, Italy’s Alitalia, France’s Air France, four airlines from China, and military aircraft from Spain had got their country nationals out of Thailand.  But British Airways refused to fly in.  The Chinese are reported to have evacuated all their stranded citizens by December 1st.

 British Airways QUANTAS Kevin McQuillan  Thailand Country Manager apologised to the passengers saying: “We appreciate how frustrating it has been for all.”

He said afterwards: “ We have got  900 of our passengers out of Thailand already. We have charted Jet Star airways to fly to Singapore and also charted Malaysian Airlines for a relief aircraft to join our flights in Singapore.  Our foremost consideration was for the safety and security of our passengers.

“Our office was open during the weekend, but unfortunately the answer phone message said we were closed.
 
“If callers had hung on they would have heard an addition to the message especially for stranded passengers.” He said British Airways hoped to be flying to Bangkok again within days.

Meanwhile stranded tourists flying out from U-Tapao airport in eastern Thailand, a former US airbase for B52s during the Indo-China war, were being entertained by live bands and a transvestite show, as the Thais, fearful for their tourism industry encourages them  to come back again.

They are also being given free food, drink and orchids.
All parties in Thailand have agreed to end demonstrations until after the birthday of King Adulyadej on December 5th

Thai rescue for stranded tourists - except for furious Brits

Published
by
Andrew Drummond
on December 1, 2008
in The Times
. 0 Comments

 

 

Link to Daily Express article

 Thai crisis leaves thousands of tourists trapped at Bangkok airport

Link to Daily Telegraph article

Britons face long wait to get home

Link to Sky News story

Britons miss out on flights

Link to Daily Mail story

Thai protesters agree to lift blockade of airports after court sacks government

Link to The Standard

Britains may face more Thai chaos

Link to Daily Mirror story

Bomb blast kills one at airport

Evening Standard - Court sacks Thai government

thai-government-sacked-pm-to-step-down-after-being-found-guilty-of-corruptionj

Daily Mail - first flights out of Suvarnabhumi

 

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, December 1st 2008

The airlift of passengers trapped in the Far East took off  in earnest last night as airlines came to the rescue of most nationalities - except for thousands of desperate Britons.

 SAS had three flights for Scandinavians from Phuket, KLM came to the rescue of the Dutch. Air France provided a flight for the French. Jet Airways flew to the aid of the Indians. The Spanish provided military aircraft for their own nationals, Philippines Airlines went to the aid of Filipinas and the Italian government asked Alitalia to help their nationals.

Even Communist China has already got its citizens home on four rescue flights with just one more flight by China Southern Airlines to compete the job.

To add to that Thai Airways operated additional flights to Germany, China, Australia, Russia, Korea, Malaysia and Hong Kong ….but none to Britain.

But Britain had nothing on offer. Some  of the luckier Britons were bussed 12 hours to Phuket to get a flight by Eva Air, the Taiwanese airline, who were offering one direct flight to the U.K.

So last night hapless Britons, many of whom had been trapped in Thailand since last Tuesday when anti-government forces took over Bangkok’s two airports, joined the long queues at U-Tapao airbase, 130 miles east of Bangkok, in the hope of getting home via another country.

The only other alternative was to get down to the island of Phuket and hitch a ride on one of three Quantas airbuses to Singapore where the Britons, were told they could wait for a flight to London. Quantas runs code share flights with British Airways.

Last night at U-Tapau airport Briton Neil Lindsay, 53, queuing miserably to get a flight to Frankfurt said: “ I now know that to be British it to be a world second class citizen. “I’m in the check in queue with a Welshman. I have been here forty minutes and have not got inside the terminal yet. “There are hundreds of Indian and other nationalities and all queues seem to funnel into one small door.”

Mr. Lindsay, from Wade Bridge in Cornwall, who has been stuck in the Ambassador Conference hotel in the Thai resort of Pattaya since last Wednesday added: “We are stuck here without a hope, but all the Germans sent to our hotel have gone home already. The last went on Saturday. We Brits just keep getting bumped.”

Lindsay is among 121 Britons of 1,200 Thai airlines passengers who were bussed by airline to Pattaya, 90 miles east of Bangkok from the besieged Suvarnabhumi international airport last Wednesday. At least 7000 Britons are now thought to be stranded in Thailand out of a total of 240,000 tourists.

“It’s quite clear that Brits are well down the pecking order when it comes to getting home. I have not seen any British Consular officials, but the Aussies have been here in force and I know they have flown to Phuket too, and have been using their influence to get their citizens home,” said Mr. Lindsay .

“I’ve seen them so often I know the Australian Consular people by name. “The British group keep putting their names on the list and they keep getting bumped off. Thai Airways have told us we can take their flights to Frankfurt, and then we are on our own. But we still get bumped.

“To my knowledge no Briton has managed to get on any of the flights to Frankfurt which have left over the last few days from U-Tapao. “I have seen people going out everyday and coming back dejected in the evening.

“I have rung up the Embassy twice, but they just say sit tight. I’m not surprised the Foreign Office will not supply charter flights to get us out, there are too many of us!

“I had been holidaying in Thailand in Northern Thailand and was due to fly back last Wednesday morning. My flight was one of the first to be cancelled.

“But that does not account for anything when it comes to getting a seat out of here. There has been queue jumping for any number of reasons.”

The Foreign Office has refused to charter aircraft on the grounds that that the skies over the provincial airport were too busy.

“The key issue is the fact the two airports in Bangkok are closed and therefore you’ve effectively got planes stacking up and not being able to get slots. The situation is tense and we are monitoring events hour by hour,” said Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell.

But the fact that many other airlines are flying seems to contradict that view.

There is hope today the People’s Alliance for Democracy who want the government to step down, will decide to end their occupation of Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports in Bangkok.

The Constitution Court in Bangkok is expected to rule that the government People’s Power Party, run by Premier Somchai Wongswawt, should be disbanded for vote buying.

Most of the hate of the protesters is directed at Somchai Wongsawat, who has retreated with his cabinet to the northern Thai capital of Chiang Mai, and his protégé, Thaksin Shinawatra, his brother-in-law, who was ousted from Thailand in a military coup, convicted of corruption and recently banned from Bntain.

Thaksin Shinawatra, a brief owner of Manchester City Football Club, is believed to be directing the government from abroad and says he wants to come back and save his country.

Brits miss out on Thai flights - Sky News