Where is John Humphries?!

I am really pleased to learn that the protests and potential mayhem in Bangkok and elsewhere in Thailand appears to be over if news reports are to be believed. I must say the BBC's reporting has raised a number of issues for me.

Firstly the BBC did not seem able to appreciate that this is the Thai New Year and that Bangkok, like London on Christmas Day, empties as people return home for celebrations. I believe this in itself is newsworthy in the context of the protesters being bused to the various bus stations around Bangkok to enable them to get home now that their leaders have surrendered and effectively called off the protests. Moreover as yesterday, the first day of the new year, progressed the real story was that local Bangkok people started to attack the protesters mainly because they do not support their cause but also because they are extremely peeved that the protesters have made life intolerable in the city. Now that the protests are over the BBC is reporting that Thais are celebrating their New Year! The point is I do not really believe many people had a great appetite for this protest.

I find it astonishing, secondly, that the news channel, BBC World interviewed our old friend Thaksin, allowed him to evade answering any questions, like clarifying the precise nature of his supprt of and for the protesters, and did not actually ask him what right he has to comment on anything to do with Thailand because of his official status as fugitive from justice. Now you might say his criminal status is political, but l can assure you there is an abundance of evidence to support his criminal convictions as opposed to them being the whim of disgruntled and jealous politicians. Moreover most major countries have openly imtimated that Mr Thaksin is persona non grata; the UK does not close the door on people simply because they have been successful as captains of industry!

I am happy for Thaksin to be interviewed but I remember the hammering, no the humiliation, the celebrated BBC Radio 4 news journalist John Humphries, gave to the head of the Catholic Church in England & Wales, the recently resigned Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, over allegations of mismanagement of child abuse cases. It was a job well done and deserving to be done but Thaksin, au contraire was allowed to wriggle, clearly an area where he has very considerable expertise.

Thirdly I don't get the BBC's editorial stance. They seemed happy to associate the protesters as a collective of the poor, an underclass you might say, and that their actions were a grass root, genuine reaction. My point here is they did not attempt to challenge this assumption. Now I want to assure you I would support the poor in most circumstances but this protest has no real political,philosophical or moral basis to it: it is the mob incited by Thaksin and his henchmen, (there are reports saying the protesters were being paid 500 baht per day), and the only thing Thaksin is interested in is money and power; the latter leads to the former and you can bet if he ever gets back into power he will fleece the coffers of the Thai nation once more. For the record there were as many poor people on the yellow side when they were protesting.

Finally there is a real issue about how effective this 24 hour news programming is. These programmes need new and news content and it is clear that blood,bullets, disorder, riots,casualties and deaths captures the imagination in a way few other things can. Perhaps this is more of a problem on a quiet Bank Holiday Monday as it was in the UK when this stuff was being broadcast and perhaps the big hitters, like the John Humphries, were having a day off. My point is these guys were looking for, perhaps wanting it to go off large, you know the sensational stuff and overlooking the very obvious detail that some elementary research would have made immediately clear.

I am sorry for the people that were killed and for their families and for the people who were injured as a result of these protests. I have no doubt that innocent and at worst naive people were hurt. As I understand it there were two fatalities, possibly three. Balance this with the report from The Bangkok Post that after four days of the Songkran celebrations a total of 220 people have been killed and a further 2658 injured in road accidents, mainly caused by drunk driving. I personally think that is a major story but you won't hear it mentioned on BBC World.

Notwithstanding any of this I love this country, it's special, unique, at times exasperating, at other times exhilirating, the people are unique and I am glad that the current troubles are over and that we can get on with the party. The New Year public holiday has been extended by a further two days and I sensed as I drove around Ratchaburi today that there was greater enthusiam for the water throwing and partying probably due to a sense of relief.