Our Civilising Influence

Although the Kingdom of Siam never received the full benefits of western colonisation (Britain and France preferred using some of it as a buffer zone to spare one another the risk of unprofitable conflict), British values nevertheless appear to have made a healthy contribution to the Kingdom of Thailand's national culture. Thailand's various patriotic statutes serve much the same democratic purpose as Britain's laws against terrorist offences known only to the Government, and a former prime minister's dynastic heiress is awaiting a verdict on her alleged and thoroughly British offence of showing undue respect to a neighbouring country. Meanwhile, not only has the former prime minister himself been exonerated of lèse-majesté, but the courts have taken ten years to reach the decision. Obviously this does not quite measure up to the British system whereby the powerful are held to account posthumously or not at all; but it's a commendably plucky effort.