The first hint of his possible rehabilitation came when Tom Barton found a copy of the London Evening Standard abandoned on a seat in the coffee shop. The headline announced that the Northern Rock chiefs would not be taken to court over their management failings according to a declaration by the government appointed chairman for the now nationalised bank, who told a press conference, ‘There are insufficient grounds to proceed with any legal action for negligence against the former directors.’
As for West Mercian Finance it was being sold off to Santander and its directors cleared of fraud and negligence. West Mercian, like so many other banks, had simply been caught up in what was now seen as a world wide financial crisis, provoked by the enormous lending spree afforded to homebuyers through aggressive and short sighted marketing policies.
The old West Mercian, together with its CEO, Stephen Parkly, who had died suddenly in India, was now history, and its collapse, which had seen a senior board member throw himself under a train, was now almost forgotten as the company was being restructured on a less ambitious scale by its new Spanish owners. The demands of West Mercian’s small investors and savers were brushed aside. The mood was don’t rock the boat and the new CEO told the press, ‘We are now part of one of the largest banking groups in the world and our responsibility is to rebuild our home market.’
Barton’s plans were still vague; furthermore he was disenchanted by his attempt to make a new life, at least in Thailand. It was not only the problem of adapting to a new country, a new climate and a new culture; there was also the threat of the growing political rest. The streets of Bangkok festered as the daily confrontations between police and anti-government demonstrators became more violent. To complicate things a border incident between Thailand and Cambodia had deteriorated into an exchange of fire with the death of two Cambodian soldiers. But in the final count he could never feel at home in a country where he did not speak the language, where he now knew, having had time to observe those who had made the choice, he would remain forever an expatriate.
Up to that point Thailand had been relatively untouched by the worldwide collapse of the property bubble. The difference between Bangkok and the other regional capitals was buyers were for the most part were Thai and as a consequence the speculative effect was less than that felt for example in Hong Kong or Singapore, though the glut of new developments reaching completion would certainly influence the market.
The discovery that no legal proceedings would be made against the West Mercian and its former directors prompted Barton into thinking it was perhaps the moment to reconsider the idea of returning home. He, as a broker, had been nothing more than an intermediary and was in no way implicated it the bank’s demise, even though he had been instrumental in promoting their unrealistic mortgage offers. As he mulled over his different options the idea began to please him, however, there was no question of flying into the open jaws of the jackals who he knew would be waiting if his timing was wrong.
The big question was where would he be near to home. The answer was not long in coming. The obvious point of fall would be Spain, the only other place outside of the British Isles in Europe that was familiar to him. Then there was Sophie, almost a month had passed since she had returned to Thailand spending an idyllic ten days with him in the east of the country near the Cambodian border on the island of Koh Chang.
There was little doubt that Sophie was the main reason for his malaise. In reality there was nothing for him in Thailand, his sojourn had perhaps been nothing more than an interlude, a useful pause during which he had discovered more about himself and about the world. On the other hand what kind of future could he expect back home in the UK with the effects of the economic crisis growing by the day; that is if the papers and the BBC World Service were anything to go by.