A "critical factor" is the "absolutely abysmal" state of Laos's healthcare system, said Damien Phillips, fellow of economics think tank The Cobden Centre, in The Spectator. Almost all the tourists fell sick just a couple of hours from the Laotine capital, Vientiane, but had to be flown or driven to Thailand, "delaying urgent treatment", because Laos has "not one decent hospital".
One of the world's last communist governments "has to shoulder most of the blame" for that. The "self-destructive economic policies" of the ruling Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) mean the country has been "stagnating for almost half a century".
But the situation is also a "damning indictment of Western development policy". Billions of dollars of foreign money and aid have gone into Laos over the past few decades, but corruption is "rife" and "millions lost in backhanders and bribes".
British policymakers should note that the LPRP's "insistence on NHS-style healthcare" has also exacerbated the problem. Laos is "looking for scapegoats", but Keir Starmer "must be clear that it was Vientiane's policies that played a critical role in the death of a British citizen" – and review how aid money is "propping up a failing regime".
