Tory candidates line up as Cayman waits on Brexit answers
Justice Secretary Michael Gove, a contender for the Tory leadership
(CNS): The UK’s ruling Conservative party has begun the battle to find a new leader, who will then be the prime minister of the country, as the Cayman Islands government waits on news about how the British exit from the European Union will impact it and the other territories. In a surprise switch among the ‘Leave’ campaigners, the pre-race favourite, Boris Johnson, has announced his decision not to run for the top job, paving the way for Michael Gove, another leading supporter of Brexit, who is a far less populist choice, but possibly more palatable to the political party.
As markets steadied yesterday, the fallout out from what is still expected to be a recession-fueling decision by the British people has refocused on the political instability now impacting both the leading parties in the UK.
Theresa May, now the bookies’ favourite to win the Tory leadership, and Gove will run against Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb, Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom and former defence secretary Liam Fox.
Angela Eagle is expected to challenge Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership of the opposition Labour party. Eagle is one of a number of shadow Cabinet members who left the opposition front benches in the fallout of ‘Brexit’, which led to two-thirds of the party supporting a no confidence motion against Corbyn.
In the absence of any clear political leadership in Britain, the EU leaders are closing ranks and it seems apparent that there will be no easy exit for the UK. It is already clear that the Leave campaign’s promises, and the emerging desire to remain in the single market, despite the vote, are unlikely. The remaining 27 EU nations have made it clear the UK will not get to cherry pick the bits it likes about Europe while opting out of other obligations. There will be no free trade without freedom of movement — the motivating factor behind the national exit vote.
Meanwhile, Cayman Islands Premier Alden McLaughlin and Eric Bush, who will be moving to London at the weekend to take over the post of Cayman’s representative in London, were due to speak with UK officials today by phone to establish what the exit means for Cayman, at least in the short-term, though it is very unlikely there will be many answers yet as the British government has no real idea what will happen to Britain, never mind its territories.
The immediate issues for Cayman are questions about the grants it already receives from Europe for environmental and other projects, and the grants that it was able to apply for while Britain was an EU member.
But the major questions surround the offshore sector and the ability of Cayman firms to trade in Europe and the possible future blacklisting that Cayman and other UK territories could face from the European Union now they are by default no longer in the club. There are also questions about Caymanians who are living, studying and working in Europe, as no one yet knows what the exit means for the tens of thousands of British and British overseas territories citizens that are resident in one of the other 27 Euro nations.
Bush, Cayman’s new representative in London, will be taking up a post that involves liaison with the EU. He now faces a far more challenging role than he had imagined when his secondment to the London office was announced and is likely to play a key role in talks with the UK about Cayman’s interests over the next two years, as Britain extricates itself from the 43-year-long relationship with the European Union.
Category: Politics, UK, World News
It is remarkable that the majority of posters to this thread, all of whom appear to believe they are qualified to comment on the subject, do not even have the imagination to create a pseudonym by which their comments may be either rebutted or supported; still less than any would use their real names.
Stand up and be counted, or shut up!
Dear Chris Randall,
Welcome to 2016.
Faithfully,
Anonymous
A tragedy to allow the great unwashed vote in something they could not possibly understand but which they could vent their racism and anger.
I do not know who else in Cayman are waiting on Brexit answers, but certainly not me. I could not care less.
All I can say now is, that with England going independent, it will soon be just like Jamaica. (that is what they keep telling us down here anyway)
Independence doesn’t always mean doom and gloom. If you haven’t noticed, the “white countries” that have went Independence and have most of them done well.
Well, the “white countries” enjoy ponzu-styled economies by printing their own money and “legitimately” manufacture and sell every type of human killing machine to their governments and those of their “allies”. The risk of going broke is damn next to impossible. The financial meltdown of 2007/8 is all the evidence required.
(Thank you so very much, “white countries”.)
Let us also ignore the role, makeup and insidious functions of institutions such as the IMF, World Bank and its subsidiaries – not to mention the inherent bias as it relates to “white” versus “non-white” countries.
We should also dismiss the seismic shift of global economic power and leverage by way of the fraudulent un-backing and switching to fiat system of every “white” currency.
After all, it is much easier to put it all down to the greatness of whiteness. Right?
– Whodatis
P.S. By the way, you are a stellar example of the white, western education system. Kudos!
(Troll away folks. Truth is truth.)
Hey, have some respect. I believe in the Creator God, and if it wasn’t for the Europeans we wouldn’t be able to define “God” by THE HOLY BIBLE 😉 …
Once we had natural religion and followed commonsense. Now, we have followed writings and books… and then conformed to their way of thinking.
God and Europeans shouldn’t be placed in the same sentence in this context.
The whites might manufacture weapons, but nobody told you to shoot each other, you just repeat the same old treachery against your own people that you have always been so adept at.
“Own people”?
Last I checked it was the Brits that were busy running over, chopping, hacking and shooting soldiers and politicians in the streets.
How’s the Irish situation going? We’re about due for another shooting or truck bomb any day now eh? Beware of those hotels now…
I stopped at “ponzu” though I noticed “white countries” regurgitated several times out of the corner of my eye. If you don’t by this time know the name of the Italian who gave us his surname for these schemes which separate gullible people from their money, you should not post and try to pretend you are in any way knowledgeable about real issues. Still, I have to say, you are probably Einstein to the poster above you who wrote this”If you haven’t noticed, the “white countries” that have went Independence and have most of them done well”. You cannot make that sort of stuff up.
If a typo / autocorrect causes such a reaction from you then its probably best you remain silent.
Oh Who, Who, Who. You have allowed yourself to be trolled by a rank amateur.
The correct retort was clearly “Singapore”!
That would imply his comment carried some degree of legitimacy.
What about the Chagossians?
They don’t exist to these elites. They are nothing!
Bush to the rescue….ah know dah someting
It would be interesting to poll Caymanians and permanent residents to ask whether they would have voted for or against Brexit. A similar poll in other overseas territories would be interesting.
Now Boris is not standing, can we get him over here as leader?
Why? I have my own jet and can get to you in an hour from Maralago.
Melania pack my bag. No no, the yuuuuge Louis Vuiton. Let’s really impress them.
A UK exit means more freedom from the EU’s elite over the democracy of the British people. A freer parliament from their influences too.
But like with any act of Independence, those countries throughout history by which the British special interest suck their wealth dry (colonialism), so too the UK may just get karmic results. The UK may lose it economic stance in the world. You see … Independence is not a bad thing; rather it is the TRANSITION to Independence whereby the “rats will play” :))
What Trumpian tosh. A UK exit means a decade of reduced economic growth for the UK and a begging attempt to re-enter the EU on less favourable terms in the future. There is a reason that the educated voted IN and the poorly educated voted OUT, it is because only the poorly educated would buy vacuous piffle such as “A UK exit means more freedom from the EU’s elite over the democracy of the British people”.
Now that is the kind of condescending crap that we have come expect from the whining know all’s who cannot get their heads around democracy in action. Who the hell do you think you are to assume that only the uneducated voted for Brexit?
I can assure you that as a former politics graduate and financial services director, I am certainly not uneducated or inexperienced in the undemocratic processes of the EU.
This pathetic attempt to discredit the majority vote to decide our own country’s future is indicative of the liberal left winger who rants about democracy yet only thinks it applies to those who think they know best.
We’ve heard many examples of the desperation of the pro EU surrender monkey’s and their arrogant attitudes towards those who don’t share their elitist views. Racism, xenophobia, anti immigrant, anti Government and plain ignorance have all been used by those who cannot understand that it is exactly this self indulgent, elitist attitude that provoked this referendum in the first place. Ordinary people from all social and racial backgrounds are sick and tired of being talked down to and talked at by self opiniated, self important, undemocratic and unrepresentative minorities who act as the self imposed thought police for the rest of us.
Well guess what, uneducated or not, the majority decision will prevail and you and your kind will have to live with it. Of course, even the uneducated can work out that over 17 million people cannot be completely devoid of subject knowledge or even the odd GCSE, A level or university degree.
People that use their arrogant opinion of their own self importance to dismiss those they see as inferior are no better than those who use the same vile attitude towards immigrants.
Superiority complexes never serve us well, regardless of your political persuasion.
Look at the figures between the leave voting for those with degrees and without degrees. The evidence is overwhelming that base emotions among the working class poor tipped the vote over 50%. Britain constitution is not governance by the mob, it is governance by Parliament. Long may it stay that way and may the same error never be made again.
I disagree … I know alot of poor working class people who have more commonsense and intelligence than degree educated folk. Really you can have alot of paper knowledge crammed into your lil brain, but if you are not aware enough, you can lose touch with reality.
And the majority doesn’t mean the mob. Alot of educated people has well saw the corruption and voted to leave.
I did not know that they taught macroeconomic policy at the University of Life. There is one reason above else that Leave won, they pandered to English racism.
Thank you 10:15 for your supercilious condescending elitist right wing “must keep my hedge fund providing me millions” view. Your first sentence is despicable in its sarcasm; why do I, a UK citizen, think you are English?
You are the one descending to the pure ad hominem style of the Trumps of the world. The issues involved were clearly too complex for a plebiscite.
In that case, 2:12, general elections should never happen as the issues involved are “clearly too complex for a plebiscite”. I suppose we should just accept that we should be governed without choice by the elite such as you appear to be a part of since only they understand these complex issues which keep them in wealth and often in power.
UK general elections are not fought on single issues. An election selects candidates who are meant to be qualified to deal with complex issues not fob them off onto the people via referenda.
And how would you describe the first sentence of the post @ 10:15, 2:12? Or the comment about the “plebiscite”? Oh my goodness, the plebiscite, such a pity we have to worry about the common man or woman, my dear. I suspect 10:15 still believes in economic rationalism and trickle down economics…and why not….. so long as it has trickled down to the lawyers, currency traders, accountants, fund managers, stock brokers, real estate agents, bankers and not, of course to those living in Rotherham, Wolverhamton and a host of other depressed communities who do not deserve to be trashed by the condescension of 10:15.
Bleh. The rich will still be rich. Brexit will make the poor of Rotherham and Wolverhampton poorer. And they were too stupid to work it out. When they are shivering in their Northern hovels they can get out their Union Jack rugs and keep warm knowing that they “have their country back”.
A country’s strength is based upon its economic and its social positioning.
Comments such as yours are based solely upon the economic fallout from leaving the EU without a consideration of the social implications that would have ensued if the Uk had remained in the EU. It seems that far too much emphasis from the remain camp is based upon the damage to the economy without consideration of the growing social problems that were developing in many communities.. It’s easy to miss the social issues when you are living in an ivory tower.
If the Uk had remained in the EU the economy would have eventually suffered due to social issues manifested through uncontrolled immigration. Leaving will not be an easy route but it is the right decision for long term socioeconomic stability .
Brexit supporter, BA Hons
So you think that the millions that voted Remain are all super educated, degree carrying, middle class and beyond reproach do you?
Well that just goes to prove how stupid your pathetic excuse is and how blinkered your impression of the voting public must be. Do the maths numpty and stop being a bloody whinging know all.
Another one educated beyond his intelligence. How smart of you to think that the working classes can’t possibly understand what is in front of them on a daily basis. You may live in an ivory tower of self righteousness, but most have to deal with the reality of suppressed wages, lack of affordable housing or social accommodation. They are unable to access dentists and doctors patient lists, get their choice of schooling for their kids and have to watch as their society, traditions and culture is rapidly changed beyond recognition. That’s not racism or xenophobia, it’s the reality of life when myopic liberals attempt to use our society for their arrogant political and woolly headed social engineering experiments.
However, they can spot an elitist idiot who follows rather than has the balls to lead. You are not the keepers of our freedom, you are the fools that gave it away.
“Base emotions”? You condescending C-word. How many Ts in Tw..? Aren’t their views worth listening to or is it just the luvvie wankers who live in places where immigrants don’t go (like Scotland) who can have their say? Or the lawyers and bankers and accountants here in Cayman in Vista del Mar, Yacht Club and other gated communities whose only experience of an immigrant is their Jamaican gardener or Filipina nanny.
There are many ways to look at democracy.
17.4m people voted to leave, out of a total population of 65m, or 27%. Hardly a majority of the people who now have to live with the decision.
Even of those eligible to vote, some 46.5m, the leave campaign did not reach the 50% mark, getting just 37.5% of the available vote.
The UK has a population of roughly 65m people, who’s fate has been decided by the 1.27m, additional voters who sided with the leave campaign – less than 2% of the population.
So leave won, based on the rules Cameron decided upon as part of his monumental balls up. But please don’t throw the term democracy around as if some some unquestionable threshold had been reached.
As for how the educated voted, it speaks volumes that the top Google searches on Brexit in the UK AFTER the vote were:
What does it mean to leave the UK?
What is the EU?
What will happen now we’ve left the EU?
I don’t care whether you have O levels, A levels, a degree or a doctorate, if you ask these questions after voting, you were not sufficiently educated to vote.
If you believed Stg350m additional funds would be provided to the NHS without looking behind that false claim, you were uneducated. If you believed that immigration would stop after a leave vote without questioning the assertion, you were uneducated.
The true arrogance on display is that buried in support for the leave vote is the idea that there is something special about the UK that will allow it to achieve, as an independent country, concessions from the EU which it has been unable to obtain as a member with a seat at the table. If you believe this is how the world works, then in my eyes you are uneducated and about to learn a painful lesson, accompanied by 47.6m people who did not vote with you.
And paradoxically, although I believe the leave vote was totally wrong, I now hope with all my heart that I am wrong and you are right, because if this is not the case, the country that I love is in for a very hard time.
Oh dear, you still don’t get it do you? You and your EU hugging friends are quite happy to accept a total voting turnout of 20 or 30% during EU Elections, but you question the validity of a turnout of over 70% for this referendum. And what about the 30+% of Scots who voted to leave. Are you seriously telling us that every Scot that voted Remain were intelligent, informed and socially mobile? Have you ever been to Scotland? They rely on handouts from Europe, just the same as they do from the rest of the U.K. of course they’ll vote for the gravy train, that’s why they didn’t choose independence last year.
And you think we’re uneducated?
No, we saw through your hypocracy, corruption and blind obedience to unelected bureaucrats and decided that this failed experiment had gone too far.
You don’t seem to understand that being European doesn’t mean you have to be ruled by federalist liberals.
Anyway, this is all academic as the rules clearly required a majority decision, which it certainly achieved. Don’t be fooled by the faux politics of either side, the British people voted on a principle of sovereignty, basically, who decides what is best for the UK.
Is it our 5 year general election process to install our representatives to a soveriegn parliament, or a swollen army of lobbyists and unelected elitist bureaucrats who answer to no one and who cannot be voted out by the people they claim to represent?
Hmm, don’t need to be a genius to work out which option the majority preferred. Also, how the hell do you know whether those that referred to Google were Brexit supporters, they could just as easily be Remain voters satisfying their hysterical fears or indeed not UK citizens at all.
And don’t be fooled by your own naive superiority complex. It is obvious that many voters went along with the status quo out in fear of the unknown, a perfectly reasonable reaction given Project Fear. Far more people are sympathetic to an independent UK than you think, they simply took a pragmatic view when it came to putting a cross in the box.
But what is so terribly sad about your post is the cowardly and disrespectful belief that the UK cannot survive as an independent country. You claim to love your country, but you want it ruled by an undemocratic bloc who actively seeks to stifle national debate and sensitivities. That doesn’t sound like a patriot to me, sounds more like a someone who would surrender his granny if he thought he could save himself. A collaborator who can’t or won’t fight for his people, culture, history and traditions, Europe was full of them 75 years ago. It was the British who stood alone and firm, she spilt generations of blood to enable freedom and the sovereignty of European independent nations to decide their own futures. How dare you now assume that those same people and thier ‘uneducated’ descendants don’t have a say in their own future or that they don’t understand their own actions. Two world wars forged a spirit between European nations that the EU will never replicate, Britian was, is and will ever be European, we don’t need liberal apologists to tell us otherwise.
And for the record, whether the 350 million debate was wrong or right, the fact is that it is our money and should be ours to decide how we spend it.
Your passion seems to have disabled your comprehension function. Just a couple of examples:
1) My claims about voters being uneducated were specific, not general and not applied to every person who voted out.
2) I did not state that the UK cannot survive as an independent country. My comment related to the UK’s ability to negotiate with the EU as an independent country.
Failures of comprehension aside, the rest of you post is jingoistic word salad. I assume you had fun getting that off your chest, just as I had a good laugh reading it.
” Two world wars…” – really? That tells me all I need to know about you.
And yours is a pile of cowardly, back peddling crap. Your supercilious assertions are clearly aimed at anyone who voted Brexit, they were in no way specific, except in the back stabbing manner typical of whining losers.
As for (2), why can’t the UK negotiate with the EU as an independent country. Canada, Switzerland, Norway and many dozens of other country’s do so quite successfully.
Granted, the deals offered to them may not be adequate for the UK, but post Brexit, the EU is a different place and could become unviable if Austria votes for a far right president, the Dutch, French and Germans take a hit during the next next or two at the ballot box, Greece defaults or the Eastern Europeans start kicking off over EU migration quotas.
The U.K. has a distinct advantage over other independent nations, it already conforms to trade requirements and knows the system at work in Brussels.
Yes, two world wars do make a difference because the elderly have been abused for voting out, they considered their loyalty to the sacrifice both they and their families made. They died to make Europe a continent of free and democratic soveriegn states where empires gave way to free trade and mutual respect. If you think that this matters not then you are more of a self obsessed idiot than first thought.
By not understanding why people voted Brexit says more about your blind deference to unelected bureaucrats than it does to your own traditions, culture and people.
And for good measure, the Brexit vote was the largest individual vote that the UK has ever taken in its history and to dismiss it would open a very nasty wound indeed. If you think you and your liberal leftie comrades can stop the combined will of over 17 million people, then think again or just leave, we won’t miss any of you.
Ah, I see. Your comprehension function is not disabled, it is absent. Example – you’re still not getting the comment about UK/EU negotiations, but I can’t really help you with that.
It is also reassuring to read that all that is required in your view to give the UK a negotiating position comparable to the one they had pre-Brexit, is for the EU is disintegrate, with France, Germany, Austria and Holland succumbing to right wing politics and Greece and Eastern European countries falling into chaos. With such a vision of European stability, the success of Brexit must surely be assured.
” Liberal leftie comrades….” – love it – everyone should start the week with a smile. Thank you Capt. Mainwaring.
would you like some ketchup with that chip on your shoulder?
4:36 I assume that comment was addressed at 4:00 because otherwise it doesn’t make sense.
Indeed
Cayman was settled by the British and has remained that way ever since. It was never taken by military or diplomatic force or its local people subjugated. The U.K. devised the system known as ‘off shore banking’ and gave Cayman the right to call it her own after local politicians of the day were convinced of its value to a stagnant Cayman economy.
What on earth do you think Britain ever exploited this unproductive speck of rock for, it’s rum cake?
True, the British did raid French and Spanish gold ships returning from the Americas, but they actually built up productivity in most other colonial countries, especially in the Amercas and the Caribbean, to boost supply and demand for exotic fruits, timber, tea, coffee, tobacco, cotton and most of all, sugar.
Now you can argue that this was done off the backs of slaves because that is a legitimate argument, but to claim they sucked a country dry that actually produced little in the first place is pushing the boundaries of credibility. If that were true, why the need for slave labour?
The fact is that now the UK has voted from Brexit it can once again trade with its former colonies and open up its markets without interference from the EU. Sugar cane will once again be allowed into British produce instead of the inferior sugar beet forced on us by the French and Brussels. You see, it was the EU which shut down the industries that British colonisation had left behind. And it was local political incompetence and corruption that killed off the rest, just take Zimbabwe as an example, or perhaps even Jamaica.
You are correct that Britain did exploit its African colonies for minerals, gold, diamonds etc.. but then again so did the founder members of the EU. However, unlike the others, it left them with plenty to forge a new future when they left. But please tell me exactly how giving them the markets and the infrastructure to maximise this vast wealth has actually worked out for those countries economies and their people?
It didn’t, because they reverted to tribal and religious conflict, indulging in the age old practices of ethnic cleansing, genocide and wholesale corruption, the behaviour that fed slavery in the first place.
Britain, although not without blame for many injustices, left behind a legacy of civil justice, government, infrastructure, democracy, trade and productivity that should have enabled advancement post colonial rule. It also unilaterally abolished slavery and even went to war with the US to enforce its anti slavery policies, albeit unsuccessfully due to the enormity of the task.
So whilst I agree that independence can have a price worth paying, it must have a defined future and leaders who act for the benefit of all and not just the few. It’s just a shame that Britain’s former colonies have never learnt that lesson.
Nothing more entertaining than an intellectual essay founded on racism and British superiority.
You, sir / madame, are awesome!
4:31. Thanks, but you need to read more and get over the victim mentality that obviously impedes your mind. There’s no racism in this piece, it is just as critical of both sides and simply states the fact that the British, unlike the French, Germans, Spanish, Portuguese and Belgians left a legacy of functioning infrastructure, democracy and civil government. It was due to post independence incompetence, corruption and tribal and ethnic conflict that these country’s never exploited that legacy and are in a cycle of dependence that does their own people a disservice.
Not everyone subscribes to the blind obedience of political correctness, sometimes the facts get in the way. I make no apologies for raising the subject and I do not seek to pardon colonial wrongdoing, but by simply rewriting history because it offends the sensitivities of those who can’t face an alternative viewpoint is dangerous.
God has a wicked sense of humor.
Eric Bush is tasked with the responsibility of leading negotiations with the EU and FCO on Cayman’s behalf at this critical juncture. What have you done to the future prospects of these islands Mr. Manderson as Deputy Guvnor are you having a laugh? I don’t care who you use, as long as they’re not complete muppets.
Does anybody remember the bang up job he did with the CCTV RFP and negotiations with his buddies for a dodgy CCTV system that was overpriced and piss poor quality?
Just imagine if you lot went independent with leadership like this at the helm. Blimey!
If Brexit has achieved anything it has been to shatter, completely, utterly and irrevocably, the long self-perpetuated myth of British governmental competence.
Cameron, Johnson, Corbyn, Gove, Osborne. Total jokes.
Heck, after this shambles even Whodatis will probably return his UK passport.
Not sure who “you lot” refers to, Harry, but the use of the word “blimey” suggests you are from England. I trust you are proud of the present utter chaos enveloping the UK, the Mother of Parliaments?
Gordon Lonsdale (Harry’s grandfather)
May I speak for the majority , Really , who gives a rats ass , F%#k Britain, their power has been stripped away fro years now , America Owns them , and has since the end of WW2, Dats Fact Fool .