CIG seeks input ahead of UK-Brexit talks

| 13/01/2017 | 86 Comments

(CNS): As government leaders prepare for their trip to London for a special Overseas Territories Joint Ministerial Council (JMC) meeting in February to discuss the impact of Britain’s departure from the European Union, the Cabinet Office is seeking the public’s views on Brexit. Officials said the information and feedback from the people will be collated and used to help develop a formal position for the Cayman Islands that will be shared with the United Kingdom Government and other overseas territories at the meeting.

Urging members of the public to share their views, Cabinet Secretary Samuel Rose pointed out that it’s not just Cayman’s position as a British Overseas Territory but its role as a global financial centre that is important with regard the forthcoming historical shift.

“It is inevitable that we would be affected by an event of such far-reaching effect on international relations,” he said. “This special JMC meeting is our first opportunity to formally present the UK with our position in relation to the UK’s exit from the EU and we want to use it to reflect the view of the Caymanian public,” Rose added.

Government will present a consolidated local viewpoint at the first meeting of the UK-Overseas Territories Joint Ministerial Council on European Negotiations (JMC-OT EN). The creation of the JMC-OT EN was agreed in November last year at the annual meeting of leaders of the Overseas Territories and the UK government.

In preparation for this meeting, the Cabinet Office and wider government has been considering various matters, including the current benefits that Cayman receives due to the UK being a member of the EU, such as the European Development Fund and other horizontal funds, freedom of movement and borders, access to the EU Single Market, and memberships to organisations.

The government also pointed to the legal, policy, economic, commercial, social and other implications or possible opportunities for the Cayman Islands because of Brexit and how it might impact Caymanians who are living, working or studying in Europe.

Officials said government also wants to hear from the public on any matters that they feel arise from the results of Britain’s referendum on EU membership.

While the Cayman government is keen to stay engaged with the UK over the issue, more than six months after the surprise referendum result the British government has still not given any clear indication of its goals and ambitions for the negotiations that will extricate the UK from his more than 40-year relationship with the continent.

Aside from meaningless political slogans from Prime Minister Theresa May that “Brexit means Brexit” and wanting a “red, white and blue” Brexit, the only indication so far about the UK government’s position is that May has recently signalled she is prepared to leave the single market.

Whatever happens, the PM is committed to triggering Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon in March, which will signal the start of talks.

Visit the Cabinet Office website to for more information about the CIG’s goals to present a consolidated position to the UK and submit thoughts and comments to Brexit@gov.ky

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Tags: , , ,

Category: Politics

Comments (86)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Anonymous says:

    Nothing like watching a bunch of immigrants earnestly defend their reasons for resisting immigration in their home countries.

    Nevertheless, these are the same people that have defended Cayman’s immigration policies for years by forwarding inverted versions of the very arguments being forwarded today.

    You guys are nothing short of awesome.

    – Whodatis

    *Compare immigrant / expat percentage AND political / religious / social / economic / class / employment / crime impact(s) on host countries and the absurdity is missed only by the intellectually dishonest in the room.

    It is time to put ego and pride aside and see the bigger picture. After all, he who feels it knows it, right?

  2. Anonymous says:

    I feel sorry for the Scots who voted No on the basis of threats to EU membership and voted 2 to 1 in favour of Remain only to see the arrogant racist English drag the UK out of the EU.

  3. Anonymous says:

    The markets liked May’s speech today because it indicated Britain would commit a quick economic suicide rather than a slow drawn out one.

  4. Anonymous says:

    The UK pays around £13 billion per year into the EU coffers. Half a billion of this is embezzled by a handful of countries in southern and Eastern Europe, and is mostly not recovered as there is no central system for investigating fraud. But I suppose this would only bother an uneducated racist…

    • Anonymous says:

      The economic benefits of membership far outweigh the costs to the EU which are modest by reference to the GDP of the UK. So baby and bathwater really.

  5. Anonymous says:

    Concerns about immigration was not a rational reason to leave the EU now just as the UK economy was recovering a wages were starting to increase. Immigration was a rational reason to engage further in the growing debate in the EU about changing the rules on internal movement, as seen by leaders in the Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany and across Scandinavia. The English showed their anger and impatience by failing to allow that reform a chance and shooting the nation in the foot for decades as a result. A decade of close to zero wage growth beckons for those that were the key leave voter demographic.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Those decrying a vote in favour of Brexit need an EU reality check….

    Extremist national political parties are gaining support in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Austria and Hungary. Club Med countries and their populations are economically suppressed by being trapped with the Euro – they cannot devalue to stimulate exports. The ruling liberal elite in Brussels is out of touch with the citizens of the EU – uncontrolled immigration is the clearest example of this. The EU leaders concentrate on furthering the EU project rather than delivering jobs and economic growth

    Over the next two years of Brexit negotiations and the key elections in Netherlands, France and Germany, the Brussels mandarins will gain a very clear insight into the reforms needed to make the EU survive and work for its people. If the lessons are not heeded, the EU will disintegrate.

    As for Cayman … it has no allies in Brussels or amongst the EU members save the UK and occasionally Ireland. Cayman has to support the UK fully and continue to embrace business partners from all corners of the world.

  7. Anonymous says:

    I would have voted Brexit, but I was too well educated, not sufficiently racist and my life was not so mediocre that I could readily be persuaded that foreigners were the cause of my problems.

    • Anonymous says:

      And clearly a sanctimonious, self opinionated, woolly headed elitist who doesn’t understand what it’s like to live in the real world.
      Although it’s good to know that you’re not ‘sufficiently racist’, obviously meaning that you are a racist but far to well educated to be able to understand the ambiguity of your pathetic statement.
      Yep, another moron educated beyond his intelligence.

    • rollin says:

      and besides your education you might find people voted brexit for economic reasons….i am guessing you did not put that education to work if even just to research. you are too easily distracted by the propaganda machine that liberal media has become . btw what does your educated self think about italy not being able to invest in infrastructure after the recent earthquake. guess who blocked the spending necessary?

      my family has business interest in construction(UK based) and already have seen new volume of work load. its nice to not have to cut invoices as a matter of competing against cheap labor. its called sustainable economics and inward investment. if you do not see the benefits to the uk then you are not considering EVERYTHING.

      The EU is much like the NAFTA deal allowing for globalization at any cost . usually to the tax paying citizen.

      this is alot more complicated than brown/white people or a free pass for immigrants

      • Anonymous says:

        So inflation and distortions of the market to increase costs to the consumer are good thing in the construction market? Construction is up because of the vast increase in stamp duty in the £1m+ section of the UK market.

        • rollin says:

          inflation !? a fair industry price that allows middle market growth and not just favor large corporations…. yes i agree .

          not every deal is a deal (EU), and to suggest this brexit somehow distorts the market proves again that many have no understanding of SUSTAINABLE growth .

          before the brexit vote middle market was not only competing against local, but EU wide competition which allowed for CHEAP undervalued labor , this to your point did in fact distort markets . crushing revenue and forcing many small to medium size companies to close, down size and eventually let go LOCAL workers. are you staring to see the picture?

          the people won and somehow your allowing scare tactics from corporate and EU influences to discredit the overwhelming truth.

          i notice you did not have a comment on my point to the happenings in italy. cherry pick all you want , the truth can only be what it is

          • Anonymous says:

            Well done sir, puts pay to the uneducated lower classes comment from over pampered and under achieving posh boys.

    • Educated Brexiteer says:

      Chances are that you also do not live in the Uk and have not experienced the problems many communities are having due to influx of immigrants from eastern european countries. It is easy to sit on a pedestal and stereotype the Brexiteers as uneducated racists when you have not been affected by the changes the EU created. The people that have been affected were not consulted and they have lost the community they were once a part of.

      Do not make assumptions that only uneducated people living mediocre lives voted for Brexit . I voted to leave the EU because the current immigration situation is unsustainable. Look around and you will see the infrastructure of the Uk crumbling as it struggles to provide the services to the growing population. I voted for Brexit because I believe it is the best route for the Uk in the long term. I am also a degree qualified rational person with a very nice lifestyle.

      • Anonymous says:

        The areas in the UK with the highest levels of immigration voted remain. The areas of strongest leave support had the highest rates of change of immigration, usually from a low recent base. It was not immigration that was the issue it was the fear of immigration, or the misplaced fear that immigration would harm the individual voter. That fear was stoked by an immoral and misleading leave campaign.

        No-one said ONLY the mediocre or the poorly educated voted leave, there were others who did simply because they are arrogant Little Englanders, but what is absolutely clear from voting patterns is that the poorly educated decided the outcome.

        • Diogenes says:

          The poorly educated! Oh my, a liberal who believes that the franchise should be confined to the educated and the elite. You can’t make that up. Or more real it is to call, that the vote should be confined to people who agree with you.

          • Anonymous says:

            No, rather it shows the reasons why plebiscites tend to be too reductivist for complex issues and therefore prone to hi-jacking by fear based misinformation.

        • Anonymous says:

          What a load of out of touch crap. Try looking further than the Kings Road or Notting Hill you idiot, try Boston in Lincolnshire. That is a community changed beyond all recognition by cheap immigrant labour from Eastern Europe to satisfy the greed of supermarkets.
          Local people in the town have been effectively priced out of work, their community has been changed beyond all recognition, 1 in 10 of this towns population are low paid and barely educated immigrants, schools are full and unable to cope with the surge in numbers and the wide variety of languages spoken, housing is in crisis as are the local hospitals and GP surgeries.
          And all of this without the consent of the people who live there and whose families have built the town over generations. No wonder 75% of the towns population voted leave, but doesn’t that destroy your theory that Remainers are from high immigration areas and only the irrational fear of immigration was the driving force?

          I come from the South of England and contrary to your BS, 51.8% of some of the best educated and financially secure people in the country voted to leave. Only London exceeded the 50% Remain vote in the whole of England, with Scotland and NI barely managing a combined total of 3.5 million Leave votes, hardly a serious uprising.
          The real destroyer of you argument comes from regions with some of the highest levels of historic immigration, such as the West Midlands, (59.3% Leave), East Midlands, (58.8% Leave), the North West, (53.7% Leave), Yorkshire and Humber, (57.7% Leave). Even the settled Asian and Afro carribean communities voted in large numbers for Leave because they could see the damage that mass migration was having on their own communities.

          No sir, Leave voters are not racists (as most EU migrants are racially categorised as white European) or little Englanders, they are just fed up with being treated as second class citizens in their own country by an apparent intelligent elite whose arrogant indifference failed to recognise the decades of growing anger towards them and their destructive policies.
          Not so smart of them really.

    • Anonymous says:

      Alternatively you are socialist… Try reading Hayek and you’ll understand why the EU in its current form is destined to fail.

  8. Anonymous says:

    Brexit will be a disaster for the UK. Sterling’s plummet has a long way to go, and that is the best indicator of the disaster that is about to unfold. The UK’s global importance will wane when it is not influencing EU policy and it slips down the world economy table (already having gone from 5th to 8th since Brexit). That is bad for Cayman as the UK protected offshore interests heavily and will be less able to do so going forward. The UK will pay for the base racism of angry Englishmen.

    • Anonymous says:

      Idiot. A political union isn’t a race and severing it isn’t racist.
      It’s always those that don’t actually live with the consequences of mass immigration in their communities, the stress it imposes on the NHS, GP surgeries, public transport, the welfare state and housing that shout loudest from the comfort of afar. It isn’t racist to want controls on immigration.
      Consider this. If Merkel hadnt been so bloody naive and allowed a million plus refugees into Europe, do you think we would have voted differently? Do you think that hundreds of thousands of young men of fighting or working age should be allowed to abandon their own country’s and cause serious issues of demographic inbalance in some European countries? How do you think that is going to help their country, families or future prospects?
      Do you understand that once that million plus had been received into Europe they are then free to move around the EU the same as Europeans, that’s a massive population, cultural and religious shock to any country and guess where a very large proportion want to head for, yes, the good old UK, or more specifically, England. And it’s not stopping, the numbers are growing, so what is your solution?

      Sitting on an island of 60k+ People, earning tax free salaries and enjoying a 365 day out door life it’s easy to criticise those who can see their traditions, culture, language, religion and communities being irreversibly changed in front of them, and at lightning speed.
      Coming from the shires, attending private schools, sitting in trendy night clubs or wine bars in London talking about your own self interest doesn’t qualify anyone to understand how the vast majority of people feel about how their country has been lost to the know alls and metropolitan elites who have sat on their over privileged asses for far too long and dictated that they always know best. Well clearly they don’t as events have illustrated over recent years, that’s what a disconnect from the real world does, it makes you arrogant and shocks you when ordinary people put their foot down and give you a slap in the face.

      Yes, Englishmen and women are angry, angry with those who think they knew best and still can’t grasp that for 40+ years there has been a long running resentment about being curve balled into a political union no one voted for.
      I was there, I heard the for and against arguments for a common market and at no point was a United States of Europe or a single currency on the table.
      For those of you too young or too stupid, understand this, the EU is a failed project put in place to serve the interests of Germany and France after WW2. The Euro is a nitemare and the Euro Zone a slow motion car crash.
      The only good thing about comments like yours is we hope that those who make them stay where they are and leave the UK to those who want to make it a success, not whine about losing the meaningless flag and corrupt institutions of the EU.
      No one said it wouldn’t be painless, but better to suffer that pain than be a hostage to an unelected bunch of bureaucrats who cannot see the writing on the wall and the inevitable turmoil that will follow when the Euro eventually collapses or less tolerant countries than ours demonstrate what real racism, nationalism and populism is.

      Racism is a word that is all too freely used to closedown an argument, stifle debate or to alienate free speach. Brexit is much, much deeper than racism, it goes to the heart of politics, society and equality. The trouble with the Remain camp is that they just don’t get it, so they whine and whinge and call Leavers racists, uneducated or misguided. The fact is that Brexit was voted for by many differing people’s from across the societal spectrum and the knee jerk argument put forward by those who don’t understand their own people’s concerns just don’t hold water.

      • Anonymous says:

        Well said 4:52.

        The EU needs the UK more than the UK need them. Wait and watch as France and Germany leave the trading block . Eventually countries that have left the EU will form trade agreements with each other. Long term, all the countries that have left the EU will be better off than those who remain. The UK’s exit is just the start of things to come.

      • Anonymous says:

        Typical opinion of the mislead Brexit voter, distracted from the truth by the Leave campaign. Immigrants are net fiscal contributors, so they are not a strain on the public system, indeed the loss to the economy if they live will add to that strain. Al you needed to say was “Englishmen and women are angry, angry”. They let that anger be channelled by those with an anti-EU agenda. You are worried about public services? Well knocking 10-15% over GDP over five years and devaluing the country by 30%+ is really going to help.

      • Anonymous says:

        Re: “Sitting on an island of 60k+ People, earning tax free salaries and enjoying a 365 day out door life it’s easy to criticise those who can see their traditions, culture, language, religion and communities being irreversibly changed in front of them, and at lightning speed.”

        The irony is just too much.

        – Whodatis

        • UK expat says:

          Not really. The UK still has time to turn it around. Cayman doesn’t.

          • Anonymous says:

            Interesting how “UK Expat”‘s fail to equally categorize themselves as precisely what their country so loathes – “immigrants”.

            – Who

            • Anonymous says:

              Funny that, I’m on a British Territory as a British Citizen, go figure the irony in that.

            • Anonymous says:

              So to control immigration equates to loathing immigrants, presicely what Caymanians insist upon here. And you are just too dumb whodatis to see the irony in that.

    • Anonymous says:

      Only the claims about the UKs economy slipping below that of India (which would have put the UK into 6th position, not 8th) were actually based on inaccurate figures used by a single journalist in Forbes magazine. He estimated Indian GDP at Rs 153 trillion, whereas the World Bank puts it at Rs122 billion and even optimistic interpretation of Indian government sources put it at most at Rs 143 trillion. The journalist also used an incorrect exchange rate for the pound that worked in favour of the rupee. It was only by doing both of those that he was able to generate a figure in USD for the Indian economy that was marginally better than the UK economy. Please don’t underestimate the ability of Indian Nationalists to delude themselves. The Indian economy will one day exceed that of the UK (and so it should – it a vast country with 1.25 billion people vs. a small country of 64 million), but it won’t be because of Brexit.

    • Anonymous says:

      Sterling will hopefully fall to 1.10 against the US dollar. This will promote exports reduce imports and the economy will continue to outstrip the EU – stuck with the stagnation inducing euro and too many countries continuing to need bail-outs eg Italy.

      • Anonymous says:

        Except Britain does not export much that is price sensitive. Exports tends to be high end goods of ostentation which have less price elasticity. The UK’s terrible productivity and high costs mean the prospects of exports materially contributing to the economy are limited.

        • A says:

          You are making this up as you go along, aren’t you? I would love to see your evidence! So the second largest manufacturing economy in Europe (and sixth largest on the planet) makes only high end goods and has terrible productivity, does it? Guess what? Productivity just improved by 20 percent.

  9. Damocles says:

    which would quickly be followed by our finexit. The financial services industry would be hollowed out leaving only tourism to provide jobs and pay the tax that supports the civil service.

  10. Anonymous says:

    Express away, but the UK government is now run by extremist nationalist lunatics like Fox and Davis that are only keen on severing all ties with Europe regardless of cost and they are not going to listen. The UK has shot itself in the foot because of the resentment of mediocre poorly educated provincial Little Englanders.

    • Anonymous says:

      I think the UK government only wants to leave the single market and the customs union and then negotiate a separate trade agreement. That is hardly severing all ties. From a UK perspective, the utterances of Barnier and others have been quite jingoistic – with threats to punish the UK. Ideally people will sit round the table and try to reach a win-win solution. If punishment is the agenda though, best to dig two graves.

    • Anonymous says:

      Why is it that Remainers consistently stereotype Brexiteers as uneducated and leading mediocre lives.?

      Democracy has prevailed and the majority of the UK’s population decided that they wanted change. Many people don’t like change but change is inevitable when social and economic environments evolve into something alien to the masses. Loss of cultural identity and a breakdown of community means more to the Brexiteers than the short term financial losses they will suffer during the exit. The Brexiteers should not be looked upon as uneducated. They should be seen as pioneers for change willing to suffer in the short term to regain control of their country. Remainers on the other hand are poor losers who don’t want change because they are scared of it. Surely more respect should be paid to those willing to make the sacrifices of change for what they believe will be a better future for their country.

  11. Anonymous says:

    You need to get out more and understand that Brexit is happening, no ifs, no buts.
    Only 2.6 million Scots voted in the referendum, that is considerably down on the Indy ref and does not lead to a conclusion on either side. In fact, only Edinburgh represented the largest Remain vote, leaving 1 million leave voters expecting the majority UK vote to stand.
    Without the relatively small Scottish and NI turnouts, the Remain camp would have lost by a much larger margin and your argument of narrow and mistaken intentions would not stand.
    In any case, as a Leave voter, I can assure you that nothing in the UK indicates that there has been any form of mistake, in fact the economy is growing, the Bank of England have revised their growth figures after pre Brexit doom mongering, the FTSE is experiencing record growth and numerous major economies are queuing to secure free trade agreements with the UK.
    The self indulgent fears of the Remoaners just haven’t surfaced and according to the BoE it is the EU who is in for the shock when the UK leaves.
    No my friend, Scotland isn’t going anywhere, it can’t afford it nor does it have the authority to do so without UK government permission.
    To believe that this was a narrow win loses sight of the masses of voters who were scared to vote leave due to the negativity of the Remain campaign and thier false scare stories. Many who voted Remain are now content with the way Brexit has materialised since the vote and are confident that the UK will succeed after the ties with the EU are cut.
    There will always be those who have a lack of confidence in their own countries abilities and the fortitude of their fellow citizens to succeed post Brexit, they would prefer to live under the corrupt and unelected bureaucrats who dictate without any fear of sanction. But most people now accept the vote and are working to make a bright future outside of this failed political experiment.

    • Anonymous says:

      Nonsense of the blinkered nationalist at 11:49. Brexit was a protest vote by the blue collar regional voters who had no clue about the key economic issues. The economy was powering ahead up to June but the brakes are on and the growth forecasts for 2017 and 2018 are pitiful. FTSE 100 is pretty irrelevant – it is populated by international companies with non-sterling revenue streams so it was bound to bounce from a 20%+ currency devaluation. The UK economy is about to driven off a cliff by a mixture of the extremist nationalists in the Cabinet and the arrogance of the provincial little Englanders who lack degrees and a second language.

      • Anonymous says:

        Calling people stupid is an unattractive trait of the remainers. It is easy to see how the EU was a longterm threat to UK finance in particular. Free market capitalism is not appreciated in Germany and France.

        • Anonymous says:

          But the stupid demographic was a key vote source, so the truth may be unattractive but it is the truth. Idiots for whom “I want my country back” was a credible argument won it for leave. Along with the racist vote. Stupid voters, racist voters and racist stupid voters. Unattractive, but that is the risk of the reductivism of a plebiscite.

      • Anonymous says:

        Oh god you are so clever, but still fail to acknowledge that only London voted over 50% to Remain, from the entire English vote. So according to your oh so intelligent response, taken from the liberal democrat book of failed policies no doubt, almost the entire populations of England and Wales are uneducated blue collar regional voters. You out of touch elitist Pratt, get back to your Guardian and whine to your chinless mates over a good bottle of Chateau Arrogance or some other insipid concoction your weak wrist can barely hold.

    • Anonymous says:

      I think 11.49 you are living in cuckoo land…the Brexit campaign was a disgrace and the vote to remain narrowly lost because most people thought it was a slam dunk done deal and didn’t get out…which is stupid I grant you, see what can happen when you don’t vote?

      • Anonymous says:

        “most people thought it was a slam dunk done deal ”
        Really? Do you actually have any evidence of that? I’ve been reading widely about the issue and haven’t seen anyone claim that. Most of the pre-vote polls put it at less than a 2% victory for Remain , which hardly counts as a “slam dunk done deal “, particularly as recent experience is that most pollsters have called it the wrong way for the last few elections.

  12. Anonymous says:

    Just as the UK needed Brexit, Cayman needs UKExit.

  13. Anonymous says:

    It was asking the opinion of the public that got the UK into the mess they are now in so why would Cayman want to go down that route as well. ….

    • Anonymous says:

      Or rather ‘…out of the mess they are now in…’

      Forty years of EU manipulation and authoritarianism is coming to an end and democracy is being restored to the UK.

  14. Anonymous says:

    Never underestimate the ever-present force of the safeguard of white supremacy in the psyche of Anglo-Europeans.

    #Brexit #Trump #AFD #BritainFirst #UKIP #AltRight aka #KKK #NeoNazis #RealTalk

    That being said, why should a predominately Brown/Black nation of people (according to official statistics) wish to remain tied to an entity like the UK?

    (Just imagine if the aforementioned group had to contend with a tremendous shift in demographics as we have? London Bridge would surely be burning again … for the last time, lol!)

    We have a higher standard of living, superior infrastructure (examine the housing conditions of the majority of Brits – especially in the North), infinitely better weather, far more stable society (i.e. no riots, violent protests, political assassinations, xenophobic attacks and murders), no musical chairs footprint of leadership, absence of woefully obvious generational disconnect between government and people (Brexit result), zero terror activity, a strong currency (in fact, currently 1:1 with you-know-who’s) – I could go on.

    However, hardened rhetoric is hard to overcome and we are guaranteed to see responses dripping therewith. Never mind the reality on the British mainland ground proves otherwise, as does the foreseeable future.

    Unfortunately, the British people, not government, have proven themselves unworthy of the position it has enjoyed and exploited for centuries now. They have failed to recognise the changing times of the world and also failed to educate, train and prepare themselves for the future. (At least that is what Caymanians are constantly told when we discuss our immigration issue therefore I trust the gander has the same palette of the goose.)

    As a result, the UK has lashed out emotionally and harkened back to the most primal and basic of human instincts which has brought us to where we stand today.

    So, what’s that email address again? I’ll be shooting a copy of the above over there.

    – Whodatis

    *Before certain folks respond, I trust they will take this opportunity to transfer the lion share of their savings and income from Cayman to their home country – seeing we have such favourable exchange rates and we hear constant claims of bright futures across the way. That way we can have a respectable discussion – otherwise, you and I both know you’re only blowing hot air.

    • Buttons says:

      Troll

    • Anonymous says:

      What an idyllic picture of Cayman you paint! Sad that it is nothing like that, full of corruption and nepotism, child abuse, xenophobic (especially you), wife beating…and yes I am on my way out the door. Each place has its own set of problems…including Cayman. If you don’t want to see it that’s your problem.

    • Anonymous says:

      Whodatis, you are absolutely right!!! Of course, the truth hurts so look out for being attacked.

      • Anonymous says:

        Thanks for the support. Much appreciated.
        We are living in interesting times.
        2016 proved to the deniers that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

      • Anonymous says:

        Agreed 2.37pm; they do not want to hear the truth. Fact is, they despise those who are educated and understand how bad it is where they hail from.

        @ 1:31 pm, the same things you list that plague our society happens everywhere else also. We have people that should not have had kids but they did….happens all over.

    • Marathon says:

      Oh – Whodatis is insulting Britain again – what a surprise!

    • Anonymous says:

      XXXXXX

      CNS: Sorry, but commenters who blast others for being anonymous while commenting anonymously, and calling someone a “sniping coward” while cowardly sniping is too much hypocracy. “It’s easy to hide and shout insults from afar,” you say. Quite. Either use your own name or respect other people’s right to anonymity.

      • Anonymous says:

        Would that be their real name or an anonymous screen name, like Who or Damocles and others on this comments thread ? Perhaps if your comments system didn’t force you to re-enter it every time, more people would post under a consistent screen name. Still not their own name, though

        CNS: A pseudonym still preserves your anonymity. My objection, and usually I just delete such comments, is people who comment anonymously (or pseudonymously) while telling someone else that they should not. I believe that your browser remembers your pseudonym – perhaps other regular commenters who use one can expand on this. If not, there’s nothing to stop you using a short name – even a single letter.

      • Anonymous says:

        Oh dear.

        – Whodatis

      • Anonymous says:

        By definition commenting under anonymity is hypocritical as there is no way of confirming or dismissing the original intent of the poster. Frequently your pet poster, Whodatis, gets to make openly xenophobic and at times racist comments in regard to the British yet you allow such clearly decisive language without sanction.
        If I am guilty of cowardly sniping, I’ll settle for that rather than being a nationalist bigot.

        CNS: Firstly, look up the word “hypocritical”. Clearly you don’t understand it. Secondly, your comments directed towards fellow Brits on this topic are every bit as scathing as anything that Who has written, e.g. “You out of touch elitist Pratt, get back to your Guardian and whine to your chinless mates over a good bottle of Chateau Arrogance or some other insipid concoction your weak wrist can barely hold.” Thirdly, your defence of Brexit in another comment is almost identical to Who’s defence of Cayman. Perhaps you should take a deep breath and actually read what he writes and try to understand it. You have much in common.

        • Anonymous says:

          Lol!!
          Such a roller-coaster of emotions in a single post.
          I’m dying over here, lol!

          (Ahem)
          I must say though, I reject all accusations of “openly xenophobic and at times racist comments”.

          Truth is, narrating a xenophobic and racist reality of another country may cause the narrator to appear as such.

          Happy Hump Day all – (and that includes all of our Brexit-supporting English expats aka “immigrants”).

          LMAO!!
          (Alf: I kill me!)

          – Whodatis

          P.S. I suggest you all be quick with those savings-accounts wire transfers. After PM May’s great speech yesterday, the GBP shot back up against the KYD from $0.99 to $1.02!!

          😀

    • Anonymous says:

      Quite, and you have “zero terror” because you are not obliged by EU law to let terrorists onto the island! Unlike France, Belgium and Germany, as we have seen in recent months.

  15. Anonymous says:

    Scotland does more trade with the rest of the UK than with the EU. Scotland would be just another Greece or Croatia in the EU,

  16. Anonymous says:

    I and many others were not in the slightest mistaken in our belief as to what we were voting for 4:30, and we remain pleased with the result. Let Scotland leave…..and see how they survive without England’s massive subsidy to them and falling oil supplies and prices.

  17. Michel Lemay says:

    We need to really do our homework for the future ditection of the Cayman Islands and send the best minds on the matter along with the Delegates that will have Our Beloved Cayman Islands and its people at heart.

  18. Pierre says:

    Your fifth paragraph is misleading. Holders of BOTC passports need a Schengen visa to visit any of the EU countries, even though there is no restriction on entering the UK. To get a Schengen visa you have to visit the French, German, Dutch or whichever consulate. To do that you need either a US or Jamaican visa!
    None of that will change when the UK leaves the EU.

  19. Anonymous says:

    CNS, this reads more like an editorial in the Guardian than a news story.

    It’s academic anyway because the entire EU structure is starting to fall apart. All the UK’s Brexit vote did was give the foundations of this corrupt cartel a good kick and that may well be all it needs to topple it. Holland, France and Germany go to the polls this year with all three countries showing clear signs of looking for a break. Italy is falling apart after the referendum last year. The financial crises in Greece and Spain are showing no signs of resolution. Right now the only good news is coming out of the UK where, despite all the scaremongering, the vote hasn’t caused any of the catastrophic damage the Remainers were predicting. In fact the FTSE recently hit a record high and the fall in the value of the £ has boosted exports.

    In any case the Cayman Islands is in great danger of being shut out of the European financial markets by the EU if the UK remains in and should increasing be looking elsewhere (the Middle and Far East along with South America and Russia being the obvious targets) for future business.

  20. Anonymous says:

    I still cannot see this happening. If it does, Scotland will leave the Union. Brits may have narrowly and mistakenly (many confessed to not voting as they thought it was a slam dunk for remain-always a fatal mistake) voted to leave the EU but they did not vote for the break up of the UK.

    • Anonymous says:

      Another person in denial. Easy to support the EU from your comfortable life in a cosy OT that is divorced from the real world and who thinks the rest of the world give two hoots about a small island that cannot support itself in the long run or without the UK underpinning it every time you spend too much. Take away the London limousine liberals and champagne socialists who have friends in the media and talk to white van man in the pub – who coincidently is rather perplexed and angry that you can come and work / claim benefits in the UK but British citizens have to justify entry let alone work !

      • Anonymous says:

        I lived in another EU state for 15 years…one that used to be Soviet..EU did so much to bring those states to world class standard…they are thriving as a result.

        • Anonymous says:

          Yes, and it was our money that did it. But still they left and found work in another country, starving its economy of its young, brightest and best.
          So was our money worth it?
          Nice to know that our old people can’t get access to social care or our young can’t afford to fund a mortgage because wages have been undermined by cheap labour.
          But as long as we can sit back and watch others prosper at our expense we can continue to be proud of our reputation as a soft touch, or mugs, as we are commonly known around the world.

          • Anonymous says:

            Well said – also worth adding that the UK’s egalitarian welfare system (complete opposite of Cayman’s) permits EU nationals living in Britain to claim benefits even when their dependents don’t live in the UK. This exacerbates the problem of Eastern Europeans flooding the UK. Enough is enough.

      • Anonymous says:

        I’m sure the white van man will understand if you equate him coming to CI with a Pole coming to UK under EU.

    • Anonymous says:

      But there are plenty who would see that as a bonus . Think west bay being cast adrift.

    • Anonymous says:

      Absolute garbage, this is happening so get used to it. Scotland won’t leave the union because it simply can’t afford to and every right thinking Scot knows it. The only reason why the SNP wants to remain is to scam more and more subsidies from the EU instead of actually building an economy that is sustainable and not dependent on dwindling oil supplies.
      As for your stupid assertion re: break up etc…
      Many actually voted remain because they were fearful of leaving, promoted by the BoE, (who, by the way are forecasting higher growth and an EU dependency on the City of London) and a bunch of liberal elitists from the urban chattering classes who have been proven resoundingly wrong and out of touch with the reality of a post Brexit world.
      Don’t be misguided by those who whine about the break up of the UK, it won’t happen all the time they need the money, and they definitely need the money that a huge majority of English people provide in regional subsidies and who voted to get the hell out of an unelected, corrupt, incompetent and failing political and financial project.
      And by the way, Scotland doesn’t have the constitutional power to remove itself from the union, it cannot hold a second referendum without permission from London and that’s not going to happen either. Don’t forget, 1 million Scots voted to leave and they won’t be ignored either.
      Believe me, we didn’t vote ‘mistakenly’ for anything, we have lived with this debacle for 40+ years and built up a resentment of Brussels interference that was constantly ignored and dismissed by the arrogant Europhiles for far too long. The US, NZ, Australia, Canada, China and India have all been knocking on the door to secure post Brexit trade deals, despite Obama’s ill advised interference in our domestic electoral process.
      The UK will push ahead with Brexit and make a huge success of it because once the restrictive shackles of EU policy is pushed aside, we will open up to the world and return to the free trading nation we have always been. We may not be a super power anymore, but we do know how trade and financial services work, and the world knows it too, why do you think the EU is so worried?
      Of course there will be difficulties along the way, but it will go through because more than 17 million people, from all walks of life, expect and demand it to happen.
      God help any government that ignores a vote of such magnitude, especially in England and Wales whose voters represent a huge majority against the subsidy junkie Remainers of Scotland and NI, and those self interested whiners of the metropolitan middle classes.

      As for Caymans input, they simply don’t have any.

      • Anonymous says:

        1 million likes for this post thumbs up

      • Anonymous says:

        Bless, the Little Englander 9:36 believes this. Of course the lower class regional voters were manipulated by a media strategy into turning their anger towards a fictional cause, namely the EU and immigration. “Making a huge success of Brexit” is a bit like trying to make a huge success of having a leg amputated. It may open up some new experiences but it is much worse that the status quo.

      • Anonymous says:

        You may be right 11.32, or you may be drunk given the hour…The major concern is that Governments will no longer enforce public rights granted under EU laws. And that is not good. Do you not remember pre EU how peoples rights were trampled on? I do…and whilst I don’t agree with all that the EU does, that on its own made everything else worthwhile.

        • Anonymous says:

          “The major concern is that Governments will no longer enforce public rights granted under EU laws.”

          Many of those rights came from initiatives either started or supported by the UK Government – why would they wish to change that now? Any party that attempts to change those rights will now have to answer directly to the electorate come the next election.

          As for peoples rights being trampled on pre-EU, I think you will have to be a bit more specific – which rights and when do you consider that the EU came into being? The 20th Century was a period of great change in peoples attitudes to individual rights, most of it brought about by the impact of two massive wars on the already active internal politics of the UK and very little of it by the EU.

Leave a Reply to Educated Brexiteer Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.