Premier heads to UK for ‘Brexit’ JMC

| 07/07/2017 | 24 Comments
Cayman News Service

Premier Alden McLaughlin at the JMC meeting in London, November 2016

(CNS): Premier Alden McLaughlin is heading to London this weekend with two Cabinet ministers, his assistant and three civil servants for a round of meetings with Foreign Office, Brexit and other UK government officials. The priority event is a special meeting of the Overseas Territories Joint Ministerial Council on the talks so far on the UK’s exit from the European Union. 

“This JMC for Exiting the European Union is the continued commitment by the UK to keep the Cayman Islands and other OTs informed on the progress of negotiations and the anticipated next steps,” McLaughlin said in a release from his office. “It also gives me the opportunity to represent Cayman directly on matters relating to Brexit with UK ministers who have a seat at the negotiating table. This meeting is a continuation of the talks in February so that we can come to a consensus on the way forward to strengthen our collective position at the full JMC meeting later this year.”

Financial Services Minister Tara Rivers will be joining the delegation to gain knowledge on finance matters as well as Brexit, while Public Finance and Economic Development Minister Roy McTaggart will discuss with the UK the state of Cayman’s government finances and budget matters.

While in London the premier will attend a bilateral meeting with Lord Ahmad, the new FCO minister of state. He will also meet with UK Head of Economics Miriam Sachak, have discussions with constitutional legal expert Sir Jeffrey Jowell, and attend a United Kingdom Overseas Territories Association sub-committee meeting.

McLaughlin will be touting for business for Cayman when he hosts a lunch Friends of Cayman, a dinner for members of parliament and peers, and a reception for the Friends of the British Overseas Territories.

Alongside his Cabinet colleagues Rivers and McTaggart, McLaughlin will be joined by the Cabinet Secretary Samuel Rose, Financial Services Chief Officer Dax Basdeo, his political advisor Roy Tatum, and the sherpa for this trip, Jason Webster.

The delegation will be in London for the week and return to the Cayman Islands on Sunday, 16 July.

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Category: Politics

Comments (24)

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  1. Randy Sparks says:

    Caymanians like this bunch think England is the same old same old.
    No. It is overrun by all manner of assorted illegal immigrants. Its an invasion folks. Stop being naive and wanting to be inclusive. Wake up.

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  2. Anonymous says:

    In the last 50 years, I cannot think of a single time when politicians made my life easier.
    They get paid a cartload from the taxpayer and really don’t give a monkey’s about the rest of us.

    Please go and do your Brexit thingummy and leave the rest of us alone.
    Before you politicians came along, life was pleasant.
    We worked, we got paid and we were happy.

    We do NOT need politicians.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Wow. So you lived in a time when there were no politians? Were there leaders of some form? You must be 100+ years old. Well done on the use of your electronic device.

  3. Gray matter says:

    SHERPA? Did not know Mr. Webster was from Napal ! …. Why did you not! just say he is the PORTER for the luggage.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Say Gray…..was thinking the same thing!!! I associated the bloke with Sherpa Tensing and others that went up Everest! Maybe CNS meant another word.
      Will see what they say.

      CNS: We used the official government term for the position. There has been “sherpa” with at least the last couple of JMC meetings.

    • Anonymous says:

      Neither. He will be there to assist and get information, etc. Not sure why they use the term Sherpa. Go-fer may be more appropriate. 🙂

      • Anonymous says:

        Probably because there are no gophers in the UK, so the pun isn’t fun, so the UK has been using the term sherpa for a while.

    • Anonymous says:

      How about you educate yourself on the role the Sherpa has. As usual, we choose to pass judgement without any knowledge.

  4. Anonymous says:

    A good 7 strong team. I remember when at least double that amount would travel to London and actually make things worse. The UDP gone but not forgotten.

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    • POLITRICKS 101 says:

      PPM and UDP are now one happy group under the banner of national unity. There was never any real difference between the two parties. Obviously all have been forgiven of any transgressions as udp now help to prop up the ppm led coalition.

      So if Alden can forgive McKeeva and reward him to the lofty position of Speaker of the House, he and the rest of ppm must no longer view McKeeva, Juliana and the other udp/cdp members as embarrassing, or maybe it’s really just politricks and political expediency as usual.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    Brexit = economic self-harm by angry racists led like sheep by fake news from extremists.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Oh stop it, 7:45 am. We can read the Guardian for this type of idiocy, we don’t need it on CNS.

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      • Anonymous says:

        The typical riposte of the Leaver, “stop pointing out that we were racist and stop reminding us that the UK’s economy is imploding”. The UK now has the worst economic growth out the whole of the G7 and the EU.

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        • Anonymous says:

          So, 3:36 am, there are 17,410,742 “racists” in the U.K. and 16,141,241 ” right minded” people?

        • Anonymous says:

          Holy crap, if it’s worse than Greece, Spain or Portugal, the UK’s economic growth must truly be tanking.

    • Anonymous says:

      You, like anti-Trumpists in the USA, oversimplify. To your detriment as you will always be surprised why people don’t do what you think is right because you don’t listen to their actual problems or provide an actual solution. (If they have a problem now, more of the same won’t solve it.)

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    • Anonymous says:

      As the number of Muslims increase in the West there will be more “deep” division due to the terrible side effect of Islam called “Radical-Islam”. This is probably the main reason for ‘brexit’. If you think this wasn’t the underlying reason, you probably are ill-informed or indulging in self-delusion. Listen to the common man/woman.

      I’m not here to bash, or endorse anyone’s religion. I am an Atheist (thank God 🙂 :):):) lol, and many times here on Island, My friends,and colleagues (vast majority obviously Christians) will say they are concerned with any ‘noticeable’ increase of the Islamic religion. During the election, I was in the company of a candidate, and an individual approached us, shook the candidate’s hand, and said: ” You make sure no Mosque get build here”

      Let’s talk…

      • Anonymous says:

        Your friends must be looking forward to the arrival of the next Governor and his family. They are Muslims. By the way, there is already a mosque here in Grand Cayman, though it does not look like the ones you see on tv.

      • Anonymous says:

        So it was a misplaced challenge to the EU based on ignorance and racism since only 18% of UK immigration was derived from EU movement rights.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Having read the typically sanitized press release, it is clear to me this is just another public funded jaunt. There are no measurable objectives and you can bet they will be travelling first class and staying in expensive hotels. Someone tell me different please!

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    • Anonymous says:

      Yes, I have always questioned why so many bodies are necessary when it appears only the premier is required if that is even the proper word. Does he need all this support because of his “terrible shyness”? Maybe its just the perks of being part of the ruling administration with zero benefit to those of us paying their way. With Skype and every other manner of communication known to man available in real time, the time has passed for the need to carry your entire office abroad.

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  7. Elvis says:

    Hope he is a frequent flyer as this will be no fast exit from Europe lol,

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