Premier secures meeting with UK PM
Prime Minister Theresa May
(CNS): Premier Alden McLaughlin has confirmed that he was able to secure a meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May during his trip to London this week and will be discussing the public registers issue and relations between the Cayman Islands and the UK when he returns to the islands next week. Meanwhile, Financial Services Minister Tara Rivers is heading to Brussels next week for meetings with EU officials to deal with the pressure there regarding the lack of substantive presence of offshore companies domiciled in Cayman.
As Cayman deals with pressure on numerous fronts, the premier had been in London this week with a large delegation of officials as well as musicians and artisans to launch the Cayman Islands Coat of Arms diamond jubilee celebrations.
But as well as the cocktail parties, cultural demonstrations and lunches, the premier held meetings with key British government members, including the PM. McLaughlin confirmed he had met “privately with the Prime Minister Theresa May” and that he had two separate meetings with David Lidington, who is the minister of state in the Cabinet Office with responsibility for constitutional matters.
“The dialogue regarding the public registers issue is ongoing and I will provide a full update to the country early next week,” McLaughlin said.
Rivers, who will be on her third trip to Brussels, will speak on two panels that include OECD and EU participants and meet with the Code of Conduct Group of the European Council as well as other EU officials. Rivers said the Cayman government was continuing its engagement and was committed to working with the EU and to ensure the efforts to cooperate was recognised.
Rivers said her attendance at the conferences and panels would provide a great opportunity to tell Cayman’s story in a way that many Europeans may not know. “It allows us to engage directly with the EU thought leaders who help to shape and inform EU policy,” she said.
The minister said that the Cayman Islands Government was taking a unified approach to addressing the issues in both the UK and the EU.
While Rivers was not part of the celebrations in London, she said she was “in dialogue with the premier” regarding Cayman’s positions and the outcomes of meetings held. She is, however, expected to head to London next month to continue the engagement efforts there.
Rivers has already met with local members of the financial services industry about the way forward on the House of Commons’ amendment regarding public beneficial ownership registers, as well as the EU listing process.
“Government believes our best response is based on a jurisdictional perspective,” she said. “Government and the ministry have worked hard, and will continue to work hard, to keep industry informed and engaged in these matters; and I very much appreciate the support given by industry during our meetings and discussions held, and the cooperative working approach adopted.”
The minister will be accompanied in Brussels by the Department of Financial Services Director Michelle Bahadur and Policy Officer Shanna Best.
Category: Business, Financial Services, Politics
Surely the minister for the Overseas Territories should be taking this meeting. The Prime Minister should be focused on isssues of national importance not the whining of tax havens.
I fail to understand you 10.31 am. Our Premier secures an audience with the Prime Minister no less, and you are griping. You obviously do not represent a Caymanian position! Are you homesick? There is great weather in the UK presently. LOL.
I am viewing it from the perspective of the UK. Given how hard the Caymanians want to restrict access to basic political rights, I do not give two hoots about the other perspective.
10.31 am Possibly, on account of the brewing storm in the UK over Russion dirty money in UK banks, she decided, as the senior minister, to handle the matter personally, AND, the BOT issue could become a constitutional cock fight in the not too far future. Maybe the seniority is warranted. There are always two sides to any story.
Incite?
I am I am thinking that the Premier’s meeting with madam may didn’t go so well. Nobody keeps good news to themselves so long.!L
It must be said that Theresa May had little choice in the matter. She was ambushed by a Tory rebellion in Parliament, which forced through the amendment to legislation which was being debated. We may never know how she feels about it, but it seeme unlikely that she would normally support such a dramatic unilateral decision, rather than await the global multilateral move against offshorefinancial centers.
Cayman is another victim of two idiotic steps. First the Brexit vote. Second the 2017 election decision which was foisted on May by David Davis in his desire to push through a hard Brexit.
Some offshore financial centers are careless with the data they have.. example One of the larger accounting firms in Cayman have about 180 gigs of info about to be released. #caymanpapers
Oh goody. I’ve got my popcorn ready. When is the drop date?
I think she will only be interested in where he gets his hair done.
Wherever it is, they are clearly brylliant.
I can hear her after patiently listening to Alden: “we are going to make sure that we do everything that we can to help the government and the people of the Cayman Islands…zzzzzzz”. Not to be confused with when she says she will do everything that she can to make sure of something. The order is important; only in the second version is there anyone (much less her) doing anything about the matter.
May has more important things to do with her time than meet with an aggrieved local government politician in a territory with just 30,000 citizens.
May have more important things but it is her job.
The interest of the nation is her job, not local issues affecting a tiny region.
A tiny region overloaded with her refugees. If cayman fails then allayu will have to go home or some place else to find work. Haven’t you heard ” don’t bite the hand that feed you” .ungrateful bunch.
It would only affect a few and the greater interest of the UK is far more important.
That may be so, but 60,000,000 Brits would disagree
I suggest you get your crystal ball checked.
Perhaps he has located a rich tract….of BS?
like ? .. why are you so caught up with grammer? And your post is not the best example either.
Leave McKeeva alone. He is not in power!
You really believe he is not in power?Mac Bot?
It had to be said! Mac embarrasses us and his office every chance he gets, it’s time to send him off into the sunset with his retirement package
He is the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Cayman Islands, He was a former Premier and he is currently overseas representing us the Caymanian people
and he is unable to construct basic sentences.
So yes he will receive criticism as he should.
Not to mention the post in and of itself was ridiculous
I do my best to ensure all my posts have as few grammatical errors as possible, though I will admit I have never been one to focus on proper punctuation unless absolutely necessary (papers and essays and the like). There is also a clear difference between someone at least attempting to ensure they are as grammatically correct and someone who has no concern for even trying
I would also love to see the myriad of simple misspellings in my comment
“Leave Mckeeva alone he is not in power”
Are you serious?
You think Mckeeva became Speaker as part of his deal with the PPM and he isn’t in power, you clearly have no idea how our Legislative system works
You are the problem with Cayman, our representatives ought to be the very best examples of our people, not an illiterate man being re-elected by virtue of being an MLA in the past.
If you can’t see that people like Mckeeva have been in power for too long twiddling their thumbs and changing nothing around here then you truly are blind
In the world of auto-correct programs and staffers there is no excuse for a elected member of Government to publish, a statement that would fail by the standards of a Year 6 class.
We need to strive for better than scraping by with our representatives.
Diogenes
Grammar
You clearly have no idea whatsoever about the LA or the power that the Speaker holds you absolute donkey.
What is “grammer”? Can you explain?
This is not a word I was introduced to while learning the English language at school.
If you are not prepared to allow the spellcheck to help you, then as far as I am concerned, your opinion means nothing.
Perhaps English is your second language, in which case, I apologise profusely?
You could do with some style tips and improve your comma phrasing, sweetheart.
Come what may.
Theresa May has gotten away with so much since she became PM. Her ideology is nothing less than the oozings from the spawn of Tony Blair.
She abhors Brexit, drags her feet at every opportunity, and pretends that she is putting her foot down.
Those of us old enough to remember would call her a quisling. This is one dangerous, globalist woman.
Nothing good for the Cayman Islands can come of this.
If you have money hidden here, go put it somewhere else. We do not want the heat that comes with it.
We were not taxed before you came here and we do not want to be taxed because you are here.
Those summaries sound like a great list I would approve of in a candidate. I can understand why the “grievance looking for a cause” brigade might disagree. The problem is that she has not done enough to stand up to the inward looking small-minded Little Englanders in her party who would appear to share the poster’s views.
She is worse than that! This woman from all appearances is Bat guano crazy..
I am not saying she’s evil incarnate. But she’s a close second. People vote brexit. She stops brexit. She actually allows police to arrest people for saying stuff on the Internet. If you say “muslims suck” in Britian. you can go to jail for that!!!!!. That is insane. They are arresting people for thought crimes. You can’t mention the 1400 child rapes that occured in the last few years in towns across Britian. Because that’s racist and can land you in jail. Police call muslims “asians” when mentioning rapes in the British press. Because they don’t want to prejudice people against muslims. I am a muslim, and i am prejudice against British muslims if this is how they are going to behave! Britian has become the insanity that is the left and politically correct when it is left unchecked.
And where did most of this politically correct BS come from? Yep, the left wing looney party that stalks the UK as Corbyns Labour Party.
They and their anti Semitic, anti forces, anti British, anti bloody anything that may mean something to someone brigade, have systematically destroyed the UK, and especially local government, with their narrow minded socialist views and nanny state ideology.
The disaster that was the Labour immigration policy definitely has a direct link to Brexit, but don’t be fooled that 17 million people, many of whom where born or are descendents of immigrants, are some hidden underworld of racists. No, most normal people saw the EU for what it is, an unelected and unaccountable band of self serving career politicians and advisors. No one voted for this in the 70’s, we were lied to and it came back and bit the Euro sops on the ass.
And for the record, being a Muslim is not a nationality, it is a religion and if you deliberately insight others to commit hateful acts or deliberately cause distress then you should be held accountable.
Respect to you.
My Dad was muslim (Pakistani), I am not, but I thank you for telling the truth.
Truly hope Alden is not going to spin this as a victory as its NOT …. sure the PM offered a cup of tea and a hello how are you. Reversing a House of Commons non contested bill is almost impossible to undo … sort of like the status grants given to thousands a few years back. Let us start to look at new areas of economic development and move on. More than ever it will be our steadfast Caymanians that will support the transition. Life might get a little less comforty but its a right of passage for a young country and its people. We have always been British and while thank you very much American born Boris, we will continue only if the respect is mutual and without habitual discrimination. I would encourage all Caymanians over 60 to look at their old passports and examine the number of times our citizenship and human rights has been changed to suit the British agenda over these sixty years. The truth is painful and we must start to acknowledge these injustices in order to rise above them.
Mckeeva is at it again, attacking the media and those who dare to comment on or criticize the state of affairs of Cayman
In a new and even more comical post on his public facebook page, today rather than the usual daily sermon from the “Father of the House” we receive a gift even more valuable, a public attack aimed at critics and a complete defense and absolution for the Premier
Filled to the brim with grammatical errors, nonexistent words and nonsensical sentences not entirely surprising from a man who clearly holds little to no regard for a proper education
Referring to CNS as a “scandal sheet” ( he also referred to radio programs)
Claiming in very “Trumpian” manner that “There is no one on island or otherwise working any harder than the Premier”
According to our beloved Speaker all persons who have an opinion on this matter are “political hacks and wannabes” whom he accuses of making ” hasty accusations and summarizing without the full facts”
And this is my favorite part, telling persons who are not involved in the process to “shut up”
Displaying his disregard for free speech, freedom of the press and criticism by the public whether Caymanian or otherwise in one fell swoop
He finished his tirade by proclaiming the Premier is “on the right tract” ( yep you read that right, tract, not track. I couldn’t make this up if I tried.
And this is the man who is currently overseas somehow “representing” us, the voters are confident in this same man every 4 years, West Bay you can do better than this
Cayman is truly a magical place, we may not have crack smoking mayors or sex addicted congressmen , but we sure have our fair share of illiterate and nonsensical old men who have nothing to do and plenty of time to do it.
*Quotes taken from the post are as they were written at the time, though facebook allows for editing of posts and he clearly reads the CNS comments as much as he would hate to admit it,
The fact that we expect the UK to take us seriously with people like William Mckeeva Bush sitting at the table…
Words cannot suffice
and he is one of our “leaders” I’d sooner jump into the trench
Diogenes
Diogenes..you are calling the kettle black and doing the same thing you are accusing the Speaker of doing…We Caymanians will not pass up a chance of tearing each other down…
One does it and all follow…”Crabs in a barrel”
We will never come together. Better we unite and provide constructive criticism.
This article is about what the Premier is trying to do to help us as a country and you have chosen this opportunity to make an attack on someone elsewhere. McKeeva will always be McKeeva and like it or not he can have his say too even if you don’t like what he has to say.. I will stand up for his right to speak just as much as I would do it for you…We all have the right to speak but we must all chose our words carefully and that includes McKeeva and Diogenes..Time for some civility and unity amongst us Caymanians..
The typical response of calling critics “crabs” is nothing more than a ploy used to invoke self doubt and to cause the critic to feel guilty. It doesn’t work! Mac has embarrassed and disappointed many of us and he needs to go! Simple
Just another “crab in the bucket” We will never ever come together with this mentality..We can’t even stand together in times like these..Fellow Caymanians ,we are our worst enemies..
Reminds me of the orange one up north – any news that does show him in a positive light is called “fake news” here in Cayman any comment that does not condone stupidity, corruption or mentions mckeeva In a negative light the commentator is called “crabs in a bucket ” if what he is doing/saying is not beneficial to the country or someone besides himself then he should be called out on it. Sorry to bust your bubble but that is not ” crabs in a bucket” that is someone being honest and having the interest of beloved isle Cayman. If mckeeva gets upset, then so be it.
Ahhhh more of this, the we can’t point out the wrong of our own, just the expats and outsiders
“Mckeeva will always be Mckeeva” – I agree, he will always, in my opinion, be an illiterate man who is more concerned with gambling and drinking than he is with the state of the Cayman Islands which is why he should have been voted out of office a long time ago
No one is attacking his right to speak, I am criticizing what he said, because it is worthy of criticism Mckeeva speaking proves my point time and time again so he should continue, every time he opens his mouth or writes some crazy post on Facebook more and more people see him for who he is.
The reason why I posted this comment on this particular article is because it directly relates to the post made by Mckeeva wherein he mentions the meeting with the PM and how much work the Premier is doing in relation to this matter.
The only person trying to silence anyone here is you
You wanna sit here and smell Mckeeva’s farts and compliment their rosy tinge you go ahead, you can brown-nose all you’d like.The truth of the matter is nothing I said was wrong your only response is that I shouldn’t be saying it because “unity” and “civility” is more important to you than improving Cayman
Because in polite society we don’t acknowledge the stink all around us, we just dip our handkerchiefs in strong perfumes and pretend it isn’t there
I’d also love to know how I am doing what I am accusing the speaker of doing, I noticed you conveniently didn’t specify
Diogenes
Diogenes, some of us, those with even one iota of common sense and integrity will never unify with mckeeva, he needs to be called out every time. Fortunately our existence does not depend on him.
Thank you for this! It needed to be said
I genuinely fear that Rivers is only going to make things worse.
No representation from Cayman Finance?
It’s important that industry experts are involved and assisting the Premier and Minister of Financial Services. I thought this was a unified effort involving government and private sector stakeholders to put Cayman’s best case forward. SMH
Industry has been heavily involved. We have been busy working and trying to assist rather than sending out press releases to make you feel better.
Nothing left in the travel budget after paying for the Swanky Kitchen Band to fly over. Perhaps they can play the PM a nice tune and she will change her mind.
Weird and true! The Premier and Mac seem to be having these meetings and no representatives from the NGOs – not even the Leader of the Opposition….thats strange to say the least. the Speaker should not be involved, his role is to run the Legislature not get into the fray! another “Overreach” by the Premier.
It’s called backitive.
6.26 pm If you read the news carefully, you would see that Ms. Rivers had meetings with the financial community prior to travelling. This is a major problem with CNS posters. Nobody ever checks the facts before going off half cocked with stupid postings that may likely mislead the downright ignorant readers. Engage brain before mouth is the old saying.