BOT minister to make 3-day visit
(CNS): Lord Ahmad, the current foreign office minister responsible for the British Overseas Territories, will be arriving in the Cayman Islands on Thursday, according to the governor’s office. During his three-day visit he will attend a Joint Ministerial Council meeting on Brexit and the first-ever UKOT International Trade Summit. He will also review arrangements for disaster relief in the region and hold bilateral talks with Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who will be in Cayman for celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of the Cayman Islands Constitution.
The three-day visit will include meetings with Cabinet and Opposition Leader Arden McLean, as well as a visit to Cayman Brac.
While Lord Ahmad is here the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Ship Mounts Bay will be in port and he will witness an exercise on Seven Mile Beach to land disaster relief equipment from the ship. The OT minister will also be reviewing joint air operations between the Royal Navy helicopter and Cayman’s new RCIPS helicopter, which was partly funded by the UK so that it could be deployed to other regional territories when needed. The minister is also expected to visit the RCIPS Joint Marine Unit.
Governor Martyn Roper welcomed the visit by the minister, his second to the Cayman Islands, in a week that “will be very busy”, as country leaders and trade representatives from the region converge on Cayman for the JMC, the trade show and the constitutional celebrations, as well as the arrival of the Mounts Bay.
“The trade summit will explore areas where the UK and the overseas territories can work more closely together to develop export and inward investment opportunities. Senior representatives from the Department of International Trade and its business delivery partners in the USA and China will be present,” Roper said. “It is also great that Lord Ahmad will be here to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Constitution and discuss cooperation on disaster management.”
Lord Ahmad has been the OT minister for two years, having been appointed by then prime minister Theresa May in her 2017 Cabinet reshuffle but this may well be his last visit to Cayman in that job. The UK remains immersed in political turmoil over Brexit, which forced the resignation of May a few weeks ago.
The process is now underway to choose a new leader of the Conservative Party, which will be decided by the wider party membership in a ballot next month. Whoever wins will become Britain’s new prime minister. While the scandal-prone Boris Johnson could still derail his own chances, he is way ahead of his last opponent in the leadership contest, Jeremy Hunt, and appears poised to become the next PM.
Whoever wins, the new prime minister could well appoint a new OT minister before the end of the summer. But his first job will be to resume talks in Brussels over the Brexit impasse.
Given the chain of events over the last three years since the UK electorate narrowly voted to leave the European Union, there are no guarantees that either Johnson or Hunt will be able to navigate the negotiations and deliver Brexit by the new deadline on 31 October, increasing the possibility that Britain could face a general election at the end of 2019 or early next year.
Category: Politics
Glad he was here to experience the new airport the Prince of Wales just opened leaking after a little torrential rains. Far from Hurricane or real flood. Another $20m to redesign?
I hope he will ask the Govt to get the Sea Port right before spending $400m. They needed to rename the beach landing “Operation Save ORIA” and do the landing in the more protected North Sound. After a hurricane surf on SMB may be high for days. Landing will be impossible .
12;20 you sound just like another rude misbehave kid. Why you have to tear down everything the government does. your lies of the port costing 400 million is to rally the idiots that have not enough sense to realize that Cayman has now progressed, with such a growth, that we now need to improve our Cruise port and Cargo port, and our Infrastructures. For whatever your agenda is , your not convincing me one bit, to go against any sort of Infrastructures this country needs.
Meanwhile, the RFA Mounts Bay will deliver a new state-of-the-art hammock to Government House, complete with a half-decent camera for Governor Roper’s Instagram.
I suppose a team building trip to Havana Club is also on tap as well.
Sure, that’s a great idea!
Count me in #lovesomesourpuss
Apartheid Cayman Style.
And boy Cayman has the master teacher of that sick system as it’s mother country.
2.28pm Wrong, the mother country does not teach apartheid, but Caymanians certainly practice it, compare the L.A.with Parliament. Is giving all Caymanians full British citizenship if they want it apartheid?.
As another contributor pointed out you all vilify your own MLA’s and politicians, so maybe you would be better off with an expatriate representative who could be aloof from all the incestuous relationships that reign in the House.
Might be an opportune time to quietly and tactfully make a stand, air sentiments and concerns on certain issues.
Huh? Poster was merely stating the fact that there are Status Holding Caymanian voters without any representation in the LA, due to prejudicial criteria which (deliberately) exclude their kind from eligibility. Hence, the static shallow pool of school-leaving corruption-prone clowns keep cycling through over and over. Tell me again how that’s working?!?
Poster got caught but still came back with even more nasty prejudiced comments.
You have made your point clearly!
Status-holding Caymanians are, or should be, Caymanians first. Thus, they are represented (or not) the same as all of us.
You sound as though you believe Status Holders should band together against other Caymanians. What I find is that a person’s character and actions determine whether they are accepted within a community far more than their legal credentials.
Any word on the status of chopper #1, surely it must be back in the states by now?
Hope he brought his rainboots and his umbrella wouldnt want to get his fancy robes all mucked up going through that mess of an airport
What an embarrassment to the country
We can’t even build for something as simple as heavy rains
In an area that for half of the year is subject to hurricanes and tropical storms
A Charlie-Brown band of rain clouds at that…
Britain’s cosmopolitan population is well represented in Parliament, in Government and elsewhere (London’s mayor for example). Cayman’s population is similarly cosmopolitan but will not allow even a single representative of expatriate origin in the L.A. This need to change if we call ourselves a democratic society.
Please don’t be fooled by the TROLL at 9:00pm.
Both Ahmad and Kahn (London Mayor) are born and bred Englishmen.
They might appear to be born elsewhere to you though, given the seething underlying prejudicial nature of your post.
Actually you TROLL, is bad poster child for democratic rights.
And still not considered english by the english pigmentocratic class, go figure…! don’t kid yourself. Explain your version of the windrush scandal to us all for starters, and brexit while your at it.
8.49am I never suggested they were born outside the UK (although their parents were). You are a typical blinkered inbred Caymanian.The point I was making is that Britain rightly allows representation of all it’s ethnic communities which is how a democracy operates.
So please address the point I raised, as we have a large expatriate population here holding status or permanent residence why should they be denied representation?. Please respond without any seething underlying prejudice.
P.S. The Mayor of London is Sadiq Khan, please note the spelling.
Actually not Caymanian at all!
Caymanians are too passive to take on animals of your type.
Sick racist comments that you continue to spew.
2.30pm OK where are you from, spew it out!.
Kahn is a Jewish name lol but thanks for commenting.
Actually, Cohen is the correct Jewish spelling!
Tell that to all the Kahns on my street.
Kahn is German for the Jewish name Cohen, being the origin of the name in the first place.
Girl you are thick!
@11:52am – are you so bothered that you are not a “true and true” Caymanian that you have to insult all Caymanians? We can all clearly see that you’re very special and this is why Caymanians have a problem with some expats. Why the F do you want to live here if you don’t like the people of this country? Do you have an intention to conquer it and change it to your liking? i.e. do you go into other people’s homes after they’ve invited you and then demand to have a say in how they run their house? You have a twisted idea of democracy that is not shared by all of the people living here. You’re clearly a libtard.
Please ask Chinese businesses to improve their product quality. It’s cheating for customers (poor people) to purchase a product today which should last a year and it has to be replaced tomorrow, because it’s broken already.
They have always had the landing exercise at Governor’s beach. Why not use other beaches in East End or West Bay where the people will be truly cut off?