Cayman UK office pushes British connection with Tories
Andrew Rosindell MP at Cayman Stand with Eric Bush and Charles Parchment
(CNS): Cayman’s representative in the UK, Eric Bush, led a delegation from the Cayman Islands London office to the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham this week, where the team set up its own branded stand. The aim was to promote the 60th anniversary of the Coat of Arms, press home the British connection and refute the allegations of facilitating tax evasion. Bush said the conference was a fantastic opportunity to remind the British government and the public that Cayman is a British Overseas Territory, and that “we are proud to be British”.
“We are sending a strong message to the government and the public that we are British and proud of our history, our culture and our successes in luxury tourism and international financial services,” Bush said in a release from the Cayman Islands London Office. “We have attended a number of UK Party Conferences over the past three years, however this is the first time we have participated in such a public manner, by hosting a stand for all to visit and interact with us.”
Bush added that the stand provided a greater presence and space to meet with ministers and MPs to discuss Cayman. “Our presence at the conference was a great success and we are already developing plans for even more engagement for next year,” Bush added.
According to the release, the stand was fully stocked with promotional materials, fact sheets and information from the Department of Tourism and Cayman Finance. Visitors to the stand were given information and advice about the Cayman Islands, including the history and culture of the islands, with a focus on the close ties to Britain.
Visitors to the stand included an array of Tory top brass, such as Conservative Party Chairman Brandon Lewis MP; de facto Deputy Prime Minister David Roy Lidington; Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox; Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt; Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss; Minister of State for Immigration Caroline Nokes; and several of the Cayman Islands All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), including Chairman Sir Graham Brady MP and Vice Chairman Andrew Rosindell MP.
The stand also attracted press attention and Bush also conducted a number of interviews with British media over the four-day conference, including a live broadcast with Sky News, in which he was asked, but did not answer, if Cayman expected more money to come its way, given the plans by the Conservative government to increase taxes. Bush also gave an interview to the Guardian Newspaper, which has not yet been published.
Bush also told CNS via email that he had visited the Labour Party Conference and the office has plans to take a stand there next year, which is all part of the political engagement strategy. He said the engagement is balanced between the government and the opposition, but the “reception we receive from the Labour Party is very different from that of the Conservatives”.
But Bush said that regardless of the different response, the London office is still trying to get the message across “as we meet and speak with Labour MPs and their leadership”.
The goal of the strategy of the London office is to better inform MPs and peers about the Cayman Islands, remind them that it is British and have constructive conversations about our longstanding relationship, Bush said.
Category: Local News
Good for CIG. For WAY too long Cayman has allowed the media, serious and fictional, to portray a false and highly detrimental image of Cayman. About time someone got out there and presented a positive image, no one else is going to do it for us.
“Cayman was a part of Jamaica” oh dear Eric you clearly don’t know your history! Cayman was always British, and was only administered by the colony of Jamaica when Jamaica were themselves a colony.
We always had a British Passport matey.
Just shows how important it is for persons in these posts to be born Caymanians who really know our history.
I bet this is Eric Bush preparing to return to head up the new Ministry the Premier recently announced.
Just Another Day in Absurdistan
Does Eric Bush fail to understand that MP’s in the U.K. do not view the Cayman Islands as British? The Channel Islands are British, The Isle of Man is British even Gibraltar is deemed British but Cayman is not. How is he our Ambassador of anything?
Hmmmm, Depends, I can park myself on the beach in Jersey, Guernsey,Sark, the I.O.M. or Gib unhindered…I try in GCM but all I see are signs that say the beach is private, some people even drive Left Hand Drive cars, and GCM a 4 way stop & traffic lights that hang in the air and big yellow school busses, how British is that ? The only saving grace is that there are roundabouts which strangely nobody seems to know how to negotiate, perhaps due to the left hand dive fiasco, perhaps those drivers should go around them anti-clockwise.
Roosevelt told Churchill you may own the West Indies, but they are in our backyard and we dictate policy. This hasn’t changed so get over it.
Excellent interview by Eric Bush. That particular interviewer can be very tricky and Eric put forward an excellent friendly image for Cayman.
I am so proud of Eric Bush! If only the cctv cameras could see him now!
Without CCTV were would be today? Thank you Eric. We look forward to having back in Cayman soon.
Stop the jealously.
Errr… It doesn’t work dingus! Where is the accountability? We been robbed!
ROTFLMFAO!!!!
Really, are Caymanians proud to be British?.
Well, they find lots of ways to waste money don’t they?
All well done but what impact will Brexit have on the overseas territories? The exit from the EU id fast approaching!
The only useful Tory is a lavatory
Here here, observatory and you’ll find them quite spineless.
God help you if the current shower of Marxists in the current Labour party ever get in.