Report, Pics & Video: Overseas Territories Meeting

Premier Dr. Ewart Brown opened the Pre-Overseas Territories Consultative Council [OTCC] meeting at the Fairmont Hamilton Hotel yesterday [June 4]. The meeting with the leaders of Overseas Territories allows for discussion of matters of common interest, ahead of the Annual Overseas Territories Consultative Council that is held in London in the fall.
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(L-R) Premier Dr. Ewart Brown, British Virgin Islands Premier Ralph O’Neal, Cayman Premier Mckeeva Bush.

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Oversees attendees at the Bermuda Pre-OTCC Meeting were the Cayman Premier McKeeva Bush, British Virgin Islands Premier Ralph T. O’Neal, Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Social Development of Anguilla Edison Baird, Minister of Communications and Works and Labour of Montserrat Charles Kirnon, and Member of House of Assembly of the British Virgin Islands Dr. Vincent Scatliffe.
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Left to right representatives from Montserratt, Cayman, Government of Bermuda; British Virgin Islands and Anguilla. Photo courtesy of DCI.

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Bermuda hosts included the Premier, Cabinet Secretary Marc Telemaque, Assistant Cabinet Secretary Judith Hall Bean, and various Government representatives.

Following below are Premier Dr Brown’s opening remarks of the pre-OTCC meeting:

On behalf of the Government and people of Bermuda, I am honoured to welcome you to the Pre-Overseas Territories Consultative Council Meeting 2010. In the time that we have been holding these meetings in advance of our discussions with the UK, we have come to understand the power inherent in speaking with one voice. We have come to understand that we do possess the ability to make that voice be heard. And we have come to understand that we are stronger together than apart.

We gather today under the dark shroud of a global recession that has touched the lives of all our people. We gather today in a world that has seen long standing governments fall and new leadership with new agendas emerge. As Lord Tennyson once wrote, “The old order changeth yielding place to new.”

While the environment has changed, our shared agenda and shared challenges necessitate that we remain unyielding in our commitment to working together.

Colleagues, the coalition government that has emerged from the UK General Election creates new opportunities and new challenges. For those of us who have chafed under what many of us considered the former Government’s soft approach to violent crime in the Overseas Territories, an opportunity exists that we will now have a more sympathetic ear. For those of us whose economies are dependent on international business, the new government represents a potential challenge as they must now seek new revenue streams potentially impacting on our economic well being.

Whether the new dynamic presents an opportunity or a challenge, it is clear that our interests remain unchanged and we must continue to press as one voice to ensure our interests remain protected.

I have often described the relationship between the UK and the Overseas Territories, usually to the discomfort of FCO Officials as “unnatural.” This relationship creates a dynamic where we can easily fall into the habit of begging and pleading for the UK to improve circumstances that given the opportunity, we are capable of handling ourselves. As we deliberate over the next few days, let us be reminded that together we have the intellect, the experience and the will to ensure that the interests of all our people are protected. It is a pleasure to host you in our beautiful Island home and I look forward to fruitful and positive discussions.

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Premier Dr. Ewart Brown addresses the delegates. Photo courtesy of DCI.

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Premier Dr Brown’s closing remarks:

Good afternoon.

I am honoured to be joined by fellow Premiers Bush of The Cayman Islands and O’Neal of the BVI; Deputy Chief Minister Baird of Anguilla and Minister Kirnon of Montserrat. We have completed a full and varied agenda during today’s sessions and I consider the Territories well prepared to address these matters with the UK Government in December.

London’s Agenda will feature many of the issues that affect our Islands and the world. Law and order and the role of the elected Governments and the appointed Governor continue to be an important matter for ongoing discussion. My colleagues can speak to other issues that will also feature on the Agenda but the apparent, growing interest of the UK Government in the fiscal affairs, revenue generation and budgetary processes of the Territories is a trend that is viewed cautiously.

I am proud to host this meeting on behalf of the Government and people of Bermuda and although I will not be a part of December’s meetings, setting the Agenda for the discussion and cementing Bermuda’s position on issues of importance is critical to facilitate continuity of the “one voice” approach to dealing with the UK Government. I am pleased to take questions and yield to distinguished colleagues who may wish to comment on our deliberations.

After the meeting, there was a press conference with all five representatives of the OTCC present. Premier Dr Ewart Brown led off saying that the idea of the gathering was to meet and develop a “one voice approach” to what Premier Ryan O’Neal of British Virgin Islands later referred to as the “gnomes of Westminster”.

Premier Dr. Brown said that the OTCC were concerned with the apparent heightened interest of the UK in the internal fiscal affairs of the OTCC. Premier Dr. Brown said that the particular shared concerns of the OTCC were Economic Development, matters relating to Civil Aviation, and Law, Order, and Security.

Premier Dr. Brown said that another common interest was the development and possible creation of a regional ‘high security prison’ that would be available to all the OTCC and could also be shared with other independent nations in the Caribbean.

Premier Ryan O’Neal of British Virgin Islands said that he had, that morning: “Seen and heard the Bermuda Parliament in action and could see and hear that democracy is very much alive in Bermuda.”

Premier McKeeva Bush of Cayman’s said that at this first Bermuda meeting, Premier Brown had been the kind of chairman that he liked. He was a ‘let’s stop talking, let’s make a decision, and let’s move on’ type of chairman.

Speaking to rising crime and violence in the OTCC. Mr Bush said that the Cayman’s and most likely his compatriots in the OTCC wanted the same thing from the UK. Technical help, advice, support and cooperation; not someone coming in and taking over.

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