“Baroness Margaret Hodge is coming to the BVI.
She, of all His Majesty’s loyal subjects, has found it necessary to seize on a polite invitation by the Premier to visit the Virgin Islands.
She will be well briefed and will probably know more about us than we know about ourselves. But she will do us harm if she comes to these shores with preconceived notions as to who we are and how we live.
In her briefing, she may be distracted by stories reported in the press about crime, drugs, unsolved murders; the bane of all societies including hers.
But she may conveniently forget that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has always been responsible for our internal security, law and order.
But perhaps she may not consider that they are failing His Majesty’s loyal subjects here but we, not being taxpayers to His Majesty’s treasury, may not be of the highest priority.
She may be told that we have been calling upon the Minister for National Security, The Governor, for some time, to keep us safe. So, we applaud His Excellency and the Premier for the pending Anti-Crime Summit; An important initiative.
But we recognize that the Governor is not our employee. He is theirs. Truth be told, governors have walked the fine line of representing the interest of the UK while protecting the Territory.
But we noted his refusal to be drawn into giving an opinion on the Law Enforcement Review Report Volume II, lest he accidentally criticize the high-handed recommendations designed to further strip the BVI of the autonomy we have earned over the last six decades.
When the Baroness flies over these islands and into the Terrance B Lettsome International Airport, she may have a sharp intake of breath as she contemplates their stunning beauty.
But her hasty deposit and screeching stop on the runway may remind her of this government’s resolve to extend it with the need for that loan to be decoupled from the borrowing guidelines.
She may likely pay scant attention to our needs. That will not be the purpose of her visit. And even if she thinks about the nigh £286M that DFID paid for the St Helena airport project, it may never occur to her that they should assist us with ours.
As she drives through our communities on her way to government house which we have funded with her government, she may wonder where in the infrastructure is hidden the wealth that the Territory is accused of having.
It will not be obvious to her. It was never obvious to us.
She may forget that while companies are incorporated in the BVI, insured out of Bermuda and bank in Cayman, that some of the real wealth is invested in London.
But London is not the possession of any country and requires no one’s permission to work on behalf of its citizens.
She may choose to remember her personal experience as a beneficiary of the work of offshore jurisdictions which she obviously, now, feels justified in branding as ‘tax havens.
But tax avoidance and tax planning are not synonymous.
Her visit, which is believed to be part of a crusade to dismantle offshore businesses, may ignore the legitimacy of our well-regulated financial services industry.
Were we considered like the Crown Dependencies that are engaged in the same business but judged differently by her government and its allies, the ruthless aggression of the destabilizing policies aimed at us would vaporize.
But when she gets to government house, looks out on Road Harbour, and sees the many vessels anchored at the Moorings and in other spaces, she may be forced to agree that BVI must have done some things right.
And if her time allows her to sail in the territorial waters, pass into the gateway to the North Sound with Moskito on her left, Leverick on the right; Prickly Pear; Saba Rock, Biras Creek; BEYC; Eustatia; Necker all in her view; It may give her cause for pause.
And if she ends up at Nova Restaurant and saw the beautiful, well designed and solid investments in properties on Oil Nut Bay, she may pull a King Agrippa, “…almost thou pursuadest me…”
Peter, Guana, Cooper and Norman will likely cause her eyes to widen given what she would have already seen and if she were to emerge on land on Jost Van Dyke and Foxy (Philicianno Callwood MBE) welcomed her in song as she walks into his establishment…
…she would know that BVI is for real with hardworking and law-abiding people. Of course, were she to visit White Bay, the jaws may unhinge.
And on her sail back to Town, she will pass the imposing Steel Point looking down from its grand perch on a cliff welcoming all into the West End Harbour;
She will bypass French Man’s Cay, Fort Recovery, Nanny Cay, and the Sea Cows Bay Harbour. And, just maybe, she may entertain second thoughts about what she had believed prior to coming.
However, she may remember the Law Enforcement Review Report Volume II which, in its present form, will destroy the BVI tourism industry.
For that report recommends the closing of most of our ports of entry, brands BVI as a colony of incompetence, insinuates that all employees of the Territory are corrupt and disempowers our elected representatives.
For while we will not benefit financially like the French islands do in being Departments of France, since the BVI Treasury must foot the bills for the report’s recommendations, we will be managed in a similar manner.
And then, we imagine that the radiance of her smile may be pronounced. For the Law Enforcement Review Report Volume II appears to be a high-strung piece of evil…
…against a government and people that cannot hold a candle to what the Macbeths did to their guest, King Duncan, in their own home; Inverness Castle.
But our problem is that we do not have a Macduff to save us.
And when she sits with her country’s employee; His Excellency the Governor, her mind may likely return to the reason for her visit.
And, being a stone’s throw from the Dr D Orlando Smith Hospital, she may even remember the interview in which a former Speaker of the BVI House of Assembly had to defend the right of our government to build a hospital for the care of our sick.
The insinuation was that the funding must have materialized from illicit enterprises. That confirmed the incredibly low opinion held in Britain about the people of the BVI.
Of course they will discuss the COI. And it may not seem inappropriate to them that a lone UK commissioner; A stranger to the Territory, was sent to inquire into our operations without even the consideration of an advisor from the subregion to assist with the interpretation of cultural norms and relevance.
To be fair, the COI was necessary and we must continue to monitor our systems and processes.
{We are not saints, just virgins (islanders) and we are ashamed that the 13 have refused to discuss, in the People’s House, why a son of our soil is detained in a foreign land and how we avoid others walking that road.
And, unfortunately, the populace has not held our representatives to account. Perhaps they are afraid.}
It may not concern her that our elderly are suffering a degree of privation because her COI Commissioner who has not put a dime into our treasury has prohibited our leaders from helping our elderly in the manner they thought best.
And we hope that fair-play causes the Baroness and His Excellency to acknowledge as unjust, the tactic of continuing to hold the Order in Council over our heads although we have met the stipulated conditions.
Of course, she may likely want another Order in Council if we do not play ‘the Roman fool,’ and open our registers of beneficial ownership to press and including all who may have an idle curiosity.
Meanwhile, we have a very clear policy for publicly accessible registers with rights of access by those so authorized.
Therein lies the transparency she seeks.
And then, Baroness Margaret Hodge may think back to the 2018 interview with that ‘upstart’ Lorna Hodge (Smith) OBE, now an Honorable Member of our House of Assembly.
The Baroness branded many of Britain’s overseas territories as tax havens and noted that “secrecy breeds wrongdoing.” If that is accurate, her country should not have a Secret Service.
For MI5 and MI6 and, of course, her Foreign Office continue to do important and necessary work despite the secrecy.
But for her, perhaps only Britain can hold secrets and remain above corruption.
She spoke of dirty money as if it only circulated in the OTs. And what we heard as her tone spoke volumes about her regard for the government and people of the OTs.
Now she is coming here and we and our government will welcome her in true BVI style and in a manner that befits her position as a peer of the realm.
While we hardly expect any positives from her visit, we hope that, in the end, the kingdom recognizes the right of the people of the OTs to free and fair competition.
And we can only hope that her decades-long, aggressive protection of her bloodline would allow her to understand why it is important for us to protect ours.
For if her campaign and Volume II of the Law Enforcement Review Report are allowed to hold sway, what we have known as the BVI journey of self-determination (absolute definition) will be drastically altered and not for the better.
And our Fridays will, then, be bleak.
We wait…
Happy Friday!