UK MP calls for end to Foreign Office as OT messenger to UK Gov’t
![While the Joint Ministerial Council for overseas territories gets underway today, May 11, 2023, legislators in London’s House of Commons this morning met to debate the future of UK overseas territories, including the [British] Virgin Islands. Photo: House of Commons](https://www.virginislandsnewsonline.com/cache/images/800x_s_Screenshot_20230511_at_10.58.57.png)
Leading the debates, MP Alicia A. Kearns, Representative for Rutland and Melton, in an opening speech pointed out that while all OTs enjoy the right to self-determination as assured by the United Nations, deciding on having a constitutional relationship with the UK does not diminish their right to self-determination.
She added that the UK still has a role to play in supporting self-determination; therefore, OTs should be given to opportunity to have more voice when engaging with the UK.
“Now, whilst Overseas Territories choose to remain part of our global family, that does not mean that we should blindly accept the status quo. We should challenge ourselves to provide the best possible support to their individual hopes and needs and strive to support them.
“To achieve this, we should embed engagement government across government directly with Overseas Territories. Rather than relying on all manners of priorities to be dealt with through the Foreign Office as some sort of arbiter, there is widespread frustration about just how difficult it is to engage in the most basic of dialogue with government departments.”
OT must make their own case - MP Kearns
MP Kearns added it is only right that Overseas Territories make their own case to government departments, rather than relying on the Foreign Office to act as messengers.
“They make their own case best when their voices are heard, this will also help tackle any lingering belief in paternalistic governance, and the Foreign Affairs Committee itself made this recommendation 2019, because neither the territories nor their citizens are foreign and therefore it's fundamentally odd to have them supported through the Foreign Office,” she said.
Ms Kearns further urged the Government of the UK to drastically change how OT's are treated so they are not seen as neglected or subordinates.
“I would also urge the Minister to have all government departments update their strategies on the OTs because not one of them is less than a decade old, that cannot be right, we need to update the individual strategies,” she said.
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29 Responses to “UK MP calls for end to Foreign Office as OT messenger to UK Gov’t ”
Stop letting these UK Officials who are not elected keep making us feel like they are our only hope when in fact corruption is running over in their leadership in the UK. We have to put accountability systems in place in each OT and let them work especially when these areas are deemed violated. We do not need a Governor who by law is above the law to make us think he is our only hope for a brighter future. No one should be above the law. We are our own saviors. They will always have us doubting ourselves as it is their strategy from slavery days. All they have done is modernize their strategy. In a diplomatic way all they are doing is trying to recolonialize each OT especially those with successful financial services industry. It is about the MONEY & not the PEOPLE!
But it's strange that she mentioned that it has been the idea of the Foreign Office from 2019. How come our leaders never express this to the local public but all the while keep harping about UK taking us back into slavery? Food for thought. Nevertheless, having the UK willing to give the OTs more flexibility and freedom to negotiate and problem solve is a plus for all, including the BVI.
Would we have to pay taxes like those in England? Would we get a seat in parliament?
A native Virgin Islander to the Nth generation