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No Democracy with Debt in Grand Turk

Regarding Caribbean News Now Minister for International Development Alan Duncan said Britain had been “firm but fair” by telling the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) it could have elections once it sorted out its budget deficit.

alan_duncan.jpg
Minister for International Development Alan Duncan

In December 2010, Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) minister with responsibility for the Overseas Territories, Henry Bellingham, announced a formal list of “milestones” to be passed before the TCI can return to internal self-government, following the imposition of direct rule by Britain in 2009.

The eight requirements include:

— Constitutional reform
— New legislation covering elections, integrity in office 
— Public financial management reform
— Balanced public budgets
— Reform of laws for granting belongership
— Progress with criminal prosecutions and civil recovery, plus support for continuing investigations beyond the next election
— Crown Land policy reform
— Civil service reform

“We’ve been firm but fair – the understanding we have is that if the islands can meet eight milestones, which include governance and reforming the public sector, but of course, crucially, getting the budget deficit into surplus, then they’ll be able to have elections again…” Duncan said.

“They’ve had to reform the public sector yes, they’ve had to sack some people… The governor – and I have to say the people of the Turks and Caicos — have been very good at facing great austerity, but if we get it back on course, then their politics will be back on course as well,” he added.

Duncan described how he had discovered the problem.

“George Osborne went into his office and there was a bit of paper saying ‘there isn’t any money’. Well, on my first day as Minister for International Development, I went into mine and there was a bit of paper saying ‘Minister, the Turks and Caicos Islands have got a budget deficit of £30m and it’s growing’,” he said.

The Department for International Development (DfID) is the department which, under the International Development Act, has the duty of care for the finances of Britain’s overseas territories and Duncan said he had “to leap into action and say you know, we’ve got to cut this deficit.” 

He acknowledged that the British government wants to have elections in the TCI in 2012 but he said, “We’ve got to get the money right first – otherwise we, DfID, the government here, are going to have a massive bill.”

“So we are really doing … is trying to turn around a massive mountain of debt and getting the money back on track,” he said.

posted in Caribbean News now 13.02.2012

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Shaun Malcolm again in the Court Hearings

Shaun Malcolm again in discussions with his letter.The guy is champion in TCI  with his letters to UK Government before and during UK Commission of Inquiry and  Interim Government in Turks and Caicos Islands since 2009

 

Ashcroft case ‘a threat to free speech’ court told sues Independent for ‘defamation’

 

A “fundamental bulwark” of free speech could be lost if The Independent is denied the right to defend its decision to publish extracts from a letter written by a Turks and Caicos politician alleging that Lord Ashcroft posed a threat to democracy on the islands, a court was told yesterday.

The Tory peer is seeking damages from Independent News and Media (INM), former owners of The Independent, over articles published in November 2009, one of which quoted from a letter to David Cameron from an opposition Turks and Caicos politician, Shaun Malcolm. The letter pleaded that if the Conservatives came to power, they should not allow Lord Ashcroft to influence British policy on the islands, which have been under direct rule by the Foreign Office because of corruption in the government of the former Prime Minister, Michael Misick.

Lord Ashcroft worked for many years with William Hague, and bankrolled the Conservative Party while Mr Hague was party leader. The Independent alleged that he profited from a short-lived construction boom on Turks and Caicos, fuelled by the corrupt sale of crown land, the court heard. Mr Malcolm alleged in his letter that Lord Ashcroft’s wealth gave him influence which “we feel puts any hope of democracy at risk,” the court heard.

David Price QC, for INM, argued that this was comment, and in law even a ” whacky opinion” can be justified if it has any basis in fact. An appeal court has spent two days listening to arguments over what grounds the newspaper company can use to defend the case. Mark Warby QC, for Lord Ashcroft, claimed the allegations against the Tory peer were so “garbled and unclear” that it would be unfair to expect him to answer them. This argument has been upheld by Britain’s most senior libel judge, Mr Justice Eady, who said Mr Malcolm’s claim that Lord Ashcroft exercised a “level of influence” was a “defamatory comment” lacking “a factual basis”.

Mr Warby added that INM’s legal team had repeatedly gone back to Justice Eady with amendments to their case, but had failed to persuade him to lift the order.

The court reserved its judgement.

The  Independent 03.02.2012