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Influential Tory MP proposes BOTs elected representation in Westminster
An influential Tory MP has said that increased devolution powers to the Home countries has made lack of Westminster representation for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories a great unfairness, and it is time to end the outdated system of treating them like Colonies. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesDirect representation would confuse the hell out of the United Nations. Although it would give that body an opportunity to de-list all the NSGTs administered by Britain. Wouldn't Argentina, which had protested in 1946 when the Falklands were listed, complain about that. :-)
Jul 25th, 2017 - 06:30 am - Link - Report abuse +3The French do it with their overseas “departments” so why shouldn't the British? Spain, with their two enclaves in North Africa, also do it!
Jul 25th, 2017 - 08:00 am - Link - Report abuse +2It would give the B.O.T.s immediate access to Westminster and prove useful especially when foreign governments make outrageous claims -
Jul 25th, 2017 - 08:38 am - Link - Report abuse +3By a ruling of the UN, Argentina will extend its maritime platform (Politica Argentina) ; New map of the maritime platform reaffirms the sovereignty of Malvinas with UN endorsement (ElCronista); Argentina enlarges its territory 35%, with a UN endorsement ...(La Capital). To add to this euphoric atmosphere the Argentine Foreign Minister stated,. which tomorrow will publicly announce the details of this resolution. (Susana Malcorra, quoted by Dinatale M, La Nacion, Argentina, 27 March 2016).
Ah but then Argentina and the truth don't sit too well together...
Argentina's Continental Shelf Claims and The UN CLCA Commission (1 page):-
https://www.academia.edu/33898951/Argentinas_Continental_Shelf_Claims_-The_UN_CLCS_Commission
TWIMC...
Jul 25th, 2017 - 10:28 am - Link - Report abuse -2Somehow i don't THINK this idea will be well recieved by the British Overseas Territories Logal Governments..., recently blacklisted by the European Union (EU) as the world’s worst tax havens..., like Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and the Turks and Caicos Islands....
Representation at Westminster would..., forcibly..., involve the implementation of all relevant UK Financial regulation laws....
That' why this same proposal has been rejected and/or tabled a numbed of times already...
So when they get representation, they also get taxation.... They'll love chipping in to the UK's enormous National Debt, won't they?
Jul 25th, 2017 - 12:03 pm - Link - Report abuse -2@Think
Jul 25th, 2017 - 12:10 pm - Link - Report abuse +3Where is this EU blacklist? All I can find is that they are planning one for the end of this year. I did find a website showing the tax havens listed by each member state, apparently Uruguay is listed as a tax haven by Finland, Greece, Lithuania and Slovenia, but you'll be happy to know Argentina is not listed by any country.
But anyway, according to the Greenland government website, they now have control of financial regulation, as well as having representation in the Danish parliament, so why would the BOTs be required to implement UK laws to have the same?
@Mr Ed
I am pretty sure paying taxes to the UK would not be required, although people in the UK might object if they didn't.
Mr.DemonTree...
Jul 25th, 2017 - 12:59 pm - Link - Report abuse -3Two years old news... Process in constant development...
http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/economy-politics.120n
Rosindell is as mad as a hatter. Time to stop treating the British Dependencies and Overseas Territories as colonies? He must be joking. Still, it's good to see that he's just about got enough rational thought to recognise that we actually do treat them as colonies. We do that because that's exactly what they are. And when they stop being British we all need to remember that the Falkland Islands are Scottish (the title is in the name although I suppose that means the Cayman Islands belong to the crocodiles and the BVI belong to the virgins. Good luck finding any of those on Tortola).
Jul 25th, 2017 - 01:49 pm - Link - Report abuse -4As for “those of the British family living in the BOT’s and CD’s” having absolutely no rights...well I'd bet the value of my Dover RBL bar bill for December that a fair proportion of the adult family members residing in the Falkland Islands do have the vote in a Westminster constituency back at the family home.
@Think
Jul 25th, 2017 - 02:25 pm - Link - Report abuse +1Oh, so not an EU blacklist but any territory listed by more than 10 member states.
According to that though, Luxembourg is doing just fine as a tax haven despite supposedly having to follow EU laws, and the case about Apple in Ireland has been dragging on for ages in the papers here.
The international community really needs to do more about tax avoidance anyway. It's ridiculous that there are no countries left on the OECD's blacklist, all they had to do to be removed was find 12 irrelevant countries to sign financial disclosure agreements with. And the EU is not doing enough either, either internally or externally with their investments.
“Representation at Westminster would..., forcibly..., involve the implementation of all relevant UK Financial regulation laws”
Jul 25th, 2017 - 02:42 pm - Link - Report abuse +2Would it Think? He is not talking about annexation or even free association; in fact it's not that clear what Rosindell is talking about. I stared at him across a crowded patio at Canning House only a few weeks ago, but he didn't look as mad as a hatter. Representation in the House of Lords is an intriguing idea though.
I Think that having members of the UK Parliament that don't follow UK laws is an intriguing idea indeed...
Jul 25th, 2017 - 02:57 pm - Link - Report abuse -3Why? Scotland and NI have always had different laws to England and Wales, and Greenland certainly has different laws to Denmark, it's not even in the EU.
Jul 25th, 2017 - 03:00 pm - Link - Report abuse +4Cmdr. McDod...
Jul 25th, 2017 - 03:10 pm - Link - Report abuse -4Any talk at th at charming Dover RBL Bar... ;-) about that new Engrish book describing how a little bunch of heroic NP-8901ers slaughtered some 100 Argies in 1982 with the sole help of their Wenger 1893's...?
Intriguing? Many of them already behave as though they don't have to so a few more won't make much difference.
Jul 25th, 2017 - 03:11 pm - Link - Report abuse -2Mr. DemonTree...
Jul 25th, 2017 - 03:33 pm - Link - Report abuse -4I SPECIFICALLY wrote “UK LAW”...
NOT Engrish..., nor Scots..., nor Loyalist law...
Cmdr. Mc.Dod...
Fair enough...
Any comments from Bernard the Barman about the new Malvinas Rorke's Drift book...?
When I asked him he said “Nobody here speaks Spanish...” I've no idea why he said that because I speak English just like Sir Sean Connery. Perhaps it was something to do with this...
Jul 25th, 2017 - 04:47 pm - Link - Report abuse -2https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v53UT4QuFZ4
“Nobody here speaks Spanish...” huhhhhhh...?
Jul 25th, 2017 - 05:43 pm - Link - Report abuse -3Sounds just like Puerto Estanley Tourist information Office... when the cruise ships arrive full of Venezuelan, Colombian, Mexican, Peruvian, Shilean, Uruguayan and the odd Argie tourist...
@Think
Jul 25th, 2017 - 11:20 pm - Link - Report abuse +1I'm still not seeing where it would have to apply in the BOTs. I believe some UK laws are enforced there, why would giving them MPs change that?
Rosindell needs to get his head out of his anus far enough to hear what OT's are telling him. Pompous fool.
Jul 26th, 2017 - 10:30 am - Link - Report abuse 0TWIMC...
Jul 26th, 2017 - 12:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0MP Rosindell talking to his Falkland Constituency...:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/His_Master%27s_Voice.jpg
Ah, so some people are against it. GALlamosa, do you mind explaining why you are opposed to the idea?
Jul 26th, 2017 - 01:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The clue is in this statement from Rosindell.
Jul 28th, 2017 - 12:13 pm - Link - Report abuse +1“If this is simply put to the individual British jurisdiction governments for their consideration, it is unlikely to progress. It is something the British government should state they are going to do and they should get on with it”
The Falkland Islands (and other OT's) are not legally or Constitutionally part of the United Kingdom. Parliament does not make the laws for the OT's (other than in exceptional circumstances which generally involve the extension of UK's international obligations). So it cannot be right that OT representatives are in Parliament making laws for the United Kingdom. We already have strong cross party support in both Houses for the right to self-determination, and there is no need to disturb that arrangement.
If the OT's were to be not involved in making the law (ie non-voting) it would be no more than a Public Relations exercise to have Members in the House. We all have other arrangements in place for that.
The arrangement that Rossindel describes exists in Dutch and French territories which are part of the metropolis, and whose laws are made by the metropolis. That is not an arrangement that is attractive to Falkland Islanders.
....................... ”That is not an arrangement that is attractive to the top 3% sqidllionaire Falkland Islanders... that are skimming the cream today... If I..., humbly..., may add...
Jul 28th, 2017 - 12:58 pm - Link - Report abuse 0GALlamosa
Jul 28th, 2017 - 05:14 pm - Link - Report abuse 0...and yet the UK can and has in the past altered the constitutional status of the BOTs... British citizenship for instance...
They could also reverse that citizen status if they so wished...
You are totally dependant on the UK Govt..and totally susceptible to any whimsical changes they wish to make...
Why pretend otherwise...
Corbyn made that clear,,,and if he had won the election and had the support of his party...who knows...
I can now see why there is competition for the post of the panto horse's rear. Good on you for sticking it to the uppity colonial apologist.
Jul 28th, 2017 - 09:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@GALlamosa
Jul 28th, 2017 - 09:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0He did say that he was advocating for the Danish system, where the OTs are autonomous and not part of Denmark, rather than the French or Dutch one. But perhaps you think the UK parliament would feel it had legitimacy to make laws for the BOTs if they were represented there, and would thus be more likely to do so?
I do see your point about them voting on laws for the UK though, laws that wouldn't even affect them. We already have a similar problem due to the devolved governments.
If the OTs take full participation in parent state elections and can be part of parent state government on the same basis as anywhere in the metropoli they integrated with their parent state regardless of what local autonomy they may have. This is the case of the French and Danish OTs. The Dutch Special municipalities Saba & Bonaire likewise are fully integrated. The Dutch OTs Aruba, Curacao, and Sint Maarten are not. They don't take part in Dutch elections, rather the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is formed by Council of Ministers of the Netherlands plus a Minister Plenipotenciary for each OT. Also not integrated are the US territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, and US Virgin Islands. They each elect a delegate to the US Congress who can't vote in the House, but they can vote in committees and can propose laws.
Jul 29th, 2017 - 08:20 am - Link - Report abuse +1If an OT integrates with its parent state, it loses its right to self-determination in international law, and whether it can decide its political status becomes purely an internal matter of the state it has become a part of. Any OT thinking of joining its parent state should be fully aware of what that means.
England will return the Malvinas within 25 years.
Jul 31st, 2017 - 02:00 am - Link - Report abuse -1Commenting for this story is now closed.
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