#Providenciales, November 30, 2018 – Turks and Caicos – The Rt. Hon. Theresa May, Prime Minister of Britain has reached agreement with the leaders of all 27 EU member states on a Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration marking the culmination of the UK’s exit negotiations with the European Union.
What is of extreme importance to us as a Turks and Caicos Overseas Territory, is what Uk Prime Minister considers as the achievements to be gained from this Brexit deal; I quote;
“We will control our own borders and end free movement once and for all”
Interestingly, Illegal immigration which relates to border control and is a direct constitutional responsibility of the British, is not a primary concern of theirs and they have been conspicuously negligent in carrying out that responsibility.
To add insult to injury, we are faced with court decisions that say that we are obligated to grant extended work permits to work permit holders. This is something that could be easily fixed by our immigration minister. As a former minister of immigration I was faced with the same problem 16 years ago. I fixed it but it was unfixed by the then incoming administration.
British Prime minister May’s second declared achievement in the Brexit deal is, and I quote;
“We will protect jobs with a deal that is good for our economy”
That again is strange when we consider the unregulated influx of Brits that has been placed in our Civil Service since the Interim Administration until presently, filling managerial and advisory positions with highly inflated salaries that are way above that of local counterparts. This needs to be fixed and is overdue. So it is indeed strange that the Brits are again fighting to stop something that they are imposing on us.
The third accomplishment referred to by the British prime minister and I quote;
“We will no longer send vast sums of money to the EU so we can spend more on our priorities, like investing in our long-term plan for the NHS”
This again is so interesting and considering the constitutional restraints and other legal impediments such as the Procurement Ordinance that is designed to secure and dump large sums of money into what was labeled the sinking fund and build large reserves while social services such as national health and education suffers and major government infrastructure such as the Parliament building and the Grand Turk airport terminal remain unattended.
Additionally, the public service is deprived of salary increases, gratuities, pensions and other benefits while the elected government is prohibited from usefully utilizing these funds to the benefit of its people and country. Strange indeed! What is good for the British goose is obviously not good for the Turks and Caicos gander.
Another such accomplishment mentioned and I quote;
“We will take back control of our laws, ending the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in the UK”
We need to bear in mind that we have been subjected to the imposition of not only those European laws, but British laws that have been morally and otherwise alien and unacceptable to us as a people.
This is undoubtedly a wake up call for us as a people considering the double standards being displayed by the British. This is particularly important bearing in mind that both governments have been in pursuit of constitutional reform and the present administration is currently engaged in such efforts.
It’s becoming clearer by the day that if we are to overcome the myriad of overbearing colonial and domestic governmental challenges, then we have to be realistic and reconsider our traditional approaches to selecting a government. That old, traditional approach of blind addiction to a particular political party is no longer working in the best interest of our people and country.
It is now obvious that if we are to survive, overcome and achieve the progress, prosperity and the economic and industrial stability that so we desire, we are going to have to seek out the most committed, competent and suitable men and women to represent us as our government in the future.
Release: Oswald Skippings