The call this week by Mr. Andrew Rosindell MP for UK Overseas Territories to be represented in the UK parliament has stirred a considerable amount of interest amongst TC Islanders.
Mr. Rosindell is chairman of the British Overseas Territories All Party Parliamentary Group, and he made this call in a submission to the UK Parliament’s Backbench Business Committee. According to a headline report on Tuesday by PTV8, Mr. Rosindell said: “We give our 21 territories nothing. All they have is an informal all-party group, of which I am proud to be chairman...“We have a democratic hole, with hundreds of thousands of people for whom we make laws, whom we ultimately govern and on whose behalf we can declare war, make foreign policy and sign international treaties. We have substantial control over their domestic affairs… “Those territories that have sterling are bound by much of our own economic policy. In a range of areas, although the Crown dependencies and Overseas Territories are not part of the UK they are
substantially influenced and ultimately governed by this Parliament, so it is wrong for them to have no voice at all.”
Chair of the Consultative Forum, Lillian Misick could not agree more. “Not least because, amongst the other measures I proffered that would improve the UK’s relationship with us, I made a similar
call at a conference in London last summer that was hosted by the Minister for the Overseas Territories Mr Henry Bellingham,” she said. She noted in a report published in the June 16, 2011 edition of the TCI Free Press, she pointed out to Mr. Bellingham and other UK officials, including Mr. Rosindell: “I also think a provision granting the TCI a seat in the UK parliament should be added. This will not only facilitate the increased engagement and interaction with the UK government that are necessary
to build mutual trust and respect, it will also formalize links with the British society as a whole that come with the opportunities our people have to live, work, and study in the UK.”
Mrs. Misick, on behalf of the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands, said “I welcome Mr Rosindell’s support and advocacy. And I urge Mr. Bellingham, the members of the Foreign Affairs Committee,
and all members of the UK parliament to take heed.”
