Archive for January 30th, 2009
Talk show host going to UK
(CNS): Controversial host of the Crosstalk radio show on Rooster 1.01, Elio Solomon seems to have landed himself a seat at the table for the constitutional talks in London next week. Since Solomon will be running as a candidate with the United Democratic Party (UDP) in May’s GeneralElection, the opposition leader has written to Sir Ian Hendry, Leader of the UK delegation, to ask if he can bring the talk show host as an adviser. Although Hendry raised concerns, he has said the FCO was prepared to admit Solomon.
In a letter responding to a request from Leader of the Opposition McKeeva Bush and the UDP , Hendry said the choice of individuals was a matter for the Cayman delegation, but he noted that the UK had not allowed journalists at the talks as they had considered them best held in private. He further noted, that the opposition representatives were expected to be drawn from serving MLAs and that the final round of discussions should be between delegates that participated in earlier rounds. He drew attention to the fact that Solomon did not meet any of the criteria of delegates.
“I understand, however, that Mr Solomon is a declared candidate for the UDP at the forthcoming elections,” Hendry noted. However, since Bush had said he was part of the UDP advisory team and assurances had been given that the talks would not be used for journalistic purposes, Solomon would be accepted.
“I understand the difficulty the Opposition faces in being without Ms Juliana O’Connor Connolly, who naturally feels she must be on Cayman Brac for the visit of Prince Edward next week,” Hendry wrote. “In these exceptional circumstances and on the basis of your assurance…..the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is prepared to admit Mr Solomon to next week’s talks if he is selected as a member of the Cayman Islands Delegation.”
The letter was also copied to Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts, who gave no official comment other than to note that nothing would be allowed to derail the talks.
Solomon, who has in the past severely criticised the party system, the leader of the opposition and his previous government, has now confirmed he will not run for office as an independent candidate but will be on the UDP ticket. Last July the talk show host was still talking about running as an independent but said he planned to run with perhaps two or three other independents.
It was not until the end of last year when he indicated he was considering running with the UDP. In December he told CNS that he had not made a formal commitment with the UDP but the discussions were ongoing. At that time Solomon said he was in the process of sitting down with party members and seeing how close his position on important issues was to that of the party.
Before running for office as an independent candidate in the 2005 election, Solomon ran the Caypolitics website which was closed down due to legal problems. During the time that the website was live, however, Solomon admitted that he had received five threats of law suits from the UDP with regard to posts he had made about government at the time.
Nevertheless, the UDP confirmed on Thursday afternoon, 29 January, that Solomon has joined the party and will be contesting a seat in the district of George Town alongside Mike Adam. West Bay MLA Rolston Anglin told CNS that these will not necessarily be the only two candiadates and the UDP was still in discussions with other potential represenataives for the district. Anglin also defended Solomon’s place at the constitutional talks when he said that he had been involved closely with the UDP in an advisory role for some time and he was a welcome addition to the team in the absence of Capt Eugene Ebanks and Juliana O’Conner Connolly.