Barbados High Commissioner to replace Jack
(CNS): Duncan Taylor, CBE, who is currently serving as the British High Commissioner for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean will step in to Governor Stuart Jack’s shoes when he departs at the end of November this year the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has announced. Taylor, will take over the position in January 2010, according to a communiqué issued by the Governor’s Office.
Stationed in Bridgetown, Taylor has held the post of HC since 2005 which covers Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. The Governor’s office have described Taylor who was born in October 1958 as a career diplomat who has served in the UK’s Foreign Service for 27 years.
He started his FCO career in 1982 as Desk Officer for the FCO in its West Africa Department, he went on to become Third and later Second Secretary of Chancery in Havana between 1983-87. Subsequently, he was Head of Japan Section in the FCO’s Far East Department for two years. Between 1989 and 1991, he served in the FCO’s Personnel Operations Department. In 1992, he took over as Head of the British Embassy’s Commercial Section in Budapest, Hungary, where he served for four years.
During 1996-7, as Director of Latin American Affairs, he was seconded to Rolls Royce. From 1997-2000, he was Head of Consular Division for the FCO and immediately prior to his current posting in the Caribbean he served as Deputy Consul-General and Deputy Head of Post in New York.
Married to Marie-Beatrice he has three daughters and two sons.
Category: Local News
It would be nice to hear from some Bajans on island or back in Barbados to give us some insight on our newly expected Governor.
I’m a bit optimistic that he will be nice bloke, afterall, he could never be as Piss Poor as our present one. To be in the Eastern Caribben all this time without ruffling feathers and causing major screw up’s, I suppose is a good sign.
I think we he arrives, he needs to be told up front from Tom, Dick and Harry, no more Bull S@#$ as the last one. You need to restore confidence in your office and govern appropriately and accordingly.
I can not believe the bile and vitriol spouted on these pages concerning our Governor, he is a good man who has been presented with a complex heap of problems which I suspect, even the world’s greatest statesmen would have stumbled over and all of this was compounded by the fact that the legal advice he has had to follow was at best sub-standard.
We have to realise that the alternative to a Governor, is Independence and lets be honest, do you really want the "borrowing" muppets who call themselves MLAs to run the show….The financial services industry and off-shore banking would disappear overnight, the Island would never survive on tourism (especially now that the US have lifted the Cuba travel embargo)
Cayman would however be shot of all the hated ex-pats, so I guess that would leave you all content in the knowledge that you could enjoy the happy return of mosquitoes whilst you finish off the last few remaining Turtles and watch the drug cartels quietly take over the place (after all what is going to fund your mosquito eradication programme, Police/Customs forces, the health care system you all require on an almost daily basis, the social services, schools, clean water…I could go on but I’m sure you get the point)
Let’s grow up as a nation, demand better standards and accountability from those who represent us, realise that the world recession will also affect us, develop a respect for those in positions of authority and support them for a change, who knows, maybe we could make a difference but for heavens sake, stop beating each other up and act constructively for a change.
"I cannot believe the bile"
This is a refreshing, thoughtful post. Well done Sir/Madam.
oh, so it is "bile" when we are critical of the Governor, but the last poster can speak about our representatives as in "do you really want the "borrowing" muppets who call themselves MLAs to run the show…."???
All I can tell you is what Mahatma Ghandi told the British before they were sent packing from his country — to paraphrase him, yes, we will make mistakes, but it will be our mistakes.
Caymanians, like the people of every other country that have aspired to become responsibile for their own affairs, have to eventually assume responsibilities — that is the only way that one learns how to become responsible.
And I don’t think that anyone is saying that right now the Governor’s role should be abolished. What we would like to see is its powers reduced and some of those given to the elected representatives so that they can develop into these leadership roles.
So no one is asking for independence — it is not an either/or situation right now. What we want is a phased handing over of responsibilities so that ultimately Cayman can assume responsibility for its own affairs.
That is the way it should be — when the time is right.
In the meantime, we need to begin to reduce powers of Governors — is there some inherent reason for someone outside of Cayman being better able to make decisions in the best interest of the people?
We have the answer in Jack’s performance. Hindsight is 50-50 — but we expect that when people rise to the position of making decisions for the country they will be better equipped at reasoning that to give us this either/or fallacy that we keep getting as the defence from the Governor — that he had to act as he could not sweep wrong doing under the carpet.
No one wanted him to do that — there are options, rather than, as Justice Cresswell said, the "nuclear option."
And the fact of the matter is that the buck stops with him — let’s not start making excuses regarding legal advice, etc. It is his job to be sure he is getting proper advice.
And by the way, where did the advice come from? The UK. But it is apparently ok if the Governor and his UK cohorts make mistakes, and "bile" if we criticise, while there is no restraint in the way we speak about our representatives of our people.
I hate getting in to this US against Them — but the two last posters have raised that spectre and it is not pretty.
""Oh so it is bile when we etc"
It’s amazing how one dimensial these opinions can be. Either you have a British Governor-repeat British Governor- or you have something totally different. Why would the UK give Cayman a Governor who would allow our MLAs to do things so totally against UK interests? You would think we are a major power the way we go on about "reducing the power of the Governor" It will get reduced only if they are ok with that, not if we stick our tongues out at them. We are zeros, zilch, nada to them-they would love to see the back of us so they don’t have this damn embarrassing tax haven stuff always to explain to their European brothers (and of course dear old Barack)
As for legal advice. the poster is correct in saying that it his (the Governor’s) responsibility to get proper legal advice. Ahem. He got it (the advice, not necessarily proper) from the Attorney General-constitutionally his principal advisor. But-er-it was duff advice and-er Desmond has asked for some FOI info about it but-er- ahem-it can’t be given, cough, cough because -er cough-er ahem….FOI doesn’t apply to us..er legal er privilege….er..
I trust this post isn’t "scandalising the courts". Can any other poster tell me where this legal concept comes from and how exactly it applies in other sound jurisdictions (NB Somalia does not apply).
Just glancing through this last poster’s comments and didn’t "get" most of it, but what I noted was that the writer did not realise that in fact UK lawyers were advising the principals and by virtue of that, the Governor, in the Met Police debacle — which is what the discussion was essentially about. While the AG under the constitution is the advisor in chief to all and sundry in government, in this particular case he did not advise the Governor — according to records. Not that I agree with that.
Go back and read the records.
"Just glancing through…"
Obviously (unless you are part of the Legal Dept) you have not being following the concern over the last several months that many of us have-Desmond Seales(alas but who else do we have)is the media spokesman-about the role of the Attorney General/Legal Dept in all this. You tell us to look at the record. We do; we have; Our Legal Dept seems to be irrelevant since they can’t or won’t come up with answers. The dreaded, hated UK expert on the issue of misconduct in public office being a chargeable offence, Martin Polaine, simply asks Bulgin and co to explain their position in view of a change of their mind on the opinion he gave them after consulting other significant authorities in the Uk. No answer. Desmond Seales puts in a FOI request. No answer. Legal privilege blah blah blah. If Polaine et al were wrong and dreadfully so, why can’t our Legal people come out and say so confidentally to make us believe they actually know what they are doing?
Here is what we the Caymanian people want in a Governor!
The one piece of good news is that we will be seeing the back of Jack soon. And the new guy does have a good background, but I am not very hopeful that we are going to be much better off if he functions in the same constitutional framework as Jack. Hopefully that will have changed by then. I share the feeling of another writer that we are at the point where Governor’s need to take a background role and allow the Ministers to make the decisions on behalf of the people who elected them.
I think we also have a lot of concern that Governors are no longer exercising their enormous powers in the best interest of Caymanians but on behalf of their overlords in the FCO. We know how the Prime Minister of England feels about us in his current role and in his former role as Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he made some very disparaging remarks about us. We know we are key competitor of London. So who is the Governor going to exercise judgements in favour of?
So while we are celebrating, let us be very judicious about the whole notion of the role of a Governor.
Having said that, the choice of Governor in terms of his past roles does make a difference. I have been reliably informed that the current Governor was a former "inspector" of UK outposts. So naturally he came to us with a certain mind-set. I am not sure if that piece of information was shared in the glowing resume that preceded him.
But let us not get carried away either with these glowing resumes. We heard, for example, some fairly irrelevant reports of Jack speaking umpteen languages. And we all bowed in awe. So what does that qualify him to do? Can he speak to the ordinary Caymanian? That is all we need to know. And in any event, how well did he speak these umpteen languages? If he is privileged to be based in or visit for extended periods countries that speak different languages, he is bound to pick up some skills. So let us not get too blown away with these resumes.
One last point on some of the postings — let us also not disparage persons who may make grammatical or spelling errors — this forum is for everyone, privileged or not. All we should be concerned about is whether we can understand the point the person is making. Everyone should have a voice, and a grammatical or spelling error has nothing to do necessarily with intelligence or common sense.
To Fifth generation Caymanian: you made some excellent points. I was not, however, referring so much to Jack’s screwing up or not – my comments were mainly concerned that a sense of viciousness emits from so many posts – on so many topics, not just this one. I actually agree with you – Jack has not done a great job with the way the investigation was handled and what it has done to our industry (financial) perceieved or otherwise is terrible.
I guess one of the posters on the DER news item summed it up best – something about us Caymanians also often trying to drag each other down – its just sad that so much of that sentiment is going on – not just groups against groups but within our group.
My post was also a comment on the way people tend to generalise in ways that are harmful to others – that to me is a possible indication of ignorance – it doesn’t as much matter to me how many degrees a person has. I know many people with a HS diploma or less who wouldn’t pass the kind of generalising derogative comments about another race, sex, nationality, as some others with college degrees do. My point was that (in my opinion) people who post blanket (especially harmful) statements about people – be it Caymanians against expats, expats against Caymanians, or straight people against gay, etc. may just possibly, be a little on the ignorant side…and it scares me that there is so much of that going on these days!!!
A concerned Caymanian.
"Fifth generation Caymanian" – it sounds like something out of Harry Potter or Jonathan Swift, but alas it is true. People count and spout this kind of fact. Does it mean your point has more weight than a mere third generation Caymanian? The wide use of the term Caymanian is a post-1960’s legal construct.
I cannot believe the last two posters..You cannot be Caymanian or stand for anything we believe in.If you had someone working for you that was costing you millions of dollars because of stupidity and personal vendettas, wouldn’t you get rid of him and hire someone capable. Jack is not God even though someone thinks because he was sent by the Queen that he possibly is. Furthermore do we have to take everything England shoves down our throat. Stand up for your country people. If we are not careful, one morning we wil wake up and be just like the Turks and Caicos with no voice and I am not talking about our government being corrupt but simply something new forced upon us by the mother country or Jack himself.
I like most Caymanians don’t believe in independence. All I’m asking England to do is to send this bumbling fool home and give us a Governor with common sense and good governing skiils. If the kettle is black, call it black.
Enough is Enough!! I ‘m fed up with seeing my country’s finances drained not only by the PPM government but by the Governor himself.
As for the last so called "Caymanian." poster, this is a fifth generation Caymanian with a Masters Degree and everybody’ is entitled to say what they have to say and just because they make a few spelling errors or don’t support Jack like you do does not make them bad , uneducated or ignorant. The only one ignorant here is you for believing that someone who has robbed our judicial system of its high standing, made a mockery of our police force and cost our country significant financial losses should be held in high esteem. again I say "enough is enough."
Bracker – I couldn’t agree with you more….any time you’re ready for that good-riddance party for Mr. Jack I’ll more than happy to join you! Not only has he helped to carry these islands down but, he has also ruined the reputations of some fellow Brackers too. Go far and stay long, Mr. Jack!
I agree with the last poster! Remember hes our governor and we have to respect that, no matter what mistakes hes made, Remember hes human just like us.
Judging by the grammatical and spelling errors it seems a lot of people posting on CNS are very possibly slightly on the ignorant/uneducated side of things…not to mention the angry vehemence of so much of the sentiment. This is an observation not just on the postings on this topic, but on the majority of them on this website. The generalisations constantly being made are also unbelievable.
Jack is doing his job. He may or may not have made mistakes over the course of his term, but does he deserve to be called all manner of things and with such raw hatred evident?
Which is more scary – a governor whose decisions are not always popular, or the most verbal part of our populace sounding so downright nasty, rude and vengeful? Is that much bad energy going around right now, and if so, what is it doing to our country? We aren’t hateful – are we?
A sad and very concerned Caymanian.
ignorant: unaware because of a lack of relevant information or knowledge.
The above definition for ignorant should be enough to let the postor who called some others on this website ignorant and uneducated know that he is far from the truth. Just because everyone has not had the advantage of a college education does not make them ignorant as the people of Cayman keep up with what is going on in their country. I find that comment very disrespectful and cannot find it in me to believe another Caymanian would voice an opinion such as this. If this is how you regard the people it would be nice if you climbed back under your rock where there is only one species since the Cayman Islands are made up of many different people who all have one thing in common They love their country no matter how ignorant or uneducated someone like you might find them.
I sign this happily, ANOTHER UNEDUCATED, IGNORANT CAYMANIAN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Couldn’t we just buy out Jack’s contract and have him leave early…Better if we pay him off now before we have to pay off any more judges and police officers.
Enough is Enough of this man. Go home Jack, you are not wanted here anymore!
History will recall you as the worst governor of these Islands!!
Lets all get together and have a great big leaving party for the day that Jack the Ripper leaves our country!! That day should be a public holiday!! He was/is a joke, and in this hard times has helped to only disgrace and run these islands down!
As far as I know, as a dispassionate observer, Taylor is an excellent choice. He is highly respected in Barbados and the other independent islands. He appears to be a man of the people with litle or no pomp and vanity.I think that he will heal the wounds that Jack has caused.
Be very careful of those who come highly recommended. I’m sure we all know of people that their former employers gave them glowing references as a means to off-load them hence making them someone else’s problem.
The common theme I do agree with is "Jack Must Go".
"Give us a Governor with common sense and good governing skills…."
No, this isn’t what we need. We need to get rid of governors/the UK/the colonial system so we can stop blaming them for everything and get on with forging this great country of ours on our own. Remember a few years back, when Ezzard and Oswell were pals and doing a TV show together? I think it was the late nineties and Ezzard (with his typical and in this case commendable bluntness) said "we should be preparing now for independence in 15 years" Oswell and he are apparently no longer pals but presumably Ezzard adheres to his strongly held views about independence and the need to rid Cayman of all the excuses we can now make about expats overwhelming us/controlling our worksites/buying up our land (birthright). Independence? Bring it on! Tick tock.
How will we support ourselves if we go independent ? How about income tax etc. like the US. We are a small country with no conceivable way to become independent. The country cannot thrive only on tourism so please enlighten me how it will be done.
How tall is he?
GOOD RIDDANCE TO JACK!!
There is still a God!! Praise be to God for removing this man who has brought so much shame, disgrace and financial woes to our country. there has been governors with their colonialist quirks before but never one as inept and uncaring as this one..
Watch and see if he doesn’t give himself status before leaving!!!
GOOO RIDDANCE!!!
Stuart Jack was/is PISS POOR as Governor of the Cayman Islands. I wish it was in the next 24 hours that he was leaving for the UK instead of November 2009.
I guess by that time, he will have us in another $6 million dollars in debt.
You need to face reality Mr Get Jack Out. You don’t have a say so. This place and all it’s people including you and I belong to the queen and all your babel means nothing.
It’s great news that Jack the Ripper is leaving. I hope the politicians don’t do anything stupid that he (Jack) will start another investigation so one of his pals can rip off the Cayman treasurery again. Jack has cost us a big bundle of cash. Please let Jack go with out anymore of our cash.
Get Stuart Jack OUT. We dont want him here anymore, a complete let down as a Governnor.
Get him a one way ticket after all Expencies he has accumilated in Cayman Islands be withdrawn from his savings to payoff for the expencies he created. All the fakes stories about his Lawyer having a problem with Pryia Levers (the Judge) in 2001 has all come about "Nothing", and if there was a case wiith the Judge and his Lawyer… Why did it take Mr. Jack from 2001 until 2008 only to form an excuse about his Tribunal Case he now has the Judge under?
Mr. Stuart Jack, the Governor of the Cayman Islands has been the biggest disgrace to good Governance in any part of this world that has ever been portrayed in any Country.
PLEASE Go QUICK QUICK Mr. Jack and make sure YOU have paid up all deb ts You accumilated on the poor people of our wonderful Cayman Islands.
Only For Caymanians.
I’m sure the Governor will take note of articulate rational statements like this one.