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Peer calls for end of Cayman parliamentary group
(CNS): A senior Lib Dem peer has called for an end to the British parliamentary group whose stated purpose is to further the interests of the Cayman Islands. Lord Oakeshott (left) told Radio 4's Today programme this morning, "Look at the Cayman Islands all-party group. Just see what this is all about. Just see who is running that and paying for that. That is not an appropriate way for Parliament to be used … in many cases these are front organisations for commercial interests. Close down the APG on the Cayman Islands and make them pay their tax." The UK media spot light is currently on APGs after MP Patrick Mercer was secretly filmed boasting to undercover journalists posing as business contacts that he could get a group of "free-loaders" to join an APG on Fiji.
The Sunday Times has also filmed three peers appearing to offer to be paid lobbyists for a fictitious firm. They told reporters an all-party parliamentary group could be set up as a lobbying vehicle for a fake South Korean solar energy company.
There is no suggestion of any wrong-doing by any members of the Cayman Islands group, which has its secretariat supplied by the Cayman Islands government and last met on 9 July 2012.
Amid the sleaze allegations, Lord Oakeshott, speaking on Radio 4, rubbished Nick Clegg's plans for cleaning up the UK parliament with a lobbyists' charter, comparing it to tackling malaria by spraying a bit of "disinfectant" around mosquitoes. "We have to clean out the stinking swamp which is particularly the House of Lords where there is the nasty whiff of dirty money the whole time," he said.
He also told the BBC that ordinary people “would be sickened by the sort of behaviour that goes on” in parliament, particularly in the House of Lords.
All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Cayman Islands
Related articles:
MP Patrick Mercer 'offered Commons security pass' (BBC 1 June 2013)
Lord Oakeshott urges radical reform of House of Lords (BBC 3 June 2013)
Close down Cayman Islands' access to Parliament, says peer (The Week 3 June 2013)
UK Lord says he has ‘mini ambassadorial’ role (CNS 9 April 2013)
‘Culture Shock’ in George Town cancelled
(CNS): The launch of a new monthly event celebrating all things local shceduled for this evening has been cancelled due to expected bad weather. However, organisers say the event will take place Friday 28 June. ‘Culture Shock: a Cayman Nite’ is designed to be the pulse of Cayman, and Grass Piece Group, the local non-profit organization behind it, plans to revitalize George Town through a once monthly celebration of Cayman people, music, art and culture. The entrance will be free and organisers promise it will be an extraordinary night. Kids will have their own special area for fun and games and there will be lots of Caymanian food favourites at each event.
This month will feature vendors from North Side, who will sell favourites like fish tea, fish and fritters, conch, turtle, beef, cakes and local fruit juices. Aside from great food, the entertainers set for this inaugural event are local favourites the Red Bay Drummers, Shameka Clarke, Andy Blake and Swanky Kitchen Band.
A spokesperson for Grass Piece said, “In so many other countries the capital is where all the excitement is. It’s as if you can feel the heartbeat of the city intensify as night falls. But here in Grand Cayman, after corporate business hours, George Town is eerily deserted and quiet; many have likened it to a ghost town. Part of the problem is that there is nothing to draw people in. Grass Piece management wants to change that and expects that these events will give locals a reason to fall in love with Town again. We want to bring excitement back to downtown George Town while re-building a sense of community, and we plan to do exactly that on the last Friday of every month.
“Imagine people simply enjoying each other’s company, like a good backyard cookout, and you have Culture Shock — people you love, conversation, laughter, games, music, and, of course, good ‘cook food’. It will bring visitors and locals back to the capital for something fabulous each month. From arts and entertainment to local vendors and other surprises, there will always be something new to see.”
To learn more about this event, please contact:
Grass Piece Group
Cell: 926.0961
grasspiecegroup@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/caymancultureshock
New premier summoned to UK for tax talks
(CNS Business): The new Cayman Islands premier, who is coming into the job in the middle of a storm of anti-tax haven rhetoric from the British Prime Minister, has been summoned to the UK for a meeting on tax information sharing and transparency, the outcome of which will be critical to Cayman’s financial services sector. Earlier this month David Cameron sent a letter to the leaders of 10 British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, telling them that the UK is hosting a high level event on 15 June, so “this is the critical moment to get our own houses in order”. Premier Alden McLaughlin said that it was very important to address the contents of Cameron’s letter and that he and the new minister responsible for financial services, Wayne Panton, would be travelling to London next month. Read more on CNS Business
Robber assaults elderly customer at BT mini-mart
(CNS) Updated Wednesday: An armed man was confronted by an elderly male customer as he robbed the Lookout Fresh Fruit and Juices Minimart on Anton Bodden Drive, Bodden Town yesterday afternoon. Police said that about 3:58pm on Tuesday 28 May, a man entered the store in possession of what appeared to be a handgun and stole a quantity of cash. He assaulted the man who confronted him before leaving the location riding a bicycle along Hardy Street. No shots were fired and no serious injuries were sustained. The suspect is about 5'10"; he was wearing dark clothing and a dark coloured face mask. Police said that investigators recovered a number of items including the bicycle.
Anyone who was in the area at the relevant time and saw anything that could assist the investigation is asked to call Bodden Town Police Station at 947-2220 or the confidential Crime Stoppers number 800-8477(TIPS).
Jack and Bulgin face enquiry
(CNS): Former Governor Stuart Jack, Attorney General Sam Bulgin and the FCO's Caribbean Policy Adviser Larry Covington could face a criminal inquiry for allegedly lying to Metropolitan Police officers investigating corruption within the RCIPS, a Scotland Yard review has concluded. Jack has been cited by the Met in a letter to the current governor, Duncan Taylor, for possible attempts to pervert the course of justice over a break-in at the Cayman Net News office in 2007 by two of its staff. The senior investigating officer of "Operation Tempura", Martin Bridger, has claimed that Jack did not tell him that he had authorised the search and that if he had, the investigation would have lasted for only a couple of weeks. However, Jack has categorically denied the allegations made by Bridger, implying that he had told him about his part in the break-in.
In a statement to CNS, Jack said, “I categorically deny the allegations made by Martin Bridger. One can only assume that Mr Bridger’s continued attempts to undermine my credibility are designed to further his own interests in relation to the forthcoming civil proceedings in the Cayman Islands.
"Such baseless accusations are deeply upsetting to my family and harmful to my reputation. I look forward to giving evidence as a witness when those civil proceedings come for trial in the Cayman Islands Grand Court. I have no doubt that the Court will find Mr Bridger’s remarks to be wholly unsubstantiated."
Bulgin has also vehemently denied the allegations.
Bridger told CNS that he has documented evidence of his interviews with the former governor, the attorney general and Covington, the FCO official who was based in Miami at the time of the investigation. He said that these have been shown to the Metropolitan Police and on the basis of these interviews, Met officials had decided that an investigation into their conduct was warranted.
Stuart Kernohan, who was the Cayman Islands commissioner of police at the time, and his deputy, John Jones, have both made statements that Jack was fully aware of and had authorized the search of the Net News officers by John Evans and Lyndon Martin, who were both working as reporters at the newspaper at the time.
Much of the controversy over the investigation, which has cost the Cayman Islands millions of dollars, is now over the question of whether Jack knew about the break-in or not, as Bridger's position is that his entire investigation was based from the very start on a false premise. Kernohan, who was suspended when the investigation was made public in March 2008 and eventually sacked from his job, and Jones, who has since retired from the RCIPS, have supported Bridger's call for an investigation into the conduct of the officials.
"If it is shown that they lied to me in the course of the investigation, that is immense," Bridger told CNS. Jack has retired but Bridger said that AG Sam Bulgin and Covington could not viably remain in their posts if such an investigation takes place, in the same way that Kernohan and Jones were suspended from the RCIPS when Operation Tempura was in progress.
“From the outset, and continuing until this day, I have called for a full investigation into the conduct of the Governor and member of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Stuart Jack, Samuel Bulgin the Attorney General, the Chief Secretary George McCarthy, and others involved in this fiasco,” Kernohan stated in April.
According to the The Independent on Sunday, which says it has seen the letterfrom the Yard's Commander Allan Gibson to Taylor, copied to Simon Fraser, the head of the Diplomatic Service, the claims against Jack and the other two officials, which Jack strongly denies, amount to possible "misconduct in public office, attempting to pervert the course of justice and possibly wasting police time.” Gibson wrote, “It is my view the allegations are serious and contain sufficient detail to warrant a criminal investigation."
The FCO is continuing its fight to keep details of Tempura secret. The Cayman Information Commissioner Jennifer Dilbert directed the Governor's Office to release a copy of a report relating to a complaint filed by Martin Bridger about the operation to a freedom of information applicant. However, Justice Sir Alan Moses stayed the release on appeal. The British judge approved Governor Taylor’s application for judicial review and the next step is to set a date for the substantive hearing, but in the meantime the report remains secret.
See documents regarding Operation Tempura in the CNS Library
Related articles on CNS:
Former Cayman governor silent on Tempura probe
Ex-London cop speaks out on RCIPS probe secrecy
Competitive swimmer and tourist both die at sea
(CNS) Updated 4:57pm: Police have now named the two men who died in separate water-related incidents this weekend. Pablo Jose Perez Iarza, a member of the Uruguay Special Olympic team, who was in the Cayman Islands to participate in the Butterfield 800 meter swim, was found dead in the ocean off Seven Mile Beach on Saturday afternoon during the race. Suspected of having a cardiac arrestwhile competing, the police confirmed Monday that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death. In a second incident, Joseph Edward Johnson of Flagstaff, Arizona, who was visiting the Cayman Islands on vacation, drowned at Rum Point on Sunday when he got into difficulties in rough waters around the reef. An attempted daring rescue by the police helicopter unit was unable to save the man’s life.
Police said Iarza (41) was pulled from the water unconscious in the vicinity of the Avalon Condos on Saturday 25 May at about 4:25 pm after emergency personnel were dispatched to the scene. He was taken to the Cayman Islands Hospital in George Town, where he was pronounced dead at around 5:07pm.
Officials from the local Olympic Committee, Butterfield Bank (Cayman) Limited and the Cayman Islands Amateur Swimming Association (CIASA) offered condolences to the family and friends of Iarza.
"This is a great loss for the Special Olympics movement and our thoughts and prayers are with his family, his coach, his teammates and all of Special Olympics Uruguay," the leadership of Special Olympics International said in a statement Monday. SOCI Chairman Nick Freeland thanked medical personnel and said the precise cause of death was being determined by the hospital.
In a separete incident on Sunday, the emergency services received a report at 4:15pm that 64-year-old Joseph Edward Johnson had been missing in the water around Rum Point Drive for more than 25 minutes. A spokesperson for the RCIPS said Monday that a marine, air and land based rescue was immediately deployed.
The police helicopter was the first unit to arrive at the location – some four minutes after the report, the RCIPS stated. The helicopter crew spotted the missing man on the reef in the Driftwood area, about 50 yards from shore. Marine and land based resources were a short distance away but due to the urgency of the situation, the helicopter crew made the tactical decision to hover and deplane one of their tactical flight officers onto the shore.
The helicopter hovered about three feet from the beach and the officer alighted. Together with two of the missing man’s friends, he went out into the water to bring him back to shore. The wave height at the time was around 2-3 feet and crashing across the reef, the police said as they described the daring rescue attempt.
In the meantime, the helicopter landed nearby and the second tactical flight officer attended the beach with the medical equipment and the AED. CPRwas carried out on the man until the arrival of the EMT unit a few minutes later. Johnson was then taken to the hospital in George Town, where he was pronounced dead at 5:40pm.
Police said that post mortem examinations would be held in due course.
UWC scholarship recipients off to Italy and Canada
(CNS): A student from Cayman Prep and one from the Brac have been chosen as this year’s scholarship recipients by the UWC Cayman Islands National Committee. Tyleisha Galbraith (left), who is graduating from Cayman Prep and High School this summer, will be attending the United World College of the Pacific in Victoria, British Columbia. Simon Watson (right), who is graduating from the Layman Scott High School, will attend UWC Adriatic in Duino, Italy. Both students will undertake the rigorous two-year International Baccalaureate programme, a well-recognised and highly sought after pre-university qualification.
The pair was chosen after an extensive interview process featuring many outstanding candidates. Remarking on their selection, UWC Cayman Islands Vice-Chairperson Aubrey Bodden said of the process, “Each year we are so impressed with the achievements and passion of the students that apply to UWC through our National Committee. We are honoured to select Simon and Tyleisha as our 2013 scholars and know they will be exemplary representatives of the Cayman Islands. We believe that they will not only benefit from this experience but also contribute so much to their colleges and to the local and global community. A UWC education goes far beyond the two-year programme, as alumni remain committed to the UWC mission and values and become life-long agents of change.”
Commenting on his selection, Watson said, “I am thrilled to be selected by the CIUWC Committee for one of this year's scholarships and being given the opportunity to live and study in Italy, where I can learn a new language, perhaps even learn to ski, is more than I ever expected. I'd really like to thank the UWC sponsors for making this possible and I can assure them and the Committee that I will take advantage of every opportunity the school has to offer, learn as much as I can and have fun for the next two years. I can't wait to go.”
Speaking on her selection, Galbraith remarked, “I think that all candidates would have made an excellent contribution to the UWC community; therefore I am honoured to have been chosen as a scholar this year. Words cannot describe the emotions which I felt when I received the news, as I think this is a once in a life time opportunity. I look forward to sharing my culture with my peers, but more importantly being part of this multicultural community which extends values that will hopefully be universal in the near future. I would like to thank my sponsors and the CIUWC selection committee for giving me such an amazing opportunity. I’d also like to thank my family and friends for their continued support. I will definitely take advantage of every opportunity that I am offered during my UWC experience.”
UWC, formerly United World Colleges, is an educational network in 146 countries with 13 schools and colleges located in the USA, Canada, Costa Rica, Swaziland, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Italy, Norway, and The Netherlands. The schools and colleges deliver a challenging and transformative educational experience to inspire students to create a peaceful and sustainable future.
UWC depends on volunteer-run national committees in 146 countries. UWC Cayman Islands has been selecting students since 1984 and has over 60 local students and alumni and is committed to providing full scholarships to promising Caymanian students to attend one of the UWC campuses across the world.
UWC Cayman Islands relies upon fundraising as well as private and corporate donations to meet that goal. Bodden expressed her gratitude for the continued support for the foundation,”We are fortunate to have many corporate and individual sponsors, like Maples and Calder, Deutsche Bank, the AALL Foundation and Linburgh Martin (UWC Atlantic '86), whose generosity allows us to select scholars based entirely on merit and provide full scholarships to each Caymanian student.”
Companies and individuals interested in making a donation to UWC Cayman Islands are invited to email uwccaymanislands@gmail.com
The importance of a strong opposition
With a decisive win in this election, the Progressive party is now able to form a strong government. Once a speaker is chosen from the House (Ezzard Miller or Juliana O’Connor-Connolly, perhaps), they will have a clear majority on the government benches and be able to move forward with their policies without having to haggle in a coalition government. But, just as importantly, this has also given us a potentially dynamic opposition.
There is a temptation here in Cayman for people to want a Legislative Assembly where everyone “gets along” in place of healthy debate, and there will be plenty of people calling for the PPM to include C4C members in the next Cabinet, or at least to “work with them” over the next four years. But this would rob us of the most important of parliament’s checks and balances – an effective opposition.
A word on how the Westminster-style parliamentary system works: if the C4C members choose to sit in opposition to the government, this does not mean that they must align themselves with McKeeva Bush's UDP party or that they support the man. The opposition benches are not necessarily unified but are made up of any and all parties that are not aligned with the majority party government. So, for the new C4C members the decision is whether they join the government benches, where their job is to support the government, or whether they choose to sit in opposition, where their job is to scrutinise and question government decisions.
So, what we should have – what we desperately need – is a government dictating policy but an opposition that demands explanations and justifications for those policies within the House, the most public of forums, and has the ability to debate the issues knowledgably and intelligently. The three C4C members – two lawyers and an accountant – are eminently qualified to take on this role, which is vital for the democratic process to work as it should.
Hands up all those who would like to see Roy McTaggart on the Public Accounts Committee drilling government officials on government audit reports!
In addition, a good opposition will be a viable competing party in the next election, another way to hold government to account. If they all hold hands and sing "Kumbaya", who are they going to campaign against?
I agree with 101 (Don't stop the party) that the C4C should, now that the election is over, stop pretending that they are not a party because they clearly are – and that’s a good thing. The three members of C4C who have been elected and some of those who weren’t may well be part of a future government, but not this one. Right now, we need them to spend the next four years holding the Progressives to account because if Roy McTaggart, Tara Rivers and Winston Connolly do not, then who will?
Sadly, here in the Cayman Islands the party system, where opposing sides of the Chamber debate issues, has been hijacked by McKeeva Bush, who turned it into personality politics – opposition to him is never because people think he is wrong or that his policies are insane, it is always because they don’t like him, hate him, are conspiring against him, etc. But where politics is in the hands of more mature individuals – and I believe both the C4C and PPM newly elected or re-elected members are just that – they can debate the issues of the day but remain courteous, and even be friends outside their political differences.
McKeeva Bush will undoubtedly continue to argue bombastically within the LA, but the charges of fraud and corruption that he faces, with possibly more to come, have compromised his ability to be an effective leader of the opposition. They will undoubtedly be a huge and growing distraction (which is why politicians in his position usually step aside) and an embarrassment to the country, as well as severely casting doubt on the integrity of his party. I hope that his new party colleague, Bernie Bush, will prove an effective MLA because there doesn’t seem much hope that his old one, Captain Eugene Ebanks, will become one any time soon. However, I suspect that the UDP is irreparably fractured and will not survive the next four years anyway.
Juliana O’Connor-Connolly, former UDP and now the solitary PNA member in the House, has repeatedly stated lately that this is her last term. An MLA for five terms, she has been a minister several times, as well as speaker, deputy premier and, finally, premier. That doesn’t leave much to aspire to in politics and nothing to prove, so I predict that she will not make too many waves during this administration.
The C4C should be the new opposition party with Roy McTaggart the new opposition leader but that cannot happen if they continue to maintain that they are independents supported by an advocacy group.
The point of having political parties is so that politicians and would-be politicians can join forces with others who share the same economic and political philosophies (ergo, the parties must have different philosophies) with the goal of forming a government to collectively move the country in the direction they think it should go. I believe that these differences between the C4C under McTaggart and the PPM under Alden McLaughlin will become increasingly apparent over the next four years – how to tax and how to spend, a minimum wage, immigration policies, for example.
Because of these fundamental differences, coalition governments are invariably weak, whereas a strong unified government with a mandate from the people can accomplish more. But the opposition benches have an important and powerful part to play in this democratic process: to scrutinise government on our behalf and if it fails to deliver its objectives, to offer themselves to the people as an alternative government.
Isn’t that what happened in May 2013?
CNS stands by ‘honorary degree’ article
(CNS): While The Jamaica Gleaner has claimed that CNS has been threatened with a law suit over a recent article, neither this media house nor CNS journalist Wendy Ledger have received any such threat. Following the publication of an article which revealed that the RCIPS and the Cayman Islands Anti-Corruption Committee were investigating a money transfer made to the University College of the Caribbean (UCC) of US$1 million in relation to the honorary doctorate that the former Cayman Islands premier was scheduled to receive, the UCC chancellor, Dr Herbert Thompson (left), demanded that CNS publish the full correspondence between him and Ledger, but we have received no request to remove the article or any specific complaints of factual error.
Dr Thompson, in an email sent four days after the article appeared on the CNS website, claimed that Ledger had put her “own political spin to it” and said, “I have consulted with our UCC lawyers and before we proceed to take the appropriate action, we demand that you publish in full your letter to me and my response to your letter.
“Please ensure that this is done with immediate effect or we will go to all media houses in Cayman and expose the facts re your seeming political preferences based on the twists which you have put on my letter to you.”
“Since CNS has always maintained a policy of publishing source material so that its readers can make up their own minds, we were more than happy to publish the email exchange," Ledger said. "In any case, Thompson’s original response to inquiries about any monetary gift in exchange for the former premier’s honorary doctorate appeared to endorse the article rather than prove any political spin. Far from refuting that such a gift existed, Dr Thompson clearly states that ‘the gift was returned’. However, the question of where the gift came from was not answered and we would still be grateful if he would answer that.”
The only threat that Dr Thompson has so far made, other than “appropriate action”, is that he will “go to all the media houses in Cayman”.
“How the Gleaner translated that into a threatened law suit is most peculiar,” said CNS General Manager Nicky Watson. "We have not so far received any correspondence from the UCC lawyers or any demands that we remove all or part of the article, and while he clearly does not like it, Dr Thompson has yet to explain what is factually wrong with Wendy’s article. And we are quite sure that any media house that is interested in this story will contact UCC, rather than the other way round, and would hope that Dr Thompson would answer their questions more fully than he answered ours.”
Related articles:
‘Gift’ for Mac’s PhD probed (CNS 16 May 2013)
Bush denies buying $1M PhD (CNS 17 May 2013)
UCC's Thompson Threatens To Sue Cayman Newspaper (Jamaica Gleaner 21 May 2013)
Progressives focus on jobs for Cayman Brac
(CNS): Laying out ideas for economic growth and job creation on Cayman Brac that could be put into effect very quickly, PPM Deputy Leader Moses Kirkconnell said that people traveling from the US to Cuba on humanitarian trips frequently go through Grand Cayman but there was no reason why, once the upgrade to the Cayman Brac airport was complete, they could not go through the Brac instead. At a party rally outside Kirkconnell’s Market Friday night, the Progressive incumbent also proposed developing back office work on the island, turning the new hurricane shelter on the Bluff into a hospitality trainingschool and developing sports tourism, as well as creating short term jobs cleaning up the beaches and roads. (Photos by James Tibbetts)
Addressing a crowd of around 300 people, Kirkconnell focused heavily on job creation utilizing the infrastructure that was already in place on the island. Creating a Miami to Cayman Brac to Havana airline route, with three or four flights per week, would accomplish two things: it would help to penetrate the US market for Brac tourism and it would create jobs at the Brac airport, he said.
“Every day of my life people come to me and say they want jobs,” Kirkconnell told the crowd, noting that they did not want handouts but employment. He said that it would take 60 to 90 days once the PPM took office to implement short term job creation, such as beach cleaning and the roadside clean-up programme, while they worked on introducing some of the other ideas he had. These included making sure that the hotel rooms already in existence on Cayman Brac were filled and creating incentives to bring back office work to the island. There was no reason why statistics and accounting jobs could not be moved to the Brac, he noted.
The deputy party leader, who is expected to retain his seat in the upcoming elections by a healthy margin, also pointed to the Progressives’ manifesto promise to roll back fees and lower the cost for small businesses. “Every business on Cayman Brac is a small business,” he noted. The PPM also intend to offer low interest loans to businesses with advice from experts on how to manage their money, and he said this would also be of help to businesses on the Sister Island.
Promising to continue the government intern programme for young people on Cayman Brac, he also said the party would cut the red tape for veterans and seamen to receive their benefits. Without naming a figure, he said they would “see how much we can increase” those benefits.
In a clear criticism of the recent appointment of a sports director from abroad over the popular and very effective local Brac sports instructor, Mitchum Sanford (which many people on the island believe was a decision pushed by Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly, who has responsibility for sports in the Sister Islands), Kirkconnell emphasised Sanford’s achievements.
During the early days of the 2005-2009 PPM administration, Sanford had explained in detail to Alden McLaughlin (now party leader), who was the minister responsible for sports at the time, exactly what funds were needed for the sports programme, which had resulted in a 400% increase in the sports budget for the Brac. Sanford had used those funds to get many sports programmes going on the island and had mentored a number of young people towards sports scholarships at universities in the US, several of whom had now completed their degrees, Kirkconnell noted.
“I know of no better person to be sports director for Cayman Brac and Little Cayman,” he said, adding that he “wanted to have that discussion on 23rd of May”.
The first PPM administration had put a playing field on the Bluff, Kirkconnell said. Now what is needed is to add lights, changing rooms and a running track, as well as basketball and volleyball facilities. “So, when visiting teams get off the plane, they’ll know they are coming to ‘our house’ to play,” he said, explaining that the development of sports tourism would also boost the economy and create jobs.
The Progressives will look at green initiatives for the island, including recycling and waste-to-energy garbage disposal to deal with the dump on the south side, Kirkconnell said. They will also return to studies on solar and wind power undertaken during the last PPM administration, which were cut off by Hurricane Paloma in November 2008.
The first elected member for the district also addressed the crime spree on the island. Following an article on CNS in which he called on the police to deal with spate of burglaries, particularly of commercial properties, the police commissioner had sent a team of detectives and forensic experts to the Brac, Kirkconnell said. He noted that because the island had been crime free for so long, those jobs had not been necessary in the past.
However, he said, “Now is not the time to be divided from the police. We need to be united to get rid of crime,” and invited people to sign up for the local Neighbourhood Watch Programme or join the Special Constabulary.
Giving credit to the UDP for continuing the Paloma Fund for the Sister Islands, which had been started by the PPM after the hurricane, Kirkconnell listed the tangible achievements of the previous PPM administration, including the Cayman Brac Day Care Centre, the upgrades to the Aston Rutty Civic Centre and the addition of the medical wing, the launch of the Department of Commerce and Investment office on the Brac, the upgrade to Faith Hospital and the Ann Tatum Ramp.