UK official visiting BVI today
Permanent Under-Secretary in the UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Sir Simon McDonald is visiting the British Virgin Islands today.
He will be in the territory until Saturday (February 17) as part of a tour of the region.
A media release from the Governor’s Office said Sir McDonald will meet with Governor Augustus Jaspert, Premier Dr D Orlando Smith, and other Cabinet ministers during his visit.
Sir McDonald is also slated to interact with a ‘cross-section of public servants and business leaders’.
“He will have the opportunity to see the territory’s progress and challenges in rebuilding since the hurricanes of last year, and be updated on the territory’s recovery plans,” the release said.
The release did not specify whether those are the only matters that will be discussed during Sir McDonald’s meeting with the aformentioned local officials.
Today’s visit is Sir McDonald’s first to the British Virgin Islands.
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Beware of UK Government Officials with nothing to offer but platitudes.
Most of them have zero ideas of how to turn their words into funding let alone action.
The Brexit fiasco has exposed a deep rooted ineptitude in the UK political class and Public Service.
Ineptitude like in the BVI political class and public service? Ours aren’t just inept, they seem mired in concrete. If you are an avid reader surely you have read the many articles and postings about the labour and immigration departments. They seem either unwilling or unable to deal with the numbers of people they are processing, something that could probably be easily rectified by using some of those many government employees with nothing to do right now. How about our leaders who can’t seem to make an effort, at least not one we can see, to rectify any problems and really haven’t solved any real problems in some time now. People who live in glass houses should not throw stones, even at the inept.
Maybe he can find our 7 million spent for BVI Airways. Looks like one of the planes has been sold or leased to Neptune air to be converted into a firefighting plane in Montana.
lets see if he witnesses just how inept the No Direction Party is 6 months on and so little improvement….
Well as a member of the British Establishment and Civil Service he will be an expert on ineptitude.
I wonder if they will make him stand outside immigration for 7.5 hours.
Is Sir Simon McDonald on a routine visit? Or he is on a first hand, precursor exploratory mission? Is the VI name on the radar in the UK for closer scrunity? Has the VI earned and deserved the closer scrutiny? Will it suffer the same take over fate TCI and the Dutch planned take over of Sint Eustatius (Statia)? When is Prime Minister Theresa May coming to town/Indies?
All i know the worst is yet to come and very soon
For the record, neither I nor my household have any problem with the UK stepping in and taking over for a period of, say, ten years. Dissolve the HOA, pass the Freedom of Information Act, make the Register of Interests public, give the Complaints Commissioner the power to impose fines, get e-government going in a serious way, clean up conflicts of interest in the civil service, improve immigration and other processes, etc then hand it back.
Most of these already obtain in the UK and, where there are flaws, they have measures to address them, including investigating corruption.