Breaking news this morning is that our Premier was arrested at 7 a.m. at his home on suspicion of corruption. This has been pending for quite some time, delayed only by Britain's reluctance to pull the plug on him. We don't yet know how it will affect the prosperity we expats all enjoy. My personal opinion is that Britain wants to preserve the Offshore tax-haven (on which our prosperity rests), but who knows? We live in uncertain times.

I will be posting an update on my blog in due course.

 

I just tried to post an update, but it's disappeared! If it doesn't show up within 24 hours I guess I'll have to compose it again. What's gone wrong, Cyril?

 

Trouble in Paradise

Yes, there is trouble in Paradise, as the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office dithers over whether to do to Cayman what it did to Turks & Caicos Islands (TCI): suspend the local Constitution in favour of direct rule from London. Will it, won't it? The task is the same: to clear up allegations of political corruption. The TCI Premier has been reported as having increased his wealth by $180 million during his term in the local legislature. And Cayman is a far richer place than TCI!

On the one hand, Britain is on the hook for the Cayman government's excessive borrowings and expenditure; on the other, it's an expensive nuisance having to keep a special team of UK-based auditors out in the field for two or three years. OK, the expense would be met by Cayman's Public Revenue - but only if that Revenue is in surplus. With no audited Public Accounts available for the past six or seven years, who knows? Already, government is failing to pay its bills... What a shambles it all is.

What does the Cayman public feel about the situation? Well, every expat would like direct rule to be imposed immediately, if not sooner; most native-born Caymanians wouldn't. The stakes are huge - no less than a continuation of our present high level of prosperity.

The topic is probably not one that affects many people on this website; but those who are interested should check my blog.

 

Here is a fairly comprehensive summary of the political situation, from our online news service. Trouble in paradise, indeed!
http://caymannewsservice.com/politics/2 ... r-politics