The advantage of a holiday, and a short break from the day to day demands of work, is that it provides a great opportunity to look at things from a different perspective. I was fortunate enough to get away for a couple of weeks recently to Hong Kong and the UK. In Hong Kong we met our new, one week old grandchild, so that was worth the break alone- she looked wonderful in her Grand Turk dress kindly given by the office here: the youngest baby to be promoting TCI in one of the world's great cities!
But a break there also highlighted some of the wider issues that other cities and countries face. While we were there the Chinese Government was announcing major decisions about how the next Chief Executive ( similar to Premier) of this 7M populated city could be elected. Some of the citizens are concerned that the new system does not give enough power to them to chose the Chief Executive, others are content with it. As news reports recently from Hong Kong have shown these decisions have led to some large demonstrations.
Returning happily to Turks and Caicos, rested and raring to go, I was interested to hear that the Government and opposition have agreed on membership of a constitutional commission to look at our own governance arrangements. I suspect many people find the very mention of the word "constitution" something of a turn off. But I was pleased to hear that the commission is planning to hold a series of public meetings to get the views of as wider a group as possible.
One of the issues the chairman, Daniel Malcolm, has said the group should consider is the independence of Turks and Caicos. I know this is an emotive subject. So that no one is in any doubt about the British Government's position I thought it would be useful to spell out precisely what it is.
As an official paper stated in 2012, about all the Overseas Territories:
"The Government maintains the UK's long standing position on independence for the Territories. Any decision to sever the constitutional link between the UK and a Territory should be on the clear and constitutionally-expressed wish of the people of the Territory. Where it is the clear wish of the people to pursue independence, the UK Government will meet its obligations to help the Territory to achieve it."
I look forward to reading the Commission's report in due course. I am sure they will receive many views about all sorts of issues.
