"One to One" with Cllr. Jan Cheek

Interview by Corina Goss

Councillor Jan Cheek has recently got back to the Islands after representing the Falklands at a conference in London. |In today’s programme we look at the issues covered and the value gained, as well as the points raised by other overseas territories.

CG: Councillor Cheek, thank-you for joining me on "One to One" today. You have just got back to the Islands. You’ve been away at a conference – the Overseas Territories Consultative Council –maybe we could start by you telling us a bit about the history of the Council.

JC: The Council was set up as an opportunity for politicians from the non independent territories – that is the overseas territories of Britain – to meet with Ministers, particularly those from the Overseas Territories Department but others as well and discuss the common concerns of those territories. More than half of them are Caribbean Territories, so they tend to have a particular group of concerns which, are slightly different from the rest of us. The rest of us being the Falklands, Gibraltar and St. Helena.

CG: What sort of concerns were coming out of the conference?

JC: There was a lot of concern on the financial side from the Caribbean territories in that they are being asked to implement all sorts of new regulations to control the offshore financial operations. And, they felt that some of these were very onerous, very expensive and, in some instances, they felt more stringent than those that operate, for example, in Switzerland and banking centres in the United States.

CG: So, How do these things work? Do you go away with a speech prepared or is it more about sitting and asking and answering questions

JC: You know what the topics are going to be in advance and there may be certain ones where you have a particular point to make, in which case, you may have something written down but basically it’s a round the table discussion, usually with a minister or a senior official of the British Government chairing and all the territories seated around.

CG: If we could look in turn at some of the issues covered, starting with constitutional.

JC: The main discussion here was with the progress on implementing the Overseas Territories Act, which has affected the status of many of the residents of these countries. We’ve had British passports for some years but other countries like St. Helena haven’t and there’s been good progress made on those countries. People can now apply. There’s not been a big rush to apply, so there’s no worry about mass migration from these places. A lot of them simply want British Passports because they make travel around the world easier than their small Overseas Territories passports used to.

CG: Did you get the feeling that St. Helena, for example, was worried it would lose a lot of its population?

JC: They have worries but, of course, they are still waiting to see if they get their airfield, which is going to require quite a lot of outside investment as well as the money offered by the British Government. Once they have a more secure economy, perhaps based on tourism, then, I think, that worry will diminish.

CG: One of the other things discussed at the conference was entitled "Things in Common with Other Overseas Territories. Obviously Gibraltar was there and the thing we have in common with them is the right to self-determination. Was that mentioned at all?

JC: It was mentioned at several points throughout the conference because some of the territories are chaffing a bit against the authority that their constitutions give their Governors. Some of the territories aren’t as constitutionally advanced as we are so it came up in that sense. But at the end there was also a motion on self-determination, particularly mentioning Gibraltar and the Falklands. This was raised at the close by the Representative of the British Virgin Islands and supported widely by the people there.

CG: Were there any other territories that didn’t support it?

JC: No. The only one who hesitated was Jennifer Smith, the Prime Minister of Bermuda, who hadn’t actually had the opportunity to read the motion and wanted to read it before confirming her support for it.

CG: You mentioned something about the territories having concerns over the power of the Governor, if I could put it like that. What'’ the situation here?

JC: The situation here is that the Governor is responsible for external affairs for Defence, along with the Commander British Forces. And, he also takes particular responsibility for the Police because there’s always been an attempt in most territories to separate the responsibility for Police and for the Judiciary because, clearly, politicians shouldn’t be in a position where a corrupt politician could have his enemies arrested and jailed. I don’t think there’s any chance of it happening here but we’ve read the history books and we know it’s happened elsewhere in the world, so, it’s good to see a clear separation. Our Governor can intervene in internal affairs but would normally only do so in extreme circumstances. Of course, he can advise. And, Executive Council are advisory to him and matters are discussed widely there. But I don’t think a Governor would want to be seen meddling in internal affairs if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. And, when I say necessary, it would only be if there was a clear case of corruption.

CG: Another topic covered was Human Rights.

JC: This was quite a big issue for some of the Caribbean Territories, for whom giving up the death penalty seems to have presented a problem. It appears that they would prefer to execute murderers rather than keep them in prison for life. Some of them also have difficulty with the concept of equal rights, for example, for homosexuals. I think part of this is quite a fundamental religious difficulty that they have, so there was quite a long debate on this subject. I took the opportunity to raise the worries that we have locally about a sub-contractor of the MOD advertising jobs in Chile at very low wages. Unfortunately we don’t have a minimum wage here and it’s something I’ve wanted to see for a long time. And, I think this gives us further ammunition, showing that it’s quite necessary to have a minimum wage so that people aren’t being exploited.

CG: So, to go forward on a minimum wage, what would be the next step? How could that be introduced?

JC: We are looking at employment law generally. We are looking at things like the kind of hours people are expected to work. A lot of us work voluntarily for a lot of long hours simply because of the nature of our jobs and because we enjoy them and want to do it. But it’s worrying when you hear that quite menial jobs on low wages being advertised in terms of 60 hour week, which is way, way above the kind of standard that’s now accepted in Europe.

CG: Even if the minimum wage was brought in now, would it affect this contractor? They are obviously employed by the MOD.

JC: If they were employing people onshore in the Falklands, yes. I believe it would and should affect that contractor.

CG: And also, ecology and conservation, I expect.

JC: Well, that was quite interesting. Some of the territories took it more seriously than others. Bermuda introduced the subject with a very interesting account of how they saved a small petrel, which was down to literally dozens in number. They have now increased numbers up to more than 60 and they are working on that. And, they described some of the other things they were doing. I outlined the progress that we have made since the last Overseas Territories Consultative Council when Mike Summers, who attended the Council, signed up on our behalf to quite a number of – I think they could be loosely called – guidelines on conservation and environment issues. And, I took, from here, a list of our progress on all those issues and presented them. Others took it a little less seriously. One of the ministers – I think he was from Montserrat – was joking that he was doing his bit by not eating the Iguana’s that crossed his garden every day.

CG: There was also some discussion on aviation safety. And, I think you felt that maybe it wasn’t necessary to follow the proposals.

JC: The original proposals that came through more than a year ago now, seemed to be not really appropriate here. We have a good record in recent years. We have been working with the Civil Aviation Authority in Britain and maintaining the highest standards compatible with operation aircraft on the register involved in. Those proposals from Britain have now been modified. They have realised they can’t do ‘one size fits all.’ Different operations need different kinds of regulations. The discussion continues and I hope we’ll reach something that is satisfactory all around and provides for safety.

CG: so, what would you say was the most valuable thing you got from the Conference?

JC: Meeting with, mainly Ministers, I have to say. A few of the countries like us send Councillors, mainly Ministers from other countries, learning how they deal with problems similar to ones they have here and having first hand access to British Ministers, for example, when I raised the issue of the jobs being advertised at very low wages, the Overseas Territories Minister was present at the time and he took it on board and said that he would be talking to other arms of Government about this objective.

CG: Is there anything else you would like to add?

JC: Just that it’s very worth doing. There was a proposal that it might be held in the Territories but it was pointed out, quite fairly I think, by Baroness Amos, who was chairing most of the meetings that she couldn’t guarantee the presence of so many British Ministers if it was held elsewhere. So, I hope it will continue to be held in London.

CG: Councillor Jan Cheek, Thank you very much.

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