UK leaves victims of hurricane twisting in the wind

the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla and Turks and Caicos are still governed by their old imperial masters in London.

And following their inadequate lack of response, it makes you wonder why.

After all, just what benefit do the residents of such islands receive given the pathetic delay in action as Irma took control?

Only this week has the UK government appeared to be taking responsibility more seriously with the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, arriving in the Caribbean to see for himself the devastation

It came after Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, tried to defend criticism levelled at the Government by boasting how they had acted before hurricane season by stationing aid-laden RFA Mounts Bay in calm Caribbean waters.

It did not wash, given the warning over Irma’s power came more than a week before she arrived.

Such islands are not helped by the fact most Brits are uncertain about the nation’s relationship with them.

For most, the phrase ‘British Virgin Islands’ means only a tax haven, even though the vast majority of the people born there work in low paid, tourist industry jobs and fail to benefit from the riches such money shelters provide.

The Government – as well as UK tour operators, like Thomas Cook and Thomson, with thousands of stranded customers in the US – have rightly faced questions about the speed of its response to Irma.

If this had happened to other UK territories – Gibraltar or the Falklands – would the response have been the same?

Only recently the Government spent £285 million on its territory in the South Atlantic, St Helena, for an airport that is almost completely unusable.

Following the volcanic eruptions on the Caribbean territory of Montserrat in the 1990s, two-thirds of its population were relocated to the UK, such was the need.

It is doubtful those now without shelter, food or water will be afforded the same privilege.

There is no question the UK Government’s task is now extremely demanding.

Yet its commitment so far to only providing £32 million in aid across the three affected British territories is a drop in the Caribbean Sea.

Earlier this week, Mr Johnson said that £28 million of the funding has already been spent so are we to believe it will only release a further £4 million?

It would be an insult to those now left homeless.

Wouldn’t it be fitting if those City companies who lined their own pockets with the establishment of these financial outposts now dug deep to help those whose postcodes they merely abuse?

For many, watching UK ships heading slowly to the Caribbean has been a guilty post-colonial wake-up call.

But the clean-up operation won’t end when electricity is restored to homes and running water is flowing again.

If nothing more, Irma’s deadly winds should spark a post-mortem into whether the governing powers served their people well in their hour of need.

For many, watching UK ships heading to the Caribbean has been a guilty post-colonial wake-up call