How Britain is blowing up a colonial storm
Isaw a headline last week – “PM should apologise to ex-colonies, says Labour”. It referred to one of those bees buzzing in the hive that is Jeremy Corbyn’s bonnet – the fate of the Chagos islanders. Without taking sides on that particular issue, I would say that Mrs May should really be apologising not to a former colony, but to a present one.
Anguilla, in the West Indies, has been a British territory for 368 years, and remains proud of its status. Last September, the island was devastated by Hurricane Irma, the costliest hurricane ever to hit the Caribbean.
Winds reached 226mph. Ninety per cent of Anguilla’s housing was severely damaged and virtually all of its critical infrastructure was flattened. All transport links to the place were cut off. Its 17,000 people were stuck.
In the aftermath of Irma, some emergency help was forthcoming. Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, even graced Anguilla with his presence. “You can’t destroy the spirit of these people,” he said. But now, as the hurricane season approaches once more, our Government is having a jolly good go.
In November, Mrs May promised £60million of “recovery funds” to Victor Banks, the island’s Chief Minister, but the Government is now refusing to disgorge it. Unless the territory’s annual budget is approved by Britain, the place will run out of money on Friday.
The Foreign Office minister responsible for Anguilla is Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, a former Conservative councillor in Merton.
Possibly because of his additional role as the Prime Minister’s “special representative on preventing sexual violence in conflict”, he seems to have little time for Anguilla. His appearance before the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on the subject betrayed embarrassingly scant knowledge.
Lord Ahmad found time last month, however, to write a threatening letter to Mr Banks. Alleging that there was a risk of debt default by the government of Anguilla, he announced that his officials were preparing an Order in Council to impose a chief financial officer on the territory.
He invented preconditions: the Anguillans couldn’t have their promised money from Whitehall unless they raised taxes and cut spending. He expressed concern about the “depressed performance of revenue”.
Before the hurricane, the Anguillans were working on reform of their banks and public finances, but they point out that it is hardly surprising if their revenues have fallen after it. The little island is overwhelmingly dependent on tourism for its earnings. Tourists don’t like coming to a place where they can barely find a roof over their heads. Unemployment has shot up. What economy would not be “depressed” if circumstances beyond its control made it function at 20 per cent of its capacity? Only if Anguilla can reconstruct can it prosper.
The luckless and clueless Lord Ahmad is also the Foreign Office’s minister for the Commonwealth. This morning, the Commonwealth Heads of Government conference (CHOGM) starts in London. Commonwealth countries are perturbed at the plight of their colonial sister, and will be telling him so. Hurricane CHOGM is about to hit Lord Ahmad.
What makes all this almost laughable is that our Government does not seem to know that it is itself responsible for the island’s international financial services. These are not a devolved matter, but one for the colonial administration. If it now tries to allege that Anguilla is a naughty tax-haven – one of those “sunny places for shady people” – it will be criticising itself.
There is a puzzle here. Why would Her Majesty’s Government go to such lengths to avoid the obligations to which it committed itself last November? Does it, in some weird spasm of embarrassment about having colonies at all, positively want to treat Anguilla badly?
I don’t think so, though the fact that the Foreign Office has placed this proceeding in the hands of a 28-yearold civil servant who has never visited the place certainly does not show much respect. No, the root of the evil is our crazed commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of GDP on international development aid, come what may.
When Britain promised this, by international agreement, it placed all its aid funds in the basket of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA). This meant that only those countries and territories internationally defined as being poor enough were eligible for ODA money, and then only if all other participating countries agreed to it.
British territories like St Helena and Montserrat qualified – St Helena consequently got £300million for an airport that didn’t work – but Anguilla, though not rich like the British Virgin Islands or the Turks and Caicos, did not.
British law states that our Government is responsible for the “reasonable needs” of the British territories, but the authorities evidently failed to budget for these. We have far more taxpayers’ money allocated for aid than ever before, but no freedom about how to spend it.
The British Government is not free to help British citizens, which is what Anguillans are. Hence the scrabble for money from goodness knows where to meet promises to Anguilla. Hence Lord Ahmad trying to punish Anguilla for the humanitarian money he is supposed to be giving it.
Like some highwayman, he seems to be saying to the stricken island, “Your money or your life”. Since the former is absent, he will be landed with the latter.
Tourists don’t like coming to a place where they can barely find a roof over their heads