Commons Select Treasury 
Committee. The Labour Party has been in power in the UK since 1997. Since then, it has restricted the freedom of Anguilla and the other Overseas Territories to offer international financial services, even though we are some of the world's leading tax and asset protection havens. For decades before that, British governments promoted these offshore havens, encouraging their growth and expansion. Now, the UK has forced 'reforms' on us. They have made it clear that the intention is to end financial privacy.
They demand total bank and investment account surveillance.
They have made foreign tax evasion a criminal offence.
They have forced disclosure of previously confidential information about true ownership of international business corporations.
They have imposed the EU savings tax directive.
They are insisting that we sign Tax Information Exchange Agreements with the United States.
They have imposed new 'international standards' against money laundering.
They have demanded that our financial systems become more 'transparent'.
We are obliged to cooperate with foreign law enforcement and tax authorities.
Thus was the Labour Government's policies imposed on us without any chance of appeal on our part.
As a result, we have adopted strict anti-money laundering, and know-your customer rules. It makes opening a bank account in Anguilla a nightmare of bureaucracy and technicalities.
Then, in March 2008, the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee published a report on Financial Stability and Transparency. In it, the Committee indicated that it intended to undertake further work into International Financial Centres in the context of their ongoing scrutiny of financial stability and transparency. They would seek to ascertain what risk, if any, such entities pose to financial stability in the UK.
On 30 April of this year, the Committee announced its inquiry into Offshore Financial Centres and invited interested parties to submit written evidence.
All of the submissions can be found here.
Why are the international financial centres under attack again? I am not entirely sure. It seems likely that we are to be collateral damage arising out of the Northern Rock debacle in the UK. The question then must be asked, what, if anything, are we doing to protect our own interests?
Guernsey is one of our sister financial centres. They have come out fighting in their own defence.
Jersey has been quick to respond to the urgent need to meet with the committee to defend Jersey's interests.
I have not heard of any initiative sponsored by either the Anguilla Financial Services Association or the government of Anguilla. The governor's office has not produced a single release on this inquiry. The Ministry of Finance has not made any response. Are they all being too complacent?
Is AFSA even aware of the serious challenges it faces as a result of this inquiry?
Is this another case where we in Anguilla will ignore all that is published, all that is swirling in the air around us, and then complain later that nobody told us anything, and how abused we are by the foreign oppressors?
From the Britain's Foreign Affairs Committee publishes report on Caribbean territories
ReplyDelete"We are concerned by the National Audit Office’s finding that the FCO has been complacent in managing the risk of money laundering in Anguilla, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands, particularly since these Territories are those for which the UK is directly responsible for regulation and therefore most exposed to financial liabilities."
" 'The time has come,' the Walrus said, 'to speak of many things; of shoes, of ships, of sealing wax; of cabbages and Kings...' ".
ReplyDeleteLike the Walrus in "through the Looking Glass", it is time for us to speak of that which we have studiously avoided for decades, namely; Independance in our own Affairs.
Lest we fall by the wayside at the hands and feet of that which "..is in the best interests of the United Kingdom"; and, lest we are crushed by the behemoth of british and European "say-so", we must now, more than ever, rally to OUR OWN CAUSES!!
Are we intellectual pygmies that we need Englishmen to tell us what is or is not good for us?? Is that what Anguillians have suffered for for decades and generations, where sacrifice was the norm?? So that just when we are emerging onto the stage with the capacity to be equal to all others, we must be humiliated by what the politicians in England says is in their interests and MANDATES that for us. Are we still Slaves??
It is NOW that we must tell Britain thank you and goodbye.
All of the naysayers will howl because they are selfishly thinking of their own agenda. Bu, let not their howls deafen you to the reality that if we do not NOW demand FULL Sovereignty, WE NEVER WILL GET IT!!!
Thanks to Judge Mitchell's vigilance we are now aware of those clandestinely imposed oppressive and invasive laws which the British have hung around our collective necks.
At First, you do not notice the water creeping silently up in the dark; then, when you do sense its presence you close your door in the belief that it i your neighbour's house which will be flooded; as it rises slowly and quietly in ypur bedroom, the darkness of night masks its impending doom; you snugglein the false comfort of your warm bed; you turn over in the bliss of sleep.
then, when your feet begins to be wet, you panic and scream to your neighbour for help!
Alas, you scream echos in the deafening silence of a neighbourhood flooded away, and you are alone in the dark of night with nowhere to go, and noone to turn to for help!
The Rising Tide of British and European Imperialism and Political Domination is lapping at our door; what will we do??
That is a blatant lie which the British keep repeating: They have NO Contingent Liabilities for ANYTHING Angiuilla does or does not do!! They say that to pound our politicins into the ground and to get their own way. There is No Legal or Constitutional basis upon which any third party or country can Claim against Britain for ANY liabilities which Angulla may theoretically incur. They ate too damn lie!! That is their History of Imperilism amd Colonialism : Lie and Divide and Conquor.
ReplyDeleteAmerica just celebrted their Anniversary of Independance from Britain. It would do us all good to read the Declaration of Independance, because, although over 200 years have elapsed since its creation, it is as applicable today to Anguilla as it was to theColonies of North America then.
We are experiencing that which precipitated American Independace, here and now in Anguilla.
Let us have OUR "Fourth Of July" and send the British home to look after their own affairs.
Anguillians fiddle, while their Freedoms are burned by the British!!
ReplyDeleteThe subtle tacticts of the cunning British reminds us of the "Frog in the pot syndrome". Put a frog in a pot of boiling water and he will jump right out! Put him in a pot of cold water under a low flame and he will swim around until cooked, nice and tender. Anguilla, beware of our colonial masters and those hapless idiots we call our leaders!
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