The review of British offshore financial centres by Michael Foot was published this morning. The report provides an economic healthcheck of the three Crown Dependencies, including Guernsey and the six Overseas Territories, such as Bermuda, British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands. The 90-page report covers the quality and extent of economic planning, meeting international [...]
Entries from October 29th, 2009
Unclog?
October 28th, 2009 · Comments Off · Bermuda Politics
Kim Swan has reportedly resigned his position as UBP party leader, clearing the way for a internal election next Thursday under the party’s recently amended Constitution allowing a wider of spectrum of participants in the leadership selection. And this time, more than 10 years after their electoral defeat, they super-extra-special-promise to start reforming the party [...]
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Bribery
October 28th, 2009 · No Comments · Accountability, Bermuda Politics
As a small jurisdiction, many of Bermuda’s laws have not been tempered by the fast flow of legal challenges seen in larger countries. This leads, from time to time, to unhappy circumstances where the law has not kept up … and controversial deeds can only be officially characterised as being “unethical but not illegal”. A [...]
International Input on PATI
October 27th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Accountability, Bermuda Politics, Transparency
Article 19 has published a commentary on the proposed Bermuda freedom of information bill (aka public access to information or PATI). Article 19 is a highly-respected international human rights organisation with a specific focus on the defence and promotion of freedom of expression and freedom of information worldwide. While praising Bermuda for tackling PATI, they [...]
PATI Whistleblow
October 26th, 2009 · No Comments · Accountability, Bermuda Politics, Transparency
As widely reported, the Bermuda draft freedom of information law (aka PATI) allows great scope for Government to sit on information. For example, the law proposes a lengthy (2-3 year) implementation period and will only apply to information collected after its effective date. There is a long list of specific exemptions, as well as vague [...]
Incentives
October 22nd, 2009 · No Comments · Business
Politics.bm describes how one US town is providing incentives for an insurer to keep its operations there. Let’s be clear – this is not an isolated case. Nova Scotia has provided considerable tax rebates and other incentives to a broad range of the Bermuda companies that have moved back office operations there. Their team came [...]
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Wishful Thinking
October 22nd, 2009 · No Comments · Bermuda Politics
I recommend the recent Wishful Thinking blog. He gets it.
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Passport Spin
October 21st, 2009 · 1 Comment · Islands
Speaking of spin, the Deputy Governor of Bermuda wrote a letter to the editor, explaining why Bermudians taking up their right to acquire a British passport must deal with the UK Embassy in Washington, DC rather than the Bermuda Department of Immigration as before: This change has been driven by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office [...]
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Education
October 21st, 2009 · Comments Off · Education
The muddle over Bermuda’s poor quality of public education continues unabated. The NYT underlines why education is important: A Washington lawyer friend recently told me about layoffs at his firm. I asked him who was getting axed. He said it was interesting: lawyers who were used to just showing up and having work handed to [...]
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The Squeeze
October 21st, 2009 · Comments Off · Tourism
The Elbow Beach Hotel has just announced that it will close all but 98 of its 235 rooms, as well as halt all food service, for the foreseeable future. This will result in 160 job losses. The owners indicate that they will look at redeveloping the property in three to four years (so much for [...]
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