The Governor made his usual mystifying clarification this week on the means to adjudge public support for independence in an overseas territory:
While he offered a referendum as one option of gauging if Bermudians want to cut ties with the UK, he said that it was not the only one, though he did not clarify others.
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the UK parliament was a little more enlightening a few months ago, albeit still buried in diplomatic noncommittal wishywash:
Q270 Chairman: We will come on to some detailed questions about the Falklands later. At the moment, may I focus on more general questions? This may seem academic, but I think I should ask the question anyway. Could an overseas territory be granted independence without a referendum taking place in that territory?
Meg Munn: The Government’s position is that that is the way by which we would expect a territory to indicate that it wanted to have independence, but that does not rule out other mechanisms that might be acceptable-for example, if a political party went into an election on the basis that it would pursue independence and there was a clear majority for that party. We would have to look at each circumstance, but our position is that a referendum is the preferred route…
Q272 Mr. Moss: I was part of the delegation that went to Bermuda and as you well know, it had its referendum some years ago. It was put to us strongly that many people there would be against the second proposal to which you alluded, whereby a party could go into an election with a manifesto commitment to have independence. If you look at the results of the last Bermuda election, the percentage difference in votes was tiny. If there is a low turnout, there would be a move towards independence on less than 50% of the popular vote. Are you suggesting that would be acceptable?
Meg Munn: No, which is why I was saying that if a territory wanted to go for independence on the basis of something other than a referendum, it would entirely depend on the circumstances. If a political party went into an election saying that it wanted independence and received 90 per cent of the vote, that would be a different situation from the scenario that you have described. We would want to consider that matter.
