[ISL] Bermuda's Independence Movement
Sep. 5th, 2005 11:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldWriting for Caribbean Net News, Sir Ronald Sanders summarizes Bermuda's halting and unconvinced move towards an independence that, it seems, a majority of Bermudians don't want.
Britain's attitude to the Bermudian separatist movement appears to be mixed. On the one hand, Britain grants that Bermuda has a right to self-determination. On the other, Britain's officials have noted that Bermuda must hold a referendum on independence, while holding that Bermudians would have to relinquish British citizenship upon their homeland's independence. Bermuda's British-appointed governor Sir John Vereker argued last year that Bermuda didn't need to become an independent state.
Indeed, the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers, representing Bermuda's powerful financial sector, recently argued that independence could jeopardize Bermuda's economic future, by removing Bermuda from the ambiguity of autonomy under British protection and forcing it to develop new policies in a potentially hostile world. Most Bermudians appear to agree with this argument. Bermudian identity and British citizenship aren't, by and large, seen as mutually contradictory. For so long as this is the case, Bermuda will remain on the long list of insular territories uninterested in independence from their colonial metropoles.
In the 1970’s, having successfully opposed independence, the UBP turned around and advocated it, but decided to hold a referendum on the question in 1995.
On the day before the referendum was due to be held on 15th August, a hurricane rushed through the island. The referendum was eventually held on 16th August with only a 59% turn-out, but 73% of the voters opposed independence, and there the matter rested until late last year when Premier Scott raised it again.
This time, Mr Scott declared that there was no need for a referendum on the issue; in his view what is required is the education of the public about independence. Thereafter a general election would decide which political party leads the country to sever its status as a British Overseas territory. Thus, he created the BIC charged with the task of providing such information.
Britain's attitude to the Bermudian separatist movement appears to be mixed. On the one hand, Britain grants that Bermuda has a right to self-determination. On the other, Britain's officials have noted that Bermuda must hold a referendum on independence, while holding that Bermudians would have to relinquish British citizenship upon their homeland's independence. Bermuda's British-appointed governor Sir John Vereker argued last year that Bermuda didn't need to become an independent state.
Some would argue that Bermuda currently has the best of all worlds: we make our own laws, we manage our economy, internal affairs, and some of our external affairs, notwithstanding what the Constitution says. We effectively manage internal security, even though the Constitution says that this is the purview of the UK. After all, we have the power of the purse. We are UK citizens but pay no UK taxes. World travel, our national passion, is easier with British passports. The global network of British embassies and legations is available to us at no cost when we travel. Our children and young people have the option of training and working in the EU and, in time, bringing that knowledge back home. Most importantly, from an economic analyst’s perspective, there is no economic imperative for independence.
Indeed, the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers, representing Bermuda's powerful financial sector, recently argued that independence could jeopardize Bermuda's economic future, by removing Bermuda from the ambiguity of autonomy under British protection and forcing it to develop new policies in a potentially hostile world. Most Bermudians appear to agree with this argument. Bermudian identity and British citizenship aren't, by and large, seen as mutually contradictory. For so long as this is the case, Bermuda will remain on the long list of insular territories uninterested in independence from their colonial metropoles.
