The FCO Spreading Democracy, as long as it doesn't inconvenience the Americans...
Some background on the press release we published yesterday about the resignation of the Ascension Islands Council - which appears to be another diplomatic coup for the FCO...
This, from Wednesday's Telegraph:
By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor
Last Updated: 1:50am GMT 21/03/2007
A bitter diplomatic row has broken out on a south Atlantic island that played a key role in the Falklands conflict 25 years ago.
Almost the whole council on Ascension has resigned in protest over Britain's decision to withdraw promised rights.
Islanders have accused ministers of betrayal and of deception - and a visit by a Foreign Office delegation sent to smooth ruffled feathers merely made matters worse.
However, a few years ago, the islanders were told that permanent rights of abode and property ownership would be introduced. The idea was to create a ''settled society'', with taxation and representation for islanders. Since 2002, they have elected their own seven-member council and set about building up tourism and private enterprise.
A draft land register was prepared to allow property ownership and islanders invested in the hotel, petrol station and shop, previously Crown property or owned by the commercial "users".
Last year, however, the Government changed its mind and said there would be no reforms after all.
The islanders believe the American military objected to the idea of a settled community on Ascension. The controversy has been likened to the treatment of the Chagossian islanders, forcibly removed from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to make way for the American air force.
The Ascension islanders were hoping for a reconsideration but after last week's visit from the Foreign Office five of the councillors resigned.
They are now threatening to withhold taxes because they have no rights or proper representation.
In a statement, the councillors said: ''During the FCO visit we were left in no doubt that not only were our hopes misplaced but that we had all been misled and misinformed at every step of the way."
Lord Triesman, the foreign office minister, told parliament last year that the reforms were dropped because of the contingent financial liabilities that British taxpayers would face if they had to bail out the islanders.
Geoffrey Fairhurst, a former administrator of Ascension, said last night: "Ministers should be ashamed."
According to Kevin Cahill's
According to Kevin Cahill's excellent 'Who Owns the World', Ascension is a dependency of the British Overseas Territory, St Helena. It became a British possession in 1815 (formerly Portuguese). Volcanic rock with no native population.
2001 Population: 720 St Helenians, 150 UK nationals, 65 Yanks.
The US has a lease on an airfield on the island.
The British airfield is a transit point for RAF flights to the Falklands.
The government consists of a British administrator and an island council with 10 members, 7 elected. The administrator represents the governor of St Helena.
All land is owned by the Liz Windsor.
Here's another link Dick
Here's another link Dick (how 're you feeling now? OK?) along similar lines.
Quote:
[How did Lord Cavendish come to own so much land? "Through purchases and through transfers of land among families following marriages," said Knight.
Should land be redistributed from the large estates to the state to allow for housebuilding? "The present advice from the government is not to build on open countryside. We can only work through the present system]."
Hmmm, that last sentence is a dead give away.
What's Liz worth? 13 trillion quid? OMG; that explains a few things...
I am feeling very well,
I am feeling very well, thank you.
Land ownership in the UK is a scam of great proportions. I used to labour under the illusion of living in an overcrowded island with a land shortage - hence the building restrictions and the need to protect the countryside. Then I read Cahill's previous book - 'Who owns Britain'. It covers the suppression of land ownership information, how the majority of land is in the hands of the few, how land is trickled onto the market for development at millions of pounds per acre, how the major landowning families (Duke of Westminster etc) are direct descendants of the Norman robber barons. Friends of the Earth, Countryside Alliance are sponsored by landowners because these pressure groups lobby to prevent development and maintain high land prices. Landowners pay no inheritance tax yet receive 7 billion pounds a year in subsidy - the complete opposite of homeowners who are taxed to the hilt yet pay 7 billion a year in community charge. The book is full of goodies.
Liz is surprisingly powerful. Her executive powers are non-existent, but the royal family works in different ways now. She has access to a vast amount of privileged information relating to the UK and Commonwealth and has vast landholdings including such gems as 13 tax havens. She owns something like 1/6 of the planet's surface.
That's a good article by the way.