Tax Havens

The British Overseas Territories are British by choice, and those which remain even now always will be. The same is true of the Crown Dependencies. To be British is to be not just any, but at some level all, of English, Scots, Welsh, Irish, Manx, Channel Islander, Mediterranean, North American, Caribbean, South American, Southern African Creole, Indian Ocean Creole, and Polynesian.

And it is to submit to the supreme and final legislative authority of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. From Saint Helena to Sark, if they didn't want that, then they would be free to become independent. So, over to you, Andrew Mitchell, Philip Hammond, George Osborne, and the rest: sort out the problem of the British tax havens (of which Saint Helena is not one - you can be as pretty and as friendly as you like if you are quite that far both from the City and from Wall Street, these people will mercifully still ignore you).

But do so while charging the British people of the Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies only home fees to study at British universities. Do so while building the airport on Saint Helena, and while holding a proper inquiry into the healthcare situation there. Do so while giving justice to the Ascension Islanders and to the Chagossians, in both cases regardless of what a foreign power may think. And do so while recanting David Cameron's pre-Election pledge, barely reported by his media creators, to give a share of Falkland Islands oil revenue to Argentina without requiring the slightest movement on the sovereignty question. Come back, Jim Callaghan.