MOTION FOR ADJOURNMENT SPEECHES

Transcript by J. Brock (FINN)

Jan Cheek:

Mr Speaker, Honourable members, I was deferring to the Honourable Sharon Halford but she obviously prefers me to speak first. 

I wanted first to mention a couple of the smaller departments in Government which do quite extraordinary work.  The first one – Mineral Resources Department (that has a) tiny staff but an exceptional skilled group of people.  They are managing the increasingly prominent and complex oil exploration round.  I followed this process from its earliest days in the mid-1990s when we first started looking at on what basis we could issue licences.  And the rules were devised after taking advice from many quarters.  It’s politically sensitive for obvious reasons and we have to be seen to be getting it right environmentally, not just because of recent, well publicised disasters elsewhere but because it is the right thing to do.  I would like to commend the work of that department in ensuring that this increasingly complex business runs so smoothly.

The other department with which I have had recent contact is FIGO.  It’s easy to forget that they are a long way off.  Until you spend a bit of time in that office, you can have little inkling of the multitude of tasks carried out by a small group of very dedicated individuals.  They are the face of the Falklands in London and elsewhere.  They keep track of numerous medical patients, helping out in many ways, some way beyond the normal call of duty.  They make the air-bridge booking system work and that’s quite a challenge in itself.  Few people are unable to fly when they want to.  Unfailingly helpful and efficient, they are a great team at the moment and deserve every bit of our support.  I have twice now mentioned informally to other Members and at least one official the fact that we should, as routine, be bringing back to the Islands Falkland Islanders who are working in FIGO, whether it be every two or three years to refresh their knowledge and bring them up to date with all the things that are happening here that aren’t always easy to find out about from there and to just giving them a thank-you for what they do for us over there.

Like my colleague, Roger Edwards, I have been reassured by all the recent statements on defence and the fact that the strategic defence review does not result in any lessening of the deterrent here in the Islands.

I wonder how long it will take our neighbours to realise that the posturing that’s going on at the moment.  The suggestion that a routine exercise has suddenly become a threat to the mainland in effect is harmful to their own interests.  In 2010, nations should be co-operating in sustainable environmental issues for the greater good – not attempting to annex small neighbours. 

Like most Islanders, I am weary of the lies that my colleague, the Honourable Dick Sawle has mentioned.  They are used in an attempt to add substance to a case which is actually non-existent.  Apart from the obviously flawed historic and geographic fantasies they put forward, I’d argue that our country, peacefully settled for 170 years by a mix of people who arrived here in all kinds of different ways, whether it was seeking adventure, whether they were shipwrecked,, whether they were simply wanting a better life for their families.  That must strike a chord in any objective observer.  It’s the same way that most of the Americas were settled.  The only difference being – and I make much of this whenever I get the opportunity – we didn’t overwhelm or subjugate an indigenous population – there was none. 

Our message is simple and clear.  We are the only people with a right to claim the country.  We made it what it is.  And the population have freely chosen their association with Britain as an overseas territory.

And I thank the British Government for their continuing support for us in that.  Apart from the British Government I got the strong impression at the party conferences that we attended that that support is pretty universal.

Finally, I would like to add my welcome to the new Governor and his wife to the Falklands.  I hope their time here is very happy.

I support the Motion.

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