Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Successive gov’ts dropped the ball after 2007 constitutional review

Successive gov’ts dropped the ball after 2007 constitutional review

Former District Seven Representative Dr Kedrick Pickering has said two successive governments — one of which he was a member — dropped the ball in educating people on the way forward and implementing change after the 2007 constitutional review.
Speaking at his campaign launch for the next general election, Dr Pickering spoke candidly on the territory’s relationships with the United Kingdom and claimed there needs to be a reset. He noted the relationship with the UK matters and there is no sense in people denying that as the Virgin Islands is fundamentally British until something is done about it.

“Let us deal with the realities of the way in which we have to approach these situations and not tell ourselves that we are not what we are not. So, pay attention and elect people when the election comes around and understand those types of relationships so that the next constitutional review will take us forward,” Dr Pickering said.

The former legislator then explained that after the 2007 constitutional review, things did not go as planned and the governments that came after made a grave error in not following through with the things discussed in the negotiation with the United Kingdom.

“We dropped the ball after the 2007 constitution review. I was a member of a committee who went to England to negotiate the new constitution. There were several things that needed to be done after that event took place and successive governments, one of which I was a part of, dropped the ball. We were supposed to have a referendum to decide the way forward. We were supposed to put a committee in place to discuss with the population, their views, and opinions on moving forward, but also to help educate people in understanding the cost of moving forward towards independence and self-governance – whichever term you want to use,” Dr Pickering said.

“We were supposed to have a change in the number of ministers that we have. We were supposed to have six ministers, but we were supposed to pass legislation in the House that would have given us the right to do that. And there were a number of other issues. So, we are now at a point where we are talking about our constitutional review committee. It should have been done from way back between 2007 and 2011 and we should have been at the point right now, where we could actually be staring in the face of self-governance,” he added.

Dr Pickering also explained that self-governance does not mean the BVI must sever ties completely with the United Kingdom. He drew a comparison with a small-island nation in the Pacific called Tuvalu. He said the country has a relationship with New Zealand where New Zealand takes care of its military and defence, but the country is semi-independent and determines everything else for itself.

“And the United Nations have said that countries like ours should look to examples like that to help determine the way forward. We don’t have to do that. But we can utilise those examples. And think of a special way that we could develop new relationships with the United Kingdom that doesn’t exist, but it will take us utilising our best minds, and there are a lot of highly intelligent, well-educated younger people in this country with brilliant ideas,” Dr Pickering said.

He added: “We just need to incorporate their ideas for the betterment of our country. And in the not-too-distant future, we would have a relationship with the United Kingdom that even independent countries will be envious of because we can find ways to make it work that are beneficial to us and them and it will be better for our people. So, we need to think out of the box to find a new way to build that relationship. But the important thing is, that relationship matters. And the way we are going to move forward is to ensure we reset our thinking towards our relationship with them,” the former legislator added.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×