Our latest election

Since our elections last month we have had 18 MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly), representing 18,000 citizens out of our total population of three times that number. Nine of the MLAs are newcomers. I have just posted an item on my blog about the event, but this is a quick summary.

Only the faces have changed. Continuity is guaranteed both by our status as a British colony and by our MLAs' absence of policies. The MLAs are elected on their (perceived) personal qualities; their manifestos are generally limited to promises to strengthen the protection of ethnic Caymanians against competition from expats. That adversely affects our economic productivity, but that's life. Our affirmative-action program is forty years old, and will likely be here for another forty.

Britain has forbidden any new long-term borrowing, and our incoming politicians have sworn to expand the government's reach even further; so we are expecting new taxes. Sooner or later the expense of doing business here will crush our economy. I'm sorry to say that most of the expats I speak with think we have only another three or four years of prosperity left. All depends on how seriously Britain takes its colonial responsibilities.