Once again, United Kingdom politicians have missed the mark in their handling of the overseas territories, with a parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee releasing an extremely tone-deaf report on the future of UK-OT relations.

Among its many recommendations, the committee is advising the UK government to force the OTs toward certain goals — including removing belongership, imposing same-sex marriage and fast-tracking public company registers — in a way that hearkens back to the days of colonialism.

The general tenor of the report is troubling, but perhaps the most odious advice is the recommendation to do away with belongership, apparently in a manner that would allow all resident UK and OT citizens to vote and hold office here. Though the current belongership system is far from ideal, the FAC’s suggestion will not stand.

Belongership here and in other OTs is a delicate balancing act designed in large part to protect the relatively tiny OT populations — each of which has a unique culture — from being overrun. It is also about the fundamental right of the OTs to decide who should belong, much as the UK citizens demanded in the Brexit vote to determine their own immigration laws without Brussels’ interference.

Any changes must be handled with much more finesse than the broad-strokes reform implied in the FAC report.

Not surprisingly, the FAC report has drawn the ire of OT leaders, with Cayman Islands Premier Alden McLaughlin going so far as to threaten to lead a push for independence if belongership is undone. Though newly elected VI Premier Andrew Fahie has not yet responded to the report, we suspect that the VI would consider a similar path for the same reason.

Perhaps the FAC’s blunders are not surprising: Troublingly, the committee didn’t announce the launch of its probe here and apparently never took any local steps to gather information from the population at large. Only when VI leaders got wind of the exercise and requested input were ordinary residents consulted. This is not now how a family behaves.

Fortunately, the report does not reflect the position of the UK government, which must now respond to the committee’s recommendations within two months. In composing its response, the UK government should consult extensively with the OTs, and push back forcefully against any attempts to interfere in the internal affairs over which their constitutions grant them control.

It should also get its facts straight. In an apparent error, the FAC report states that the VI government claimed that the 2007 Constitution defines marriage as between a man and a woman. But the Constitution does no such thing, nor does the VI government document cited by the FAC claim that it does.

Though we support same-sex marriage — and in fact believe that it is probably already technically legal under the territory’s current laws — we oppose any attempt by the UK to wield its colonial powers to force change on this or any other issue.

For similar reasons, we oppose the FAC’s recommendation to fast-track public company registers before they become a global standard, which could decimate the VI’s economy.

All of that said, a collaborative review of UK-OT relations is certainly welcome, and the FAC also brings up several good points. It recommends, for example, that the government review its system of funding the OTs and probe whether the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is the right agency for administering them.

Moving forward, Mr. Fahie’s administration should work urgently to separate the report’s wheat from its chaff. Then, collaborating closely with other OT leaders, he should reach out to the UK government and clearly communicate the VI’s reasons for opposing certain OT recommendations and supporting others, forcefully rejecting any attempts to take a step backward toward colonialism.

Mr. Fahie’s administration also must move swiftly to undertake a full review of the VI relationship with the UK.

Though the FAC report is troubling, it is consistent with the UK’s recent clumsy handling of the OTs, which is doing severe harm to its relationships. We suspect that such bumbling has been exacerbated by political turmoil in a parliament that is so divided over the ongoing Brexit crisis that it has been struggling to carry out its most basic duties.

But since parliamentarians seem unable to consistently make reasonable decisions about the OTs, they should take a step back and regroup. We hope that the FAC report will lead to the in-depth dialogue needed for them to do exactly that.