Beach bummer
It’s time to talk about beach manners. A Beaconite was disturbed recently by cruise ship passengers who decided to bring their own, very loud, stereo to the sands and inflict it on everyone else. The gentle swaying reggae vibe from the beach bar sound system wasn’t good enough for them. They had to place their own sound system on the beach blaring out such country classics as “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy.” Again. And again. And again. At full volume. It wasn’t just next to them, either. They strategically placed it ten feet from their sun loungers so that nobody had any choice but to hear about their purportedly sexy tractor. The Beaconite had fantasy visions of a freak wave sweeping the speakers into the surf. But, sadly, that didn’t happen. Then he had thoughts of an imaginary conversation: “You can afford a cruise around the Caribbean, but you can’t afford headphones?” That didn’t happen either. Instead, the Beaconite just moved down the beach to escape the noise. But he has a message for the tourists: “Yes, the VI appreciates you coming and spending your tourist dollar. But, no, your tractor is definitely not sexy. It’s just very loud. Please keep it off the beaches. Thank you.”
The pot, the kettle, and the baroness
A Beaconite couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow when British Anti-Corruption Champion Baroness Margaret Hodge breezed through the Virgin Islands to remind the territory to “clean up” its reputation for “bad money.” London, it seems, had sent one of its own to deliver a sermon on financial purity — from the same city long nicknamed “Londongrad” for its embrace of oligarch wealth. Here in the VI, the baroness spoke about reputational risk, transparency and the moral hazards of illicit wealth. She’s not wrong. The VI has work to do. Beneficial-ownership registers, enforcement gaps and global perceptions don’t fix themselves. The baroness did acknowledge that the UK also has work to do in this regard. But for the Beaconite, her lecture nevertheless carried a curious undertone. London, after all, remains a magnet for suspect funds, especially via real estate and professional services. In the UK alone, Transparency International UK has documented billions in “suspicious” property holdings linked to offshore companies — many traced to entities from overseas territories including the VI. Recent reports estimate around $8 billion in high-risk UK property assets connected to such structures. Globally, transparency scorecards also tell an awkward story for the UK. Singapore ranks near the top for financial integrity; Denmark and Finland lead the Corruption Perceptions Index because of their reputation for clean dealings. Meanwhile, the United States, despite tough enforcement in places like New York, topped the 2022 Financial Secrecy Index as the world’s largest enabler of financial secrecy. The UK sits somewhere in the middle — too prestigious to ignore, too compromised to preach. The VI, just like the Cayman Islands, helped build London’s wealth ecosystem. Offshore companies provided the scaffolding for much of the capital flowing into London’s property and finance sectors. Yet when the time comes for a reckoning, it seems the British finger always points outward at small offshore jurisdictions. In this long-running morality play, the pot never quite recognises its reflection in the kettle. Even when UK politicians call for fully public beneficial-ownership registers in the overseas territories, they rarely acknowledge that despite ongoing reforms the UK’s own Companies House continues to accept unverified information — meaning that anyone can set up a firm for a few pounds and a clever alias. To her credit, Lady Hodge did acknowledge that Britain itself has “a way to go” on transparency — and that much, the Beaconite respects. But perhaps the UK approach isn’t double-dealing so much as theatre. And it seems that the baroness and Premier Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley may have that in common. In January, Mr. Wheatley called the baroness “biased” and accused her of lacking balance. By mid-year, he was inviting her for a “more balanced” look — an evolution worth noting now that he is feeling “hopeful” about UK help with the airport expansion. Whether “hopeful” signals real change or just convenient cooperation is anyone’s guess. Still, the Beaconite can’t shake the thought that lingers after the baroness’s visit: While London tells the VI to say goodbye to bad money, who, exactly, tells London?
