The poll, which closed on 4 August, was intended to assess views in the offshore community ahead of a debate on the subject next month at the Hotel de France in Jersey, which has been organised by the Jersey and Guernsey Law Review.
According to the poll, 54.8% of those who responded did not believe that Jersey and Guernsey would benefit from severing their ties with the UK government, compared with 40.5% that thought they would.
Another 4.7% said they did not know whether the islands would benefit.
Although the poll is neither a representative sampling of opinion on the part of either Channel Islanders or IA readers, it may be seen as a measure of feeling on the part of those interested enough to vote.
One reader based in the Turks & Caicos Islands added a comment to his vote against independence for the two Channel islands, in which he noted that he had seen first-hand “what happens when small countries have no over-view from a larger” entity.
“Where would TCI be without the UK?” he added, a reference to recent troubles in the Turks & Caicos that caused Britain to suspend its government and parliament in August, 2009, and launch an investigation into possible political corruption.
Britain’s move to take control in TCI sparked a debate at the time in some other British overseas territories about their links to the UK, and prompted at least one columnist in Bermuda to suggest Bermudans beg Britain to consider investigating that island’s political institutions as well.
Reciprocal health agreements
The matter of whether Jersey and Guernsey should consider becoming independent, although not new, resurfaced recently after some islanders objected to the ending of reciprocal health agreements between the UK and the Channel Islands, which also affected people living on the Isle of Man. The way this was handled by Britain drew criticism earlier this year in a report by the UK’s Justice Committee.
Under these agreements, visitors to the UK from the three crown dependencies received free health care while in Britain, as did all Britons while they were visiting the islands.
There was also concern in Jersey and Guernsey after the UK government last year unexpectedly announced that a VAT- and duty-sharing agreement between Britain and the Isle of Man would be revised in a way that would slash £90m from the IoM’s annual revenues from April of this year, and £140m in subsequent years.
The UK’s failure to ensure that £650m worth of deposits sent to Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander’s UK branch from its Isle of Man operation days before the Icelandic-based group collapsed in 2008, leaving thousands of IoM depositors without access to their money, was also seen as an indication that Britain’s offshore jurisdictions might not be able to count on UK assistance in a crunch.
The Jersey and Guernsey Law Review debate will take place on 17 September, and will be attended by Liechtenstein’s Prince Nikolaus; former Icelandic ambassador Sverrir Gunnlaugsson; and Sir Philip Bailhache, founder of the law review and former Jersey solicitor-general, attorney-general and bailiff.
