North Side’s Ezzard Miller is calling for approximately CI$15,000 in donations to fund a late-February trip to London to question policymakers about the Cayman Islands.

Accompanied by at least two others, Mr Miller hopes to gain sufficient funding to spend four days meeting the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Foreign Affairs Committee, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Cayman Islands and Minister Responsible for Overseas Territories Henry Bellingham.

“I have appealed to the public for contributions,” said Mr Miller, independent MLA for the eastern district. An outspoken critic of Premier McKeeva Bush, Mr Miller said he hoped to discuss a handful
of topics.

“I’d like to ask about the Framework for Fiscal Responsibility,” he said, referring to the late-November UK-Cayman agreement pledging full accounting for borrowing, spending and various local infrastructure projects. “I wonder if it has been effective or not.

“I would also like to ask about the CHEC deal,” he said, alluding to government’s imminent agreement with the China Harbour Engineering Company for the $300 million construction of cruise-ship berthing in George Town, a Spotts Landing alternative and a pier at the Cayman Turtle Farm.

Mr Miller also hoped to discuss the Dart Realty-government ForCayman Investment Alliance (FCIA) and, finally, he said, “the ongoing investigation into the premier,” a reference to a police-led probe of alleged “financial irregularities” between Mr Bush and Atlanta-based real-estate developer Stan Thomas.

Accompanying him to the British capital, Mr Miller said, will be Alice Mae Coe, head of West Bay’s Concerned Citizens group, and Arden McLean, PPM MLA for East End. He hoped PPM leader Alden McLaughlin would join the group.

Mr Miller has supported the three in opposition to Mr Bush and various FCIA projects including closure of 3,700 feet of West Bay Road and creation of a waste-management facility in Bodden Town.

”I am a little concerned with Dart, that they can so readily donate money to government and can decide what projects they are donating for.

“It may,” he said, “violate section 15 of the Anti-Corruption Law.”

He also worried that Dart say they are giving $20 million for education and social projects, but “giving money to the same decision-makers who are negotiating the [FCIA] deal.”

“I kind of wonder where we’re heading,” Mr Miller said.

He indicated he had not written the funding appeal that appeared on Thursday on the iNews Cayman website, calling the public to “offer to help pay expenses,” for Mr Miller, Ms Coe and Mr McLean, “since they are travelling on the people’s behalf.

“Some of you local businesses that are suffering because of Dart running you out of business,” the writer said, should take “the opportunity to show some support. It is our duty to assist them and help provide enough funds to cover traveling expenses for them to go to the UK, representing the people of the Cayman Islands.”

Mr Miller said the funds would cover airfare, accommodation, food, spending needs and transport “because we won’t exactly be visiting dignitaries”. “We plan to leave on a Saturday, spend Sunday acclimatising, then get appointments on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then come home the next day,” he said, acknowledging it could be delayed until early March “because we don’t know when we are having Parliament,” suggesting Mr Bush had manipulated Legislative Assembly schedules to prevent
such trips.

“It means you can’t plan your life,” he lamented. Mr Miller vowed to carry on even without public funding.

“We’ll have to do what we normally do,” he said, “which is fund it ourselves. I am pretty confident, though, there will be enough people who want this trip.”