Catherine West is new Labour Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs.

And it hasn’t taken long for Cayman Islands lawyer, Peter Polack to write to M/s West in regard to what he describes as” pressing problems in the Cayman Islands”.

And Polack’s claim the pressing problems we have in the Cayman islands is crime and the lack of leadership at the top to deal with it.

In an email he sent to Catherine West that he also copied to iNews Cayman and other media houses he sent with it a “short list of articles below will hopefully give you a non-official view of some pressing problems facing one of the last colonies in the world.”

The links to the articles are as follows:

1.The non-performing Police Commissioner and the rise in crime.
http://www.caymanreporter.com/2014/10/16/missing-link-cayman-police/
http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/the-editor-speaks-call-for-the-commissioner-to-resign/

2. Over 20% of population have a criminal conviction
http://www.caymanreporter.com/2015/02/13/20-population-criminal-conviction/

3. Nearly 600 warrants of arrest out for a population of 60,000
http://www.caymanreporter.com/2015/02/27/582-warrants-arrest-outstanding/

4. Police service discriminatory hiring practices
http://www.caymanreporter.com/2015/04/02/questionable-rcips-hiring-practices/

5. The non-performing Attorney-General
https://caymannewsservice.com/2015/02/questions-raised-over-legal-department/

6. The failing DPP
http://www.caymanreporter.com/2015/09/02/grave-failures-revealed-says-local-attorney/

The Cayman Reporter would seem to be his preferred choice with CNS getting one and to my surprise even us! Although mine did not stand alone. It had second place to the Reporter!

Oh well. That’s life isn’t it. Always the bridesmaid never the bride.

But hold on. The self confessed Cayman Islands favourite newspaper doesn’t get a link.

To make sure M/s West knows that Polack is legit he even gives a link to his own excellent book “The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War” at: http://www.amazon.com/Peter-Polack/e/B00BX13VUQ

I hope the new Shadow Minister buys a copy. The Amazon link also has a brief biography about the writer.

So who is Catherine West? Polack also sent me a link to her biography at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_West

She really is a newcomer and has only been a UK MP since May 2015. However, her bio is impressive:

“West was born on 14 September 1966 and grew up in Sydney, Australia. She was educated at Ravenswood School for Girls. She studied at the University of Sydney and also gained a master’s degree in Chinese politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.”

Chinese politics? How close is that to Cayman’s politics?

Her boss, the new leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, is the most leftish Labour leader since a very long time. There is no “New Labour” stamped on his forehead.

This is what Allister Heath wrote about Corbyn in the UK Telegraph on Sept 16th.

“Jeremy Corbyn is no populist – he’s an old Left elitist in shabby disguise”

“The new Labour leader’s old-fashioned Marxism may appeal to a socialist elite, but it is missing a key ingredient — nationalism
Despite a disastrous first few days , many Left-wing activists are still convinced that Jeremy Corbyn will deliver the goods. Their thesis is as simple as it is deluded: they believe that their hero will keep Labour’s existing voters, reach out to many of those seduced by the SNP’s and Ukip’s populism, attract non-voters and lead a new Left-wing coalition to victory.
“It (Other OTC: ITGL – news) won’t work. Far from being a populist, Jeremy Corbyn is a Left-wing elitist who doesn’t really understand the new politics. He lacks the three ingredients required to take on Ukip and the SNP: a willingness to tap into nationalist sentiment, defined broadly (and not necessarily illiberally); the ability to understand, relate to and empathise with ordinary voters, as opposed to minority interests; and a strong, appealing personal brand buttressed by a brilliant communications effort.
“Corbyn’s inability to come to terms with the first of these alone will prove to be fatal. It is almost impossible to be a successful populist and not embrace some sort of nationalism . The SNP’s rise has been primarily fuelled by its stoking of Scottishness and depiction of England as the source of all evil; its Left-wing demagoguery was always secondary and had already been matched by Ed Miliband, to nil effect. Nigel Farage’s rise can be attributed to his ability to harness anti-immigration and Eurosceptic sentiment.
“The Marxist hard Left by contrast, is a pacifist and internationalist: as far as it is concerned, nationalism, together with capitalism, is tantamount to racism. It also loathes traditional manifestations of British patriotism. Elements of the old Left opposed the EU on democratic grounds but Hilary Benn, the new foreign secretary, has promised that Labour will back membership of the EU .
“The party thus continues to differ fundamentally from all the genuine populist groups to have emerged in recent years. Greece’s Syriza is stridently anti-German, anti-EU and anti-IMF; Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement in Italy, otherwise quite Corbynite, is Eurosceptic; ditto Spain’s Podemos , at least in the sense that it believes EU institutions to be fundamentally broken. France’s National Front party hates foreigners; America’ Donald Trump is a flag-waver who wants closed borders.”

He doesn’t sound very promising does he?

I am not sure Catherine West will view Cayman Islands ‘pressing problems’ as being placed high on her list of priorities except maybe to join the battle cries against tax evasion and the dreadful Cayman Islands that hold all these secret accounts!