The Panama Papers is the burning issue at the moment and there is intense pressure upon him from the United Kingdom to disclose more of beneficial ownership than he is prepared to do.

The opposition wants him to appear at the special meeting they have called concerning the Royal Cayman Islands Police’s conduct although it was originally called before Police Commissioner David Baines had resigned.

I somewhat doubt if this meeting would have been called if Baines’ resignation announcement had been made earlier.

It is most certainly a political move especially as Leader of the Opposition, McKeeva Bush, has accused McLaughlin of “dereliction of duty” when the premier announced he had more important issues to deal with.

McLaughlin most certainly does but it is the manner and his use of words of dismissal that has done nothing to help his cause. He forgets the majority of the country and voters are not directly connected with Cayman’s Financial Industry.

Good Public Relations could have changed that in a second but he didn’t do it and played right in the hands of the wily old Bush bird.

“While Leader of the Opposition McKeeva Bush and MLA Ezzard Miller, as well as other members of the opposition, appear to be oblivious to the threat we are under, I and the government I lead, entirely understand what is at stake,” McLaughlin said.

Oh dear.

Not good wording at all, even if it is exactly right. So it is therefore wrong.

McLaughlin bemoaned that all the backbenchers accusing him of dereliction of duty should be helping him and their country by pledging solidarity with his government. The country is under threat because of the disclosure of the Panama Papers and the dangerous challenges we are now facing.

“To do otherwise — to disrupt and distract the government at this critical point — is the very thing that constitutes dereliction of duty. There is just too much at stake for opposition politics to be played at this point,” the premier said.

Britain’s Prime Minister is now under fire with the disclosure he benefitted, after he had first said he hadn’t, from his late father’s companies in Panama. There also could be a Cayman Islands connection, too, (see our Front Page story today “UK: Cameron: third off-shore investment fund linked to father [maybe links to Cayman Islands]”) and Cameron is under immense pressure to make things very difficult for our and other Overseas Territories financial industry. He has to appear tough as there is already a call for him to resign.

So McLaughin is 100% right but he is wrong not to explain it better to the public and speak to the backbenchers in a different tone.

The RCIPS is under a dark cloud and business at home seems more important than anything else to the majority of the local voting people. Especially when children’s lives are lost.