Earlier this week, Richard Lapper reported on the problems posed for a number of former British colonies in the Caribbean, as EU price-support reforms reduce the price they received for their sugar in European markets: A bitter harvest: the Caribbean faces the prospect of a life without sugar (Financial Times, August 15).
In a second story he looked at reasons these countries (Jamaica, Guyana, Belize, Barbados, Trinidad, and Tobago) haven't been able to exert more political pressure on the UK to get some help: British business and political interest wanes (Financial Times, August 15). After all, migrants from the Caribbean form the second largest ethnic minority in the UK:
To some extent the loss of influence is due to a withdrawal of UK business interests from involvement in the Caribbean:
This weakness in part reflects the dilution of UK business interests in the region... over the last 20 years, many other companies have shifted towards bigger and less fragmented markets.
"We used to get 30 to 40 blue-chip British companies round the table," says David Jessop, who has been director of the Caribbean Council, a London-based lobby organisation that represents the region's interests, since the late 1970s. "But the powerhouses of the British economy are no longer in the region."
The Caribbean community in the UK is not accustomed to mobilizing for political issues:
...although five MPs have Caribbean backgrounds, only one - Labour's Diane Abbott - has regularly raised Caribbean issues in parliament. Derick Heaven, chairman of Jamaica's Sugar Industry Authority, who also served as his country's ambassador to Britain for five years during the 1990s, says community organisation is strong but focuses on social events - so attempts by the Jamaican government to organise its diaspora to lobby politically on behalf of the region's interests have made little progress.
Ms Abbott, whose parents came to Britain from Jamaica in the 1950s, says the UK's south Asian communities, by contrast, have a strong political profile and have proved adept at lobbying MPs on issues of concern...
Class distinctions important to Caribbean diplomats keep them from getting their hands dirty doing the political spadework:
Ms Abbott is critical of Caribbean diplomats in the UK for doing little to mobilise support, saying: "The type of people who work in the foreign service look down on people like bus drivers. These diplomats wanted to keep their distance."
Generational changes in the UK Labour party are leading to a new leadership with fewer ties to the Caribbean community:
In addition, Caribbean interests have fallen victim to trends within the Labour party, where politicians had nurtured close links with Caribbean counterparts... who had led the region's nationalist movement. The newer generation of Labour politicians lacks this interest. For them, the British Caribbean community is part of a core working-class support base for a party that has come to pay more attention to attracting socially mobile voters. Local Labour organisations had measured carefully the inroads the party made with middle-class voters but "didn't even keep figures of the voting patterns of the black community", says Ms Abbott.
Foreign Office priorities:
Meanwhile, the Foreign Office looks more at thematic issues such as terrorism, security and drugs at the expense of a country-focused approach - meaning fewer staff have expertise on the Caribbean. Indeed, campaigners think the Caribbean's economic problems would get more attention if these connections were emphasised...
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