VI Must 'Buckle Down'
Cromwell Smith warned on November 27, 2025 that recent moves by Great Britain risk reversing leadership and development gains in the Virgin Islands, saying the UK appears poised to assume control of key positions and authorities. He urged residents and leaders to act now to protect local management and autonomy.
Former Chief Minister Cromwell Smith has warned that the Virgin Islands faces a serious risk to its autonomy, urging residents to "buckle down and get serious" about local management as Britain appears poised to take greater control of key public institutions. Speaking on his programme on Thursday, November 27, 2025, Smith said years of progress in leadership and development are under threat. "It seems to me that Great Britain is moving to take us backwards," he said, adding that areas where the territory once developed its own leaders are now under threat and local recruitment is being undermined.
Smith expressed particular concern about policing and the management of ports and statutory authorities. He said the territory had begun recruiting its own commissioners of police but now fears the Governor could ignore local recommendations and bring in an appointee from Great Britain. "It looks to me now like they’re trying to remove our ability to have a Chief of Police," he said, warning that external management could be brought in to run ports and other authorities.
Those comments raise immediate questions about how appointment and oversight arrangements operate under the territory's constitutional framework. Local officials and many residents have long been sensitive to matters of appointment powers and the balance between local government and the Governor, who in some cases holds reserve powers.
Smith framed the debate in stark terms: delay in asserting local control could result in functions of government being effectively transferred to outside management. Smith urged Virgin Islanders not to be complacent. "We can no longer sit back and say it’s not time for us to take control or that we need to wait another ten years," he said. "By the time we decide to take control of the Virgin Islands, it will likely already be in someone else's hands.
It will be under British control, and I don't know how many of us want to be in that situation." The issue touches on public safety, economic management and the territory's broader development prospects. Control of ports and authorities affects trade, tourism and local employment; changes to policing leadership could affect operational continuity and community trust.
Smith's comments call for civic engagement and political clarity: residents, elected representatives and civic organisations will likely be watching any developments closely and seeking assurances about how key appointments and management decisions are made. (Reporting based on remarks published by Virgin Islands News Online on November 27, 2025.)
Primary source: VINO