Dear Editor,
I have been musing on the purpose of those expensive high commissions/embassies in foreign capitals like London. It follows a (sadly) anonymous letter from a member of the UK diaspora asking me to remedy, what in their view, are defects in the modus operandi of the current high commissioner.
It seems to my simple mind overseas missions have four purposes-consular acting as a go between the individual and government bureaucracy in GT over passports and so on. Attracting investment to Guyana but that is like taking kids to a sweetshop in the oil state that is Guyana, diplomatic work now easy with a Guyanese origin UK Foreign Secretary in David Lammy but most importantly to be the centrifugal point and meeting place for the small UK diaspora. The last is the most vital. The cog at the centre of all wheels.
The ‘mission’ is there for black, brown and other colours, old and young meet to hear icons talk and simply to ‘gyaff’. Over the last thirty years, I have enjoyed most of my nights in Palace Court. I have helped to produce some of them. The result of my musings? I do have to ask whether the current centripetal strategy is the correct one. Just asking!
Sincerely,
John ‘Bill Cotton/Reform’ Mair
