St. Kitts and Nevis needs competent, bold and visionary leadership to deal with the UK exit from the EU
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS – Former St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas with the vote by the British people that the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, “St. Kitts and Nevis will have to step up to the plate again.”
“We must be bold, we must be competent, we must be visionary,” said Dr. Douglas in a statement
He said that St. Kitts and Nevis remembers only too clearly the dread that spread across the world with the commencement of the multi-year financial crisis in 2008.
“The threats were real and the demands placed upon governments worldwide, great. Here at home, however, we put together a most extraordinary array of financial management skills and ingenuity. And as a result of our burning the midnight oil, night after night for months, we were most successful at protection this country and our people from the worst ravages of a global crisis that continued to wreak havoc in country after country long after 2008 had come and gone,” Dr. Douglas recalled.
He noted that his St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Government’s overriding preoccupation in the years following 2008 was to defend and shield St. Kitts and Nevis from the shocks and dislocations that were being felt through the region – and around the world.
“We were extraordinarily effective in this regard but today, new challenges are once again rushing toward. We cannot stumble and we cannot sway. We proved our mettle as a government and a people in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, and that is a standard that we absolutely must meet – and maintain – now,” said the former Prime Minister and current Leader of the Opposition.
With the successful exit vote, the four-tem Prime Minister asked “Will there be attempts within other countries in Europe to break from the EU as Britain has done, and if so, will they succeed? Can the EU withstand these pressures?”
He said those are questions to which no-one has a clear answer at the moment.
“But we do know is that governments around the world must demonstrate the highest possible levels of skill, vision and competence if their respective countries are to withstand the shocks are already being felt as a result of Britain’s rather clear and unequivocal EU exit,” Dr. Douglas said.
