Social Commentator and talk show host, Pastor Claude O. Skelton-Cline has said the Virgin Islands (VI) should do away with the Speech from the Throne. Photo: Facebook

Governor Daniel Pruce delivered the 2026 Speech from the Throne on January 13, 2026, under the theme ‘Legislative Pillars of Progress: Building a Sustainable Nation’. Photo: Government of the Virgin Islands

Pastor Claude O. Skelton-Cline said the Virgin Islands should however continue with the annual State of the Territory Address. The 2026 State of the Territory Address was delivered by Premier and Minister of Finance Dr the Hon Natalio D. Wheatley (R7) on June 9, 2026. Photo: VINO

The annual Speech from the Throne is delivered by the VI’s sitting governor, during which the government’s plans for the year ahead are laid out in the House of Assembly (HoA). 

“All that colonisation stuff, we need to get away from,” Skelton-Cline said during his show, Honestly Speaking, on ZBVI 780 AM, on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, “Even that Speech from the Throne, we need to cut that out.”

He questioned why an agenda prepared by a government has to be handed to the governor to be read in the House of Assembly on their behalf. 

“It’s your agenda, the people we elect… Why do we keep doing things that make no sense?”

Symbols of subjugation

The Speech from the Throne and other activities like it, he said, are used as symbols and remembrance of the “subjugation that we are in”. 

Some practices in the Virgin Islands need to be cut out, he said. “We should just cut out and be done with these things.”

Governor Daniel Pruce delivered the 2026 Speech from the Throne on January 13, 2026, under the theme ‘Legislative Pillars of Progress: Building a Sustainable Nation’.

Meanwhile, Skelton-Cline said the Virgin Islands should continue with the State of the Territory Address, saying, "I think we need to continue in that tradition and continue to give the state of affairs of the country."