No singing 'God save the Queen' outside protocols - Skelton-Cline
"I even went a step further to see if students, school children in the UK, if they do this... and based upon my research, it doesn't happen there," he said.
Mr Skelton-Cline was at the time making his opening commentary on the November 19, 2019, edition of his show, 'Honestly Speaking', where he also lambasted the Virgin Islands House of Assembly (HoA) for having pre-written prayers for the queen during the opening of the House.
The local commentator said schools need to be promoting the Territorial Song, "and the celebration of our people and their journey, our journey and our culture that's what we need to continue to highlight."
According to Mr Skelton-Cline, singing the anthem is a form of indoctrination that send deeps messages. "We oftentimes find ourselves doing things that just seem to be ceremonial without outstanding the impact."
He continued, "I am making a big deal out of it because it just seems to me that we need not be singing the National Anthem outside the requisite protocols."
According to the man of the cloth, the Territory needs to be having serious conversations about "who we are as a people."
HoA Prayers for Queen
Skelton-Cline also noted that at the Tuesday, November 19, 2019 Sitting of the House of Assembly (HoA), two prayers during the opening of the House was in support of the Queen.
"I had to open my eyes... here is it that we are praying in the House of Assembly, and the prayers that is being offered is not for the Premier, not for the country, not for the people... but two prayers being lifted up in the name of the Queen."
"There was something troubling about it in my spirit," he said.
According to Skelton-Cline, there is now a need for the removal of 'colonial residue' from within the territory, including the eradication of an enslaved mindset he said some still carry.
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29 Responses to “No singing 'God save the Queen' outside protocols - Skelton-Cline”
He need to go back to Detroit with his di*ty ways
I want to be abundantly clear that so long as we are under the Monarchy we need to be diplomatic and whenever we are making statements such as what Claud said. I can excuse him because perhaps he did not have the fundamentals of the Constitution. I wonder if many people are aware that burning the national flag of a country is an act of treason and such offence are punishable by imprisonment.
Independence will not come however because BVIslanders enjoy the privileges of obtaining UK passports, studying in the UK and obtaining free healthcare in the UK. This is a good deal for them, if the only cost is singing a song about a woman in an expensive hat.
Besides a British passport, tell me how does being a UK Territory really benefit the BVI. How much money does the UK contribute to the BVI expenditure annually? The UK treats the OTs like bastard children and pays no maintenance or alimony.
Claude is right!
"Whereas the people of the territory of the Virgin Islands have over centuries evolved with a distinct cultural identity which is the essence of a Virgin Islander;
Acknowledging that the society of the Virgin Islands is based upon certain moral, spiritual and democratic values including a belief in God, the dignity of the human person, the freedom of the individual and respect for fundamental rights and freedoms and the rule of law;
Mindful that the people of the Virgin Islands have expressed a desire for their Constitution to reflect who they are as a people and a country and their quest for social justice, economic empowerment and political advancement;
Recognising that the people of the Virgin Islands have a free and independent spirit, and have developed themselves and their country based on qualities of honesty, integrity, mutual respect, self-reliance and the ownership of the land engendering a strong sense of belonging to and kinship with those Islands;
Recalling that because of historical, economic and other reasons many of the people of the Virgin Islands reside elsewhere but have and continue to have an ancestral connection and bond with those Islands;
Accepting that the Virgin Islands should be governed based on adherence to well-established democratic principles and institutions;
Affirming that the people of the Virgin Islands have generally expressed their desire to become a self-governing people and to exercise the highest degree of control over the affairs of their country at this stage of its development;
and Noting that the United Kingdom, the administering power for the time being, has articulated a desire to enter into a modern partnership with the Virgin Islands based on the principles of mutual respect and self-determination;
Now, therefore, the following provisions have effect as the Constitution of the Virgin Islands."