The people are 'not ready' for Vanterpool or Walwyn to lead VI- Claude O. Skelton-Cline
Skelton-Cline made this statement on his show ‘Honestly Speaking’ on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, on ZBVI 780 AM, titled ‘Brace Yourself’.
Vanterpool, a former legislator, formed and launched the PLM soon after losing the Chairmanship of the National Democratic Party, NDP, to Hon Marlon A. Penn (R8) in April 2026. Penn won the position with 65 votes to Vanterpool’s 29 votes and Hon Ronnie W. Skelton’s (AL) 17 votes.
VI not ready for Vanterpool or Walwyn to lead
“Let me tell you why that’s not going to go anywhere, no more than the Member for the Sixth, Walwyn, stuff not going to go anywhere. The people of this country are not yet ready for neither one of those persons to lead this country,” Skelton-Cline opined.
He insisted that he was just saying out loud what the people are saying quietly.
“Therefore, it’s in the interest of those people, of those persons, men whom we love, men who are our own, to be on the ship but not in the leadership position; if you do the wise thing, then you have a fighting chance.”
According to the clergyman, the right thing to do would be to join an already established political party.
He added, “The VIP is sitting strong now…only because everybody else is weak.”
Skelton-Cline has previously expressed his disappointment in the results of the NDP’s internal elections, saying, “Wisdom did not prevail.”
Vanterpool determined to run next election
Vanterpool has expressed his intentions to run in the next general election in District 4.
“I have served my people for 25 years, and they are ready for me again. Easily. Ready for me again,” he said while addressing District 4 residents at Pussers Pub in May 2026.
While there, he also ruled out any possibility of a future with the NDP under Hon Penn’s leadership. Vanterpool also committed to finishing his term if he ends up in the Opposition.
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38 Responses to “The people are 'not ready' for Vanterpool or Walwyn to lead VI- Claude O. Skelton-Cline”
After all the outright discrimination. Bashing, triple taxation, ostracization, marginalization and animosity some of us do persevere, struggles, grows, contributes and continue to build this nation.
At _________ an island man is the current premier. Talk that.
If we’re going to speak honestly about political readiness, then we must apply the same standard across the board including Uncle Ronnie.
Because the record is not ambiguous.
Uncle Ronnie has been rejected at the polls twice, and neither rejection was trivial. The first came while he was the sitting Deputy Chief Minister, one of the highest offices in the territory. The second came when he was the leader of the PVIM and their proposed Premier. In both cases, the electorate delivered a clear verdict.
Even his last electoral victory was not a show of dominance. He finished a distant fourth, just barely making the cut. That is not the profile of a man the public is rallying behind.
And inside his own political home, the pattern is the same. He was twice rejected for leadership of the NDP, a party he co founded. When the people who built the party with you decline to elevate you, that is not a small signal. That is structural feedback.
Taken together, the electoral history and the internal party history point in one direction: The public has not demonstrated readiness for Uncle Ronnie’s leadership, and neither has the party he helped create.
If we are going to say “the people are not ready” for others, then intellectual honesty requires us to acknowledge that the same applies here and with even more evidence behind it.
So to the BVI people operate a cast system against any black skin African descent people born or naturalized in the BVI, it doesn't matter how much your contribution to nation building or educational status and patriotism if you were born to parents that are non belonger of the BVI then you are subjected to this cast system, you will be an island man as they would call you you as a black person excluding if you are white, never heard a white person been called island man, the same BVI is subjected to a UK cast system, to build the airport or do anything that benefit the BVI people, a white governor and the UK has to give permission, so the UK is keeping the black BVI people in a cast system of subjected paternalism and infantilism, how can the BVI fight to break a cast system that they themselves are subjecting people to that was born in the BVI of different parents from down island, sometimes out of jealousy of willock brilliance, they refer to him with remarks that his parents are down island people, and the island people talk seem to emulate from someone thinking that they are so associated with their metropolis UK that they are first world or some continent.
Please desist from this cast system that Myron and mark and others is subjected to once they respect the laws of the land and help to build the nation.
ALL13MUSTGO.
We must find political leaders that care for the people and the Territory.
Walywyn shows signs of that but all the others too hungry for their own power to follow.
In many Caribbean contexts, anti-colonial struggle is not only about flags or governance structures—it’s about dignity, self-determination, and the right to shape one’s future without being lectured by outside power or internal proxies of that power.
So when a rhetoric of gatekeeping frames local political leadership as something “outsiders” or “certain people” are “not ready” to hold (or should “join an already established party” to be “allowed” to progress), people in the wider Caribbean may hear echoes of a familiar betrayal pattern:
* that leadership is treated like a privilege granted by the comfortable,
* that political voice is conditional,
* and that “the people” are used as a shield to justify who gets excluded.
That resonance can create outrage, especially if communities perceive a hypocrisy: colonial or post-colonial hierarchies are challenged on one side of the region, but softened into local gatekeeping on the other.
The outrage isn’t necessarily about whether the speaker intends harm; it’s about whether the rhetoric reproduces the same power logic—permission rather than rights—that anti-colonial movements fought to dismantle.
If you’re building a party message, the takeaway is strategic and moral: don’t rely on gatekeeping language that sounds like control dressed as “wisdom.” In a region where colonial histories are still alive in memory, that “tone” can land like betrayal.
Hon. Vanterpool obviously is in expansion mode and it is clear for all to see that only a handful of persons visit all his new locations daily. Is he truly making money or he is running back to HOA for a leg up or something other than public service? That makes him dangerous.
Hon. Walwyn, he talks a good game as he is a lawyer by profession. However, is he a good manager of businesses, looking at the closure of many restaurant businesses that flourished so well when opened and flatlined shortly thereafter? Government being the biggest business in the land, well, we have to be careful with that. He worries so much about next election he handed out 95 petty contracts to build a wall you can circle in 15 seconds. He also makes hasty and silly decisions as the same seat he vacated to form the Alliance with Hon. Turnbull he rank back to apply for. It was HIS. Reached across the isle to get at Hon. Skelton as well. What can I say other than this election is crucial. We should put away the personal attacks and look at what everyone brings to the table individually regarding prior experiences and if their bid for leadership is sheer desperation to survive or not. Don't see any desperation in the one being bashed and attacked over and over again. The only clear minded gentleman in the bunch. He got my vote.