VI Premier slams ‘imbalanced, scandalous & insulting' UK Guardian article
The Guardian published an article on Tuesday December 9, 2025 titled: 'Walking into disaster: the narcotrafficking scandal that blew up the BVI' in which it highlighted details about the major political downfall in the Virgin Islands involving former Premier Andrew A. Fahie and his alleged involvement in a drug trafficking and money laundering scheme with US agents, leading to his 2022 arrest, subsequent conviction in 2024, and broader implications for VI governance and its reputation.
The Guardian should refrain from printing imbalanced articles
The premier stated while responding to a question by the media on the article during the press conference on Friday, December 12, 2025, that, "I think the Guardian, which represents itself as a credible media organisation, should refrain from printing articles, which are so, so imbalanced."
He said this article seeks to present the Virgin Islands in a very demeaning way, "One which I do not recognise."
"So let me just say to you that anyone who's read that article from The Guardian, I don't think it's representative of reality. It doesn't speak about all of the progress that we've made just yesterday, Stephen Doughty [UK OTs Minister] announced, you know, and the government is not crazy. They're not going to announce that the Order in Council is being revoked unless there was some substantial work that was done in the Virgin Islands to strengthen whatever challenges that came about."
Hon Wheatley stated that the way in which The Guardian described the Virgin Islands is "lacking balance."
"We certainly had some things that we had to improve on, but I don't think the situation was as they described it."
Achievements of the legislature
The premier highlighted the achievement of the legislature, stating that "We just celebrated 75 years of our legislature. Over the course of our legislature, we have some wonderful stories told, and the people of the Virgin Islands, by their very nature, you know, are good, decent people, and don't deserve to be described in the terms that The Guardian article has described us."
"And those people don't know us. They don't know us. They haven't lived among us. People who come and live among us, a lot of times they choose to stay because they love it here so much, so it can’t be so bad," the premier added.
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20 Responses to “VI Premier slams ‘imbalanced, scandalous & insulting' UK Guardian article”
Claims that this episode has permanently damaged the BVI’s global standing vastly overestimate the world’s attention span. Most countries are preoccupied with their own affairs. Such stories are briefly noted, quickly forgotten, and ultimately reduced to little more than a cautionary anecdote—not a lasting verdict on a nation.
The guardian article was factual. If the premier believes facts that would make it more 'balanced' were omitted, then perhaps he should present them. The Facts. Not just stand up and say, it wasn't balanced, they missed stuff out.... WHAT did they miss out?
Just because you do not recognise the reality around you, that the rest of us have to live daily, does not mean it is not real just because you say it isn't.
There is reality and there is what you believe and say.
They are not the same.
AND the reality of the Order in Council "Victory" is that if the UK want to place a new Order in Council tomorrow they can do that.
- Crumbling roads
-Sewerage floating in open ghuts
-Cost of living catastrophe
- Unbelievable rent costs
-Rising crime rate
- Crippled education system
-Politicians doubling their pay
Reality
- (Despite the last bullet point)- The Premier of the VI getting hung up on ONE newspaper article written by a press agency located 4000 miles away.
That hill to climb is getting bigger and bigger...
One of the things I learned is that the former premier gave money to the churches during the Covid period that "was 662% over the recommended budget", which explains a lot about the religious community's silence when it comes to denouncing corruption; and even to the extent of clergymen saying there's no corruption in the BVI.
Another thing the article mentioned is "consultants who charge extortionate fees for projects that never materialized", which was also mentioned during the COI.
Every BVIslander who can read standard English should look it up on Google: they must have an above average attention span, however, as its quite a lenghty write-up, I could see lots of research went into it. It's a very detailed and balance article, in my humble opinion. One of the concluding comments sums up the BVI's current state so accurately, we should all be thankful that there's honest reporting still available in the field of journalism.
I quote: "Caught between a domestic elite concerned with their own enrichment, and a colonial power demanding economic and political reforms without promises to fund them, the [BVI] remain in postcolonial purgatory." -
Walking into a disaster: the narcotrafficking scandal that blewup the BVI, by Edward Siddons, The Guardian, an Independent British Newspaper that is reliable to report without fear or favour. See theguardian.com
Anybody that actually lives here knows how accurate it really is.
Truth hurts m’son