Islands need to examine all their options

The UK government’s decision to withdraw the Financial Services Bill before MPs had the chance to vote through an amendment that would have driven a coach and horses through the Crown Dependencies’ right to self-determination was the only sensible thing to do.

Opposition MPs, supported by 20 or so Tories, seemed determined to press the red button, so keen were they to look tough on tax evasion.

Sadly, few seemed either to understand or care about the ramifications of their actions. As with Brexit, complicated issues have been reduced to slogans that can be daubed on buses. The reality that the islands in many ways have a superior system to the UK is lost amid all the virtue signalling.

The Chief Ministers of the Crown Dependencies once again did well in perilous circumstances. They pressed their case hard and got the government to see sense.

It was not, however, without cost. The strength of the argument put forward by the Crown Dependencies was unprecedented and will have alienated many in Westminster at a time when we need all the friends we can get.

Given the timescale, however, it could not be helped. Theresa May’s government had to be under no illusions how serious this crisis was.

Nor has it gone away. The Speaker of the House, having bemoaned a ‘rum business’, promised to allow the controversial amendment to be heard when the matter returns.

And Dame Margaret Hodge and Andrew Mitchell, the arch critics of the islands’ non-public register, have promised that it will be back.

The islands have much work to do before that day. The best chance, given the febrile politics of Westminster at present, is to hope for a substantial delay.

A weak Conservative government is doing this island no favours at present.

But with the main parties splintering before our eyes under the pressure of Brexit that is unlikely to change for the better.

The three islands would do well to examine all of their constitutional options.