To be very pleased Barbados is now a republic?

[Bebabelouba]

I'm so glad for Barbados and Barbadians.
Anyone else?
Why has this been so underreported?

What? You complain about 'incomprehensive wealth' and you holiday in Barbados? Have you been drinking Cheese?

I want what you're drinking!

being able to holiday in Barbados (I went for a wk with BA for £400) means you have incomprehensible wealth on par with multi millionaires?! 🤔😆

My posts mention Dorset, England and the UK.

And someone else pointed out it's here as well.

But you know. Have a skim and go ha hypocrite!

It really is a VERY impressive wall! Worth googling.

Is driving to Dorset with the kids for an old fashioned seaside hol with buckets spades and a raincoat the last word in excessive wealth now?

I had no idea how extravagant my parents were when I was growing up.

We often went twice a year! And stayed with my gran! In a place that is very beautiful, very unusual, and has not many people and a very high level of poverty. We stay near there as it's part of my childhood. It's brilliant but not sure screams dripping with cash

Sorry to lay on thick but I mean FGS.

Tiny bit of The Wall.

Dunno why publicising it so hard! Fucking bonkers wall though.

YABU.
a) it's been heavily reported everywhere
b) it is so rude and hurtful of Barbados to have done this now. The Queen is 97, could they not have waited?

Great - hope we are next

They have been independent and governing themselves since 1966.

And they are staying in the Commonwealth.

It's a symbolic chance which is important but doesn't give China any sudden 'in'

@justasking111

This is why I worry about Barbados as wel as large swathes of Africa

Honestly you are worried about china’s influence on these countries but not the void Britain left? Why is China any worse than Britain, other than our own xenophobia?

If Britain and the Brits truly cared about these islands we’d be buying the products we forced them to grow. There are massive sugar plantations over in the Caribbean, the ones we stole Africans to work, you can’t buy Caribbean sugar at all in the UK.

We also probably wouldn’t have left them with multiple % GDP debt either after stripping the profits that were made from the islands.

@TheOccupier why is it 'rude and hurtful'? why should they have to wait for the queen? Why do you imagine Barbados owes Britain/the queen anything? If I remember rightly Britain/the queen/whoever owes Barbados 300 years in wages.

The US is majorly concerned, but at the same time, they have not helped those poorer Caribbean nations

www.usaid.gov/barbados/our-work

I don't think it's been underreported. I'm happy for them and think it is the right decision. I still love our Queen.

"Also I don't understand why a country capturing another country to turn it into a colony is "wrong" "

Oh. my. sweet. jeezus.

I sincerely hope you are a troll because if not you are too ignorant for words.

Just, you know start by reading wiki under colonialism and we can take it from there.

Prince Charles went to the ceremony as he was invited, made a speech, and was awarded the Order of Freedom of Barbados, the highest national honor.

I'm so pleased for them . My family are from neighbouring island St Lucia.

I’m not that happy to be honest. I’ve been to many former British islands in the Caribbean for work and the poverty and decline in infrastructure that happens once British funds stop supporting them is truly appalling. They either become havens for drug cartels or you have tourism which means impoverished shanty towns with the only employment being staff at exclusive luxury holiday resorts for the rich. I think it’s cynical budget trimming to cut Barbados loose because of “Britain First” mentality more than altruism behind it.

The "under reported" comments are I suspect an attempt to virtue signal that PPs think it's important and the majority of the rest of us are racists and evil monarchists for not having made a big deal of it.

It was in all the dailies including the Mail - main headline with big pix. Several smaller sub-articles beneath too. It was on the radio and the tv and on the BBC and main news sites. PPs have said it was reported in Canada and Australia. Everyone I spoke to about it had read about it/seen it.

Not at all!

I saw a short piece on BBC the other day. Don't really look other news papers daily but do watch BBC and c4 news, newsnight and bit of Al Jazeera. Haven't noticed it again BUT maybe it's got more since? Think it said something about celebrate and Rihanna so think was when happened.

That's the truth and why I posted. Your post seems rather OTT! Assuming people are not taking the truth, but lying in order to big themselves up and to indicate that other people (which people? everyone in who hasn't clicked on this thread ) are racist?

Title is hardly inflammatory either...

Oh sorry I'm a bit crap at reading between lines.

Obv you saw very bland title. Decided to click because... Thought oho this is something I can potentially see an opportunity to claim the OP and others saying oh that's nice. To say you're the awful terrible people?

Maybe?

I think they deserve their freedom. I didn’t realise anything about China. Only issue I have is it did not come about via a referendum though. So how many people wanted it?

Oh and also.

Did it not occur to you that some people reading about celebrations might not simply be happy because celebrating is a nice thing?

Did it also not occur to you that there will be posters on MN, as in the population generally, who are from Barbados or have family/ links there?

I'm a bit crap at reading between lines

I think I am as well because I’m now wondering what the required response to this event was meant to be..

“Country ditches HM the Queen as head of State, becomes republic but remains in the Commonwealth” isn’t exactly earth shattering news and it has happened before.

It probably got an appropriate amount of media coverage around the world and took up an appropriate amount of time in the news cycle.

@Esspee

I'm in Texas ATM and it made the main news here. I love Barbados and wish them well. Scotland next I hope.

I hope Scotland remains in the Union. Sturgeon is a disaster.

@EmpressCixi

I’m not that happy to be honest. I’ve been to many former British islands in the Caribbean for work and the poverty and decline in infrastructure that happens once British funds stop supporting them is truly appalling. They either become havens for drug cartels or you have tourism which means impoverished shanty towns with the only employment being staff at exclusive luxury holiday resorts for the rich. I think it’s cynical budget trimming to cut Barbados loose because of “Britain First” mentality more than altruism behind it.

Again - Barbados has been independent since 1966.

And they are staying in the Commonwealth so will have as much access to support and networking for business and development as they did before.

This is more of a symbolic change.

Still very important and meaningful for some.

Controversial for others.

But no change to any UK level of investment or economical support.

I

@DdraigGoch

Considering that the population is roughly that of a small city, it doesn't seem underreported to me.

This. ^

@oneglassandpuzzled

I’ve seen it in the papers and on the tv news.

Me too.

@JacquelineCarlyle

It was on the BBC news, plus the letter the Queen wrote was on their social media accounts, so it doesn't seem under-reported to me.

This. ^ It's been all over the TV this past 2 days.

@Bebabelouba YANBU to be pleased, but I don't care either way. No offence, but Barbados isn't really on my radar... If they stayed or left, it wouldn't have made any difference to me or my life.

Ditto Scotland. Don't care if they stay in the UK, or if they leave. Won't make any difference to my life...