Jamaica: King’s Coronation accelerates plans for Jamaican Republic – with referendum ‘as early as 2024’
“God Save the King” – four words unlikely to be on the lips of many Jamaicans at the weekend during the Coronation of King Charles. “Happy and glorious” – also a long stretch.
In a world exclusive, a senior Jamaican government minister has told Sky News that the Coronation of the King has accelerated the country’s plans to become a Republic – as soon as next year.
Sky News can reveal that an “urgent” referendum could be held “as early as 2024”, which means Jamaica could become independent of the British monarchy and have its own president by next year, according to Marlene Malahoo Forte, Jamaica’s Minister for Legal and Constitutional Affairs.
She said: “While the United Kingdom is celebrating the coronation of the King, that is for the United Kingdom. Jamaica is looking to write a new constitution (…) which will sever ties with the monarch as our Head of State.
Marlene Malahoo Forte
“Time has come. Jamaica in Jamaican hands. We have to get it done, especially with the transition in the monarchy. My government is saying we have to do it now.
“Time to say bye bye!”
Ms Malahoo Forte has described her timeline as “ambitious”, as it requires public consultations and a Bill being brought to Parliament – which she hopes to introduce this month, after the King’s Coronation.
Passing the Bill could take up to nine months, which would subsequently need to be passed by the people in a referendum – effectively “a general election”.
Why now?
The Former Attorney General said: “A lot of Jamaicans had warm affection and identified with Queen Elizabeth II. When Jamaica became independent, Queen Elizabeth was already on the throne.
“But they do not identify with King Charles. He is as foreign as it gets to us. Plain and simple.”
Malahoo Forte told Sky News that Jamaicans do not identify with King Charles
Ms Malahoo Forte told Sky News that her government’s desire for Jamaican self-determination has, in part, been influenced by the Royal family’s “own set of issues internally”.
“Issues,” she added, “which have been playing out in the news. Jamaicans are saying this is a time for Jamaica to sort itself out – and doing so means we want another form of government.”
An apology – or lack of – for the slave trade
According to Ms Malahoo Forte, Jamaica has a “complex” relationship with the United Kingdom.
“(Republicanism) is about us saying goodbye to a form of government that is linked to a painful past of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade.”
According to the National Library of Jamaica, during the transatlantic slave trade, around 600,000 captive Africans were forcibly sent to Jamaica – making Britain one of the largest slave traders in the Atlantic in the 18th century.
This historic event is still a major issue in the present.
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Prince William: Slavery ‘forever stains our history’
Last year, during the Prince and Princess of Wales’s controversial tour to the Caribbean – Prince William acknowledged the issue, but fell short of an apology.
In his speech, Prince William lamented that “slavery was abhorrent” and that “it should never have happened”.
However, for the descendants of those once enslaved, his words were simply not good enough.
“A step in the right direction, but not far enough at all,” Ms Malahoo Forte told Sky News.
“If you acknowledge that it is wrong… I wonder, why not a full apology? It is because you may have to give back the wealth of the monarchy, taken from the people? Taken from the places that were colonised? Taken from the places where the people were enslaved?”
March 2022: A royal tour beset with poor optics and echoes of colonialism, say critics.
The Question of Reparations
The Minister’s nod to reparations did not stop there. “If there is any sincerity in the acknowledgement, it has to go further,” Ms Malahoo Forte told Sky News. “Nothing short of a full apology, plus concrete steps to repair the wrong, will suffice.”
“[Reparations] are what the people of Jamaica want, and it is something that the government will do.”
She added: “I think it is something that the monarchy should think long and hard about as they themselves are grappling with their relevance today. I’ve looked at the polls!”
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said that King Charles takes the issue of slavery “profoundly seriously”, and that the matter of Republicanism, “is purely a matter for each member country to decide.”
HMT Empire Windrush arrived in 1948 carrying people from the West Indies to settle in the UK to fill post-war job vacancies
The Windrush Scandal Hitting Home
However, it’s not just the Royals swaying public opinion in Jamaica.
Political decisions made four-and-a-half-thousand miles away in Britain are also responsible for Jamaica’s acceleration towards a Republic, Ms Malahoo Forte told Sky News.
“Jamaicans living in the United Kingdom have experienced the worst of policies that can be regarded as racist.
“Windrush was personal for our people. Personal. Many [affected] are our families, our friends, our people.
“Unfortunately, the UK government got it so wrong. For people who went there to build up the wealth (of Britain). The policies are racist and unjust – by virtue of nationality, ethnic background, and the colour of your skin.
“It’s just not right.”
A government spokesperson told Sky News that the UK is “committed” to its relationship with Jamaica “regardless of its constitutional status”, and that it remains “determined to righting the wrongs of Windrush… to make sure such an injustice is never repeated.”
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Going Republic – ‘The unfinished business of decolonisation’
Professor Rosalea Hamilton, co-chair of the Advocates Network pushing for constitutional reform, told Sky News that the drive for republicanism is “the unfinished business of decolonisation and emancipation”.
She said: “Nobody has been able to put to me – or to anybody – a convincing, tangible benefit for the King as the Head of State.
“Many young people are especially asking what’s the relevance? How does a King affect the price of bread?”
But are Jamaicans ready to sever ties?
“There are Jamaicans who will sit very glued to their television and will enjoy the pomp and ceremony. The older generation… saw Britain as a motherland,” Professor Hamilton said.
In capital Kingston, there are remnants of colonial architecture in almost every street
In Downtown Kingston, Sky News came across a group of elderly Jamaican men playing a heated game of Dominoes.
Banton was among them – he disagrees with the 2024 timeline, and strongly believes that the status quo – with King Charles as the island’s monarch and head of state – should remain.
He said: “The Crown is protection for Jamaica.
Banton strongly believes the King should remain head of state in Jamaica
“I want to tell you sumtin. Stick to the evil that you know. I’m not saying they’re good. They are evil. But I will stick to the evil that I know.”
His friend John added: “It’s not a good idea. We don’t think we are ready for it. We don’t have the resource. We don’t!
“We are like a child. You cannot leave a child like that!”
A Jamaican Republic is far from a done deal – and the Jamaican government have their work cut out for them if they are to stick the timeline they shared with Sky News.
However, if the government’s plan succeeds, 2024 could be a major year with huge ramifications – not just for Jamaicans, but the monarchy, and the Commonwealth as a whole.
It’s like The Godfather, one reformed drug trafficker tells me.
The mythical gangster film centred on an organised crime dynasty locked in a transfer of power.
Communities in Scotland currently have a front row seat to a new war of violence, torture, and taunts as feuding drug lords and notorious families grapple for control of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
There have been more than a dozen brutal attacks over the past six weeks – ranging from fire bombings to attacks on children and gun violence.
A firebomb attack in Scotland
Victims left for dead, businesses up in flames
Gangsters have filmed themselves setting fire to buildings and homes connected to the associates and relatives of their bitter rivals.
The main aim, they boast, is to “exterminate” the opposition.
The taunting footage, accompanied by the song Keep On Running by The Spencer Davis Group, has been plastered over social media as part of a deliberate game of goading.
A 12-year-old boy and 72-year-old woman were left for dead when teenagers wearing balaclavas burst into a home in north Glasgow.
Garages and businesses have gone up in flames. Shots were fired at an Edinburgh house.
Signals are being sent of who wants control of Scotland’s dark criminal underworld.
A firebomb attack that saw a man throw an incendiary device through a building window
The fire attack set to the song Keep On Running by The Spencer Davis Group
What’s caused the gang war?
The former director of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, Graeme Pearson, explains how a “vacuum of leadership” is playing a part.
Last October, Glasgow-based cocaine kingpin Jamie Stevenson, known as The Iceman, was jailed after orchestrating a £100m cocaine shipment stashed in banana boxes from South America.
The mob leader was one of Britain’s most wanted, running his business like another on-screen criminal enterprise: The Sopranos.
The 59-year-old fugitive went on the run before eventually being hunted and apprehended by police while out jogging in the Netherlands.
Jamie Stevenson. Pic: Police Scotland
Pic: Crown Office
‘Old scores to settle’
But paranoia was running rife about how this notorious gangster could be brought down. Was there a grass? Was it one of their own?
It further fuelled divisions and forced new alliances to be forged across Scotland’s organised criminal networks.
It wasn’t until The Iceman case came to court that it was revealed an encrypted messaging platform, known as EncroChat, had been infiltrated by law enforcement.
It ultimately led to Stevenson pleading guilty.
Ex-senior drug enforcement officer Mr Pearson told Sky News: “It is a complex picture because you have got people who are in prison who still want to have influence outside and look after what was their business.
“On the outside you’ve got wannabes who are coming forward, and they think this is an opportunity for them, and you have got others have old scores to settle that they could not settle when crime bosses were around.”
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Graeme Pearson
Mr Pearson describes a toxic mix swirling to create outbursts of violence unfolding in Scotland.
He concluded: “All that mixes together – and the greed for the money that comes from drugs, and from the kudos that comes from being a ‘main man’, and you end up with competition, violence, and the kind of incidents we have seen over the past four to six weeks.”
New wave of violence ‘barbaric’
Glasgow man Mark Dempster is a former addict, dealer, and drug smuggler who is now an author and respected counsellor helping people quit drinking and drugs.
He describes the “jostle for power” as not a new concept among Glasgow’s high profile gangland families.
Mark Dempster
“There is always going to be someone new who wants to control the markets. It is like The Godfather. There is no difference between Scotland, Albania, or India,” he said.
Mr Dempster suggests a shift in tactics in Glasgow and Edinburgh in recent weeks, with 12-year-olds being viciously attacked in the middle of the night.
“It is barbaric. When young people, children, get pulled into the cross fire. It takes it to a different level.
“At least with the old mafiosa they had an unwritten rule that no children, no other family members. You would deal directly with the main people that were your opposition.”
Police Scotland is racing to get control of the situation, but declined to speak to Sky News about its ongoing operation.
It has been suggested 100 officers are working on this case, with “arrests imminent”.
But this is at the very sharp end of sophisticated criminal empires where the police are not feared, there are fierce vendettas and, clearly, power is up for grabs.
UK
Laws may need to be bolstered to crack down on exploitation of child ‘influencers’, senior MP suggests
Laws may need to be strengthened to crack down on the exploitation of child “influencers”, a senior Labour MP has warned.
Chi Onwurah, chair of the science, technology and innovation committee, said parts of the Online Safety Act – passed in October 2023 – may already be “obsolete or inadequate”.
Politics latest: Follow live updates
Experts have raised concerns that there is a lack of provision in industry laws for children who earn money through brand collaborations on social media when compared to child actors and models.
This has led to some children advertising in their underwear on social media, one expert has claimed.
Those working in more traditional entertainment fields are safeguarded by performance laws, which strictly govern the hours a minor can work, the money they earn and who they are accompanied by.
The Child Influencer Project, which has curated the world’s first industry guidelines for the group, has warned of a “large gap in UK law” which is not sufficiently filled by new online safety legislation.
Official portrait of Chi Onwurah.
Pic: UK Parlimeant
The group’s research found that child influencers could be exposed to as many as 20 different risks of harm, including to dignity, identity, family life, education, and their health and safety.
Ms Onwurah told Sky News there needs to be a “much clearer understanding of the nature of child influencers ‘work’ and the legal and regulatory framework around it”.
She said: “The safety and welfare of children are at the heart of the Online Safety Act and rightly so.
“However, as we know in a number of areas the act may already be obsolete or inadequate due to the lack of foresight and rigour of the last government.”
Victoria Collins, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for science, innovation and technology, agreed that regulations “need to keep pace with the times”, with child influencers on social media “protected in the same way” as child actors or models.
“Liberal Democrats would welcome steps to strengthen the Online Safety Act on this front,” she added.
‘Something has to be done’
MPs warned in 2022 that the government should “urgently address the gap in UK child labour and performance regulation that is leaving child influencers without protection”.
They asked for new laws on working hours and conditions, a mandate for the protection of the child’s earnings, a right to erasure and to bring child labour arrangements under the oversight of local authorities.
However, Dr Francis Rees, the principal investigator for the Child Influencer Project, told Sky News that even after the implementation of the Online Safety Act, “there’s still a lot wanting”.
“Something has to be done to make brands more aware of their own duty of care towards kids in this arena,” she said.
Dr Rees added that achieving performances from children on social media “can involve extremely coercive and disruptive practices”.
“We simply have to do more to protect these children who have very little say or understanding of what is really happening. Most are left without a voice and without a choice.”
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The researcher pointed to one particular instance, in which children were advertising an underwear brand on social media.
She said: “The kids in the company’s own marketing material or their own media campaigns are either pulling up the band of the underwear underneath their clothing, or they’re holding the underwear up while they’re fully clothed.
“But whenever you look at any of the sponsored content produced by families with children – mum, dad, and child are in their underwear.”
Dr Rees said it is “night and day” in terms of how companies are behaving when they have responsibility for the material, versus “the lack of responsibility once they hand it over to parents with kids”.
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