IT IS no accident that the number one fundamental priority for Guernsey is to assert its independent identity or that this goal is enshrined in successive government business plans and the replacement Strategic Economic Plan.

Neither is it surprising that Lord Wallace’s remarks that these islands should no longer remain autonomous have met such a hostile response.

Yet it is the decision by Her Majesty’s Government to impose direct rule on another offshore community, the Turks and Caicos Islands, that is perhaps more disturbing.

There is little doubt that questionable happenings went on in the British overseas territory of about 30,000 individuals, but some of the language in the official reports will concern islanders here.

Sir Robin Auld, who conducted a commission of inquiry, found that ‘…the government…is at a near standstill… divided or unstable… its finances are in a bad way and poorly controlled, governmental and other audit recommendations lie unattended.

‘It is evident that there are are widespread fears on the part of the people… that they are leaderless and their heritage is at risk of continuing fast to drain away.’

Sir Robin also talks about extravagant and ill-judged commitments by ministers and budget deficits and the low level of corporate governance.

For many, however, those words will resonate. Not because Guernsey is corrupt – while what has been happening in TCI manifestly is – but because there is an element of interpretation at work.

As the Foreign Office announced it, the initial work of direct rule ‘will focus on restoring sound public financial management, and developing measures to reduce public expenditure and increase revenue’.

When the Wales Audit Office reports shortly on corporate governance that, too, will highlight deficiencies in the way Guernsey does business. The island is spending too much and what better way for the UK Government to close what many consider to be a troubling tax haven by insisting that it increases its taxes?

While any comparison between the Channel Islands and the Turks and Caicos needs to be made with extreme care, one thing is now certain.

The UK reserves the right to step in when it believes it has a case to do so.