Part of the debate – in Westminster Hall at 10:34 am on 15 February 2006.
I do not wish to stop the Minister's flow and I know that he is pressed for time. He has acknowledged that confusion was created among the islanders. Does he not agree that that confusion was systematic? Why did the British authorities encourage the islanders by establishing a land registry, the only purpose of which was to entrench property rights? Why did they endorse the council's campaign to regard Ascension as a "family island"? That was its slogan, which, by implication, involves settlement and long residence. Surely the Government were not assessing the options, but were very actively involved in creating the framework they now wish to repudiate.