The UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office is headed by Foreign Secretary, William Hague, who once upon a time was leader of the Conservative Party for a short time during the years it was in opposition to the governing Labour Party.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office – ‘the FCO’ or ‘the Foreign Office’ for short – is the government department responsible for promoting British interests overseas and supporting our citizens and businesses around the globe.

The FCO is responsible for The Overseas Territories of which we are one of 14 (counting Sovereign Base Areas on Cyprus).

The Overseas Territories Directorate in the FCO takes the overall lead on managing the UK’s relationship with its Overseas Territories, but all Government Departments have a responsibility towards the Overseas Territories.

Under William Hague are six ministers and Mark Simmonds is the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office who on 5^th September, 2012 replaced Henry Bellingham.

Henry Bellingham has had a very “hit and miss relationship” (more miss, although the premier has publicly said he has a “good relationship with Bellingham) with our Premier McKeeva Bush because of the budgetary constraints the FCO has placed on his government.

We can only wonder what is going to happen now? If Mr. Bush feels Mr. Simmonds is going to be “wet behind the ears” he would be best to be warned. The previous positions he has held are:

• Member of Parliament for Boston and Skegness, 2001 – present
• Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Shadow Foreign Secretary, 2002-2003 
• Shadow Minister for Education, 2003-2004
• Shadow Foreign Office Minister, 2004 – 2005
• Shadow Minister for International Development, 2005 – 2007 
• Shadow Minister for Health, 2007 – 20010

I have underlined and posted in bold the areas of his expertise that have been used in areas of international and foreign affairs.

I don’t know if Mr. Simmonds has visited the Cayman Islands privately but he has paid us a visit between 1^st and 4^th November whilst en-route to Cuba by invitation of the Cuban Foreign Minister. See below:

Mark Simmonds – Register history  MP’s page

6. Overseas visits

1-4 November 2004,to Cuba at the invitation of the Cuban Foreign Minister. En-route I visited the Turks & Caicos Islands, St Kitts & Nevis and Grand Cayman. The cost of my flights and one night’s hotel accommodation in Turks & Caicos was provided by Flying Lion Ltd.

Other accommodation was also provided by Flying Lion Ltd.*

(Registered 9 December 2004)

From:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=11224

In those days one presumably did not have to disclose the actual amount of the complimentary travel. We earlier disclosed in a previous article that Simmonds has previously received a donation of a flight, also provided by Flying Lion Ltd.

Flying Lion was owned by Lord Ashcroft who has been the subject of much adverse publicity regarding his relationship with a collapsed construction firm, Johnson International, which built a mansion for a discredited Caribbean politician. It has been suggested that the former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party was also

involved with Project Windsock, an unsuccessful attempt to buy an airport through a company called Airport Holdings that, under the terms of the deal, would pay no tax on its future earnings.

And where did all this take place? The Turks and Caicos Islands.

And we know Mr. Simmonds has actually stayed one night on Turks and Caicos – all paid for by Lord Ashcroft.

I would be very careful how you deal with the FCO now Mr. Bush. I advise a very, very, good relationship with Mr. Simmonds.