The last of the Empire that sometimes sees red when they talk to London

9th May 2008
By Roderick Crawford

It is ten years since the last foreign affairs select committee inquiry into the Overseas Territories. Its present inquiry is well timed. Much has happened over the last decade that has transformed relationships between the UK and its overseas territories, not least the working out of the new relationship that the government of Tony Blair set out in its 1999 white paper Partnership for Progress and Prosperity.

With Hong Kong handed back to China in July 1997, the FCO b…