Taylor, a former Governor of Montserrat, in a published article held that the power of the Governors needed to be increased to enable them to deal with certain circumstances including contingent liabilities. To this end, the process was to an extent managed by the metropolitan partner. The partnership was always intrinsically asymmetrical. The constitutional
commissioners made a number of modest changes including the
assigning of regional affairs to the elected government and an executive public service commission. Both changes would place some limitation on the power of the Governor. The report was the subject of a series of negotiations between the U.K. government team and the legislators of Montserrat. In addition, the government
staged a country-wide educative exercise in 2010 with a consultative element which meant
110 | The Parliamentarian | 2012: Issue Two
that there was further popular input beyond the work of the commission. Emanating from the exercise, a document entitled A Compendium of Concerns was published. The question was, how many of the recommendations and concerns would impact the final product.
The product A number of changes were introduced with the 2010 constitution which made for a more
democratic countenance. For example, regional affairs (a subset of foreign affairs) came under the purview of the local government. For reasons already outlined this is not insignificant. In addition, the Governor is allowed to assign authority for his special responsibilities to Ministers who will act on his or her behalf. This is limited by the optional “may” as opposed to the directional “shall”. What the section on the Governor’s special responsibilities seeks to do