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Many Cayman MPs need second jobs because of the country’s high cost of living and need to keep up appearances, a former deputy premier has said. Kenneth Bryan, number two in the last government and now deputy leader of the Opposition People’s Progressive Movement, said it was routine in other jurisdictions, including the UK, for MPs to have outside employment, but not in Cayman. He said, “It’s common for members of Parliament to have other jobs, a lawyer or doctor or whatever. “Unfortunately, it’s frowned upon here for an MP to have any kind of work.” Bryan was speaking at last week’s Post-Election Seminar, organised by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and the Cayman parliament at the ‘Behaviour, Ethics and Standards’ session. The event featured politicians from the Scottish parliament, the States of Jersey and Bermuda’s House of Assembly. Ash Regan, a member of the Scottish parliament (MSP) said second jobs were less common in the Holyrood devolved administration than at Westminster. But she highlighted a nurse and a doctor who sat in Holyrood who worked shifts with the National Health Service. Regan said, “We had one who was an MP, an MSP and a football referee.” But she added, “I don’t think we have had too much trouble so far.” Ban on second jobs Regan said, however, that the Scottish parliament was “seriously looking” at whether it should ban secondary employment. But Dennis Lister, a veteran MP in Bermuda’s ruling Progressive Labour Party and speaker of the House of Assembly, said the island’s MPs could retain other interests. He highlighted that restrictions on outside work could deter people from public life and make it difficult to get a job after leaving it. He said, “In a small community, where you know you might not get employed right away or go back to the same level.” Lister said there was also a risk that those promoted to ministerial level, which were generally regarded as full-time posts, could turn into “yes men” because they were “dependent on the premier to feed their family and keep a roof over their heads.” He added, “We have some members who have changed in their forthrightness – they have got a little softer.” He added that ministers who wanted to continue their employment outside politics could opt to take half the salary because they were dividing their time. Lister said that backbenchers with other employment could claim their full salary because “they are expected to supplement their salary”. But he added, “The public would probably prefer politicians didn’t have other work.” Outside interests Inna Gardiner, deputy in the States of Jersey, said a lot of members had outside business, including herself, who had an interest in a travel company. Regan added that she was given a fuel allowance and a government-issue mobile phone, but Bryan said Cayman politicians got neither. Bryan, who has joined a real estate agency since the last election and is working towards his licence for the industry, said any comparison between salaries paid to politicians in Cayman and the UK or elsewhere had to take the cost of living into account. He said, “I can promise you this, there are not many places in the world more expensive than Cayman.” But he conceded the country’s parliament sat much less often than other jurisdictions. Bryan added that Cayman MPs were also expected to present an appropriate image and were often obliged to bear the cost of attending sometimes expensive events themselves.
