Jamaica will drop the Queen as head of state, new PM pledges

JAMAICA'S newly installed prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller, has pledged to drop the Queen as head of state and make the Caribbean island state, beset by poverty and debt, a fully-fledged republic.

Jamaica declared independence from Britain in 1962 but remains within the Commonwealth and has a governor-general representing the Queen.

It was in the grounds of the governor-general's rambling mansion that she made her vow before a crowd of 10,000 who attended yesterday's swearing-in. "I love the Queen; she is a beautiful lady," said Simpson Miller, before slipping into Jamaican patois to add: "But I think time come."

Simpson Miller, who was PM once before in 2006-07, led her left-leaning People's National Party to a landslide victory in last week's general election, scoring a 2-1 victory over the centre-right Jamaica Labor party.

The result brought to an end the premiership of Labor's Andrew Holness, who had led Jamaica for only two months after Bruce Golding stepped down in the aftermath of last year's mishandled arrest of Jamaican gang leader Christopher Dudus Coke. Seventy-six people died when, under pressure from the US, Golding sent security forces into the Kingston enclave where Coke was holed up.

Simpson Miller's previous tenure as PM has given her confidence. "After being tested and tempered I stand before you today a stronger and better person prepared to be of service to my country and people," she said at the start of what The Guardian called a "spirited" speech.

But she has a lot on her plate. Jamaica has a national debt of more than $18bn, or 130 per cent of GDP. She intends to reduce that by pursuing a tough fiscal policy and, as the Jamaica Gleaner reports, by making it easier for foreign investors to do business locally.

At the same time she's promising to improve social conditions and reduce the "chronic state" of unemployment among young Jamaicans. ·