For many of our residents, the Cayman Islands could be substituted for Whoville this year, and the Grinch, instead of being a cartoon character, is a very real, but equally heartless, People’s Progressive Movement (PPM) Government.

In the absence of any meaningful statistics, there is no way of knowing exactly how many thousands of long-term residents are, or have already been subject to expulsion under the asinine rollover policy.

These are people of every degree in society who came here many years ago in good faith that the Cayman Islands would be the friendly, welcoming place to live and work that we had always proclaimed ourselves to be.

Instead, many of these individuals, who have given of themselves, their expertise, care and other resources, over the years, now find themselves being told they must leave, they are no longer welcome, and they must be traded-in for a newer, but not necessarily better model.

And perish the thought that the Government would ever get its act together during the 19 months they have had to deal with this issue and conduct a proper economic and social impact review of the long-term effects of the short-sighted and ill-conceived rollover policy.  Apparently, that would require a degree of competence and foresight typically conspicuous by its absence.

In spite of official proclamations that the economy is booming, this rosy view has not been transferred to the overall mood of the local population this year. Indeed, it seems to us that there is a pall hanging over the Cayman Islands at this time, unlike any we have ever seen, not even in the aftermath of the fall of Interbank in August 1974 or Hurricane Ivan in September 2004, almost exactly 30 years later.

Yes, construction starts may be up, but who is going to buy or rent these new places?  What of the local businesses that are facing substantial costs of recruiting new employees from overseas to replace those expelled?  It will take months, possibly years, for these effects to be felt by the local economy but, in the absence of any comprehensive impact report, we won’t know of these adverse effects until they hit us squarely in the face.  At which time, of course, another knee-jerk reaction from the government of the day will be called for – and so the cycle goes on…

Instead of expelling our pool of talented foreign workers, Government time and energy would be far better spent in getting the country moving, instead of allowing it to grind to a halt in what seems to be one enormous traffic jam.

An organisation in the United States, Jobs with Justice, conducts an annual online Grinch of the Year poll to determine the national figure that does the most harm to working families. No doubt our current crop of politicians sitting on the majority bench would do well in such a vote.

The Government Grinch has certainly stolen Cayman’s time tested national Christmas spirit of giving and compassion.

At a time when this self-proclaimed “Christian” country celebrates “Peace on earth, goodwill to all men,” we suspect that many will consider the Cayman Islands’ interpretation of these qualities to be ones they can well live without.

And doubtless those responsible for the distress caused to so many families by the rollover policy will, nevertheless, enjoy their own “Cayman Christmas”, without much, if any, thought being given to the unfortunate souls now subject to a forced relocation at short notice, with all the stress of finding new accommodation and employment that such a move entails.

To the latter, we extend apologies on behalf of all the right-thinking citizens and residents of the Cayman Islands and we can only hope that you will nevertheless have the best Christmas possible in spite of the present circumstances.