The public meeting on Tuesday night, at which the Leader of Government Business, Hon. McKeeva Bush, outlined the government’s proposals to rescue the country from its current economic light, produced some interesting scenarios. Not least is the apparent expectation by Mr Bush that we will be saved from financial disaster by the privatisation of the sewage disposal system.

According to Mr Bush, such privatisation would raise an estimated $150 million and create more than 1,000 jobs locally.

It is unclear what study or other research produced these somewhat startling numbers but it is difficult to comprehend the factual reality of this anticipated sewage bonanza that will apparently provide jobs for a significant percentage of the local work force.

It is equally unclear if the $150 million referred to by Mr Bush is the admission price to be paid to the government by a potential owner/operator for the privilege of treating and disposing of our waste or the probable investment in sewage treatment and disposal plant likely to be required to establish the system envisaged, some kind of sewage tax or a combination of the three.

In any event, the financial commitment apparently required from any private firm or consortium of firms that is willing to invest as much as $150 million in the Cayman Islands does not represent free money somehow conjured up from thin air.

Any owner/operator of such a system will be looking to make a return on their investment and, ultimately, the return of their investment – which can only be provided by local residents, businesses and/or visitors to the Cayman Islands.

Investment and indeed business generally is a zero sum proposition; in other words, if someone receives a sum of money, someone else pays the exact same amount. In this case, those that will ultimately be paying will be the people of the Cayman Islands.

But, if the government can’t find anything else to tax, the people’s sewage is as good as anything.

Whether our sewage system will be our salvation remains to be seen but, we suppose, stranger things have happened.

Another interesting aspect coming out of Tuesday’s meeting is the resulting perception of the agreement by Britain to permit additional borrowing.

Certainly, the initial sum of $50 million is to be welcomed and, hopefully, this will enable the government at least to pay some of its bills.

However, the additional $229 million for which conditional approval has been given by Britain is hardly the victory of sorts that it is being portrayed locally.

In fact, the British press is describing the agreement in less than advantageous terms so far as the Cayman Islands is concerned.

“The Foreign Office has forced the Cayman Islands’ government to investigate the possibility of introducing direct taxes on businesses and residents based there. An independent assessment of diversifying the Caribbean tax haven’s revenue base is the main condition stipulated by the Foreign Office for allowing the Caymans to borrow from banks CI$50m immediately together with a further CI$229m loan,” is how the Guardian described it on Wednesday.

Likewise, the Daily Telegraph had this to say: “After lengthy wrangling, the British overseas territory on Wednesday confirmed that it has finally secured permission from the UK to obtain a CI$50m bail-out loan to plug a 35pc-40pc collapse in revenue this year. The island’s government has also signalled that it is ready to cave into UK conditions on slashing government expenditure and an independent report on reform of its tax system that could see it start to impose direct levies to obtain further loans worth CI$229m.”

It is all very well Mr Bush loudly proclaiming there will be no direct taxation, but it seems to us that the issue has already been allowed to slip out of the government’s control by virtue of the agreement to set up and adopt the recommendations of an independent committee on direct taxation.

If such committee recommends the imposition of property and/or payroll taxes, it is not going to go down too well with Britain if we renege on our agreement to abide by its recommendations, no matter what the government of the day may want.

The fact remains that Britain’s approval for the additional $229 million borrowing mooted is not unconditional but is still predicated upon the serious and genuine consideration, at the very least, of direct taxation and ultimately its possible adoption.