Leading Article: A model nation?

IT IS in some ways a pity that Nevis has not voted for full independence from St Kitts. This bid for national status, with a seat at the UN just like the US and China, had a Mouse that Roared, brave, romantic feel. But it was also a model for secessionists everywhere. The referendum on independence set a suitably high (two-thirds) threshold for change. The new micro-state would have continued in a currency union with other small nations with the Eastern Caribbean dollar. It would have joined Caricom and kept its economic links with bigger neighbours such as Jamaica. Thus political independence can sit alongside economic union.

Can we learn something from our former colony?