Dear Sir,

As an independent country, we will be able to collect all monies from all the airlines that fly through our airspace. What do I mean by our airspace? All that open space that covers the island’s landmass, and its 300 miles out to the boundary in the open ocean, belongs to Bermuda.

Believe it or not, we also have satellite space way up above us; there is our shipping registry, for which all of the monies are collected by Britain.

The British are collecting money that should be rightfully ours, even though we are not independent as yet. It is believed that monies collected by Britain for airlines to fly over Bermuda and for communications companies to use our satellite space could be as high as $100 million or more annually.

As it stands, it is only tourism and exempted companies that fuel Bermuda’s economy, but just look at how much more monies could go towards strengthening our tax base if we became a sovereign nation. All that space above and around us belongs to us, and it is we who should be receiving those monies from our airspace rights.

Whatever electoral system is put before us to vote for independence, please let us all go to the polls with self-determination well entrenched on our minds, and let’s vote in favour of taking control of our own destiny and take ownership of that which belongs to us.

One of them is to collect the millions annually that is paid by the airlines and others for the use of our airspace.

RAYMOND RUSSELL

Pembroke