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Rick Fox, the basketball star cum politician, once confided that in his life he has always been underestimated. He claims that this is how he ended up being captain of the L A Lakers and won those three NBA championship rings. There were audible gasps from the FNM benches in the Senate on Thursday 29 October 2026 though when he announced without prompting and in a comment irrelevant the debate on the bill to protect older persons that he intended to run for the leadership position in the FNM. Most didn’t hear the indefinite article but heard him say the leadership. That to them meant the job of Michael Pintard who put him there in the Senate and can remove him with the stroke of a pen. It turns out his comment was in language more nuanced; he with his new haircut and beard. Gone was the unkempt crazy look. This means he is serious now. So he is to be our next king. Maybe?

Prime Minister Davis in Freeport on 21 October 2026

In an exclusive interview with the Northern Service of ZNS News with Romeko Knowles, the Chairman of the PLP Fred Mitchell on 30 October 2026 pushed back on the view espoused by former President of the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce that what the PLP proposes for Grand Bahama and Freeport in its green paper will be catastrophic. Here is what he said in his own words:

Well, first of all in terms of responses, I don’t want to personalize this in any sense, because my comments are all generic, except for the word catastrophic. It was used by one of the actors in Freeport. One of the former chamber presidents, I believe it is, and what concerns me is that if you look at what the Prime Minister actually said in his statement, if you go to gbframework.com and read the green paper, you will see that this is all laid out in quite a logical and measured position. There is no question of expropriation. 

There’s no question of doing things which are outside the law. For people to characterize something as catastrophic is simply irresponsible, because it’s not; so it’s not catastrophic. I think people don’t understand what catastrophic means and perhaps they ought to go to the dictionary and look it up again, but catastrophic is hurricane Dorian. 

So what people are saying is by this comment “catastrophic”, is that what the PLP proposes to do for Grand Bahama is going to be like hurricane Dorian. That’s complete nonsense. That’s foolishness, and I think it needs to be pushed back on. I’ve asked our supporters to get involved in helping to support the public dialogue on this issue, which is looking at the facts of what exists in Freeport. The government has in fact been carrying the city now for 20 years or more. You know that I’ve been involved in taking various tours around the city. I propose to do another one when I return to the Bahamas on the 14^th November 2026. I am coming up there to show people in Nassau and around the Bahamas what Freeport now looks like compared to what it should be.

The Grand Bahama Port authority sold off all its assets with the exception of the water corporation. So right now, all they’re doing is collecting fees from licensees. 

The question is, what do those licensees get in return? The Port doesn’t promote the city as they should. They are not attracting new investment to the city as they should. The government has been doing all of this, and so what’s the issue?

If the truth becomes, in fact, what is the law that’s the only issue that’s being put before people.  So there’s nothing dramatic or catastrophic about this, and the debate should be measured, it should be truthful. 

It should be factual, and what I will show when I come to Grand Bahama is the fact that the roads, for example, are falling apart.

Now last week or maybe even yesterday, there was an announcement in the newspaper about the roads, an additional million dollars or something they’re going to be spending. The total is about 2.6 million, anyway, that is less than three million dollars. We know that roads in The Bahamas cost a million dollars a mile to fix. So how many, how much can they actually fix with that?

I mean, this is a pittance. If you go to Bahamia, the roads are in terrible shape.

You go all around the city. They haven’t picked up the garbage from Dorian, the refuse from Dorian, then there is the failure of the promotion of the city itself, and the failure to attract investment. The international airport, they got rid of for a dollar. The hotel they got rid of that. They are involved in litigation now that is stopping the investors from developing, further developing Port Lucaya, that is a shadow of itself. They sold Port Lucaya.

So it begs the question, what do we do? 

This agreement runs out 2054. It is underperforming now, and we should not wait until the end to determine what happens to make sure that this asset stops its underperformance, and delivers what it can for the Bahamian public. 

There was a plainly laughable statement issued last week, well-meaning but laughable all the same from the Grand Bahama Port Authority. Their statement said that they were dedicating another million dollars and change to the effort to pave the roads in Freeport. This is a joke. The total that they will dedicate to fixing the roads is about 2.6 million dollars, something shy of three million dollars. If you ride around Freeport and see the state of the roads, you will know that this is a pittance. The Ministry of Works in The Bahamas estimates that it takes about one million dollars to pave a mile of road in The Bahamas. That means that they can only pave a mile of additional roads. They are going around paving, fifty yards, here, 250 yards there, and that is the paving that they are boasting about.  But more significantly is that they are trying to fool us that they actually have the money to do the repair work that is required for the city of Freeport. This is just one of example of the wider problem that needs to be fixed. We urge you to read the green paper of the Bahamas Government at gbframework.com and comment in support of change for Freeport and Grand Bahama.

Chairman of the PLP in an exclusive interview with Romeko Knowles of the Northern Service of ZNS Fred Mitchell urged PLPs in Grand Bahama to get into the debate on the future of Grand Bahama and not let the forces of opposition drown out the party’s message. Mr. Mitchell argued in a voice note that while there is time for silence, there is also a time to speak up.  This is one of those times where we cannot allow the opposition to characterize what we are proposing for Freeport to be described as catastrophic. The interview took place on 30 October 2026.

CARICOM, the aggregation of 14 independent states of the Caribbean and friends of Cuba has always stood with Cuba on the question of the economic embargo imposed unilaterally by the United States on Cuba. This year it was particularly tough and in the face of the pressure CARICOM unity buckled at the United Nations. Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar claimed that they support the Cuban people but not the Cuban dictatorship. We all know that she is cozying up to the US to get to the Venezuelan oil fields for their refineries in Trinidad. Guyana who is in hock to the U.S. because they need military protection from Venezuela, that is threatening them on the border, abstained. So did Haiti and Jamaica. Several CARICOM countries simply absented themselves from the vote, an act of cowardice. The Bahamas voted for the resolution. There was almost fist to cuffs in the room when the Cuban Foreign Minister raised a point of order as the US Ambassador libeled the actors of the Cuban state in the general assembly hall. Tough times are coming with the US President threatening to invade Cuba at the end of the month of November.

It is a curious anachronism that a white man who is king of a black nation, who has not been here for 53 years, lands on a fancy jet with flag flying and Cabinet members at the airport to greet him rushes through the town with roads paved and flags flying and children adoring him, and grownups in a thrall, the nation in full display at his feet. That was the scene that could well have been from the 19th century but it was the 21^st century, live and in living colour and that was The Bahamas 27 to 29^th October 2026. On one level the whole scene seemed farcical and out of step with the modern age, but the fact is the country seemed to enjoy being on display and strutting its stuff including the King speaking the Bahamian language: “I reach! Amen!” Translated into standard English it means:  “I have arrived. Thank God.” Then the King grabbed Junkanoo cowbells, he even signed Izzie Johnson’s memorabilia outside the boxing academy, planted a tree for the Bahamas National Trust, and had a chat with the PM about slavery and climate change, offered scholarships through his King’s Trust, then away he went to Guyana on his dedicated jet. You couldn’t have paid for the free publicity. The country shows that it can organize a high profile visit, with no security incidents. This reinforces that it is a safe and happy place to come. We are in the tourism business, so all is well.

Fred Mitchell speaks with King Charles at the airport arrival 30 October 2026. Photo by Peter Ramsay.

The former Governor General Sir Arthur Foulkes confided that the King as he came to Nassau last week dressed in his cotton tan suit, fit for this hot country, taught us the lesson that Fred Mitchell has been trying to tell us for months, we should dress appropriately for this hot country. The private family chat of the Mitchells made fun of their Uncle Fred last week on the day the King arrived on 27 October 2026, claiming that their uncle Fred had jettisoned his bush jacket for a suit to meet the king. So here is the real story. The Prime Minister Philip Davis has mandated that Cabinet day requires a suit and the House of Assembly rules require a suit. So on those days you will see Fred Mitchell in a suit. The day of arrival of the King was a Tuesday, the Cabinet day, thus the suit. Otherwise, you will see Fred Mitchell in a guyabera, or bush jacket or a shirt jack. Those names are for the same garment. They all mean the appropriate dress for this hot climate.