Tribune photo The Government under Hubert Minnis as Prime Minister and Minister of Finance has dug a deeper hole for this country than we have ever been in. This is after coming to office on the lying premise that they would be able to slow the growth of national debt and eliminate the deficit. The reality has been just the opposite.  The national debt will reach 10 billion and change by the time these clowns are kicked out of office.  The deficit at the end of this fiscal year will be 1.2 billion dollars by their own predictions.  That is

Senator Fred Mitchell with Senators Michael Darville, JoBeth Coleby Davis, Clay Sweeting at the Senate 20 May 2021 voting against the extension of the emergency order. Senator Fred Mitchell coined a new expression in the Senate while speaking on Thursday 20 May 2021. He was talking about the fact that the PLP would not and did not support the extension of the dictatorial powers of the Prime Minister during this covid emergency.  The emergency was extended by Parliament to 13 August 2021.  The PLP  voted no. Senator Mr. Mitchell told the Attorney General that contrary to what he the AG

On 11 May 2021,  six young people participated in a  debate sponsored by the Eyewitness News station and the University of The Bahamas on the general election and its themes. It drew a substantial audience on line and by live TV.   The debaters included Justin Smith of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP); Boykin Smith of the Democratic National Alliance (DNA); Willinique Wilson of the Bahamas Democratic Movement (BDM); Cara Ellis of the Coalition of Independents; Alexander Kemp of the Kingdom Government Movement (KGM); and Shaquille Johnson of the Bahamas Constitution Party (BCP). Although many seemed to make fun of some of the

AN EVENING AT POOP DECK ALMOST SPOILED The evening with the Mitchell siblings was to be a nice quiet reunion.  Fred and Lilla’s Children together again, who knows for what time.  There are countless gatherings of this type going through the country on a typical weekend.  Families are trying to hold it together. They get together in the face of the pandemic, the economic recession, the hurricane, the deaths and the deconstruction. Trying to remember what your parents taught you, the values that were supposed to let you get through any time or place. All went well.  The Poop Deck

The price which Hubert Minnis, the Prime Minister and the FNM, are paying for denying the renomination of Halson Moultrie, the Speaker, is like the poetic fury of a woman scorned. Mr. Moultrie will be, it seems, a thorn in their side from now until the general election is called. He has hung his hat on the themes disrespect of Parliament by the executive and parliamentary independence.  He is now champion of those. It was not so long ago that he was champion of denying Glenys Hanna Martin, the PLP MP and the only woman in the House for the

Last year this time, the country was in the middle of its second full lockdown at the behest of the Prime Minister who named himself “ the Competent Authority”. This is the name given to the person at whose behest the constitution once suspended, allows  the civil rights of citizens to be taken away. With it came also the power to create offences like: you must have an identity document in order to walk the streets, that you had to confine yourself to indoors, that you had to wear a mask, that you had to go home by a certain

At the end of the last year, the Prime Minister Hubert Minnis, who is affectionately known these days as the incompetent authority, briefed his favourite ministers and told them to get ready, he intended to call an election one year and some months early, just after Lent this year. Turns out it was a false alarm. Yet the country seems to be in a frenetic pace as if the general election will be called any minute. Maybe or maybe not. Dr. Minnis clearly cannot make up his mind. He is going ahead ratifying his candidates.  So far he has dumped

On  8 April 2021, the Leader of the Opposition Philip Davis left for the United Sates capital Washington D C or a series of meetings with public officials there. He returns to The Bahamas today. Mr. Davis is about to become the Prime Minister of The Bahamas. It is important in the run up to that event, that he burnishes his credentials in the foreign affairs arena. The United States is our most important relationship and so it is important for  him to get a feel for what is happening there from the inside and to explain what plans he

So the smarty pants Prime Minister that we have named Hubert Minnis, who is also called “ the Competent Authority ” decided in his canonical discretion that as of 1 April 2021 ( April Fool’s Day ), all people in Eleuthera will have to take a PCR test in order to travel to New Providence.  He had no thought about consequences in financial terms, for example, on the people in Eleuthera and those who intended to travel there or from there. He just imposed it. Senator Clay Sweeting, who is the PLP’s candidate for South and Central Eleuthera, issued a

We publish today a letter which appeared in the mainstream press by the Hon, A Loftus Roker, the former Minister for National Security. In that letter he makes the point that Kenred Dorsett who he said is his god son has been unfairly treated by the state. Mr. Dorsett you will remember was the Minister for the Environment under Perry Christie. Shortly after the general election of 2017, the FNM Cabinet and Attorney General decided to charge Ken Dossett with several corruption offences and the matters have not after four years come to trial. The main witness Jonathan Ash has

Senator Fred Mitchell receives the first dose of the Astra Zeneca anti covid vaccine 18 March 2021. Next dose 27 May 2021. Well the most relieved man in the country this week  is Prime Minister Hubert Minnis. It’s a pretty safe bet that he is gonna call general elections now.  It doesn’t get better than this for the good doctor. His whole plan is to campaign back to the next term with the  thought that he has done a good job saving lives and protecting us through the pandemic. You have seen the ads about how he is a doctor

There is a lot of public chatter about the nature of a PLP nomination.  It is interesting how so many in the press seem interested and the public at large in what is being done with PLP nominations.  Interesting because at the same time, the folk who are so interested seek to dismiss the PLP as a spent public force. What we also find interesting is the number of internal PLP campaigns for  a nomination who encourage their followers in the  mantra: so and so or nothing. Some will go up to leaders of the PLP and say something like

So Lanisha Rolle, the troublesome, quarrelsome, incompetent Minister of Youth Sports and Community Affairs resigned in a long letter to the Governor General. She said everything but the real reason that she resigned.  It was only minutes later that the statement from the Cabinet Office gave us a clue as to what the reason or reasons might be. The statement said this “ Certain matters have been brought to the attention of the prime minister and are under investigation.” What were these certain matters?  Nothing more was said but the press was able to secure the answers if not the full

It was a textbook example of what not to do.  Do not start a squabble with a constituent.  Just leave certain things alone, especially when you know you are vulnerable. The MP for West Grand Bahama committed that error on 16 February 2021, when Jackson Cooper, a resident and voter of Grand Bahama asked the dear lady what had she done to deserve re-election. Her answer was dismissive. “ Enough,” she said, “ to ensure the PLP never sees it again”. This is coming now from a lady who has by all accounts been the most useless MP that West

It is all a sad ending to what, had it ended differently, would have been a stellar political career. Peter Turnquest MP announced with a whimper that he had accepted what seemed to be the inevitable, he is retiring from front line politics and saying good bye. One remembers maybe eight weeks ago or so, he was at his haughtiest.  He was the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. He got up on a point of order and in answering an exchange which had preceded across the floor with his then opposite number Chester Cooper, he scoffed at objections

( Et Tu Brute – Julius Caesar as he watches his friend Brutus stab him to death ) Late on Friday 6 February 2021, Peter Turnquest the MP for East Grand Bahama, for the FNM and  latterly the Deputy Prime Minister circulated the following note to the people of his campaign: Colleagues, By now you would have no doubt heard the report that I have been advised by the Party leader that I will not receive the nomination for East Grand Bahama.  I assume that Council will give final confirmation or otherwise on that decision at its next sitting.  With

The Prime Minister Hubert Minnis was a master at fanciful stories, boorish attacks and low life behaviour in the House of Assembly on Wednesday 27 January 2021. He was speaking, trying as he might, to defend the indefensible request to extend the emergency orders that have now been in place for 11 months, that have crippled the economy and pissed off the citizenry. According to the Prime Minister, he needs these emergency powers so that if something occurs in the nature of  another wave in the pandemic, he will have the powers to restrict our movements to bring the wave 

On Wednesday 20 January 2021, Joseph Biden Jr became the 46th President of the United States. They are still arguing American exceptionalism.  Kamala Harris, a Black woman and a woman of Indian descent , is now the 49th Vice President of the United States. That was history, they said, being made.  There seemed to be a sigh of relief now that the petulant, racist idiot named Donald Trump was sent sulking back to Florida in defeat as a former President. That is all fine and good for them and since they are our allies and trading partner and protector, we

A Chief Justice Sir Brian Moree noted for pomp, pageantry and technology but where is the mention of justice. BIS photo. All during that last year, there was  a  state of public emergency declared by the Free National Movement administration. The emergency was declared on 17 March by the Governor General at the behest of the Prime Minister they said to protect us from the Covid 19 virus.  There are now almost 9000 cases and almost 200 dead as a result of that virus.  The state of emergency did nothing to prevent those infections nor stop the deaths. The state

The scenes which unfolded last week in Washing ton D C, the capital of a country that regards itself as the citadel of democracy were disgraceful.  These are our neighbours and friends, our kith and kin descending into the pit of civil insurrection.  This is the world’s police, turning in on themselves. They had a traitor as their President Donald J Trump.  All the world could see it but they could not. Push came to shove on 6 January 2021, the 12th day of Christmas, and it was an epiphany for them apparently. You have to ask yourself the question,