The Royal Gazette ran a rarely seen fact today: The Motor Car Amendment (No. 3) Act 2008 was passed by a vote of 18 to 14 of MPs. We rarely get any detail on how voting occurs in our legislature – it’s all hidden in obscurity of the institution. So which four MPs didn’t hang [...]
Entries from June 21st, 2008
Parliamentary Overhaul
June 21st, 2008 · Comments Off · Accountability, Bermuda Politics, Reform
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Mixed Messages
June 20th, 2008 · Comments Off · Accountability, Bermuda Politics
Phil Perinchief today revealed that a never-released Government study found that 25-30 of Bermuda’s population hovers around the poverty line. But let’s focus on the upbeat news. We’ve just bought the playboy Premier a sweet new BMW limousine with extra room for his entourage. That’s PLP accounting for you: the car needed $10,000 of repairs [...]
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Edukation
June 20th, 2008 · Comments Off · Education
If you like Oprah, you’ve probably seen the Ministry of Education’s ad for the PRISM project to reform the island’s ailing public education system. That would be the ad with the word “Excercise” floating around the screen in big letters. And therein lies the problem.
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PR versus public relations
June 19th, 2008 · Comments Off · Bermuda Politics, Media
Al Seymour has been writing weekly guest editorials in the Royal Gazette for a few months. I enjoy them. What appears to have gone wrong, and this could happen anywhere, is that poor public relations has left too many whispering and reaching their own conclusions on different matters. In other words, if people are not [...]
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What Is There to Hide?
June 18th, 2008 · Comments Off · Bermuda Politics, Media
A few months ago, when Dr. Brown started his self-proclaimed “war” on the Royal Gazette, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) was one of the first organisations to speak out. They were answered by some condescending blahblah from the Cabinet Office. Unfortunately, most Bermudians seem inclined to accept these brush offs from the autocrats. This [...]
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Bermuda Media Clampdown
June 17th, 2008 · Comments Off · Media
Another international media group has apparently written to the Premier to express serious concern at the Bermuda Government’s highly politicised decision to withdraw advertising from the Royal Gazette. This time it’s from the respected World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum. They know a little bit about freedom of the press, representing 18,000 [...]
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Splendid Isolation
June 12th, 2008 · Comments Off · Accountability, Bermuda Politics, Tourism
It is remarkable that Dr. Brown & Cabinet would allow the cruise ships to open their shops while in port in competition with Bermuda retailers … without ever making any effort at all to talk about it with Bermudian businesses. You know, the ones that employ Bermudians and pay Bermudian taxes. At a press conference [...]
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Drunk with Power
June 11th, 2008 · Comments Off · Accountability, Bermuda Politics, Transparency
Bermuda’s Government and governance is in such anarchic disarray that I sometimes wonder if Dr. Brown hopes to make such a hash of our democracy that Bermuda cries out for a constitutional conference to straighten it out … leading to independence through the back door. The Premier interpreted the PLP’s election win as a personal [...]
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Senate Failure
June 11th, 2008 · Comments Off · Bermuda Politics
The Senate also failed to fulfill its responsibilities to the Bermudian people. Despite concerns voiced in the Senate regarding the underlying conditions of the Stonington lease and the outrageous SDO, which were dodged by the Government Senators, the Senate approved additional tax concessions for the hotel Coco Reef operator. New tidbits were revealed about the [...]
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Senate Oversight
June 11th, 2008 · Comments Off · Accountability, Bermuda Politics, Transparency
Following Parliament’s failure to fulfill its responsibilities, following Dr. Brown’s shut down of debate, to oversee Government’s controversial activities at the Stonington property, the Opposition has called for a full and complete debate in the Senate which meets today. The goal of the Senate is to act as an “Upper House” that mitigates the emotional [...]
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