Unfortunately, Bermuda lags behind many Commonwealth Member States, such as Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and most recently The Cayman Islands (currently in the process of implementation), which have already enacted effective legislation to provide a legal framework for the realisation of this and other fundamental rights. Barbados is to adopt a vibrant PATI regime and [...]
Entries from November 20th, 2008
Impolitic
November 20th, 2008 · Comments Off · Education
Phil Butterfield’s impolitic comments about the teachers union gives the feeling that the education imbroglio will get a lot worse before it gets better. And by decrying that fact that the union’s leader – a gym teacher by background – was deemed an opinion maker, he opens a whole new can of worms. “That indeed [...]
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Bermuda Risks
November 19th, 2008 · Comments Off · Business
There’s a lot of hopeful thinking in Bermuda regarding President-elect Obama’s intentions about Bermuda. After all, with so much support for him locally, he wouldn’t hurt us would he? But I’d heed the terrified warnings that are coming from the Bermuda insurance sector. You see Warren Buffet is a top economic advisor to the Obama [...]
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Censorship in the House
November 19th, 2008 · Comments Off · Bermuda Politics, Reform
I am saddened that the Speaker of the House chose to censor part of the Opposition’s Response to the Throne Speech last week. It reflects poorly on the role of our Parliament as a “marketplace of ideas” and home to free debate. Here is the section of the Response that was censored: “If we take [...]
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Pressure
November 19th, 2008 · Comments Off · Business
The G20 meeting in Washington last week sought to come up with global solutions to the current financial crisis. A big part of this is determining how governments will pay for their remedies. You can expect the pressures on low tax jurisdictions to increase rapidly. The Washington Summit communique also urged that “tax authorities, drawing [...]
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Defining Your Opponent
November 18th, 2008 · Comments Off · Bermuda Politics
Speaking of President-elect Obama, PLP Chairman David Burt editorialised that “In politics, you’re either defining your opponent or you’re being defined by your opponent.” And I suppose that’s why Dr. Brown went off the handle in Parliament last week, exhorting that white Bermudians would not have voted for Barack Obama. Ignoring the low quality and [...]
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Piggy Government
November 17th, 2008 · Comments Off · Bermuda Politics, Reform
Kim Swan’s response to the Drone Speech highlights some painful failings of the PLP in their 10 years of power: Bermuda’s bloated budgets have been covered up by $318 million in unexpected windfall earnings from international business between 2002 and 2007. This “free money” should have been saved or dedicated to capital projects, but no [...]
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Expat ID Cards
November 17th, 2008 · Comments Off · Bermuda Politics, Business
My prediction is that, as an enforcement measure, Government’s proposed Expat ID Cards will have the same poor effectiveness as the radio tags that TCD has stuck on our cars: They will cost a lot of money to implement, they will intrude on privacy, and they will have little impact on Government enforcement. And, unless [...]
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Heedless Self-interest
November 14th, 2008 · Comments Off · Accountability, Bermuda Politics
“We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics” US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, launching the New Deal
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Join Us, But Shut Up
November 13th, 2008 · Comments Off · Bermuda Politics
More lessons in political etiquette from the PLP today: History records that our Party has always been inclusive … We invite [Grant Gibbons] to ponder who has been excluded, and remember that those who have historically excluded forfeit the right to accuse others of “excluding.” That may work in personal dialogue, but it does not [...]
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