If you add up all the other projects you list, it comes to about $200m. The other $900m or so was spent on current spending, wages, luxury travel, government cars, music festivals, feel the love festivals, diaspora initiatives, funding for the Bermuda soccer team, Faith Based Tourism, generous contracts for foreign consultants who were lucky enough to be friends with senior Bermudian politicians, and all that. In other words, it was largely wasted. It was the equivalent of taking out a mortgage in order to buy some groceries and a new TV.

And SpecialGirlBetty, the crappy ferries, buses, cruise ship pier, are all examples of what happens when there is financial mismanagement. If there was the money to upkeep these things, it would happen. There isn’t any money now, because the tax base has shrunk due to people relocating in other jurisdictions. So the ferries and buses are not being maintained and are falling to pieces. Have you been on one lately? They are wrecks. The govt is running on empty at the moment, as far as income is concerned.

A vote for the PLP is a vote for financial slavery. And fronting a few business-type candidates in marginals ain’t gonna change that!

The PLP are out-UBPing the UBP!

This is not corruption no matter how you choose to spin it. The language used by BEST/OBA/UBP spin was to suggest that it was something sinister or corrupt. If this was about the environment those terms would never have been mention. It is political, more so than environmental. How many times have OBA/UBP members/supporters even mentioned about the environmental impact of this development in their comments? Zero times, and so this justified my position in regards to this matter.

How can it be corrupt when a Minister overrules a decision that he has the right to do? (This same process was done during the UBP/OBA era in power) This is nothing new, or surprising. There are no secrets here. Every application is available for viewing at the Department of Planning and Environment.

Sad.

I think that elected officials (and their appointees) should be held to a higher standard than the average citizen because they are acting on our behalf. They should do their utmost to ensure that their integrity is not called into question.

My point was merely that this has nothing to do with black or white. That’s all. I don’t know how you can infer the level of my understanding of race (or lack thereof) in the two sentences I wrote above is amazing, btw. I do understand that as long as you keep stoking the fires of hatred (as so many posts on Bernews try to do), well, you’re only going to keep those fires burning.

At last someone with intregrity in a government riddled with no intregrity, no accountability and little ethics…..DeSilva and Furbert are equally complict in this exercise – they should resign as well IMMEDIATELY. There are plenty of others that have been complicit in questionable activities since 1998. They should also take note and remember “God does not like ugly”…….. Even Mr. Mughabe is now paying the price for a life badly lived.

Hahahaha! LaVerne? Is that you? Hahahaha!

The Cog has in the past few weeks, made nice ( some would say sold out ) with IB, vis a vis work permits, presented 3 very credible candidates for consideration and now made good on her promise to govern ethically..

The fence sitters might just be dusting off their green clothing and checking to see if it still fits..

LOL…

Roban did something blatantly wrong. He had to resign.

Three people were involved. That is what makes it a conspiracy. Something is a conspiracy when two or more people devise a plan and execute it. ALL of them are involved. They should ALL lose their jobs.

The exisitng government debt is primarily related to the investment in Bermuda’s infrastructure that was undertaken by the PLP since 1998. Examples include – Dockyard Pier, Lefroy refurbishment, Port Royal Golf Course, Fast Ferries, Airport Runway and related upgrades, Sylvia Richardson Seniors Home, TCD, Berkeley, Cedarbridge, New Court Building, Tynes Bay maintenance, BHC Housing projects (Loughlands, Perimeter Lane, Anchorage, Southshore to name a few) new buses, Southside emergency medical facility etc.

There were also some necessary assistance provided for Bda College tuition, free bus fares, free daycare allowances, adjustments to payroll tax, elimination of the death taxes on primary residences, ongoing subsidies for the elderly, the introduction of future care for seniors etc.

With respect to the overall economy, whilst many deny the broad impact of the world we live in, it is true that the overall economic decline in the world has impacted us in Bermuda (and no, Bermuda is not another world in that regard).

A simple example. Insurers rely on their investment returns to bolster their available reserves to pay for claims and ongoing expenses. They therefore price their premiums to be competitive. When the investment returns were severely impacted by the US housing crises and other international economic factors, the companies had to have a serious look at the cost of doing business in Bermuda.

One clear factor is housing and interest rates.

Time does not permit for me to fully explain the causes of the increase in the cost of housing in Bermuda but most accept that the payment of housing subsidies by IB and the ‘loose availability of credit’ by the banks have been major factors over the past 5 to 10 years. In some respects, as painful as it is, we are seeing a necessary correction in housing prices in Bermuda. The ultiamte beneficiaries of the correction will be average Bermudians that now have a more realistic chance of buying a home in the future.

My current position is that certain expenditures have been higher than necessary and I await the expected reports from the Auditor General to highlight them. Notwithstanding, the majority of the expenditures were necessary investments in Bermuda’s future by the PLP.

I am also waiting for Bermuda to get beyond the next election to allow us to ‘collectively pull in the same direction for Bermuda’s future.’ In the meantime, I continue to applaud the PLP for the quality of new candidates that they are blending with the existing MPs as they forge ahead with plans for a future Bermuda that will benefit all of us. I also look forward to teh full slate of OBA and UBP candidates.

I am clearly not one of the naysayers. I am a realist. We have had greater fortunes in the past and I expect us to get back on an even footing with the rest of the world if we simply start being more focussed on the greater good for Bermuda.

When will you realize that this online forum is fantasy, why don’t some of you just go up to the House of Assembly today and witness your elected officials debate?

Losers