Free bus and ferry are only for certain segments of the population while the day car ALLOWANCE (never free like promised) recently had the eligibility threshold reduced even further.

If you think that these so called “freebies” are actually free then you are more brainwashed too be fixed. Nothing is free and taxes were raised by the PLP to pay for these “freebies” which in turn increases the already sky high living costs in this island.

Jesus, do you guys really think that a Government is there to give you stuff. What happened to Ms. Cox’s slogan that the PLP wanted Bermuda to be on “work-fare” as opposed to “welfare?”

I hardly think that qualifies as an ‘ivory castle’ lifestyle, and if it does, then maybe you’re right- we do need to live somewhere else. We are hurting too. Just because we personally still have jobs, that doesn’t mean we don’t have families to support and bills to pay.

Although I empathize with those who are angry, I want to move forward. I am watching what steps are being taken and commenting (mostly) when I have to energy to address blatant spin, or when I think the OBA have made an error…just as I did with the PLP. Staying stuck on what was wrong, is just that, staying stuck. Which is not to say that I believe in letting people slide. I want the Auditor General and thereafter the courts, if appropriate, to administer justice. Wallowing in speculation isn’t healthy for me (or for anyone else, but I will speak for self)

Several CEOs came out and announced their “schock, surprise and disappointment” at the raising of the payroll tax, especially since the Government did not consult with any external stakeholders (i.e. the people/organizations that would be affected by such a move). Why exactly do you think that the increase had to be rolled back one year later? Two words answers that – unintended consequences.

Believe it or not, it is the truth.

Term limits are not the real reason, if you want to believe that, thats’s on you.

The raising of payrolls tax. Was that increase 2%? So I am to believe that company’s making a couple hundred million quarterly left for a 2% increase in payroll tax? I wish I could believe you, but I honestly can’t. There has to be another reason.

On a personal note, you do know big business is always looking for a new market to exploit, and they are only loyal to themselves.

I’d love to know why the National School of Governments recommendations into which Permanent Secretaries were capable and which should be fired never saw the light of day (done in summer 2012)?? Maybe there were certain PS’s who were on that F&F deal? Or maybe the Cabinet Secretary doesn’t have the testicular fortitude to do his damn job right? That’s the questions this new Government need answers to!

I’d rather take my chance at proving I am worth every penny of my salary by competing for my own job, that to accept a wage cut just so I can go on subsidizing lazy and incompetent people. Of course the other point of that is – if you upset the Civil Servants, they will look for other jobs. Only those that are really, really good will be able to find other jobs, and then the CS is left with the rubbish who are unemployable elsewhere. It happened in the UK and it will happen here.

LOL

LOL

The only thing remotely funny is the “handling” of OUR finances (i.e. taxpayer funds). And many will not find it funny when the new government has rectify the mess which the previous government has left behind.

I really wish the PLP had retained power, because it is only right that they have to take the action required to restore our finances.

The raising of the payroll tax, in the middle of a recession, without any consultation with any external stakeholder.

That’s two examples…

Please tell me what the old Gov. done that was so bad to International Business? I swear I see more people complaining than the businesses themselves.

The day cale is an allowance of which the eligibility threshold was recently changed by the PLP as a means to cut back.

The College “free” tuition was also scrapped by the previous administration.

Want to try again?

The truth is a small group of less than a dozen (yes white men) acquired land that built two golf courses and clubs, a major hotel that lasted sixty years, and all those mostly American owned houses in Tuckers Town – which apart from making us one of the first modern resorts set us on the road to unheard of prosperity and jobs for the country. It is begrudgers like you with a blinkered ethno-centric view of the past who are responsible for the mess that has been created these past fourteen years by allowing a bunch of crooks to manipulate your emotions. Apparently, all white folks have been expected to take the blame for this success ever since for this ignorant propagandist view. Yes, the land acquisition did indeed affect a few farming families (who I believe were paid off at market value) but has only benefitted the several generations of all Bermudans who found sound and good jobs as a result.

Incidentally, the Bermuda Land Company, instrumental in all this, has always been American owned, mainly by the inheritors of Juan Trippe founder of PanAm.

But if you mean did they create 2,000 jobs that we the taxpayer clearly can’t afford to pay for? Then yes, yes I am. Trust me, this won’t end well, regardless of who is in power.