A good and noble idea. Much like oversight committee or board reviewing management's performance of following through on an annual plan.

Here we go again, trying to make those of us who voted No in the citizenship referendum as doing something wrong. We keep trying to find ways to give Bahamian citizenship to those who through their parents or their place of birth already have the citizenship of one or more other countries whether they are born in the Bahamas or abroad. As far as I am aware, persons in this situation are not being deprived of their citizenship rights in the other country or countries. However we have persons born in this country whose father is Bahamian but who do not enjoy Bahamian citizenship because their mother came to the Bahamas illegally or their mother's parents came to the Bahamas illegally. The referendum failed to address what was to become of such persons and left it to the will of civil servants and elected politicians as to whether they are Bahamian citizens or not. Also the referendum failed to address the issue of so-called "stateless persons" born in the Bahamas to parents who themselves are not Bahamian citizens and came here illegally, like Mr Johnson's "godchildren". Neither of these classes of persons enjoy any of the rights of Bahamian citizenship and no one has said how the Bahamas Government proposes to address their predicament. I don't see myself as evil minded or being downright evil by saying that these are the persons for whom a solution has to be found urgently, not those who want to add another passport, a Bahamian passport, to their collection. This is where Perry Christie and his crew missed the boat and this is where Mr Johnson and his crew are making the same mistake. Which one of these classes of persons does Mr Johnson and his government consider has the problem that is more important to resolve?

Too many times these make statements that appear to be made off the top of their heads without fully reviewing all of the background details or having all of the requisite information in their possession. You know, the old "Engage brain before putting mouth in gear" adage. Based on what they have said, several of them leave you with the impression that their principal concern is the money and not providing service first. Question is, how many of them know what service it is that they are providing?

We are far from becoming a Haiti. Jamaica maybe but not Haiti.

I think Ms Wallace has hit the nail on the head with this article - how do we go about putting a value on the worth, work and contributions of our Members of Parliament, whether individually or collectively? How can we arrive at a sensible evaluation system, almost a performance assessment or value for money appraisal if you will? Just being in or coming to Parliament for each sitting is not enough, as they can be there for the start but leave during the proceedings and not return. Whether they have anything to say during each sitting of Parliament and what they say is not a measure of anything. Accountability and transparency are worthy concepts but like beauty vary from one person to the next. Meeting (regularly) with constituents is one way of achieving accountability and transparency but I doubt that an MP actually votes or takes positions in Parliament according to the wishes or views of his/her constituents. If they did they might find themselves in conflict with their party or its leadership. The few that have gone down that road are usually not on the slate of candidates the next time around and everyone knows that an MPs first mission is to get re-elected.

The article raises the even more difficult question of pay for MPs commensurate with their performance. So far the only system of performance assessment is the outcome of a general election every 5 years. Those MPs who are perceived by their constituents to have performed during the preceding 5 years get re-elected and those who are perceived not to have performed get voted out. Candidates who are perceived by constituents to have the potential to perform get elected. What does this perceived "performance" consist of? That the candidate wil fulfill their promises to the constituency? That the party will fulfill its promises to the voters? That the candidate and the party will "do a good job" while in office? Either way, how is their performance measured? By scorecard? By intuition? And there is also the question of how do we measure the performance of the Senate and the appointed Senators who will also want a pay raise of equal proportions to those of their elected colleagues. Ms Wallace rightly raises the issue that MPs will not easily or willingly relinquish the ability to determine their levels of pay, probably claiming Parliamentary sovereignty. At the end of the day, though, the voters who put them there should also have a say in such raises as they will, after all is said and done, be the ones paying for such salaries through their direct and indirect taxes.

The evidence has been right in front of our eyes for some time but we have failed or refused to heed the message. Airline tourist arrivals that have hardly grown in 40 years, cruise ship passengers who hardly spend anything, a downtown where a lot of the major businesses are now T-shirt shops, few if any businesses downtown east of East Street North, declining purchasing power and salaries with increased inflation, etc. These problems began before Ingraham and Christie but continued during their regimes. Time for some new ideas about how to progress this country beyond the Stafford Sands economic model.

Demolished the Post Office building and replace it with what? I've said in these columns before that the Government owns a number of buildings and complexes in the East Hill Street/Parliament Street area that are in various stages of decay. Yes, a decision needs to be made about what to do with the Main Post Office Building but it is not alone. The Government also needs to decide what to do with the Rodney Bain Building on the the corner of Parliament and Shirley Streets, plus the Royal Victoria Gardens complex which has pretty much been abandoned except for the car park after all of the courts there moved to South Street. You also have the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building just east of Government House that probably needs maintenance work, to say nothing of Government House itself. This is a lot of valuable real estate just sitting around in various states of need for repair. What is going to be done with any or all of them?

We are about 20 or more years behind on completing the WTO application process. Monopolies don't help us although the deaf, dumb and blind governments that we keep electing haven't figured out how to turn workers into business owners, and tenants into land owners. It's time we got on with the process and stopped listening to the visionless who want to hold onto the old days where Christmas ham and turkey reign supreme. Does Evans yet have union representation at Cable Bahamas or the Bridge Authority? Does Ferguson yet have union representation in Baha Mar or any recently opened hotels?

Do we need or want another monopolist group managing both our freight terminal and our cruise ship port? If Minnis them want to empower people, then allow us all to become part owners of the economic vehicles in this country and not put them all in the hands of a select few.

And we wonder why we have a problem with unlicensed guns and ammunition getting into this country? This incident demonstrates how porous our borders are and how defective our border defences are. The Prime Minister says he wants a report. He should not have to request reports of exceptional or unusual matters from each Ministry as and when they occur but should be getting regular reports on the goings-on at each Ministry from his Ministers. He needs to watch the Prime Minister's Questions on C-SPAN where the UK's Prime Minister is able to answer parliamentary questions regarding the affairs of any government Ministry or agency. We could be invaded by a bunch of terrorists using wooden boats that cannot be detected by radar coming up on the south side of New Providence and we have no constitutional right to search for them, maybe unless we declare a state of emergency. What a country!