When will we awake from our sleepless slumber. Some of you here at every opportunity talk about how the webshops are ruining our society but not one word about the negative externalities and negative social costs of alcohol on our society which by the way is also being sold to us by foreigners. So not only are they inflicting great damage and negative social costs on our society, they have created an actual cartel to strangle local liquor companies and then after leaving us with the social costs they take their profits and repatriate them back to their home country. The webshops absolutely create negative social costs but so does alcohol use. To differentiate between the two is being hypocritical and in this case the fact that the liquor profits are being shipped overseas just adds insult to injury.

I am sorry that is just an asinine comment. The ftra & ftrr, the laws that govern our KYC/AML regime became law in 2000 way before there were any "numbers boys".

Sir Franklyn you are a bit rusty on your accounting knowledge and dead wrong. When there is a change of accounting principle the direct impact of the change is rightly included in the year of change therefore the true deficit is actually greater than $500 million. The prior year should then be adjusted retrospectively. What that means is that the current years deficit is actually greater than $500 million and the prior year should be adjusted upward as well for consistency, however, I suspect that adjustment would not be material because as has been the case for successive governments most unnecessary spending is telescoped for the year of the election.

Tribune and FNM please stop this dog whistle show and show your plan to move this country forward.

Who really cares about Christie or Davis? We have much more important issues to figure out.

Wow, very bad optics here. The PLP's actions and the FNM's reaction are classsic Banana Republic behavioral patterns, neither of which are positive with respect to our sovereign risk profile, which at the moment is precarious at best. Darnell Osborne is way beyond her level of competence here. Is their any leadership to what appears to be an uncoordinated, spontaneous and dysfunctional government decision making process, at least during these first three months? These unforced errors must be ring-fenced asap. It has been three months, more than enough time to come up with a plan. It seems as if every Minister is just doing his or her own thing.

Thanks Mr. Scavella for telling me I am not getting value for my car because "the auto repair sector guys aren’t getting any money because for one, if there’s an accident or any significant damage to those vehicles, people simply say they’ll buy a new one".

You cannot make this stuff up. Maybe we should all buy new Japanese or South American made $50,000 economy cars sold in America so that the auto repair guys can have something to do. I have a $5,000 Japanese car that I have had for five years which has costs me less than $500 over the 5 years in maintenance. That is value for money Mr. Scavella and maybe you and the new car dealers do no like it but it benefits the average consumer. Is it possible that the issue that most repair mechanics have is shoddy workmanship and overcharging consumers?

Wow, what utter nonsense! The Bahamas would certainly be better off if you are never again elected or appointed to any public office. It is my sincere hope that you and those who believe as you do will NEVER represent me or this country ever again.

A time honored debate trick is ad hominem attacks to obfuscate a debate of the issues especially when facts are not strong. In your rambling diatribe you have essentially confirmed my position when I asked, “where is the plan to enhance to economic activity and employment opportunities on the Family Islands”. I asked Mr. Simms a few simple questions as a representative of the Chamber of Commerce. If he was speaking in his personal capacity, then he should have said so but if you are representing the Chamber then anecdotal statements of personal beliefs should not be passed on as established fact especially when other objective and basic facts stated are also inaccurate.

Now, with respect to the substance I too voted no in the gambling opinion poll so do not tell me about having my mind made up. The fact is though, that the machinations of the opinion poll are a totally different discussion from the one above. My point is simply that to present as fact that which are obvious anecdotal personal beliefs and then to spew these over-simplistic solutions without a full understanding of the problem is less than ideal. Everybody that gambles is not an addict and everyone who is an addict of one thing or another is not a gambler. So for someone to say that the state of the Family Islands is what it is because of gambling is both superficial and unsupported by even a cursory economic analysis. The Family Island social and economic issues transcend such shallow attempts at carnival barking.

Every civilized society is tied together by a voluntary social contract. The three bedrock principles of that contract are freedom of choice, personal responsibility and the rule of law. In the context of that contract, different social issues inevitable arise as societal participants interact with each other. Indirect societal issues, positive and negative, also arise that are a consequence of the direct interactions of the participants in society. It is the indirect negative consequences, or the negative externalities that is often referred to when we speak of social ills from legal behavior that would otherwise be characterized as based on Freedom of Choice. So the fundamental question is how should a society deal with these negative externalities emanating from gaming and other legal social behavior?

I am all for a serious debate and discourse on important social, economic and political issues in our country including gaming, alcoholism, tobacco, employment opportunities, access to capital, a sense of entitlement, equality of opportunity, racial and economic discrimination, the rule of law, entrepreneurial spirits, different standards for different people, "thiefing", lackadaisical work ethics, productivity, corporate irresponsibility, political, public & corporate corruption, sweet-hearting, the role of government in society, the role of citizens in society, the role of the Church in society and the role of foreign commercial banks in our society just to name a few. Maybe only one of the above has resulted in the decimation of the Family Islands but I seriously doubt it. Mr. Simms whilst your observation can be described as anecdotal at best, it is far from a serious analysis or observation of the causes for the economic woes and social issues of the Family Islands or anywhere in the Bahamas for that matter. In fact, it is my understanding that Asue Draw has been bankrupt and out of the gaming business for over a year so even your basic facts are inaccurate. These issues deserve a debate, but your comments amount to nothing short of carnival barking and does a disservice to the serious issues facing this country. You are the Chamber of Commerce, begin to think like it.

Exactly, where is the plan for enhancing the economic and employment activity and opportunities on these Family Islands. You are quoted above as saying "there's not too much activity other than to go fishing, drinking, and gambling is the next pastime." So if there are no jobs on these Family islands, exactly what do you want these people to do? Do you think there may be some relationship between their behavior and the lack of employment and other economic opportunities? And, why are we giving these foreign commercial banks such a pass. Based on your logic, faulty as it is, the money the foreign commercial banks take out of the Family Islands do not come to Nassau, it goes to Canada. In fact the money they take out of Nassau goes to Canada.