The level of complete ignorance of how Parliamentary Democracy works, even after 50 years of "Majority Rule", should be enough to make most grown men weep.
So here goes, for all the uneducated above:
An MP is elected by his constituency and represent his constituents in Parliament. That is his first job. He becomes a "backbench MP" meaning he is without any executive power and is free to vote his conscience.

If his Party form the Government, he may (or may not) be invited by his party leader to be part of the Government (the executive). He then becomes a "Frontbench MP", meaning he represents the Government in certain matters in the House. That is his SECOND job. An additional job. Think of it as totally separate from his first job, because it is. Regardless of how much we have bastardised the system.

Now, it should be obvious to anyone with 2 brain cells that you cannot represent the Government and vote against yourself. If those 3 MPs had any decency, they would have resigned their government posts first and then voted against the government. That is the way the system works. Naturally, these guys wanted to keep the extra money, because they are scumbags. Quite rightly, they were fired, from their SECOND job.

Now that they are backbench MPs again, they are free to vote against the Government to their heart's content.

I always said that a system of Parliamentary Democracy was way too advanced for the Bahamas. A tribal chief would suffice here.

When you drive home tonight, be extra careful not to run over an FNM minister. That is because they will be extra hard to see. Since they have proven to be without backbone, they will be slithering across the road, possibly below your line of sight. It would be such a shame if you squashed one or more!

What's the problem? Call it a Tax on Stupidity.

Considering how much stupidity there is in the Bahamas, it was about time...

I know. Just taking the piss out of the hapless John. I agree with everything you wrote.

C'mon DDK. How can you be so naive? It's nothing to do with our abysmal level of education, our non-existent work ethic or our corrupt, incompetent and inefficient system of government.

It's exclusively to do with a foreign conspiracy because they are racist. How can you not be convinced by John's eloquence and obviously perfect analysis of the situation?

I'll help you out, John. You can lend me as much money as you like.

There, feel better?

Astounding that anyone can hold such views.

Yes it, was "foreigners" who forced us to run budget deficits every year since independence to date, while before independence there was not a single year the budget was in deficit.

Yes, it was "foreigners" who forced us to borrow every year to cover these deficits.

Yes. it was "foreigners" who forced us to work for higher wages than we ever had before.

It is racist foreigners who now insist we pay back our debts instead of forgiving those debts because...we Black!!

Sounds plausible only to people who don't know how the international banking system works.
They would need to open bank accounts to transfer the money. No bank would accept them as clients and any that did would be entered by law enforcement within minutes. See what has happened to all the online gambling operations. They are desperate. Their accounts have been closed and no bank will accept them. They have money but cannot pay any of their bills legitimately. They are resorting to crypto payments with very shady operators and paying massive fees for doing so.

Yes, they do have a right to impose on you taxes for things that are deemed bad for you. It's called an Act of Parliament. It happens everywhere in the civilised world. If the majority thought that fine dining was bad for you, they could and should tax it.
The majority of right thinking people deem gambling to be bad and therefore should be taxed within an inch of its life. When the average Bahamian has an income of $50,000, we can relax the rules.

The bit where "residents" are not allowed into casinos has not been observed or enforced, ever. How is a casino to know if they are residents or not? Impossible to tell. If asked for a passport, they produce it. Does it say they are residents? No. But this is irrelevant. Bahamians should not be allowed to gamble until they have built an economy and income which is not based on the exploitation of their fellow citizens and the misery and bondage that produces. This is a just tax and has nothing to do with racism but with what is good for the citizens of this country. You might as well argue that a tax on KFC is "racist" because black people like chicken too much. It it's bad for you, tax it. End of story. No racism anywhere.