How nice that Turnquest finally finds his voice now that Memories is gone. When his brother was in charge down there and a whole host of problems and employee complaints were mounting, he was dead silent.

Not only is it too late for what Ingraham is talking about, it was never possible in the first place given the persons involved. They all always knew what was a stake. But it never mattered more than their selfish ambitions.

The Memories brand in Freeport was problematic business-wise from day 1. The handling of the properties by Hutchison has been problematic for years. The point is, this recent development has a history that it seems few people are willing to rise above trite political jabs to discuss productively.

> “We want Grand Bahama to be the maritime capital of the Bahamas and the Caribbean, and take full advantage of all the economic benefits of the maritime industry,” he added.

Obviously this man has no idea what Freeport is or what is in Freeport to-date.

Not a word of how they will put the thousands of Grand Bahamians now unemployed in the hotel sector back to work, nor a word on how they will get those hotels re-opened. The closure of those hotels is the equivalent for that island of Atlantis closing in New Providence.

Yours is the same point I made earlier. He didn't do many things I think were necessary, but he also did do many things that were necessary. If you ask this crew now though who is behaving as though they have no record in government, they act as though nothing happened under their 15 years. If that is so, then why in the world would anyone in the right mind be asked to consider voting FNM.

> The Bahamas is “underperforming” rival Caribbean economies on the ‘ease of business’, with productivity, employment and GDP growth indicators “up to 50 per cent below” nations of comparable size.

No surprise to any of us who do business, and it keeps getting worse year after year.

While I do not agree with the viewpoint that Ingraham is to blame for everything the FNM now is since that viewpoint is patently absurd in my view, it is the way he left that I think even he, in retrospect, regrets. The problem with FNMs though, is that they are a party of zero personal responsibility. In their three victories, it was "we won", but in the loss, it was "Ingraham cause this." There is no question among honest people that without Ingraham, the FNM would not have won any of the elections they did. That being the case, I think Ingraham ought to have handled his departure from public life differently. He absolutely ought to have resigned as leader, but the way he resigned from Parliament was driven by raw emotion and not reason. That is no logical reason to suddenly castigate him like a dog as FNMs are programmed to do to their own. This is by far one of the most unattractive and frankly putrid attributes of the FNM party; the way they tear apart their own and refuse to give due and appropriate respect and gratitude to the persons who played key roles in taking them where they wanted to go, and in governing generally. It is one of the many reasons they are so weak as an organization now. Ingraham was one of their greatest assets after the loss. There were others too. They all were cast aside. Now what is left? Little worth talking about.

I'll take Trick Questions for $200 Alex!

> ‘Shameful That Halkitis Cannot Explain Where Vat Has Gone’

Yes. Equally as shameful? In two Budget years of VAT, Minnis has never ever been able to hold the government accountable in or outside of the House for this. Parliament knows that Minnis has a hard time even reading and understanding the Budget. At one point during the Committee Stage of last year's passage, PLP Members began laughing at him as he struggled with trying to put questions forward for Budget items he clearly did not understand. This is why the Opposition is so critical. We have a crooked government, but no one in the House capable and skilled enough to apply the appropriate pressure and who has a strong enough command of the fiscal issues so as to cause the citizenry to understand what is happening and what is at stake.

How ironic. Back in the day, Ingraham would say "you can change the lines but you can't change their minds", meaning that regardless of the boundaries, the Bahamian voters know what they want to do and who they will vote for. Now all of a sudden, the reason that over 100,000 people have not yet registered is they are waiting on "the lines". Surely Ingraham knows better than that. If Bahamians will vote plp, fnm, dna or whomever, they will do so no matter what constituency they wind up in once the lines are finalized. Bahamians know that the election is now a heartbeat away. They still are not budging. If Ingraham really believes that over 100,000 Bahamians have not registered yet because they are waiting on a Report, he is out of touch. I think he knows better, but is choosing not to say.

When he tabled his last Boundaries Report, over 134,000 Bahamians had already registered, about 46,000 more people than at this late stage. They were not waiting on the lines. They didn't have a voters card to pick up at that point yet either. They were motivated to get ready to vote for the party of their choice. It seems the older politicians are finding it hard to believe that Bahamians are simply turned off by their choices and have lost faith in the process as a whole. They still believe that all Bahamians are either PLP or FNM and are intransigent in that view. Times are changing, and they seem to be in denial about it.