92% vote for Mac’s departure
(CNS): Following more than a week of political turmoil that saw Premier McKeeva Bush taking the Cayman Island to the brink regarding its relationship with the UK government before making a sudden U-turn on policy, 92% of people voting in an on-line vote on CNS said they want him to resign. In a non-scientific straw poll this week, which received more than 1,000 votes, 944 people said he should step down while only 80 voted for him to remain in office. The poor approval rating comes some six months away from the General Election and indicates that, among CNS readers at least, the premier has a lot of work to do if he still wants to lead the next government.
The results come following a tumultuous week for the premier, which began when a letter from the FCO’s overseas territories minister, Mark Simmonds, to the premier was circulated to the press on Friday 2 November. The correspondence made it abundantly clear that Bush needed to halt talks with China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) over the cruise berthing facilities in George Town and that the Framework for Fiscal Responsibility (FFR) that the premier signed in November 2011 must be passed into local legislation via the Public Management and Finance Law (PMFL) in its entirety with no changes or amendments.
The premier’s office then produce a letter that Bush claimed to have sent to Simmonds before the UK minister had sent his letter, which set a defiant tone indicating that, despite the UK pressure, Bush was going his own way on the port and he would be adding a clause to the FFR and changing some details.
On Monday, the premier remained defiant as the Legislative Assembly re-opened after more than two months. He delivered a speech on the floor of the chamber stating that he was sure that, if Simmonds was a reasonable man, he would accept the changes the premier had made to the FFR, and that once he had all the facts regarding the port plans, the UK minister would also be happy to allow the UDP government to continue with the CHEC talks.
However, in a complete about face on Tuesday evening, the premier made a televised announcement that he was abandoning the year-long talks with CHEC and that he would be implementing the FFR without any changes into the PMFL.
Many believed that the premier’s attempts to defy the British government over good governance pushed Cayman close to direct rule. However, it is not yet clear what Simmonds said to Bush on Tuesday 7 November during an international call that caused the premier to capitulate so suddenly when only the day before he had insisted he was sticking to his policies and would not be pushed around by the UK.
Following some consider to be poor management of the situation, Bush’s already poor approval rating in the country has slipped even further.
During the last CNS poll on Bush’s position as premier, in the wake of the revelations that he was the subject of three different police investigations, 11% of those that voted were still behind him. However, in this latest on-line count the premier has lost further ground, with only 8% believing that he should keep his job.
The premier remains the subject of the three RCIPS probes and is now facing the beginning of what is expected to be a hard election campaign with few of his previous election commitments achieved. Not one of the development projects which the UDP government heralded as the solution to the country’s economic woes have materialised.
Little, if any, advancement towards the cruise berthing facilities can be made before the election as the project is now going through an open and competitive tender. With the Dart deal still in negotiations and questions over whether that agreement will be impacted by the FFR, even if government was able to sign the deal before the year-end, it is unlikely that the ForCayman Investment Alliance would have time to have any noticeable impact on the local economy.
While the medical project planned by Dr Devi Shetty has now broken ground in East End, the plans have yet to be submitted to the planning department, which means it is unlikely that the actual construction of the first phase will have made much headway before the election.
Although Cayman Enterprise City (CEC) is enjoying numerous concessions and circumventing the normal fees to government for its tenants, which are now in existing offices, there is little sign of the promised enterprise park getting underway. The location of the proposed zone has still not been revealed and, as yet, no plans have been submitted to the planning department.
The premier has on numerous occasions claimed that his government has addressed the state of public finances and the problems with missing government accounts. However, a recent report from the auditor general has demonstrated that this is not the case. The accounts submitted for 2010/11 and 2011/12 will be disclaimed as the auditor stated that there is simply not enough information to produce any kind of meaningful account of how government spent tax-payers money.
With the election set for May, the premier and his UDP team are facing a hard battle to turn around public opinion and convince the electorate that the premier should be given a second term.
See CNS poll here.
Category: Politics
What is wrong with tht 8 percent?
Ellio has access to a lot of computers.
Mac looks very contemplative in this photo. Wonder what was on his mind?
I wonder how much I will get for my real estate services…
Let's seeeeeeee…..do I want the stew turtle or the conch……
The poll speaks volumes on how the country feels about this despot of a leader representing as as the Premier of our country, however it will mean nothing to him for he just doesnot get it, never has got it and will continue on with his arrogance and defiance in steering this country into disaster, total embarrassment and loss of credibility for us all while he continues to pander to the wealthy developers selling out our country and giving away our heritage.
The man MUST be stopped, charged and prosecuted under the law and sentenced without any leniency so that future generations of politicians will not ignore the law as this man has, while laughing at us all being the untouchable one.
can we take a lead from the southern US states and start a petition to suceed the rest of Grand Cayman from West Bay?
The poll means nothing because the most guillible UDP supporters no longer read CNS. They are afraid of the truth! Come election time, all the premier needs to say is that he is a christian and his hands are clean and his heart is pure, and it is the PPM's fault for everything.
sad but true…..
The premier is a complete embarrassment! To Cayman and each and everyone of us that live here in Cayman.
Thankfully the UK is finally bringing some pressure to bear.
A second term my "BACK SIDE". The hole UPD party needs to resign and allow a new government to run this Country. A government who is willing to do what is best for this Country and it's people. Come on Cayman we are going down the damn hole with this current government and if we don't speak up and do something about it our children won't have a future here at all.
We live in democracies. As part of that, every few years we are allowed to vote. We are given options of whom to vote for not chosen by us, but by political parties. The workings of those political parties are sometimes a mystery to us as we are not entiltled to participate in the inner workings, but in any event, the membership chooses a leader to represent them. But what happens in this case if the leader of a political party, now the leader of the country, loses it? Becomes irrational? Stubborn? Confrontational? Dangerous? There is no recourse it seems except to cross fingers and hope the damage doesn't become too great before we have the above opportunity again. Such as it is. We won't go there. This doesn't quite seem like democracy, or how it was designed. Or how we have allowed it to become. Given choices we don't choose. And having to accept the consequences of a bad choice. I guess the gist of all this is my opinion and I think it should be all of ours that democracy doesn't end at the election. We must participate everyday. And… if we find our participation isn't wanted or listened to, or forgotten, then there should be an option for us to be able to stop the process and therefore stop the damage. A poll such as this one is a pretty fair indication there has to be a method put in place during a person's tenure. Prior to the following election. Right now that option is left to the political parties. His party obviously won't do it for one reason or another. The opposition is just waiting for the train wreck. Why can't the people who voted prevent it? If we are expected to accept those consequences why don't we have that say?? It's our democracy and we must have it back and our politicans have made themselves obsolete by their inaction and it's obvious Premier Bush has travelled far outside his mandate.
To the point where not only do the people not know what he is doing any longer but he doesn't know either. That can't continue.
Can we have election monitors & people to watch against vote-buying & corruption please?
Unfortunately I would like to guess that more than 50% of the voting population either don't have access to the internet or don't know how to use it in the case of the older folks so these polls probably are quite far off. Still good to see what the people who frequent the site think just saying don't get your hopes up :).
When you elect riff raff to run the country this is what we get. Mr Bush and Company have no class, no respect for others and certainly do not have the education and experience to represent us at home or abroad. they delight in belittling people and sneering and grunting like Hogs at the trough pushing and stomping their feet with no care for anyone or anything aroundthem. They have to go now, it is time!
I am only surprised that 8% supported him. That must be how many are getting crumbs off his table. Mac has done at least 50 separate things that would have forced him to resign in any other democracy.
Can we hear something about the use of Government credit cards at the Casino. Apparently this matter has been reported to the Auditor General? – but some cash has been paid back. Is this true?
Government credit cards being used in casinos? This is an outrage. Now, let's draw up a lst of those most likely to have been in a casino and using a Caymanian tax-payers funded credit card, then try and narrow it down to maybe one person who is a confirmed gambler. Shouldn't be too hard of a task, surely?
How about the use of Government credit cards at a VERY expensive shoe store in NYC?
We really should put him in the Hall of Shame. aka Prison
Some one will have to put shady deals in dead chickens and throw them over the fence to him.
You People are nuts if you think the PPM will do any better…
And what do they both have in common? Besides the intitlement thing I mean. Yep! thats right. A little edumacation and a lot of incompetence in todays world. Grand Cayman needs some new blood, new ways of thinking through old problems and dealing with them. Or it can just keep up the third world thinking it was good enough for my Parents, its good enough for my children.
Fridges n free stoves have started in WB, Santa Landed early!!
Our not so smart ones from WB will put him in again!
Wp c-brac
Make that 93 if Mac is premier I will not be voting again for any UDP members none, I cannot take the chance he is in charge for the next 4 year.
I join you on that. I threw 1 vote UDP way and cry about that every night. NOT AGAIN. NEVER EVER EVER AGAIN.
UDP gots this election locked down!
Wait they voted what?
Locked down in Northward???
92% of CNS readers vote for Mac's removal and turkeys vote against Thanksgiving. Somethings in life are very predictable.
Interesting but obvious analogy…both turkeys and Caymanians are voting against getting slaughtered…the former by ax and the latter by financial mismanagement.
Yes MacShambles, please resign. We have had it with your double-dipping, galovanting and by-the-seat-of-my-pants "leadership". You continue to make a mockery of your responsibilities and are a disgrace as Cayman's first Premier.
There is no amount of anything our worse Premier can do to restore confidence in his ability to lead this country again. It is he that said "We don't need education" and that says it all. We can do better then this. His whole party is going into the dust bin of history. The United Democratic Party can run but they can't hide from the horrific things they have done to us as a people. The legacy of Mr. Bush is that he denied us full human rights, destroyed our Mangroves, sold our country out to the highest bidders, wanted an oil refinery put here, made countless trips overseas with entourages costing us millions and never cared about our well being. Arrogance and incompetence is his signature and state of being 24/7 365 days of the year and he has to go. We could not look any further for and worse of a person that calls himself a leader.
On the other hand the other party is almost as bad. They don't know what they are about and don't have a clue as to what they should be about. It was they that screwed up one man one vote. They lost our status of full human rights protections among other things. We need a new direction with a new leadership that puts people first. We have to stop chasing money and kissing up to people with money to find our way in the world. And then and only then can we mature and evolve into a great people. The most honorable thing our Premier can do is resign.
How can you claim that the PPM screwed up OMOV? They wholeheartedly supported it and did what the OMOV committee wanted, which was to not take it over but help to promote it and keep it as a grassroots movement.
Don't be fooled by straw polls, I am still trying to understand what happened in the TCI elections. I don't see he Premier stepping down or the UDP losing the elections in 2013. I can see the Premier given 4 more years.
Don't be fooled by comments made by straw-brained individuals – UDP is going to lose big time, and the Premier position will go to someone who has more than a fifth-grade education.
Election coming in May. I suspect any member of the UDP still in the UDP will not be re-elected by then. It will be a collapse of the party, as nobody in the party is stepping up.
As an avid Japanese reader of thisblog, I am completely amazed at how this man has kept his job.
In Japan, someone would have "fallen" on their sword by now.
We have a saying in Japan about this. Fleas on the father, fleas on the children. Everyone scratch.
The answer to that is that in Japan you know what "honorable" really means.
The USA gave BO another 4 despite the lack of growth in the economy and the polls giving Romney the advantage as to who would be better at “fixing” the economy.
So chin up Mac. The voters here might be just as wishy washy and re elect your dumb-ass.
I Know, shameful BO didn't fix the biggest recession since the great depression in those 4 long years, when all those other economies badly affected like UK, France, Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal have all recovered so well! must be all BO's fault.
And as Republican puppet Clint Eastwood claimed he also took the US to war as well in Iraq and Afganistan, everything is BO's fault!
Please keep BO out of this. Consider what he inherited from George Dubbaya! No President could have repaired America's economy in just 4 years and he DESERVED to be given another 4 years….so don't compare the educated to the dumb that we have here.
Keep BO out of it???
We are discussing voters and polls —- right?????
Polls showed that Romney would better handle fixing the economy yet Obama was re elected.
Hope that clears it up for you and the poster posting about it being all BO's fault.
Sheesh – liberals are so touchy.
US had 10 MILLION voters.
Cayman has 15,000?? max?
Cant compare it at all.
Or wait, politics in Cayman is like playing a Monopoly game, it's just all make-believe using as much money as you want, slipping some money to the banker to by pass the Go To Jail card, slip a couple of houses into your sleeve and build up Boardwalk and collect rent and fees from people who dont have any more money becuse you stole it all right from under the banker's nose. Hold up! You are the banker too, what a life, huh??
There is no comparison between Barack Obama and McKeeva Bush. McKeeva is completely incompetent and an embarrassment to us on the world stage with his shady dealings and shameful tirades.
keep it up cns…..the failures of this shambolic administration should never be forgotten……..
vote them out……. all of them!
brillant stuff cns!
The world is laughing at us, that we cant rid the man of this position.Boy dont we look like idiots, including the oppisition party. Once crem of the crem of the caribbean, now the laughing stock of the caribbean.
I remember when buying real estate and vacations in Cayman was a good investment, now its become a burden with the hiked prices and added on fees.
Better remember all we have going for us is but, sea sand and sunshine , if we dont protect this , we we all go to hell in a hand basket.
Tell me why one should vacation in Cayman ? or invest ?
answer me that anyone. I dare you.
It’s 21 degrees outside where I am, I have been coming to cayman for over 10 years, I know many people I consider friends down there, the prestine beaches, friendly locals (majority), low crime rates towards tourists relatively speaking……I could keep going but does this answer your question Sir?
I definately take crem in my coffee.
Only our premier or his self-serving supporters could argue with logic…we have become and embarrassment…we are a banana republic in the eyes of the world…I saw it first hand when the premier decided to use the recent AI conference to try to justify his jetset lifestyle and self-interested wish to avoid FFR. One of themost important tasks of the next government will be damage control on Cayman's reputation.
Investing in Cayman is still one of the best investments in the world—if it was not Mr Dart would not be doing so–he can invest anywhere and he chooses to invest here and if a master of investment is saying Cayman, I say follow him.
Mr. Dart has enough money to buy whatever he wants, and that includes politicians.
The average investor cannot afford McKeeva's "consulting fees"; therefore, the average investor should look somewhere else for financial growth and safety.
Vacation? Yes, providing you take reasonable precautions. Cayman is still warm and beautiful and has a great ambiance.
Invest? No. Put your money in places that are more stable politically and economically.
Start the voter-led petition – not ONE VOTER has done this. Lots of talk no meaningful action. Not even the paid opposition has started one. Why?
Because they will be no better.
Why have elections at all then? Voters need to take back the power and show the MLAs that they need to earn their keep.
The "paid Opposition" has twice tried to remove this man in a vote of "no confidence". A petition cannot remove him. The UDP MLA's need to vote with the Opposition to remove him and they refuse.
Wrong process and destined to fail. They had no hope of winning a vote of no confidence because they do not control the house. But Voters do. A voter-led petition needs only 25% voter participation to be taken seriously…over 50% "yay" and the petition will carry by law. Voters here do not even know how to control their own politicians, all you need to do is ask the right question. OMOV did not ask the right question. Obviously if they asked the right question, they could get 92% in agreement. PPM know this, yet they never started a voter-led petition. Why?
The Opposition has brought TWO votes of "no confidence" to the LA. This is the ONLY way to remove Mac before May 2013. The UDP MLAs will not vote with them to remove Mac. Blame the UDP, not the Opposition.
I suspect many of the 80 do not want him to be given that chance to resign and would rather see him forcibly ousted.
Every UDP member supported Mac and therefore every member should be finished in politics. I do not only want Mac ousted I want him imprisoned.
Well, we live in a democracy, so I suppose we will have to wait until May of next year before anything is done and of course West Bayers will baffle us all by electing him back in again. The real question is this: What does the big guy know about the fellow members of the UDP that makes them so afraid to do anything to depose him from power?
Westbayers still need roofs on all their new palacial churches…of course they will vote for him to continue getting more from the public purse…however more people from the other districts will now vote…John John will be heard to say "how can da children treat der fadder like dis…why I ought to get a friend and meet those children in the dark…mental note 'check for security guards'.."
A flawed democracy at best!
He could well win next time round, why, because of the simple fact of 4 linked seats ion one district, where the majority are bought off either literally with fridges or some other goody, or by his simplistic excuses, ie they believe it really wasnt him!
Why does this produce a flawed result, well a block vote of 4 in a small LA is almost bound to win unless there is a very big vote against in the rest of the country, so if you have just one other district with a block vote, he wins!
Change the system next time if it isnt too late!
Change the system? Were you not here in July for the OMOV Referendum?
Yes, their timidity does beg the question.
A voter-led petition could see him dismissed by govn'r this afternoon. The voters of this country don't even know how to control their own fate! Even with TCI as a recent template for UK intervention, voters would sooner sit and let him do his thing and wait for May elections?!? I don't understand the apathy!
A voter led petition cannot remove the premier.
The other 8% all have new fridges.
That’s fridge-freezers thank you very much!
…and I gots a 1 year warranty too
I hear stainless is the minimum this time round. And a four year warranty!
You mean stainless like Mac's reputation?