Eden’s resignation was a ‘shock’
Anthony Eden, Bodden Town MLA
(CNS): The revelation that Anthony Eden (70) was resigning from the PPM Thursday came as a “shock” to some members of the government, inside sources told CNS, even though the premier said it was not a surprise to him. It was understood that Eden, like the rest of the government, was comfortable with the limited decision by government to address the immigration issue for same-sex married couples to allow their partners as dependent and avoid courtroom fights the government would be destined to lose.
However, Eden has made it very clear over the last few months that he is utterly opposed to any recognition of any kind of gay relationships.
Despite being a founding member of the party and one of its most popular representatives, the controversies surrounding the issue about same-sex partnerships and rights for the LGBT community caused a serious rift between the party and Eden, the deputy speaker who has served as an MLA for 23 years.
The veteran back-bencher and first elected member for Bodden Town stated on Thursday evening as the Legislative Assembly adjourned that he had been contemplating the position government was taking regarding same-sex marriage.
“I will take this opportunity to say to this House and my constituents that I will no longer sit as a part of the People’s Progressive Movement backbench and at the next meeting I will sit on the other side of the floor,” he said.
Sources close to Eden told CNS that he will be sitting as an independent member and not as part of the official opposition or the UDP.
Opposition Leader McKeeva Bush took aim at CNS via email on Saturday, describing the report that Eden would be joining the members for East End and North Side in the ‘South East corner’ and not the official opposition UDP section as “deliberately misleading” and “wutless journalism”, as he implied that Eden would not be sitting as an independent. However, in other reports in the local media Bush acknowledged that Eden would be sitting in future as an independent and not as part of his official opposition.
Regardless of where Eden will sit, his announcement triggered a rapid adjournment of the last meeting of the year, cutting short plans for members to say their annual farewells and offer their seasonal best wishes.
Members were visibly shaken by the resignation, and although Eden’s departure does not mean government loses its majority, it exposes chinks in the coalition armour. Government still has eleven members plus the speaker in its coalition and Eden becomes the sixth member of the combined opposition bench. However, the departure of the veteran and much admired politician from the government benches could have a wider impact.
Tensions are already clear between some members of the front bench and backbench Coalition for Cayman member, Winston Connolly, and if he was to cross the floor, it could lead to others taking their chances too, as MLAs begin thinking about the very new political landscape they will face on Nomination Day in March 2016, just 16 months away.
Some insiders suggest Alva Suckoo another back bencher who may jump ship before the 2017 general election.
Category: Politics
I am looking forward to Mr Eden’s impassioned defence of the execution by stoning of rape victims who did not raise enough of an alarm. After all, that is in Leviticus. . .
eden…like most ‘caymanian christians’….know little of true christianiaty…..
Amen to that!
Is the Truth in them? I think not. If these so-called “Christians” want to rail against real godless evil and injustice, here:
Every time we deny those poor Cuban boat people food, water and assistance; and every time we return them to a godless country we effectively throw the Bible on the dung heap because showing agape love and helping those in need is a foundation without which the rest of your so-called “righteousness” makes God want to puke. Far too many people in the churches here build sanctimonious castles of cankered fools gold on foundations of sand.
I never heard Eden protest or threaten to resign over the way we treat those poor Cubans. His government grew even more oppressive against the boat people. Nor have I heard even one pastor rail against it either. Disgusting bags of hot air most of them. Until I do hear and see real compassion and love, all their silly babbling about the Bible is just so much pompous, self-righteous, bigoted, vain, empty, disgusting drivel. These kind, and Eden’s kind do not stand for God’s right, they just simply hate. They need to stop hiding their bigotry behind a veil of religion. Such behaviour is not fitting and their spiel fools only fools. Sorry, bigots, I am not buying it.
Happy World AIDS day my fellow sinners! Don’t forget to double bag it.
Visibly shaken were they. All he did was resign. Who cares. One less BOOB
Reading the hate comments on here is like the UK 40-50 years ago, maybe even as recently as 30 years ago. UK got over it, nothing bad happened, so will it be in Cayman. History will repeat itself, the dinosaurs will die out.
A bully, a coward and a panderer to bigotry who hides behind parliamentary privilege to spout hate speech.
“hides behind parliamentary privilege”? My dear sir/madam, regardless of one’s stance on the matter in question, to suggest that were Mr.Eden to have spoken thus outside of parliament he would have been subject to police arrest and prosecution (like in Bonkers Britain) is highly questionable. Yes, there are laws in place, but consider that in country’s like China and elsewhere one can be arrested for “disturbing the peace” (and worse) merely for voicing opposition to the government. Let’s not get carried away with a “one size fits all” approach to laws merely because you feel strongly on any subject. (Incidentally, do you live here? If so, how long?)
And yet the coward only makes these speeches in the LA. . .
Would you care to comment on the question of his likely being arrested by the RCIPS? Please give some thought to the gist of my post.
Well put it this way, if the coward dares make his hate speech outside the LA there will be complaints a-flying.
well said…
again, i challenge the coward to repeat what he said outside of parliamentary privilege……….
YEs the Bible warned us of that long ago
That we will be persecuted for his name sake.
Let the ” bigotry” and the ” haters” names continue
Mr Eden is a strong christian man and knows that this is the kind of name calling yyou will get when you try to stand up against wrong
These same people that verbally abuse us are many who have left their countries because of the sad state of affairs economically
and they are hear to make a living now . But yet they can berate and call us all kinds of hateful name calling to us
We are not hateful to Gays . We just hate the acts of sodomy etc
Why just oppose “sodomy”? Why not be as “hateful” to us so-called “straight” people who fornicate every now and then when a good fornication opportunity arises? C’mon! Let’s be equal-opportunity haters, folks. To do anything less is bigotry of the highest order.
Heck, I feel left out. Why let the GLBT people have all the attention? Maybe Mr. Eden should introduce legislation to eradicate all legal status to “common law” partnerships. After all a man and a woman living together in a sexual context are just fornicators according to Mr. Eden’s moral compass, no? I mean we can’t have all this fornicating going on and do nothing about, can we? By accepting fornication we began our slide down the slippery slope that leads to buggery. We should have nipped that in the bud years ago. [Pun intended.] First comes fornication, then comes sodomy…then…gee, who knows what else! [Pant, pant]
All this fornication starts with lust, right? So maybe we need to look at correcting all these years of backsliding we have been condoning. We can start by censuring all those hot booty shorts and skimpy rump-floss bathing suits with postage stamp sized bras. Cover it all up, gyals! Head to toe. Of course we may need to make dem gyals cover those pretty perfect soft warm delicate little hot red-painted toes… because some depraved sickies amongst us get off on shrimping toesies too. [Can you believe that?] Covering it all up would go a long way to help stamp out fornication.
So as not to lead to temptation, we need to ban booze, too! Lots of bawdy-naughty goes on while rummin’ it up. Hey! Maybe we need to mandate that all single women must be accompanied by a protective male family member while out and about. Nothing kills the urge to get all humpy-bumpy in the back seat with ya gyal like a scowling brother occupying that seat. And to really be excellent all-around haters, perhaps we need to make an example of fornicators and just stone ’em. Nothing makes for a limp noodle like thoughts of getting your bean bashed in. Not even Viagra can inspire one to rise over that kind of anxiety.
Ok…Let’s see… What else? Oh! Yup… We need to mandate that a woman must remain a wurjin until marriage. And, we need to censor all media so no fornication-inspiring images, shows, or music gets in to fornicatise our impressionable youth. [Yeah, Barefoot and Sparrow, I know this’ll hit ya kinda hard, but we need to focus on purity here, guys.] So… no more singing about “Divers do it deeper” or “Big Bamboo”, or the “Wet Spot”, ok? No more will the type of reprehensible and depraved diving espoused by that morally corrupt “Jeff” be glorified in song roun yah, either! Jeff’s brand of diving has been scientifically proven to directly lead to some really intense fornicating. Can’t have that going on! So we need to ban that too!
There! I think I covered all the most urgent bases. We can get Anthony to help draft the needed legislation. And once we have a set of proper anti-gay, anti-fornication, anti-dissipation laws on the books, and once we are back on the right path, we can change the name of our territory to “Caymanistan”. [Just to let the world know how keen we are about being a stalwartly hateful, fornication-free, and morally correct land.]
Eden-akbar, folks!
[And while we are at it, let’s deport Jeff!]
Thank you, Just Commentin’ on just commenting! I don’t agree with all your posted viewpoints, but I read and take mental note of all of them.
Truthseeker
And long may you continue to do so. It keeps CNS alive and kicking, thank goodness!
So proud of Mr Eden to standing up for what he believes in
yes in this country we are out number ed There is 35,000 on work permits
So yes there will be more voices on here against rather than for Mr Eden
the indigenous native caymanians are out numbered . So all the negative blogs here of foreign people coming in here and derile and malign caymanians is totally a INSULT and a desrespectful way to treat Caymanians
Mr Eden so admire you for walking the floor if that is what it means if this is against your
Moral Values
It is not about hating anyone
It is about standing firm on what the Bible says
Why aren’t you campaigning against people eating shrimp Jackie?
And lobster, conch and turtle. Oh, and lying – since when are there 35000 work permits in issue.
I take it then you have called out all the thieves, adulterers, con artists, slum landlords whilst you were surrounded by them in church last weekend? Or is it just the gays that are a little bit un holier than most?
Ummmm…because these are all fine for Christians to eat? Because she is not an SDA or a Jew? Take your pick.
Your post implies that ALL Indigenous Caymanians (however that is defined, but that is a whole other argument) are in accordance with Mr Eden’s view….that is a pretty bold statement to make without proof or evidence. It would be interesting to have a poll of Caymanians to see who actually cares whether there are same sex unions or not.
Catastrophic consequences, hell-fire and damnation, the end of civilisation as we know it, the corruption of our children, have been the cries from “Christians” who claim to represent to moral high-ground all over the world, in every country where members of the LGBT community have been recognised as HUMANS and therefore accorded the same rights as all other humans….guess what…nothing happened, the world continued as before…other than, perhaps, with less hatred and a bit more understanding than before. I am not a Christian, although I was brought up as such and baptised as such. I am one of those dreadful people, an atheist…..however I believe the commandments are good rules to live by generally, and the 11th commandment which Jesus gave us all, summarised as “Love they neighbour as thyself”, is one of the best….
“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. —John 13:33-35”
Jackie you have plenty of “Indigenous” Caymanian neighbours who are members of the LGBT community, some openly, some not so, because of the fear of bigotry and hate that is felt here. You also have many former “Indigenous” Caymanian neighbours who moved abroad to be able to live their lives free from such hostility.
Christians are named because of Jesus, your Christ, surely his words are the ones to live by? And lets not forget the World anthem….In the words of Bob Marley “One Love, one heart, lets get together and feel alright!”
This is really a non-issue…
I don’t think you’ve been paying attention–there were no gay Caymanians until all the driftwood corrupted them. We are the bringers of sin (luckily it’s duty free in your initial move).
I this think we should just leave you all to it.
Can we get him the drug treatment to correct his perversion? Like they used to do in the US and UK for gays?
Many people are of the opinion that live and let live is the best way. Most of these folk are good, honest, decent, day to day individuals just making a living. They have no religion for their own personal reasons, founded or unfounded.
Some folk are just plain evil. They would happily abuse or cheat a weaker member of society and even commit murder. We’ve all met them.
Then there are people who have made peace with their Creator and based on that covenant, they have embraced a set of values that may seem odd to the world. True children of God do not hate anyone else, but they are not prepared to accept a violation of their Creator’s mandate and as such, they will not yield their beliefs.
But they are wrong! Are they? How do you know?
Science. Logic. Reason. I’m willing to bet that there are some aspects of their “Creator’s mandate” that they don’t live by either. If we all chose to live by the Bible, slavery would still be legal, death by stoning would be an acceptable punishment for a number of “sins”, and we wouldn’t be allowed to eat conch or lobster.
It is their interpretation of their chosen religions’s covenant, probably with some parochial influence. Historically, that is what has given us Islamic State, and before that Al-Qaeda and before that Waco, Jim and Tammy Baker, and before that Jim Jones and the People’s Temple.
I was brought up to practice Christian principals, but I was always cynical of organized Church. To quote the words of a Jewel song “In the end, only kindness matters”. It shocks me how far from “kind” supposed religious zealots can be.
Anthony Eden, based on your interpretation of the New Testament, I ask you, in your honest opinion, “What would Jesus do or say”?
Truthseeker
“What would Jesus do or say”? not vote for gay marriage! Not sure where you were going with that question. Cayman is my home. We have gays here. I have gay friends, colleagues and relatives. I have never once thought to be unkind to them and love them as friends and family. This particular issue of gay dependents and the immigration law is not however locally made. it is upheaval caused by 2 men who are ‘guests’ in our country. Guests not behaving like guests but like they own the place. The upshot of this is complete upheaval. Pretty disgusting. BTW I heard Moxam on the radio yesterday asking why not the outrage at domestic violence, paedophiles etc. Unbelievable!. These are all crimes in our country. we already recognise these things as wrong! We have marches against domestic violence and we all regard paedophiles as vile (although if you listen to them, they cant help themselves either and it comes naturally to them, and I am not about to embrace what they do as right either). What will Jesus do? Show compassion, but each answers for himself but don’t shove this stuff down my throat and tell me its all good and it is not right that a minority rules the majority in this respect. Alden got what he deserved here. The Bill of Rights has been a disaster for the UK with the EU Courts and it has been a disaster for us too. Cayman is not the only place struggling with this nonsense. Finland doesn’t allow same sex marriage and the EU Courts ruled that European human rights doesn’t include same sex marriage. Italy also doesn’t recognise it and unfortunately the Courts said you must at least recognise civil unions which is good enough for gays! So even EU Court as bad as they are, don’t recognise same sex as heterosexuals. Time for a bit of truth here. Caymanians don’t let anyone talk down to you and tell you we are backward. Most of the world still doesn’t think this is right including first world countries.
10:41, you clearly missed the bus on the main issue here, its about EQUAL RIGHTS, not marriage. Perhaps once you can understand that, you and other people denouncing these rights might actually get the big picture. All you need is a gay Caymanian and his / her partner to come out the wood work and this issue will be put to rest once and for all.
okay, as long as your EQUAL rights don’t include the same rights to those of heterosexuals of marriage, I am okay with that. Or did I miss that bus too!
“Some of my best friends are gay” and ” the problem is not the discrimination, it’s them uppity foreign gays coming here and riling everyone up. Our local G know their place”. It’s 1964, and the Deep South – just substitute Gay for Black
Oh and BTW Finland has legalised gay marriage. You are flat wrong. And they have had full civil partnership since 2002
Ah yes, passed last year by a narrow vote but only after the EU court ruled that same sex marriage is not considered European human right! That also has not changed. It is still true that this is not an issue unique to us. And the same remains true, if you cannot live in peace with us time to go.
Since you seem to think the EU Court is the Court which decided rights under the human rights convention and protocols you clearly are spouting nonsense out your backside.
Thank you for your thoughtful response.
I may not agree with you on every point, but I have no beef with you either. It would be nice if we could spend an evening on the beach just discussing.
Truthseeker
I hope you read this as I am late in responding. You reminded me of my own responsibility to practise what i preach as a Christian and ensure that first and foremost, show love and compassion. If we were all able to deal with other like this we might just make it. Thanks for your post. Lesson learned.
And thank you! Perhaps there are more of us who don’t quite agree, but are more alike than some of the hurtful words posted would suggest.
Truthseeker
First they can do what “they” want but don’t impose it on me. Second just about everything in Genesis is nonsense and obviously so.
“True children of God do not hate anyone else….”
This may well be the case, but it is also the case that a deeply held belief in God and a strict interpretation of the Bible does not necessarily make someone a true child of God.
Would a true child of God suggest that because someone is a member of the LBGT community, they would demand ” … the right to make love to their animals” – Mr Eden’s words.
Would a true child of God state that with respect to gay men in particular “… child molesting had become man-boy love and crushing a baby’s skull and sucking out their brains had become a human right”. Mr. Eden’s words.
Mr. Eden is not a true child of God. He is a religious fanatic. In crossing this line, he is wrong. The question is not how do I know, as you ask, but why don’t you?
Funny how the people who are the most against “judging” are the first the judge someone who dares oppose their favoured views on morality. Who are you to say whether Mr. Eden is a true child of God?
I am someone who does not believe that a ” true child of God” would make ( and I assume believe, or why else make the statements ) the quotes shown in the post above and taken from Mr. Eden’s LA address.
If I judge Mr. Eden not to be a true child of God, it is based on evidence he himself supplied.
I’m not sure where you got the idea that I am against judging. I’m all for judging when there is appropriate evidence. For example, since you choose to ignore Mr. Eden’s vile statements , I also judge you not to be a true child of God.
Only the true messiah would deny his divinity.
He might just be on to something here. It was the cause of our extinction after all.
Of all the teachings of Jesus Christ I am unfamiliar with Jesus pointing out gays for censure. “He who is without sin may cast the first stone” comes to mind.
My gauge for spirituality is the capacity for a person to love others.
That would be because it was completely unnecessary to specifically censure behaviour which the Torah names as a grave sin. He also did not censure rape, child abuse, bestiality etc. Should we conclude that these are OK? Also, if you read that story to the end you will find that he did not condone sin but told the adulterous woman to go her way and sin no more.
Usually people who are homophobic are actually in their heart of hearts attracted sexually to members of the same sex. Thus their need to attack the same sex practice, it involves a large amount of hypocritical self hate.
The attack on gays in the bible was written by Paul who it has been suggested was a closet gay filled with self hate.
As I am not gay I feel no threat nor hatred toward gays.
What about you?
That’s right – if you can’t refute the argument attack the person instead. So everyone who thinks homosexuality is immoral is secretly gay? lol. I don’t feel any threat or hatred either, I just disapprove on moral grounds as does every bible-believing Christian. Let’s follow your logic to see how ridiculous it is. I assume you disapprove of bestiality. Does that mean you are secretly attracted to animals and are hypocritically full of self-hate?
Do you spend a lot of time thinking about what gays do behind closed doors?
Perhaps you do research with gay porn as well just to stay current on the immorality of that sinful behavior.
As for me I don’t care what responsible adults do among them selves.
Why don’t you focus upon love and tolerance of your fellows espoused by Jesus or if you want to play holy roller focus upon all the adultery found in this society and the locals who go to Cuba for sex.
There is a lot more adultery found in the society for you to feel self righteous about than homosexuality.
The greatest religious leaders had the greatest amount of love, forgiveness and compassion which they received from God. The haters and judgmental folk, not so much.
The issue about rape and child abuse is lack of consent and of one human abusing another human, none of which are relevant arguments when discussing consenting adults indulging in consensual sexual activity. The granting of the right of a man or woman the ability to treat their same sex partner (married or not) in the same way as he or she could treat their opposite sex partner is the issue. It is not about allowing people to have sex, it is allowing them to, for example, name each other as beneficiaries of their pensions, name each other as dependants (this is needed for many legal reasons other than for immigration purposes), even have the automatic right that if they die intestate their partner is entitled to their estate according to law…….In fact when civil unions came about, it became an issue of discrimination against heterosexual people, who complained that they HAD to get married to get the same rights as same sex persons in a civil union…..hence eventually it was realised one important way to ensure equal rights for everyone was to allow same sex marriage.
Nobody shall throw any stone until I blow this whistle and I want to make it perfectly clear, even if they do say Jehovah.
Think you will find our answer in Bermuda’s recent news. Might as well just deal with it rather than drag it out in some expensive spectacle for the World to see you lose at and cost US the people money we all don’t have.
Those shorts though, with those socks, the whole world has known that Bermuda is gay for years!
This man is just what REAL Caymanians need to lead them back to the dark ages where they will feel like they are finally back home again. They are all afraid of all they do not know. The rest of us are happy living in the present and looking forward to the future.
Hopefully your future is elsewhere and not in Cayman. Clearly you despise us and I am really hoping you are not one of those that make it through the system to be a paper Caymanian and not a ‘REAL’ Caymanian as you put it! I could care less if you are gay or not but its that sort of racism against Caymanians that I find despicable. As the song says, hit the road jack and don’t come back!
Hope away. You could not pay me to be a paper or any kind of “Caymanian” as I am from a country and people that I am proud to be a part of already. Why am I here? Because the world is MY oyster and I am enjoying as much of it as I want and I will leave when I am ready. I have met many Caymanians that are truly nice and competent people and I do not find them despicable. Most of them are also ashamed of those like you and Mr. Eden. So feel free to hit the road as you say and try to find a place where your sad hatred of all things not you is the norm.
Time for Cayman to grow up and be part of the educated west, if that’s where it wants to be economically. And there’s every sign Cayman wants it’s money.
Thank you 1:25 poster. Well put!!!!!!!!!!!! Time to get rid of these old backward thinking relics and put in some young educated reps to move our country forward.
The big shock nah come yet waiting till some people got to go out and buy votes $$$$ in the next election because they can’t ride Eden Magic carpet to get re-elected! That the big shock!!!
Good for you Mr. Eden. stand strong
It will be interesting which single member districts all these people run in. The landscape is going to look a lot different for the next election.
Just the beginning of the end of Al-dun. There is much more music to play between now and 2017.
I am looking forward to his defence of the execution by stoning of rape victims who did not raise enough of an alarm. After all, that is in Leviticus. . .
Good to see the God squad responding to this in a consistent and coherent manner. You mean they did not? Surely not.
Their cherry-pickin’ silence is deafening.
We need not rely on Leviticus. Very clear in the NT.
And yet Eden is.
If he was a salaried public servant as opposed to an elected representative he would have been subject to mandatory retirement 10 years ago – maybe there’s a moral there?
Yes, there’s a lesson. They are about to raise the retirement age to 65, fine for these excellent civil servants but it also means a whole bunch of dead woods will be there for another 5 years doing nothing and keeping younger ones down.
Amen 7:51! In the last ten years there were several useless non productive civil servants desperate NOT to retire at 60 because they had spent their money over the years gambling, keeping up with the Jones and so on. They begged their bosses to keep them on after 60 on pension plus salary but the bosses had been waiting for years for that magic retirement age of 60 to finally get rid of them and not one of them was rehired.
Anal??? lol
Haters gonna hate. Karma is coming.
I think those believing in karma get stoned by his book too.
soon, to a brain sucking party near you.
I don’t just suck brains.
Call me.
Loving would be easy if your colors were like my dream.
Some one who actually stands up for what they believe in.
…even if it’s bigotry. SMDH
Even though it is a hate crime?
Sounds like they are taking it pretty hard, no need to get all bent out of shape though. I’m sure they will leave the back door open for him to come in when he is ready. There really was no need for him to be so anal about this whole situation, he would have been better served just keeping his mouth shut and swallowing the inevitable.
Hahahaha…very interesting use of vocabulary. I am sure Helen had a giggle.
Good riddance, these islands deserve more educated and upright representatives on the world stage, no one has the right to persecute another because of any differences. eden is hell bent on on his agenda towards the Gay community, and it has to stop, guess he heard through the grape wine, that the UK is planning to step in and tell it’s badly behaved child how to act in public, an in life in general, there is some bigger pills to swallow in the near future, eden, I guess knows he cannot swallow what is to come 🙂 notice how I intentionally UN capped his name in this remark
One of the saddest aspects of this farce is that he was truly a Christian he wouldn’t be slagging people, who are in his mind sinners, off in public but praying to his God for them in church.
Hebrews 10:30 – The Lord will judge HIS people.
I don’t see Mr Eden’s name mentioned there so in bypassing that process Mr Eden is quite clearly overstepping the mark by a long way. I can’t remember any instances of people in gay partnerships being struck down by thunderbolts recently so his God obviously isn’t too upset about it. At end of the day all this nonsense demonstrates is Mr Eden’s realisation that in a secular world his almighty deity can no longer deliver the results he wants.
In fact I’d say Mr Eden’s misuse of religion here is verging on blasphemy.
Now it is blasphemy to say that homosexuality is a sin. Wow. This must be Alice Through the Looking Glass. The sad part is that you are so twisted that you actually believe what you write.
No, I didn’t notice, but thanks for pointing it out. I was beside myself.
And I was right behind you. In spirit and on Grindr.
a few mistakes, but you got their attention, 110 so-called christian dislikes, guess there is only 23 gay people in Cayman Islands, you Christians cannot hate gays and be christian, you should be setting an example