Suckoo teams up with McLean in BT race
Alva Suckoo, Bodden Town MLA (Photo by Dennie Warren Jr)
(CNS) Alva Suckoo has revealed that he will be joining forces with Gilbert McLean, a former health minister in the first UDP administration, in the Bodden Town race. Suckoo started his political career with the UDP, opted to run for office in his first election with the PPM, but then crossed the floor to become an independent at the end of 2015. The men claim they are part of a wider ‘alliance’ of undisclosed other potential independent candidates, but the two of them will be supporting each other in the Bodden Town campaign.
In a release Tuesday, Suckoo said he will be running as a candidate in the constituency of Newlands, while Gilbert Mclean said he will be running in Bodden Town West.
Despite the support for each other and the others in the alliance who have agreed to work together, the two men insisted they were independents. They also said they were prepared to work with other candidates who are contesting the election who share similar goals and values and are prepared to work for the benefit of the people of the Cayman Islands. They said that a manifesto setting out the district and national goals of the candidates will be published shortly.
Gilbert McLean
But the two declared candidates did not say if those goals will be supported by these unamed alliance members or at least eight other candidates who, if were elected alongside Suckoo and McLean, could ensure whatever policies they have in mind could ever become a reality.
The Bodden Town duo were, however, quick to claim the endorsement of the former PPM member and veteran MLA for Bodden Town, Anthony Eden. CNS understands that Eden will be stepping down at this election and will not be running for office after some 25 years as an MLA.
Suckoo had followed Eden across the floor from the Progressive benches to the opposition side of the LA at the end of 2015. Eden deserted the PPM, the party he helped to establish, in a row over rights for same-sex couples. He began vilifying and condemning members of Cayman’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community on religious grounds during a debate about the definition of marriage in 2015 and has been at the forefront of a religious and very conservative campaign to block any moves to bestow equal rights on members of the LGBT community. Both McLean and Suckoo have also backed that campaign.
Category: 2017 General Elections, Elections, Politics
A vain Emperor who cares about nothing except wearing and displaying clothes hires two weavers who promise him the finest, best suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is either unfit for his position or “hopelessly stupid”. The Emperor’s ministers cannot see the clothes themselves, but pretend that they can for fear of appearing unfit for their positions, and the Emperor does the same. Finally, the weavers report that the suit is finished, they mime dressing him, and the Emperor marches in procession before his subjects. The townsfolk play along with the pretense, not wanting to appear unfit for their positions or stupid. Then, a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of keeping up the pretense, blurts out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all, and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor suspects the assertion is true but continues the procession.
Written by hans christian anderson in 1837. I will leave it to you the reader to draw your own parallels to the current cayman political system.
I so love that story 🙂 “Fitting” indeed
Is mediocrity a precondition of candidacy or is it just strongly encouraged?
Folks, clowns the lot of them. They’re all haters unless your great great great grand dad was born in Cayman.
Out with the old and in with the new. Cayman really needs a change but we cannot deal with the same old rethoric or policies as before. If we continue on this path of pure failure then there will be no hope left for our future generation. These same individuals are the same ones that has turned Cayman into a tax haven for the rich and powerful. They don’t care about us all they care about is putting money into their pockets. I am voting for the independents. We should give them all a chance.
If Anthony decides to join them it’s all over, his endorsement alone puts them out front! Go Gilly go Al, stand up to the crap we have been forced to take the past 4 years
Wipe the slate clean. Impose direct rule for at least three years and then allow time for new, politically mature blood to emerge.
What? I think I’ll go boating on election day…with the choices i’m seeing so far…
Nope alot of for Gilbert because he used cayman brac to get into politics and abandoned then! Bracka.
We need Eden not suckoo.
Come on Minister Eden, we need you cayman future needs you. 4 more years please.
He’s been in there for over 20 years now and you’re begging him to stay?
What the heck has a tired old has been like Gilbert got to offer in 2017? Gay bashing and anti expat stuff probably as it plays well with the sort of people who think he’s bright.
Well at least I now have someone to vote for in Newlands, the line up of schitzophrenic, sellout, fraudsters was beginning to worry me. Suckoo has my vote! Wish I still had 4 he could have them all
Election candidacy announcements, it is like a zombie movie, but with mediocre zombies.
If I was voting in Bodden Town my choice would be Saunders or Moxam.
Saunders ruled himself out when we found out who he was teaming up with. Not a chance in hell.
So in an “alliance” how are the priorities established? Is there a mechanism for their electorate to exert some direction & control, e.g. party members? Who has the final say when the discussions result in a stalemate?
Who is running in Savannah?I live in that area.
from what I heard on the marvel road – Kent Mctaggert- Wayne Panton so far. Still waiting on other names
Vs what we have now you mean? Ask any ppm member how much control they have over this government !!!!
CNS, you can hardly say Suckoo was UDP, he was a member of the District Committee that supported Gilbert and Roy a long long time ago. come on now stop sensationalizing things…
Wasn’t he chair of the HSA board under the UDP? I may be wrong about the chair, but he was a member during a ‘questionable’ period when Big Mac was at the helm. Certainly heard him go to town and back defending the UDP on the radio. Then he became PPM. Then independent. Now independent alliance not party with Gilbert who happily signed off on the mass status grants. Al, I like you generally and think you mean well for us. In fact, I’d vote for you, but please just become a full fledged independent. Your track record is a tad messy as it regards loyalty. Constructive criticism, take it for what it is.
Excuse me what ? He was never HSA Chairman, he was a board member like so many Caymanians who served on boards. He was a member of Roy and Gilberts committee before the UDP even existed. That was about 20 yrs ago come on now, stop with the character assassination, The man has represented well and not allowed anyone to lead him around by the nose. Now that he has found his way and doing things his way he should be supported! Other members of the PPM served on boards when the UDP was in power so your point there is irrelevant!
Loyalty to your people and not the party in my book is a plus! Newlands got his back !
Gilbert again? Is it April 1st already?
Not mclean again
Interesting combination, especially given where they are and whom they seeking to replace. Campaign logo “SuckMeclean”?
Yea buddy how long did it take you to come up with that one ? #ozziePantin
That would have been quite funny Creative Ass, had it been humorous. Don’t give up your day job.
We NEED new blood not old blood and the same old XXXX men . where are the young WOMEN???????
Like Tara ‘ not my job’ rivers ?
If it walks like a prty and talks like a party then guess what…it is a party.
I have started hearing these guys that think they are smart trying to call themselves a new “alliance” they are not fooling anoyne.
Just liike C4C (Coalition for Cash) you can call it whatever you want. In the end it is a party and not change, just fools thinking they can trick people.
Two BODDEN Towners working together does not qualify as a party
Really CNS? ‘Vilifying and condemning’? Poor choice of words and very inaccurate.
No. Unfortunately, very accurate.
Really 11.25? It was exactly that. Unless of course you support his view in which case ranting like a lunatic at the moon would make full sense to you.
More accurate might be “engaging in mindless bigotry, stupidity and hate speech, thereby proving himself unfit for any kind of public office whatsoever”.
No. The words are accurate. You may agree with him. That’s different. But the words are accurate.
Only inaccurate words if you mean that the words vilifying and condemning are moderate descriptions of what was actually said
I’d disagree with you 11:25am. He did exactly that plus some. He was very degrading and he is delusional
On the contrary. Spot on CNS. That’s exactly what he did. A thoroughly unpleasant and bigoted individual.
Because saying gays kill babies and suck their brains and engage in pedophilia, and should be publicly whipped is perfectly acceptable everyday speech, right. Vilifying seems pretty restrained to me. More like hate speech.
He actually didn’t say that he was referring to abortion when he talked about sucking their brains out, stop spreading lies na man!
According to CNS at the time:
“Eden implied that allowing rights for homosexuals would lead to multiple husbands and man-boy love and various other behaviour, which he described as “wicked and immoral”, that he claimed, without explanation, would ruin people for marriage between a man and a woman.
In a speech in which he attacked not just the gay lifestyle but homosexuals themselves, in particular men, the MLA quoted from the religious conservative press and asked when it was that “child molesting had become man-boy love and crushing a baby’s skull and sucking out their brains had become a human right”
Anthony Eden, has derided rights for the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) community and warned that the next step would be bestiality, as “people demanded the right to make love to their animals”
So that’s all all right then. Not hate speech at all.
according to CNS !!! that’s the key !! Not according to Eden
you’re a waste of sperm cells lol
And you are what ? A stealth candidate taking pot shots at Mr Eden because you are to much of a coward to do it face to face
No point trying to present evidence to you, can’t fix stupid