Alden accuses successor of hypocrisy
(CNS): Former premier Alden McLaughlin has accused his successor, Premier Wayne Panton, of hypocrisy over his decision to form a government with McKeeva Bush. McLaughlin said Panton had taken the view that the “prize of the premiership was worth him going back on everything he had said and done previously, and lo and behold we have Mr Bush back as speaker of the House and part of the PACT administration”. Speaking at the opposition’s first press conference, McLaughlin said it was one of the greatest political ironies that Panton had resigned from the Progressives because he said they “were unprincipled” and had failed to fire Bush from his high office.
While the press conference was called by Opposition Leader Roy McTaggart to outline the Progressives’ shadow cabinet and who in his team will be holding which ministers to account, several of the PPM members and Dwayne Seymour spokes about the events in the wake of the election.
McLaughlin MP (RED), who will now be the shadow minister for financial services, international trade and agriculture, spoke about the days immediately after the election result and admitted that the Progressives had been “blindsided” by the early meeting that Panton held with the successful independent candidates.
McLaughlin denied that any pressure or intimidation during the negotiations had come from their side and said it was quite the reverse. But he also said that the PPM had made arrangements with four candidates who are now in the PACT Government that they believed were going to join them in the wake of the election.
McLaughlin said they had assisted these unnamed candidates financially, offered political advice and endorsed them. But he said something must have happened in the last week of the elections, as he did not believe “the plot that was hatched” with the independent group and Panton had happened overnight.
He said that the Unity government had called early elections because of the controversy stirred by Bush and his conviction for assault, as well as the private member’s motion filed by the opposition calling for him to be ousted. McLaughlin made it clear he did not want to deal with that.
“Rather than allow that process to play out with all the attendant controversy and bad feelings it would involve, after consultation with my caucus I took the decision to dissolve the government,” he stated.
McLaughlin said that after the election, the PPM had decided that they would not form an administration with the member for West Bay West. “We took a principled position in the aftermath of the election that we would not go back into government with Mr Bush,” he said. However, on the campaign trail the then premier had avoided indicating whether or not that would be the case.
While McLaughlin made much of the fact that some PACT members had been among the loudest critics of the situation with Bush, it was because Isaac Rankine had reneged on his initial deal with the independents and signed an agreement with the PPM that Bush was able to play ‘kingmaker’ in order to secure the independent-led government that the country had voted for.
During the press conference the opposition members said they would be focusing on rebuilding the Progressive party, and Joey Hew MP (GTN) stressed the need for the PPM to ensure that they were fielding their own party candidates in more constituencies at the next election.
Although he was disappointed by the departure of Juliana O’Connor-Connolly to the PACT Government, McTaggart said that she had not actually resigned from the Progressives and remained a member of the party.
McTaggart said he would welcome Dwayne Seymour becoming the next formal member of the party. Seymour, however, said that while had not ruled this out, it would be a matter for his constituents who had returned him as an independent allied with the Progressives.
See the full conference on the Progressives Facebook page.
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Category: Politics
Sore loser. Hahahaha!
The hypocrisy, which also needs to be addressed, concerns Mr. McTaggart, who previously publicly stated that he would not join the Progressives, is now the leader of the PPM party.
Alden still, clearly it seems, is struggling with adjusting to nor being the leader. Only time will tell whether or not Alden is the puppet master or a real team player.
Alden has strayed far from what himself and KT first stood for and, with the assistance of the Caymanian voters, Alden can never again be trusted with leading the Cayman Islands in Cabinet.
Hey maybe the new Premier could make Alden the bicycle ambassador and that way he can still go hang out on the peoples purse with all the hot shots in Monaco and ride bikes around. He could take Joey along to pump up the tires and check the road conditions!
Alden you created this mess with your planning port greed your plans to destroy smith cove for money and your arrogance that the Enviroment is your building buddy’s playground.
The people woke up and we hole this is a start. Next time bye bye to your backbench of crooked fools.
See ya later taxi cartel, goodbye secret planning deals, adios inside meetings, and hello to listening to the people!
Re-train locals (yes actual locals not WP holders) to pivot away from cruise industry and promote stay over tourism with culinary schools, vocational training in plumbing, a/c, electronics, auto, hairdressing, retail…. hire local and we can stand on our own. Yes. Increasing the living wage will also address overpopulation of low-paid expats – the living conditions for the poor got so much worse under PPM.
The rich got richer and the poor got poorer.
For too long the PPM grew greedy on the backs of low-pay work permits. Let’s stay closed and insulate and re-train our own. UCCI should be bursting at the seams!!
Families, take advantage of this time to re-tool and replace work permit holders. Let’s not be beholden again on cruise lines and crowded streets with cheap Carnival tourists that really only the government made money from. Let’s upgrade our standards and do not pander to greed or the false promise of fast money.
I disagree with American Airlines wanting Cayman to be like the rest of the Caribbean ASAP as we are not. Jamaica and a Trindad are suffering from Covid badly, but so weak on reporting only the regional zoom business calls are getting us the truth…(Trinidad per capita has more Covid yesterday than most of the world= sad but true.)
We are better than other destinations, we worked hard to be the safest and best, and we should aim to be the jewel of the Western Caribbean and leave the cheap holidays (and crime) to the Eastern Caribbean which has always suffered from questionable politicians. Be better Wayne, start a new legacy based on pride not greed.
You know the best thing the PPM could have done was to keep their mouths quiet for a while. This press briefing proved just about everything that had been said about PPM prior to the election.
I’ll give credit to Roy for reading his nice speech at the beginning but after that angry and bitter Alden and pitiful Joey completely threw a wrench into what they might have thought would be something to make them look good.
They are talking about getting new members but I would say they should try to maintain the few they have left because I doubt anybody else is going to be jumping on the PPM bandwagon for a long time.
so the man who caused this problem has the nerve to throw shade and someone else for not solving it?
This is a new level of pathetic.
I suspect the next 4 years will be full of this kind of behavior.
Ok Prince Harry.
Is Alden turning into ARDEN now?? 😆😆
He’s the George Town McKeeva.
You meant Trump! 🙂
Alden blames everyone but himself and his incompetent bunch. He just don’t seem to get it. He is like an ex that just won’t accept you no longer want to be with them. Go away its over and don’t let the door hit you……….
Hold on.
The man who refused to hold McKeeva to account because it might collapse the government, but then collapsed the government rather than risk holding McKeeva to account, is accusing SOMEONE ELSE of hypocrisy?
Please follow the truth and love you know to, but no violence or hate. G really loves you, pls be safe and get both doses of the vaccine, after 2 weeks of the 2nd dose you are vaccinated fully. Eat + exercise healthy to avoid clots please use a mask even with the vaccine to be ok. Others and I also love you! Luke,14 Forsake all you have everyone and yourself for J
Luke,16 Work for J, not pay$, then J will give you and your family the food and clothing if they follow too
Matthew,25 + Luke,12+6 Sell everything and give to poor and keep all giving in secret
Mark,16 + John,17 Share the Truth to everyone working with others in love and peace
Revelation,13+14 Don’t take the mark of the beast right hand or forehead only way to buy or sell *Is not covid vaccine or mask, but maybe a microimplant or quantum technology
Revelation,17+18 U.S. Is most likely the Babylon to be destroyed in one hour, with fire
Keep your fairy stories to yourself
Yeah, that’s telling him. Gotta love the militant atheist.
Horse Shit
Bollocks pal.
All of them are charlatans.
alden is 1000% right.
but hard to feel sorry for him/ppm after their shambolic administration:
port fiasco
dump fiasco
traffic chaos
no re-form of civil service
no re-opening plan post covid
mckeeva woman beater response fiasco
dwayne seymour on going foolishness