Tag Archives: Politics

Law, Media, PNM, Politics, UDeCOTT

Derailing Uff

Newsday’s Editorial
Tuesday, October 6 2009

Calder HartLAST Friday’s freezing of the Commission of Inquiry into Udecott until the High Court hears Udecott’s case for judicial review on February 8, 2010 may look like a bolt out of the blue, but to seasoned observers it should come as no surprise. While on the surface there is a lot of confusion as to how lawyers for the Commission could possibly have ended up agreeing to such a draconian consent-order with Udecott’s lawyers, we dryly note that it comes on the heels of a long list of past efforts to throw the spotlight of public accountability away from Udecott.
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Complaints, COP, Finance, General T&T, PNM, Politics

Getting our priorities right

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By Raffique Shah
October 04, 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

HouseTHE battle over Government’s proposed property tax has intensified. On the one hand, the vast majority of citizens, civic organisations and NGOs have been very vocal in their bid to have government reverse “this oppressive new tax that will pauperise the working and middle classes.” On the other side, the Government has undertaken a media campaign to convince people that the tax is not a new imposition, nor will it be harsh and oppressive.
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Finance, General T&T, Law, PNM, Politics

Ministers Doing a Demolition Job on Finance Minister Tesheira

By Stephen Kangal
October 01, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Karen Nunez-TesheiraIt is palpably unsettling to witness the pathetic display of Ministers in the Ministry of Finance (not for the first time), Minister Imbert and including Local Government Minister Hazel Manning attacking with full force the credibility and integrity of Finance Minister Tesheira’s “done deal” property tax. This tax reinforced by Finance Ministry vaulting- ambitious aspirants may very well hasten her imminent political waterloo because she has now been relegated to cold storage. She does not speak on her draconian fiscal measure any more. She has been muzzled.
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Finance, General T&T, Law, PNM, Politics, UNC

PM’s legal debts

Newsday Editorial
September 30 2009 – newsday.co.tt

PM Patrick ManningATTORNEY GENERAL (AG) John Jeremie did not exactly admit it on Monday in the Senate, but in our view he seemed to be trying to make a case for debt-forgiveness for the half-million dollars owed by Prime Minister Patrick Manning as unpaid legal costs to the State. Mr Jeremie said Mr Manning has so far paid $555,000 out of a $1.15 million debt incurred in 2002 when he lost his High Court bid to stop the defection of the then-Opposition MPs Dr Rupert Griffith and Dr Vincent Lasse to join the former UNC government.
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Complaints, Culture, Finance, General T&T, Media, Politics, Race and Identity

Louis Lee Sing pushes for compulsory national service

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Use money from URP

By Corey Connelly
September 29 2009 – newsday.co.tt

Louis Lee SingExecutive chairman of Citadel Limited, Louis Lee Sing, yesterday suggested that the monies allocated to the Unemployment Relief Programme (URP) be directed to the proposed National Compulsory Service initiative.

“If ever you had an opportunity of killing two birds with one stone, that is it,” he said while delivering a comprehensive presentation on the company’s proposal for compulsory national service.
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General T&T, Law, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity, Religion, UNC

Discourse and diatribe

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By Raffique Shah
September 27, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Raffique ShahIt is depressing, to say the least, watching men and women who hold high offices, eschew discourse in favour of diatribe as they engage each other in matters of national interest. The latest salvo fired by Attorney General John Jeremie as he responded to statements by the Law Association, is a case in point. Clearly, the AG believes he and his colleagues in government are being targeted by political opponents, which is why he must descend into the gutter to snipe at the “enemy”.
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Complaints, General T&T, PNM, Politics

Caroni Villagers Condemn Property Tax and Call for its Withdrawal

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By Stephen Kangal
September 23, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

HouseThe Caroni Assembly of Villagers during their meeting held on Tuesday evening at the Vishnu Boys College in Caroni condemned the proposed high level of property tax as being unprecedented, unduly harsh and oppressive in the taxation annals of T&T. It was held as being “punitive, disruptive, draconian, illegal and onerous in its implications” according to the text of the Resolution that was adopted unanimously at the end of the Public Forum, a copy of which is attached.
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Complaints, Finance, General T&T, Politics, Race and Identity, Religion

Govt to pay Maha Sabha $3M for radio licence delay

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By Sacha Wilson
Published: 23 Sep 2009 – guardian.co.tt

Satnarayan MaharajThe State has to pay the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, which operates Central Broadcasting Services Ltd, close to $3 million in damages for its unequal treatment and delay in granting them a FM radio broadcasting licence.

Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh awarded compensatory and vindicatory damages yesterday by way of a video conference at the San Fernando High Court.
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Finance, General T&T, Law, Politics, Tobago, UDeCOTT

No to Increase in Property Tax!

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By Sylvan N. Wilson
September 20, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

HouseThe Government and in particular the Minister of Finance have been attempting to justify their murderous property tax by arguing that the value of properties has changed since 1948. They have astutely deciphered that properties have increased in value over the last sixty-one years.
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General T&T, Law, Politics

Archie buck dem up

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By Raffique Shah
September 20, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Chief Justice Ivor ArchieAS I listened to Chief Justice Ivor Archie deliver his address at the opening of the new Law Term, I was transported back in time-42 years ago, to be precise. The CJ must have been a little past toddler stage then, and most of his fellow-judges not yet born or barely older. It was my first Carnival after two-years of military training in frigid England. As a “carnival peong” who had missed out on Sniper’s classic “Portrait of Trinidad” (1966), I jumped straight into however many fetes I could “play myself”. And the tune we partied most to? An infectious double-entendre titled “Archie Buck Dem Up” by a little known (for me, anyway) Bajan group called the Merrymen.
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