I remember a family friend saying to me, when I first expressed my interest in electoral politics, that I should follow one important rule: “A closed mouth gathers no feet.” There was no confusion about what this meant as there is no shortage of examples of our politicians tripping over …
Read More »Can Government weather the coming storm? Best fires one at the PNM
Time was when, if yuh neighbour house on fire, yuh used to throw water on your own. Not anymore, not in politics anyway. Nowadays, if yuh political neighbour house on fire, yuh does throw pitchoil. I thought that was the hidden message in an unpublished letter sent to Wired868 by …
Read More »Letter to Editor: Child marriage is an abomination; and Kamla’s flip-flopping is shameful
“This stance against child marriage must be seen as an absolute. Much like the universal condemnation of child soldiers, so too we must recognise that child marriage can never be justified.” The following Letter to the Editor on child marriage, in response to recent remarks by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, …
Read More »UNC senator: For God’s sake, let’s rape children! Live Wire corners Waffie on Quran
Islamic Council of Scholars official Dr Waffie Mohammed, who was sworn in as a temporary UNC senator, yesterday argued that Trinidad and Tobago should continue to permit the legal rape of minors—otherwise known as child marriages—because it was the ‘command of God’. “Muslims believe that the marriageable age of a …
Read More »A PNM lapse? What 2016 LGE results say about path to future electoral success
“Neither party can claim to have made the gains required for a genuine, meaningful victory. That would have required capturing the ILP’s—and, to a lesser extent, the COP’s—space. “Combined, the ILP/COP share amounted to 133,400 votes. The UNC gained some 58,900 votes, meaning that some 74,500 votes or 21% of …
Read More »Tone deaf: Daly examines response from both parties to local election results
My musically accomplished friends tell me that to be tone deaf means to be unable to distinguish the difference in pitch between different notes. In common usage tone deafness has a wider meaning, namely a person unable to discern the different nuances of a situation. We had a local government …
Read More »We’re just not that into you! Live Wire looks at 2016 local gov’t election results
The Trinidad and Tobago electorate, both major political parties agreed, sent a clear message to its politicians at the Local Government Elections yesterday. And that statement was: “Meh.” November 28 was pretty nondescript, even for a Monday. There was no band launching or Soca Warriors match; nothing new from House of …
Read More »Criminal police and roti riot: Live Wire reports on a farce and furious week in T&T
You know your country’s crime problem is even more serious than you thought with the discovery that budding criminals are joining the police service to turn pro. Last week, acting police commissioner Stephen Williams revealed that 150 officers from the rank of constable to assistant commissioner of police were serving …
Read More »Faris’ gun-toting kids, Alleyne’s pity party, Cazabon’s living dangerously and return of Two Pull
Okay, who forgot to flush on 7 September 2015? There were collective gasps across Trinidad and Tobago yesterday evening as former Sport Minister Anil Roberts returned to a political platform and was promptly anointed as a Senator-in-waiting by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Not so much a returning prodigal son as …
Read More »Letter to Editor: Ralph Maraj is trying to rewrite Kamla’s political legacy and fool T&T
“What [Ralph] Maraj failed to indicate in his column [“Kamla’s Return”] is the fact that the UNC administration either changed the names of already-existing units, or simply completed projects started by the previous People’s National Movement (PNM), in the area of fighting crime?” The following Letter to the Editor on …
Read More »Keithos and Kamla’s game of drones; Best sharpens focus on games political people play
Politics, they say, is the art of the possible; politicians, however, are frequently impossible, particularly when, like the plus-size and minus-size costumed men and women who play themselves on the Big Stage at the Queen’s Park Savannah on Carnival Monday and Tuesday, they are acutely aware that the camera is …
Read More »Fanfares, flags, parades and Prados: Daly on Kamla criticism and The Cutlass
It must be considered extraordinary in the life of a country when editorial writers are compelled to call on two of its highest public officials to account for the expenditure of public funds in the space of a few weeks. So much is coming off the rails at the same …
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