Ian Hayles and Richard Azan both lost their seats in the last election, but, as Golding loyalists, they are both on track to be elected PNP Vice Presidents at the party congress in September. They were at Peter Bunting’s Central Manchester constituency conference to show support for Bunting who, after 13 years, was ousted on September 3, 2020 as Manchester Central MP by Rhoda Moy Crawford. Apparently the 3 losers united in attacking Miss Crawford, with Azan even going so far as to say she was not quite right upstairs. The PNP don’t seem to have learned that sexist attacks on JLP women don’t work (see Damian Crawford’s comments about Ann Marie Vaz).

In fact, it is unlikely that either Hayles or Azan would be in line for such important posts as Vice President if Bunting had won last September and become PNP President and Leader of the Opposition, since Bunting is a far more adept politician than the flailing Golding.

Meanwhile Karen Cross launched a Go Fund Me to raise funds to pay the fine incurred when she declined to take down various posts on social media defaming PNP General Secretary Dr Dayton Campbell. All in all it’s been a bad couple of weeks for the One PNP faction.

The Government on a slippery slope

Last week CAPRI advised the government that the current minimum wage is too low to ensure families can live above poverty level and only 1 in 4 needy families received funds from the Government’s Care package.

The Government’s decision to relax the coronavirus restrictions also looks to have been a very bad decision as positivity rates and hospitalisations have arced upwards. If schools can’t open in September because of the spread of the virus, the pandemic will have dealt a killer blow to Jamaica’s Vision 2030 as hundreds of thousands of students fall so far behind in their education that they can never catch up.

And despite the Ministry of Health’s best efforts thousands of health care workers are declining to take the vaccine, making the Government’s plans to reach herd immunity slip further out of reach.

Meanwhile there have been 806 murders up till July 24, 2021, an increase of 52 over the same period in 2020. Crime is one area where the Government needs to make some progress soon, as nothing much has happened since the JLP taking office in 2016. The only thing saving the Government from abject failure is the relative popularity of the Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson.

• https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/-a-lot-more-jamaicans-going-hungry-capri-survey_226483?profile=1373
• https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20210722/pnp-activists-defamation-case-guilty-contempt-court
• https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20210724/pnp-hosts-peace-talks-two-day-nec-meeting
• https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/focus/20210725/gordon-robinson-time-some-grown-politics
• https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/focus/20210725/wesley-morris-what-pnp-should-do-now
• https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20210725/house-speaker-legal-hot-water
• https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/commentary/20210725/editorial-pay-information-czar-more-now
• https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20210725/incoming-pnp-vice-presidents-vow-silence-detractors
• https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20210725/i-hold-no-grudges-over-resignations-says-golding
• https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20210725/high-vaccine-hesitancy-among-essential-workers-data-shows
• https://nationwideradiojm.com/pnp-vice-presidential-aspirants-launch-withering-attack-on-mp-rhoda-moy-crawford/
• https://nationwideradiojm.com/central-manchester-mp-undaunted-by-attack-from-pnp-vp-aspirants1/
• https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20190308/jlp-wants-pnp-instruct-crawford-withdraw-comments-against-ann-marie
• https://jcf.gov.jm/stats/