Published: Monday | September 10, 2012
A team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is due in the island next week to begin discussions with Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips and his team about a new medium-term economic programme.
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Published: Monday | September 10, 2012
MPs shy away from amending rule to compel PM answering impromptu questions
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Published: Wednesday | September 05, 2012
If conception took place on election night 2011, that baby would be getting ready to enter a whole new world. Unfortunately, the new government has not done much since taking office to signifi-cantly bring hope to the soon-to-be-born baby and the nearly three million of us who live on this island.
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Published: Monday | July 30, 2012
WHEN JAMAICA gained Independence 50 years ago, Prime Minister Sir Alexander Bustamante underscored the importance of the occasion in a most surreal way.
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Published: Monday | May 28, 2012
We hope, for Jamaica's sake, that these words do not come back to haunt Simpson Miller. When she made the statement, she was leader of the opposition. Today, she is prime minister, and her finance minister, Dr Peter Phillips, has done the very same thing she frowned upon two years ago. He is seeking to cure the maladies in the economy by the traditional ways of increasing taxes and reducing expenditure.
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Published: Monday | May 14, 2012
IS ROGER Clarke a farmer or a woodcutter? We really wonder. Sure, he is one of the largest producers of sugar cane on the island, but the slaughter to which he has agreed to subject the agriculture sector this fiscal year is mind-boggling.
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Published: Monday | April 30, 2012
THE OFFICE of the Contractor General (OCG) has claimed that the decision by Cabinet to clothe three wise men with powers to monitor the implementation of three projects as an unlawful attempt to usurp that office.
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Published: Monday | April 23, 2012
Fizzled flag motion shows either ignorance of Standing Orders or political manoeuvring
IT HAS been the practice of the Houses of Parliament that new members be taken through orientation sessions which are aimed at teaching, among other things, the rules of Parliament.
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Published: Monday | April 16, 2012
SENATOR TOM Tavares-Finson's ill-advised, nasty and vicious attack on Member of Parliament Everald Warmington for his views of the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) exemplifies what is wrong with that body. It is arrogant, feisty and often sees its critics as its enemies.
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Published: Monday | April 2, 2012
"Insincere!" That was a sotto voce comment made by Dr Peter Phillips, finance minister and member of parliament for East Central St Andrew, last Tuesday when North Central Clarendon representative Pearnel Charles climbed onto his soapbox to talk about crime fighting.
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Published: Monday | February 27, 2012
JAMAICA'S OPINION pages are replete with raves about the contribution of the 21 senators chosen by former Prime Minister Edward Seaga, following the 1983 snap general election.
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Published: Monday | February 20, 2012
THE PARLIAMENTARY opposition seems desperate to paint Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller as being incapable of answering impromptu questions.
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Published: Monday | December 19, 2011
Floccinaucinihilipilification is a rarely used word. It is the longest (non-technical) word in the English language. It means 'the estimation of something as worthless/valueless'. I understand that the word was constructed by a group of Eton University students in 1741. They found it amusing to, for effect, combine four Latin words (flocci, nauci, nihili, pilifi) that mean 'at a small price' or 'for nothing'.
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Published: Monday | December 5, 2011
With general election just around the proverbial corner, a potential scandal hovering, and the parliamentary opposition hounding him, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has announced a forensic audit of the Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme (JDIP).
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Published: Monday | November 28, 2011
WHEN KEITH Henry lays the mace on the stand for the sitting of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, it could be the last time he does so in the life of this administration.
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Published: Monday | November 21, 2011
"How can we have this farce of the only reference of the JDIP (Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme) being $750 million when the Government is voting for an expenditure of more than $8 billion. This is an attempt to conceal."
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Published: Monday | October 31, 2011
SENATOR WARREN Newby has proposed the set up of a committee to consider the subject of garrison politics in Jamaica. Last Friday, he tabled a motion in the Upper House, urging that such committee examine the circumstances which gave rise to garrison communities, and identify appropriate steps, legislation and programmes of work.
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Published: Monday | November 7, 2011
NEARLY TWENTY minutes had passed during Tuesday's sitting of the House of Representatives before Hansard writers were able to record an acknowledgement in the legislature of Andrew Holness' first day as prime minister of Jamaica.
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Published: Monday | October 24, 2011
'The Buck Stops Here' was a simple sign on the desk of former United States President Harry Truman.
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Published: Monday | October 10, 2011
Llewellyn's refusal to face parliamentary committee worrying
Despite the inherent dangers, The Gavel is going on record with its position that Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn should face Parliament's Internal and External Committee.
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Published: Monday | October 3, 2011
A FUNDAMENTAL promise made by Bruce Golding when he became prime minister in 2007 was that he would be the chief servant of the people.
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Published: Monday | September 19, 2011
We are well into the first month of the new school year and there is still no word from Finance Minister Audley Shaw about a promised revision of interest rates on loans issued by the Students' Loan Bureau (SLB).
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Published: Monday | September 5, 2011
AAGAIN, THE Government has seen it fit to cut the budgetary allocation to youth and education, which could be reasonably interpreted as the State not seeing both as priority areas of national life which should be jealously guarded.
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Published: Monday | August 22, 2011
Gov't needs to move quickly to address JPS issues while taking a close look at the operations of the OUR
Blackout Friday has passed and electricity bills remains high. The Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), despite announcing it will hire an independent auditor to examine its meter-replacement programme and the billing of customers, is still a monopoly and is still operating the way it was before the protest.
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Published: Monday | August 8, 2011
THERE HAS been an attempt to blame public-sector workers who held out for wages due to them for Jamaica's failure to have its economic programme assessed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
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Published: Monday | July 25, 2011
Parliament's decision to extend interim legislation to allow police to detain suspects for an extended period should be reconsidered.
IF STATISTICS provided by Opposition spokesman on national security, Peter Bunting during a debate in the lower house last Tuesday are credible and reliable, Jamaicans should be worried about Parliament s decision to give the police the right to detain suspects, without charge for up to 72 hours.
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