In his third year as prime minister, Philip Davis/ Secret Squirrel is heard saying that he will bring relief from the cost of living, bring actions on crime, bring access to healthcare, [provide] wanting opportunities, bring new businesses. These are some of the things that he now claims are his new priorities; the question that I now have is were these not the old priorities and if so, exactly what has the New Day government been doing up to this point?

Taking the people’s money and giving them “free” breakfast”?

Now the issue of campaign financing has resurfaced and as usual the Prime Minister Secret Squirrel and his government cannot seem to give a straight, concise and viable answer to give to the people, only excuses, the last time they tried to spin this subject on the opposition and got totally embarrassed and were forced to “walk-back” their comments.

“PM: ‘Public cost’ for campaign financing” – The Tribune

Excerpt from this article; “PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said regulating campaign finance is fraught with “difficulties,” partly because it could require that public funds be used to finance political campaigns.

“You will find the alternative to campaign financing and regulating it is a requirement that perhaps the public purse should fund election campaigns,” he told reporters when asked about his administration’s failure to advance various progressive matters outlined in the PLP’s Blueprint for Change.

“If you check and benchmark where campaign financing is the law in various countries, you’ll find that a part of the access to campaign financing is from the public purse. Should I put that on the payment people at this time? I don’t know.”

Some countries have extensive public funding for political campaigns. However, some that limit who can make political donations, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, do not have a state funding system.

Mr. Davis said loopholes would always exist, allowing people to get around campaign finance regulations. He suggested he would not pass a superficial law without addressing deeper challenges.

Despite past promises, he reiterated that various matters of transparency and accountability are not a priority for his administration.

“When I walk and talk to Bahamian people, meet their families, they don’t speak about the Freedom of Information Act,” he said. “They don’t speak about campaign financing laws. What they speak to me about is relief from cost of living, action on crime, access to healthcare, wanting opportunities. They want new businesses. They need to be able to understand what we are doing for those. So those have risen for my priorities.”

First, Fred Mitchell has expressed scepticism about campaign finance reform, arguing that such measures can inadvertently restrict free speech. He contends that limiting campaign contributions might disproportionately affect smaller candidates and grassroots movements, making it harder for them to compete. Mitchell has also raised concerns that overly restrictive regulations could lead to unintended consequences, such as encouraging less transparency or pushing donations into less regulated channels.

Now we have the Prime Minister Davis, expressing the issues that he sees with campaign finance reform, but we would have thought that while in opposition and promising to bring it about that they would have had a solution to these “problems” but it would appear that they did not and three years in they still have no solution, so is it safe to say that they have failed on this issue also?

One of the problems that the prime minister states that we would have if campaign finance reform laws were implemented would be that the state would have to contribute to the campaign financing of the different organizations running; I ask why? Just because this is what other countries do.

Is Prime Minister Secrect Squirrel attempting to use this as an excuse to deter the public from asking for something that he and his chairman claim that the people are not asking for?

Would he be that deceptive?

The PLP fails for one reason, it is their nature.

END