Apparently, Kingsley Smith — the PLP’s standard-bearer for Western Grand Bahama and Bimini — and Prime Minister Philip “Daddy Brave” Davis seems to have missed the Chairman’s latest memo about speaking to the media or rather not speaking to them.  Their apparent failure to read it has produced what the government can now only politely call a “miscommunication,” but what the rest of Grand Bahama and The Bahamas  would recognise is that these two senior officials are telling two very different stories about the same hotel.

As The Nassau Guardian aptly put it, “Mixed signals on Grand Lucayan” — and that may be the understatement of the year.

On one side, we have Prime Minister Davis, confidently strolling out of PLP headquarters declaring, with all the certainty of a man cutting a ribbon, that the Grand Lucayan has been sold and that the mysterious new owner is somewhere “working his plans.” On the other side, we have Kingsley Smith — ratified, refreshed, and apparently unscripted — calmly informing the press that “the hotel transaction did not happen at this time.”

So, either the Prime Minister has discovered a Schrödinger-style sale — simultaneously completed and not completed — or Mr. Smith accidentally wandered off the party line and stumbled into the territory of uncomfortable truth.

Smith, to his credit, tried his best to spin optimism out of the situation, reminding everyone that things in business can “happen” or “fail,” and that this is all about investor money, not government money. Which is a lovely sentiment, except that Grand Bahamians have been watching this particular business deal “happen” and “fail” for years while the resort continues to sit like a very expensive, very empty monument to broken promises.

Apparently, Kingsley Smith — the PLP’s standard-bearer for Western Grand Bahama and Bimini — and Prime Minister Philip “Daddy Brave” Davis seems to have missed the Chairman’s latest memo about speaking to the media or rather not speaking to them.  Their apparent failure to read it has produced what the government can now only politely call a “miscommunication,” but what the rest of Grand Bahama and The Bahamas  would recognise is that these two senior officials are telling two very different stories about the same hotel.

As The Nassau Guardian aptly put it, “Mixed signals on Grand Lucayan” — and that may be the understatement of the year.

On one side, we have Prime Minister Davis, confidently strolling out of PLP headquarters declaring, with all the certainty of a man cutting a ribbon, that the Grand Lucayan has been sold and that the mysterious new owner is somewhere “working his plans.” On the other side, we have Kingsley Smith — ratified, refreshed, and apparently unscripted — calmly informing the press that “the hotel transaction did not happen at this time.”

So, either the Prime Minister has discovered a Schrödinger-style sale — simultaneously completed and not completed — or Mr. Smith accidentally wandered off the party line and stumbled into the territory of uncomfortable truth.

Smith, to his credit, tried his best to spin optimism out of the situation, reminding everyone that things in business can “happen” or “fail,” and that this is all about investor money, not government money. Which is a lovely sentiment, except that Grand Bahamians have been watching this particular business deal “happen” and “fail” for years while the resort continues to sit like a very expensive, very empty monument to broken promises.