One thing you must grant Prime Minister Philip Davis — aka “Secret Squirrel” — is that the man can keep a secret. In fact, he kept such a magnificent one that it took him four and a half years to drop what he clearly considers a “bombshell.” Only now, with an election horizon looming, does the Prime Minister suddenly remember that fuel hedging exists.

It appears that what we were told was “New Day” governance was, in reality, a masterclass in benign neglect. The Davis administration cancelled — or simply allowed to quietly expire — the fuel hedging program left in place by the Free National Movement (FNM), only to now suggest that it wasn’t cancelled out of incompetence, but because it was supposedly “not done correctly.” How convenient that this revelation arrives years after Bahamians were left to sweat under sky-high electricity bills.

Let us not forget the great missing memo saga. At the time, there was talk of a letter from then-BPL Minister Alfred Sears to the Office of the Prime Minister regarding the hedge. The OPM, of course, claimed amnesia — “never received it.” A classic case of political selective hearing.

Meanwhile, ordinary Bahamians were forced to endure painfully higher electricity rates, even as the New Day PLP tried to gaslight the country into believing that what they were seeing on their BPL bills was just a collective hallucination.

Now — suddenly — the same government that scrapped the hedge is racing back to embrace fuel hedging as if it were a brand-new, revolutionary idea. They even claim they have already implemented it. Forgive me, but am I the only one seeing the contradiction here?

In the House of Assembly, we were treated to yet another theatrical exchange between Prime Minister Davis and Opposition Leader Michael Pintard over the BPL fuel hedge — so heated that Deputy Speaker Sylvanus Petty had to play referee. Davis boldly declared that the FNM “did not do it correctly,” as if that absolves him of four and a half years of inaction.

He waxed poetic about hedging being a responsible tool — when aligned with infrastructure, of course — conveniently ignoring the fact that if the previous system was flawed, his government had more than enough time to fix it instead of letting it lapse.

Then there is the ever-mysterious question of what fuel was actually covered under the FNM’s hedge. The Prime Minister refuses to lay the relevant documents on the table in Parliament, leaving everyone to wonder: Was only one type of fuel covered? And if so, why didn’t the “New Day” government correct that immediately instead of doing nothing?

The entire saga feels like a classic PLP playbook: create or worsen a crisis, then ride in on a “Golden Wave” pretending to be the saviour. Much like their theatrics over shanty town demolitions — opposing them in opposition, only to rush in and complete them once in office under the very same legal framework they once condemned.

In short: cancel a hedge, blame the last government, let Bahamians pay more, and years later repackage the same idea as if it were divine inspiration. Truly, a masterclass in political spin.

This is simply surreal.

The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) fails for one reason; it is their nature.

END

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.

Prime Minister Philip “Daddy Brave” Davis — a nickname that sounds less like a term of endearment and more like a promotional jingle cooked up in a campaign war room — appears to be in a perpetual state of shock that the Bahamian people keep refusing to clap on command.

You would think, by now, that a man who seems chronically disappointed in everyone except himself might pause for a moment of self-reflection. But no — disappointment is a one-way street in the Brave Davis administration.

Back in December, Daddy Brave was disappointed in the Bahamas Union of Teachers for being, well… teachers who expected the pay increases they had been promised. Imagine that — public servants believing the government when it says it will pay them. How terribly unreasonable of them.

He told them, essentially: “Relax, this was a gift from me anyway — you should be grateful, not negotiating.”
It’s a fascinating brand of leadership — somewhere between benevolent monarch and confused department store Santa.

Fast forward to today, and now we have nurses staging a “sick-out” because — plot twist — they weren’t paid their overtime. Apparently, this came as a total surprise to the Prime Minister, who acts as though the Ministry of Finance is run out of a secret underground bunker that he is not allowed to enter.

We are supposed to believe that the Minister of Finance — who controls the nation’s purse strings — had no idea that essential healthcare workers weren’t being paid? That’s like the captain of a ship saying, “I had no idea we were sinking until someone mentioned water.”

Then, when the nurses quite reasonably protest, the Prime Minister emerges again in full “disappointed parent” mode.

He says he values them. He says other countries are trying to poach them. He says he has done so much for them since taking office. And then — with a straight face — he asks them to simply trust him.

So, Prime Minister, a simple question: Where exactly were these nurses when you came into office — and where are they now?
Because from where most Bahamians are standing, “better off” doesn’t usually include working overtime and not getting paid for it.

It is almost comedic — in a dark, political satire kind of way — to hear you lecture public servants about “trust” after they dare to demand the money they already earned. You speak as if they were naughty children who just needed to sit quietly and wait their turn.

But here’s the punchline, Prime Minister: trust is a two-way street.

You say they should trust you — but you clearly don’t trust them enough to communicate honestly, to keep your word promptly, or to ensure they are paid on time. You want their blind faith but offer them bureaucratic fog in return.

So why should they trust you?

What in your track record suggests that your promises arrive on time? What evidence tells them that “we will sort it out” doesn’t mean “we will get to it when it’s politically convenient”?

Listening to Prime Minister Davis try to talk his way out of this non-payment debacle would be hilarious — if real people’s livelihoods, and real patients’ lives, weren’t hanging in the balance.

Because at the end of the day, this isn’t just about hurt feelings or political embarrassment — it’s about nurses, the hospital, its patients, and a government that seems very good at sounding shocked, and far less good at paying what it owes.

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason; it is their nature.

END