Author: Sean Douglas

THE UNC is expected to start its general-election preparations as soon as the completion of next week’s parliamentary budget debate, a UNC official told Newsday on October 18. The source said, “The debate starts on Monday in the Senate. I expect as soon as this debate is finished, we we go into screening.” The question […]

MINISTER of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds urged young people to help to get Trinidad and Tobago ready for natural disasters, in a statement on October 13. He sought to mark International Day for Disaster Reduction whose theme this year is Empowering the next generation for disaster resilience. “I commend all the members of our society, […]

THE Prime Minister on October 11 visited a ship acquired to help plan the exploitation of the Dragon gas field, for which TT has obtained a two-year licence from the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) to extract Venezuelan natural gas, exempting TT from US sanctions on its neighbour. TT also has a […]

MINISTER of Social Development and Family Services Donna Cox said her ministry has a whopping 175 vacancies, speaking on October 11 in the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives. Mulling the budget, Chaguanas East MP Vandana Mohit had asked why the ministry’s allocation for salaries had risen by $400,000 for fiscal 2025 to […]

THE Prime Minister hinted at his political swan song in the budget debate in the House of Representatives on October 10, following similar sentiments expressed earlier in the debate by Mayaro MP Rushton Paray. Acknowledging Paray, Dr Rowley said he was now in his tenth year as prime minister. “I too, may be a swan. […]

FOUR Opposition MPs expressed their very low expectations for budget 2024/2025 to be read by Finance Minister Colm Imbert on September 30. They spoke to Newsday on September 19 – the day after the date for the budget was announced. Oropouche West MP Davendranath Tancoo said, “I expect that the Minister of Finance in this, […]

OROPOUCHE West MP Davendranath Tancoo has said, “I expect that the Minister of Finance in this, his tenth budget, will do exactly the same as he has done in the last nine. Firstly, he expected the minister, Colm Imbert, to gaslight citizens, hoping to get them to believe they are doing well and the country’s […]

THE 2024/2025 national budget will be presented on Monday, September 30, said a statement on the evening of September 18 from Finance Minister Colm Imbert. Opposition whip David Lee told Newsday the Opposition had suspected an early budget date. “We are not surprised by that date. We always felt it would have been September 30 […]

PEOPLE’S ROUNDTABLE convenor David Abdulah led a delegation to deliver copies of a report to several government ministers on September 12, calling for funding to address a list of social and economic concerns of the group. The report was titled A Nation in Crisis: When Things Fall Apart the Centre Can’t Hold – Crime and […]

FIVE opposition MPs have said they were unfazed over being put to sit separately from other UNC MPs in the House of Representatives, and promised to uphold “UNC principles.” These were Tabaquite MP Anita Haynes-Alleyne, Naparima MP Rodney Charles, Mayaro MP Rushton Paray, Cumuto/Manzanilla MP Dr Rai Ragbir, and Chaguanas West MP Dinesh Rambally. In […]