1 December
A motion by the Chief Minister reads "That Mr Adolfo John Canepa be appointed Speaker of the Gibraltar Parliament".
The motion will be presented at the ceremonial opening of Parliament.
01-12-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
Changes to portfolios mainly affecting Chief Minister and Deputy
December 01, 2015
The Cabinet will meet this morning for the first time since the re-election of the GSLP/Liberal Government at the end of last week, while a number of changes have been made to some Ministerial portfolios, mainly affecting the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister.
PICARDO
The Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, takes on responsibility for Gibraltar 2025, which is the Economic Advisory Council that will be established, taking a long-term view of the direction in which Gibraltar is heading. Mr Picardo will also take on responsibility for the Control of Drugs issue, which will include substance rehabilitation and Bruce's Farm.
GARCIA
The Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Joseph Garcia, will formally take on responsibility for the delivery of the GSLP/Liberal manifesto, which became the policy of the new Government on Friday 28th November as soon as the new Ministerial team was sworn in.
Dr Garcia will also take on responsibility for international political lobbying, including responsibility for the Gibraltar Office in London and other representative offices. This role includes specific responsibility for the promotion of the right to self-determination and liaison with the United Nations.
In view of these changes and of the fact that the European Union brief will involve a considerable increase in activity in the coming few years, the administrative responsibility for the Town Planning and Building Control Department will pass on to the Minister for Technical Services, Paul Balban. There will be provision made for Dr Garcia to remain on the Development and Planning Commission and in this way the political responsibility for the Department will be kept separate to the DPC. The Urban Renewal brief will formally pass to Dr Garcia at the same time.
RESHUFFLE
A more extensive reshuffle now would have meant that the spending programmes of different Ministries would have had to be re-adjusted in the middle of the financial year. The other Ministerial portfolios will therefore remain as they are until next year.
01-12-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
GSD followers expect post-mortem after crushing election defeat
December 01, 2015
The elections have come and gone but the memories will linger for quite some time.
It is a fact, that many GSD members will expect and want a post-mortem to properly analyse last weeks crushing election defeat. I am not talking about those same few GSD activist/individuals on social media who regularly have much to say also on other private Internet groups regarding the party, but not on this issue it seems.
Party Members Want Answers and Proper Evaluation of Future of Party
However, many other GSD supporters' founder members, even some
ex-executive members, people who are normally publicly silent, are shocked in the manner their beloved party has been humiliated. They want answers and expect the party to properly evaluate, not only every aspect of the election campaign, but also how the future of the party is best served as a political force in Gibraltar!
Danny Feetham in a TV interview after the election results were announced, and when asked how the GSD were going to change, said 'his party had to work harder; it also had to go out to the community to get its message to them'. Feetham also emphasising that it's (GSD) people also had to be known in the community', adding, that 'if he had made a mistake since he became party leader, is not doing enough of the latter'.
You can understand the frustration amongst the silent majority of GSD members when they witnessed how their party was not only swept away by the rampaging "Alliance Tsunami" but also humbled in the process, as if hit by a thunderbolt, leaving the GSD in disarray with mumblings and incoherent reasons for the defeat!
GSD Members: Party Not Moved Forward Since 2011 Election Defeat
Many GSD members have deferent views, not blinded like more the voicetress others in the party, especially with the reality of the situation. In fact, one frustrated long time party member who does not want to be named speaking to Panorama was of the opinion that the GSD had not yet moved past the first stage of grief after losing the 2011 election, never mind the election held last week. And neither has it got over the departure of their long time leader Sir Peter Caruana. In that context, this person said there had been great disappointment with the selection of Robert Vaquez as candidate, a decision that did not go down well with many because of obvious reasons i.e. Vasquez 'Llanito World' blog and his relentless personal onslaught of Caruana when party leader.
In my opinion, many people expected a new beginning, something the GSD tried to sell the electorate. But in fact, they delivered an ugly one, the same one, which sent them packing back to the Opposition benches. The party, if anything, needs to invent a tangible, visible and believable new beginning.
Calls for Marlene to Take over Leadership of GSD Party
In fact, those people with party strings who have spoken to us, seriously believe that a new beginning for the GSD would be much more credible if Danny Feetham bows out as leader. As yesterday's Panorama report alluded to about the calls for Marlene Nahon-Hassan to take over the leadership of the party.
There is a perception, that Feetham generally misjudged the will of the people over the LNG issue and the savings bank. This coupled with the negative fear messages he brought to the election campaign. It was doom and gloom from start to finish with the GSD election strategy, resulting in a crooked campaign and the loss of GSD credibility.
Moreover, and if truth be told, the GSD even months before the election already looked to all and sundry to be a disunited party riddled with internal battles and frontline departures they could not cope with!
Observers also believe, the GSD did not manage to reform effectively enough to make the party and its messages appealing to people, particularly to those who traditionally do not side with it.
Times change fast nowadays and so does society.
The party must become inclusive again, convincingly so, not through effective public relations alone, but through real mastery of the important issues, something, that has been largely absent during the last 4 years.
Victory for Alliance is no Guarantee of Election Win Next Time!
Fabian Picardo for his part is shrewd enough to know that this landslide victory, while a very good morale booster for the Alliance and a vindication of his vision and work performed since 2011 is no guarantee of victory at the next election. If a week is a long time in politics then four years is an eternity. Mr. Picardo in fact said as much in his victory address, insisting the size of the election result would not go to their heads and 'humility' was uppermost.
Principally, for the GSLP/Liberals' it is now another long journey on the road to victory in the next election.
The Role of the Opposition an Essential Democratic Component
Make no mistake, the role of the opposition is "an essential component of a well-functioning democracy", the defining characteristic of the "opposition" is that it is not in power, and that it opposes (more or less strongly but fairly) those who are.
Former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli said, "No government can long be secure without a formidable opposition."
The success of a democratic process lies on the back of debate and dissent. Counter-debate in our own Parliament is usually a high-octane, noisy and often a dramatic affair, which for better or for worse, is still a sign of good democratic structure. Sure, sometimes reactions do go overboard and the opposition oppose the Government just because (in their mind) they cannot be seen agreeing with their rival. Such was the conflicting circumstances during the election campaign on the LNG controversy. Because even though the GSD were totally apposed and scared everyone to death about the prospect of such a project, they said they would have gone a head with it had they won the election.
Examining the Meanings of the 2015 Election
As many people try to examine the meanings of the 2015 general election, it's worth starting from my own perspective as a political journalist: how the hell do we know what we think we know? What value if any, do observers or political commentators like myself (apart from the actual politicians) actually bring?
Personally, I picked up my information from different sources, I realise some of them may have been suspect. The first are the politicians; during the campaign, I spoke to the parties, well one in fact, the other I managed to get information close to the core.
Another source, and one that dominated everybody's day-to-day thinking, were the polls. The pollsters like Panorama, did not get it wrong, in fact we were spot on.
This leads me to the final source of information, always ridiculed and yet the one that proved most accurate and that I wish I had spent more time attending to, anecdotes and random conversations. We are all prisoners of our own geographical and class location. In my case, the advantages of appearing everyday with my face in the newspaper is that people come up to you all the time and tell you, unprompted and unstoppably, what they think, about the people from both sides of the political divide. In this respect, I was buttonholed again-and-again which gave me at least, a good picture how things were unfolding inside and out!
Which brings me back to the main theme of this article and why there are a good number of people connected to the GSD party who believe that on top of failure regarding political direction - came the failure of strategy of the election campaign itself!
01-12-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
The GSD water-logged ship: Can it survive?
December 01, 2015 | By Joe Garcia
Downstairs in the John Mackintosh Hall on election night, the GSD room was as silent as the grave; across the patio was the GSLP/Liberal room, full of excitement, with supporters chanting 'Four More Years'. It was easy to discern who was winning the election, even though, at the time, there were still some hours to go to the final count.
There is the saying that if you repeat a lie often enough, you end up believing it yourself. If the GSD were not uttering untruths in their scaremongering campaign, and in fact were believing their scare tactics themselves, it was all the more evident that their political judgement was suspect.
Even after the results had been read out by Returning Officer Paul Martinez, the GSD leader Daniel Feetham was saying that they had believed they could have won the election.
Yet, this was the most sonorous trouncing of any political party since Bossano's GSLP stormed into power in the nineties with 73% of the votes. The election last Thursday was the biggest win since then, with the GSLP/Liberals obtaining 68% of the votes, and the GSD a rock bottom 32%.
The GSD has ended like a water-logged ship, riddled with holes. Captain Feetham and his crew can say what they like, but inevitably they will evoke memories of the Titanic, the ship that would not sink. But it did.
The question that is being asked in political circles is if this is the end of the GSD? Can it survive the walloping experience at the hands of the GSLP/Liberals?
This is not a time for trying to cover up shortcomings, but a time to face the reality of the situation. This is a seasoned party that had not lost an election for so many years until it did so in 2011, and now it finds itself in the doldrums. Again.
The election line-up that Caruana had put together for the 2011 election disintegrated in front of Feetham as party leader, with only Reyes remaining in their line-up for last week's election. Did Feetham not see what was coming?
Long before it happened, we foreshadowed that there would be an exodus from the GSD. Instead of taking note, they resorted to their usual criticism of this newspaper for having alerted them of what turned out to be the truth.
When Isobel Ellul-Hammond resigned her parliamentary seat and said "My party no longer inspires me nor does it give me confidence for the future. I would be unable to cope with another four years of lethargy in Opposition", did they not realise how politically damaging that was? What about when GSD deputy Damon Bossino also called it a day? Did they not think this was another blow?
Feetham sought to present his new line-up as a major coup, but in fact they were a motley of largely politically unknown persons who may be leading lights in their own professions, but not so in political terms.
What next? Feetham says he is not the kind of person who will throw the towel in - but can the party survive four years, will he carry on day dreaming?
To continue with the policies and the style that have been so emphatically rejected by the electorate is not the way forward. Is there a need for a major overhaul of the party? There are those who think that a new party, with fresh ideas, can make a bigger impact on the electorate and stand a better chance of making inroads.
Doing nothing is not the best policy. That's for sure.
01-12-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
Visitor's view
December 01, 2015
Dear Sir,
We tend to visit family members once every year and give Gibraltar a once over, marvelling how outstanding its buildings, streets and airport are after overcoming the many years of decay that I remember in the sixties and seventies.
Well done!
Our yearly stay in the Glacis/Laguna area has seen major changes.
In particular Referendum House and other surrounding blocks which has seen the
change from ugly dirty moths to beautiful butterflies.
But over the last many years the inside of the entrance to this block in particular is appalling.
The entrance to Referendum House still has a hole that hasn't been fixed and covered up
properly that has been there at least 4 years!
Also the entrance to this building still has the black rusty iron gate entrance that has been a
constant feature for many years. It doesn't do the building any favours.
It would be nice if the Housing Department could just take this awful door entrance metal structure off and fix the hole and maybe do up the stairwell at the entrances to this building.
At the moment it is all superficially colourful and outstanding on the outside.
I don't want to touch on the bathroom facilities of some of the unfortunate council tenant's flats.
Let's dig deeper to fix these problems, just because tourists cannot see them doesn't mean
they are not there and the residents having to put up with the squalor.
Thank you for publishing this (If you do).
Yours sincerely,
P.Chase
01-12-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
