How did the PNP snatch defeat from the jaws of victory

The PNP is today smarting from last nights election loss and wondering how did they lose when all the pundits(except Jay of course) had them winning.

My top four (4) reasons are

1. Personal attack on the JLP Leader
2. Refusal to speak to the Jamaican people via debate
3. Advertising of JLP $1.5M tax break
4. Social Media

The strategy employed by the PNP is exactly the same ones which was used by the JLP in 2011 when they lost.

1. Attack Portia Simpson Miller
2. Promised nothing but austerity
3. Constant reminder about the other party.

The PNP deserved this loss and social media played a huge roll in getting out all the information to the people. No longer can mainstream media control the flow of information and thus influencing peoples vote.

Some were willing to go as far as say its 18 more years in the wilderness for the JLP, but that was not the case.

I do hope the JLP deliver as I expect.

JLP has won the 2016 National elections

I am one of the few bloggers who has held a consistent position and like I said, I knew the JLP would have taken  it.

I have been vindicated but will not gloat.

The hard work begins tomorrow and we must work to build on what the PNP has started.

I am very happy we have had a rather peaceful elections and thanks to Jamaicans for behaving in a responsible manner.

The JLP has a lot of work ahead and must speak to the people and never behave like they own us.

The days on one term government is back and is good for deomocracy

Bless

NWU rejects wage 7.5 – 18% increase for its workers, demand less !

I was wondering how long it would take for this idiot to speak and he spoke out at just about the right time.

Veteran trade unionist and President of the National Workers Union (NWU), Granville Valentine, is claiming that the personal income tax proposal put forward by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) will result in massive layoffs.

Valentine says the proposal is not workable and will be bad for employment in the country.

The proposal which would see workers getting an increase of between 7.5% yo 18% should be rejected claimed the NWU boss.

He said workers should reject the wage increase proposal from the JLP and demand less from the PNP instead.

He charged that voters should reject the proposal and reject the JLP at the polls.

 

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20160224/trade-unionist-weighs-jlps-income-tax-proposal

Too many jackass in this country and its the reason we have so much of a hard time moving forward.

I urge workers to REJECT Mr Valentine as the NWU union leader and also demand representational rights from another union, since this guy does not want more for his workers.

 

 

Commonsenseja predicts an election loss for the PNP

Even with increasing eligible electors the number of PNP electors have been declining for the last 6 elections and this is likely to continue into the 2016  election

See  TABLE

 

 

Year	PNP Electors %
1980	35.3%
1983	0.0%
1989	43.9%
1997	36.4%
2002	30.5%
2007	30.3%
2011	28.2%
2016

Will give seat count tomorrow.

 

Private Sector working group says Tax proposal unworkable

Once again I would like to throw out additional information for people to review and come to their own position.

A Private Sector Working Group has suggested that the proposal laid out by the JLP to increase the income tax threshold to $1.5m is unworkable and its unfair and equitable.

Now we all know we work off the British system and if one were to look at the British Tax System, all the things the PSWG say would not make it work are actually working in the UK.

One must therefore ask, why can it work in the UK but not in Jamaica.

Lets explore the income tax brackets in the UK

Band	Rate	Income after allowances 2015 to 2016
Starting rate for savings	10% (0% from 2015 to 2016)	Up to £5,000
Basic rate	20%	Up to £31,785
Higher rate	40%	£31,786 to £150,000
Additional rate	45%	Over £150,001

Looking at the above was is the income of the man/woman who falls in the 20% tax bracket, when he or she moved to GBP of 31,786

So one can say the British system is inequitable, but works.

There are no threshold level that would allow a system to be equitable, instead the question should be how many people would be impacted by this proposal. I would venture to say it no more that 1-1.5%.

We would therefore like to throw out a proposal that can benefit 98.5-99% because it is unfair to 1 -1.5%, does that really sounds logical, but I guess this is Jamaica so “no problem”

The biggest inequity in Jamaica is Snr Managers and CEO who earns on average of 15-20 X the average worker and get huge bonus, tax free allowance and perks, why don’t we go and try and fix that instead .

Why are the people who earn $5m and above so suddenly appears so  caring for those earning between $1.55 and $1.65m, who are the people said to be impacted.

The fact is folks No one earning $1.5m to $5m will be taking home less day the day after this is implemented and that message must be sent.

All the talking heads rallying against this are now low level income earners, but are those earning well over $5m.

You must therefore question why they have suddenly become champion of the poor?

What is there real motive, is it altruist or selfish, you decide

 

 

JLP’s income tax proposal will give Public Sector workers a big boost

The proposal to remove income tax from those earning less than $1.5m per annum is music to the ear of many public sector workers, but bad news for politicians who earns above $5m per annum.

The main reason for the opposition by the PNP is not that the system cannot work,instead it means they will now have to pay income tax on their full income, which means less money in their pockets. Recall the PNP in opposition refused to signed the agreement for 10% salary cut.

Based on my calculation public sector workers will see a net salary increase above the 7% the PNP gave them over a two year period and so they will have a much better pay day going forward.

At the lower scale workers will see about a 7.12% increase in salaries and up to 17.10% on the upper end.

Given this massive increase, the Government has no need to increase public sector wages at the end of this contract period, given the size of this increase.

This could save the Government in the order of  $6.6bb dollars in salaries and wages from 2018  onwards until the next wage increase would be due in 2020

 

See table below

.

	5%	25%	% Increase
Basic Salary	$850,000	$850,000
NIS	$42,500	$42,500
Threshold	$592,800	$    1,500,000
Tax	$53,675	0
After Tax Inc	$753,825	$807,500	7.12%
Basic Salary	$    1,000,000	$    1,000,000
NIS	$          50,000	$          50,000
Threshold	$592,800	$    1,500,000
Tax	$89,300	0
After Tax Inc	$860,700	$950,000	10.38%
Basic Salary	$    1,200,000	$    1,200,000
NIS	$          60,000	$          60,000
Threshold	$592,800	$                     –
Tax	$136,800	0
After Tax Inc	$1,003,200	$1,140,000	13.64%
Basic Salary	$    1,400,000	$    1,400,000
NIS	$          70,000	$          70,000
Threshold	$592,800	$                     –
Tax	$184,300	0
After Tax Inc	$1,145,700	$1,330,000	16.09%
Basic Salary	$    1,500,000	$    1,500,000
NIS	$          75,000	$          75,000
Threshold	$592,800	$                     –
Tax	$208,050	0
After Tax Inc	$1,216,950	$1,425,000	17.10%

Public sector workers should vote for an increase in pay come payday after being suffering for 5 years of a wage freeze and the insult of 4% pay increase.

The JLP proposal will give you a 7.12% increase in the very first year, making your lives much better, but guess what your unions are not in agreement, how ironic.

Bless

Are Jamaica’s biggest trade union leaders “opposed” to workers getting more

Since news broke that the JLP has plans to eliminate income tax for people earning less than $1.5m, THE FOLLOWING unions have been noticeable silent

1. NWU
2. UAWU
3. JCTU.
4. JTA

Why would any union which is concerned about the poor worker not hop unto this train, two weeks after the matter came to public attention.

Why would these Unions who have always championed for more income for workers not commented on this proposal, that would put more money into the pocket of workers while at the same time, increase union dues

The following people need to tell workers of Jamaica, why they are opposed to them earning more money.

1. Lambert Brown – UAWU
2. Granville Valentine – NWU
3. Helene Davis- White – JCTU
4. Norman Allen – JTA

Is it not curious that these very vocal folks are SILENT, I wonder what they all have in common.

Jamaican workers must look at their actions and judge them , because clearly something is amiss.

 

😦

 

 

Why is Red Stripe returning to Jamaica

Peter Phillips Iu would want us to believe Ja is making economic progress hence the decision to return manufacturing here.. That is not entirely true folks. Red Stripe recently completed their Co-generation CHP plant. This is a plant that provides Heat , Power and Refrigeration needs for the company. This has resulted in a significant drop in its energy cost as they no longer use JPS as their main source of power. The plant which was designed to use LNG currently uses LPG which a bit more expensive and reduces the efficiency of the plant but it still is better that JPS by a lot.

This much lower energy cost has reduce the cost of Manufacturing for Red Stripe, which has facilitated the return of Manufacturing to the plant.

When LNG is available this plant will produce energy at an even lower cost

Now for the major reason

KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC) – The London-based alcohol company, Diageo, the parent company of Red Stripe, is facing a lawsuit in the United States for reportedly misleading consumers into believing that the beer is made in Jamaica.

The lawsuit, filed by two persons in a US Federal court last week, takes aim at the Red Stripe promotion in the US which calls the beer a “Jamaican Style Lager” that contains the taste of Jamaica.

The lawsuit says the promotion is misleading because Red Stripe supplied in the US market is not made in Jamaica, but instead in Pennsylvania. Red Stripe made the decision to start producing its signature beer destined for the US market in that US city in 2012.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business/Lawsuit-for-parent-company-of-Red-Stripe-_19222236

 

Happy for the jobs but don’t mislead the public.

PNP’s job creation target is nothing but a con

Jamaica is a country where too few people spends the time to do research and come to their own position on issues in the country.

The PNP in its recently released Manifesto has promised 100,000 jobs in five years and has laid out something of a plan on how to get it, but lets examine that as well as the PNP track record on job creation.

On page 16 of the Manifesto, the PNP says,

14,000 new rooms will be created over the next decade ( 10 years), which will create 40,000 news jobs.

Now one can recall that Dr Peter Phillips had said

“We will create 100,000 jobs in the next term in office”

One term is not 10 years but 5 years. The 40,000 jobs was out of the 100,000 he had said, but in the manifesto these jobs would be generated over 10 years and not 5 !

Second point is.

There are an average of 2 hotel workers per hotel room in Jamaica, so based on the number of rooms to be created, the number of jobs would be  2 x 14,000 or 28,000 and NOT 40,000 as claimed by the PNP. That is a difference of 12,000 jobs or 30% less than the figure claimed by the PNP.

Now what about the PNP track record on job creation.

in 1989 the labour force in Jamaica 1,115,516 at the end of 2014 this was 1,300,516 or an increase of just about  185,000 jobs in  26 years of which the PNP was in power for 22 of those years. Let’s assume that no jobs were created between 2007 & 2011 and also that no jobs were lost .

Over the 26 year the net rate of job created has been 7110 jobs per annum, yet the  PNP which is not know to create sustainable jobs, wants us to believe that they can triple that number, given the fact that 100,000 in 5 years is 20,000 jobs per year.

See graph below

Pay careful attention to the numbers on the right hand side and not just focus on the columns as you could be fooled.

The PNP’s Manifesto in relation to manufacturing is the worst I have ever seen in any Manifesto and shows a lack of thought and depth in their document.

The plans for Manufacturing in terms of job creation is all of 23 words, yes 23 words ! It reads( pg 34)

” This sector has traditionally been a significant employer of labour and is expected to continue to do so as it is being revitalized”

 

On page 33 of the Manifesto the PNP speaks about the manufacturing sector and possible linkages to Tourism and Mining but is so vague it makes no sense. It then goes unto read that electricity rates have moved from US$0.40  to US$0.24 / kwh, but the rate is actually US$0.25 per Kwh thanks to world oil prices and nothing to do with what the PNP has done for the energy sector.

One therefore cannot rely on these oil prices beyond this year because nothing fundamental has been done in the sector to actually reduce electricity cost. Manufacturers  therefore cannot plan based on this as they will be hot by rising electricity cost as soon as oil price rebounds.

I did not bother to waste my time further having recognized the the 21 point plan was really a con and offers nothing new to the country.

Its sad that after 22 years out of 26 the PNP cannot formulate a credible plan for economic growth for this country, yet the expect to be returned to office.

Missing from the PNP plan is the plan to enter yet into another 4 year ETF with the IMF when this one runs out next year.

 

 

 

Will the PNP now answer the opposition questions ?

Now that Andrew Holness has answered the questions from Peter Phillips and the PNP, will the PNP now answer all questions rasied by the JLP.

Will NIA ask the PNP to provide answers?

Will the media demand answers from the PNP?

Will the PNP answer questions before agreeing to a debate ?

Interesting days are ahead.