Turning now to another minster with a hefty portfolio - today the press quizzed the Home Affairs Minister on the rising surge of violent crime in 2021 - which led this newsroom to give his Ministry a "D" on his ministry's one year report card.
Today, he battled back, saying that the 2021 performance - while worse than 2020 - is still better than almost any UDP year on record:
Hon. Kareem Musa, Min. Home Affairs
"But listening to Mr. Peyreffite yesterday, I'm glad he has found a voice. Obviously, he seemed to have been suffering some sort of withdrawals from the media. He's back now in front of the cameras grandstanding. But I want to say this, Duane, the numbers don't lie."
"So Mr. Peyrefitte needs to check his records from 2012 to 2021 and realize that this year is actually less than all of his government's years in office, except for the Anomaly 2020. And so I would want to call for his resignation. But unfortunately for him, he can't win a one seat or one convention in a one party, so I can't call for his resignation. But if I could, I would."
"This year is exceptional because we lost some young people. We lost Laddy Gillett. We lost Kassman Gill. We lost Dwayne Gabourel. It takes me back to the years when we had lost Joshua Abraham. So it's really hurtful because we see where our young people are now victims of these crimes, and we need to do more as a police department and as a country, as family units, we need to protect our young people more. So that perhaps has been the most challenging part of this year for me as minister, the fact that we've lost so many young innocent people."
