Nov 08 - Feetham Claims 'Picardo Has Lost the Plot'
Following GBC’s interview with Picardo, during which he urged Opposition Leader Daniel Feetham to consider resigning, Mr. Feetham has insisted that his statement is ‘just another desperate example of his propensity to place “grandstanding, showmanship and spin” above substance and careful thought.’
He added, ‘Mr. Picardo should concentrate on not losing the support of his own supporters due to broken promises like the Future Job Strategy or his huge personal u-turn on the use of commercial fishing nets. That extends to the wider community too because never in the history of politics has a political leader exhibited such lack of judgment, with such dire potential consequences for Gibraltar both in terms of our cross border relations, the public finances and the employment and training prospects of our people. A lack of judgment, which we warned the people of Gibraltar about before the last election and which we are seeing consistently played out in the last two years.'
Commenting on issue of what Credit Finance Co is being used for the GSD has stated that ‘by the Government’s own admission, it is providing funding to assist in the repayment of “Government arrears” and which Mr. Picardo admits includes (but is not limited to) taxes such as rates. This also extends to arrears of rents and electricity. Or does Mr. Picardo expect to pull the wool over the eyes of everyone and hope that people equate “taxes” with only “income tax or paye”, which appears to be the distinction he is drawing?
‘The Opposition is entitled to scrutinise who is benefiting from this scheme and the Leader of the Opposition is right not to accept the Government’s attempts to keep it secret as it did, for example, with the existence of a number of companies incorporated by the Government for the benefit of private individuals (including prominent GSLP supporters) with registered addresses at No 6 Convent Place which were being given the benefit of Government contracts. In a nut shell the Government has a history of being opaque with the electorate and trying to mislead the public and the Opposition. We repeated the call for Mr. Picardo to list all the types of taxes and other financial assistance covered by the generous offer of Credit Finance Co Ltd to help certain individuals and companies either now or in the future.’
The statement concludes with, ‘Finally Mr Picardo should focus on getting Gibraltar out of the mess it is fast finding itself in due to the decisions he has made over the last two years, instead of making any further outrageous statements or photo shoots.’
