Mr Desmond how yuh know UNC belongs to Panday, he have ah deed? How much he pay for it? Leadership is not a commodity or personal property....so please make sensible comments!!! He might be the founder of the UNC...but certainly NOT the owner!!!

Desmond, Jack thought that he could buy a ready-made Party with his money and when he realised that he couldn't he became frustrated and is now targeting all his energy on Bas.

As I said before, no one can take away Panday's achievements, but he himself. I honestly don't see him as a political leader winning a national election. He himself admitted he is a liability and asked the Party to find a new leader. Wnen he endorsed Dookeran as leader, he took every measure to frustrate and belittle the man.

Panday is getting on in age, he is not in the best of health, he has court cases pending with uncertain outcome. He once had the Primeministership and virtually threw it away. He still can't come to terms with this.

If he continues at the helm of Opposition, fighting with other opposition elements, Manning is assured of victory at the polls by default and the whole country suffers as a result.

Yes be careful as the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals could get involved for associating Jack with animals, the braying type. Time Jack gets the message stop it! stop destroying the UNC. The UNC was there from the start. Leave Bas alone with his UNC. Stop being parasitic but then that afflicts animals, maybe there IS something in this analogy.

What if COP say no, we can't handle all that bacchanal and confusion, will he go to PNM? That is what I'd call real political opportunism. I always found Gypsy the most reasonable, or least unreasonable, of the Ramjack trio but maybe I've been mistaken. I always say they should take lessons from the PNM when it comes to discipline. Do you see Rowley threatening to fight Manning in court or wherever else for position and post? They accept that there can be only one leader at any given time, even if it's a crapaud they get saddled with.

GYPSY TO RESIGN IF PANDEY WINS:
That should have been headline. Why hold on to a seat you won from a party you don't support show some "testicular fortitude" and resign on principle.

Oops sorry "principle" and politics in TNT don't mix. Ask our former President Mr. Robinson who has us in this mess. He forgot principle and sought to "settle scores" when he appointed Mr. Manning against the democratic wishes of the majority of the electorate in 2001. Yet the nation seems to treat him as "Teflon Robbie" no criticism.

But as they say "time longer than twine" and he has lived to regret his decision but appreciate his compensation package.

SO Gypsy resign your seat and fight it for the COP and happy early retirement.

This is what is meant when people say "small minded". None of the Panday sympathisers can see the bigger picture - country before party. And why should they? It is an opinion to say the UNC don't need the Ramjack trio. If this were true in even the slightest way, the party, that is to say, Basdeo Panday, would not have gone out of his way to court them. Forked-tongue Ramesh confessed tabanca for the party and even apologised to Panday publicly at a rally. The gullible hopefuls in the party lapped it up like so much stale vomit. The very experienced Panday knew though! But he still felt he could exercise some level of control over Ramesh. He just didn't figure Jack would throw his hat in with Ramesh giving Ramesh financial clout this second time around. After all those nauseous ads on TV with Panday and Jack sitting at a fireside style setting, talking about how good things will be under the UNC, the last thing Panday thought then was the same ad, 2 years later with Ramesh sitting where Panday once sat.

Jack is controversial and a trouble maker. Opinion. One could express a similar opinion of Panday himself. But in this thread the latter opinion is less factual than the former. Warner did not create the UNC, that is a fact. So what? Would he be the first person to rightfully vie for the top position of an entity he did not create in order to take it forward in the eyes of investors, or in this case, members and voters? Would he be the last? So because Panday "created" the UNC as you seem to believe, that gives Panday a right to remain regardless of all the party's national failures? Is this the act of a responsible leader, or someone thinking of himself? Is this the act of someone who cares for the very reason the UNC was created? Or is it that the UNC was "created" simply for Basdeo Panday and not to serve the country and provide alternate governance to the people of Trinidad & Tobago? If that is the case he would be the head of a club and as such he has no right soliciting votes from the public to govern the public. The argument that the party belongs to Panday can only be acceptable if it were true to say that the party was a private entity with no aspirations to governance and depending on the public vote. The party is currently being run as a club doing the bidding of one man, propped up by his wife, a godson, a daughter, a brother and others too fearful of the man, though they themselves agree with Ramjack in principle. I don't state this as fact, it too is an opinion... me and half a million other Trinis stand to be corrected. You see this sort of thing all the time - someone creates an entity to benefit some external body. But the creator of the entity is so afraid of change and growth that he surrounds himself only with those willing to do his bidding. Internal Election??? Perish THAT thought. I have witnessed it first hand, a long standing chairman of a group trying his best to fend off internal elections saying "I not afraid of any elections!". Sounds familiar, right?
To merely say if Jack don't like it he could get out is the narrow-minded way to look at it. The stakes are too high to simply leave the UNC as a club. What are the stakes? People's taxes, people's very lives. In other words, the stakes are far more public than they are private. The "club" mentality has to go. If the UNC aspiring towards something National, they need to think National and act National so that they will be acceptable BY THE NATION as a credible alternative. Even the UNC saying that they are not a credible alternative. Panday has had his time, his input and his results. It is time to move on. It is known as PROGRESS. To leave him in place simply because he founded the party, which by the way he did NOT do on his own, is to ignore the cry of the greater population for an alternative to the PNM. More narrow-minded one cannot get.

The UNC is Panday, and Panday is the UNC.

If Panday steps aside or quit politics and the UNC, here's what will happen:

* Some UNC supporters would switch to the PNM. This would create a loss for the UNC, and a gain for the PNM.

* Some would switch to the COP, and some would return from the COP. My guess is that approximately the same amount would leave as the amount returning. This would not result in an increase of UNC supporters.

* Some would leave the UNC and not support any political party and some would start to support the UNC, who are not supporting any party right now. My guess is that approximately the same amount would leave as the amount returning. This would not result in an increase of UNC supporters.

So, technically, the PNM support would increase while the UNC support would decrease. Those who think that removing Mr Panday would help the UNC win may be wrong. The only way the UNC can win elections is for it's supporters to learn from the PNM, because they are constantly winning. The PNM supporters vote for the PNM religiously and without complaining. They also have a lot of respect for their leader. The Ramjack faction and their supporters have no respect for their leader, Mr Panday, who was elected democratically and fairly.

I doubt that they would be able to govern a country!!!!!!!!!!!