THE REVENGE OF KENNY ANTHONY Part II

WHERE DE MONEY GONE, FELLAS?

Fine. Ignore the report. But where's the money, honey?

The McDoom/Mae Wayne soupsyon reigned for so long at number one that no one would have guessed that something as boring as budget could be the new bombshell.

But Labour’s release of the stunning report on spending by Constituency Groups and Town and Village Councils has knocked off the HOT COUTURE saga like Purple Rain kicking Thriller out of the number one spot in 1984.

Based on the first days of budget in April, you never would have seen it coming.

Labour played their hand poker-faced. They held a weird debate after the Throne Speech where the PM did not give a big budget address for the opposition to attack. This left the opposition with no choice but to complain about having no target to attack and to wait for what they had to know was coming.

Even during the PM’s big speech in mid-May, Labour kept the poker faces on.

The Flambeaus seemed poker faced, too.

In retrospect, however, they seemed more stonefaced or scared-stiff – even Guy Smiley, who was bound to be one of the main culprits fingered by the report.

And then, last Thursday, Labour dropped the bomb.

And Flambeaus started deflecting and counter-accusing – though to be fair, they have yet to bring up Rochamel or cost-overruns on the VF-Soufriere Highway. (In fact, given what is said in Labour’s bombshell report, it will be a wonder if anyone ever brings up Rochamel and cost-overruns again.)

Last Sunday, at the Babonneau Constituency Brach meeting, King said the report was “An attempt to discredit the UWP. It is designed to destroy the UWP’s integrity, character and behaviour.” Whatever that means.

But if Flambeau thinks they can simply dodge the question of what happened to millions in Taiwanese funds, they have another thing coming. This mess is complicated, but in the end, dealing with it is as simple as the theory of relativity. Flambeau must go through the report and answer, item by item, the burning question, “WHERE DE MONEY GONE?”

All the squirming and deflecting in the world, all the politiczation of the report they can muster, will not be enough to make the multi-million dollar question go away.

It is ironic, because this year’s budget was the first time in more than five years that Flambeau has spent more time discussing the budget than Kenny Anthony’s ‘misdeeds’.

For Kenny, that’s probably the best revenge of all. Because catching all the waste and irregularities of the former Government may have been time-consuming and expensive, but killing the ghost of Rochamel and silencing Guy Joseph on cost overruns…that’s priceless.