Dear Editor,

The recent sounds coming out of Peoples National Party (PNP) headquarters are very interesting. What with the heated campaign to replace Dr Omar Davis and the subtle but obvious moves to remove Portia Simpson Miller as party leader.

There are two things, however, that seem to have been overlooked by most people. The first is that the race for ‘Jungle’ is a proxy race for the PNP presidency. Mark Golding is joined at the hip to Peter Bunting and if Golding wins the seat expect him and his delegates to vote for Bunting, while Colin Campbell is a staunch, old-guard man, and will surely, barring any unforeseen event, vote for Dr Peter Phillips.

The second interesting thing that has got little in-depth coverage is that of the young Turks. With Lisa Hannah now explicitly stating that she is only looking for the vice-presidency of the party we have to ask what is happening there? With Lisa being so vociferous and vocal about the party’s need for youth in top positions I can’t see her being satisfied with a token VP position.

Could it be that the Turks are indeed coalescing around a candidate? Patrick Roberts’ comments on Julian Robinson running for the party leadership still hangs in the air and was met with no outrage or spin by the Robinson camp.

That they as individuals (the Turks) have given up on aspirations of power and change within the party is unlikely. Another unspoken possibility is that of the Turks aligning with Dr Phillips. I do not agree with that tactic for two reasons, firstly Dr Phillips is a product of the old guard and the PNP members want a shakeup, and secondly while he has his times, he doesn’t think outside the box enough, as seen with the IMF programme where we passed as a nation but we the individuals barely felt the positive effects of it.

Maybe the young Turks are running an insurgent campaign, the average party member is miffed to put it mildly and the young Turks represent the best chance for them to get the change that they want within the party. So for the sake of the party faithfuls who for too long have been sold a dream by the party leadership I hope that the young Turks are not giving up but campaigning in silence.

Alexander Scott