Cayman Islands premier, Alden McLaughlin, was very upbeat in his New Year’s message.

With an upcoming election coming up very fast he needed to make a statement on how good things have become in the Cayman Islands since he and his Progressives government took office.

Good for him he has a lot to be upbeat about. So much so that the main opposition Mr McKeeva’s Bush party will be shouting loud and clear they laid the foundation for it when they were in power before the Progressives took over.

Just like Bush’s lot shouted what seemed to be forever the reason for the terrible economy, the huge debt, nothing being accomplished and the terrible decisions they (Bush) made were due to the Progressives (aka The PPM) who were in power prior to them.

Unemployment will be one of the key campaign issues and McLaughlin did not miss that in his message.

“Unemployment amongst Caymanians,” he said, “has fallen from a high of 10.5% in 2012 to 5.6% in early 2016. This is the lowest Caymanian unemployment has been since 2007.”

There are still improvements to be made he acknowledged and recognised there are families finding it hard to make ends meet. He said, “We pledge to continue our efforts in the remaining months of this term to ensure that every Caymanian willing and able to work has the opportunity to do so.”

Another area that is hot is the current crime wave with shootings and gangs that was unheard of when I arrived here over 30 years ago.

There is no doubt the spike in this occurred after Hurricane Ivan when all sorts of undesirables were allowed in to “help” us rebuild.

With the increase in unemployment the ground was fertile for this blot on our landscape to grow and flourish.

The RCIPS have had their hands full and the community have voiced their feelings at the failure of this body to handle it and vented their rage especially on the past Police Commissioner who must have been very pleased to resign with full pay for another year back in the UK.

McLaughin was right in calling on the community to help and said “..I am certain that the policies and leadership of a Progressives government offer the best opportunity to help resolve our social ills.”

He mentioned churches and civil society should also help to protect young people from the gang culture.

I hope the new commissioner doesn’t become too zealous in his traffic policies of playing the numbers game and having his officers ticketing these very members of the community he needs help from with trivial offences some of which were very questionable.

He did mention his Achilles Heel – “aspects of our immigration law, particularly those arising in the courts regarding permanent residency” and “we are working urgently to resolve the issues with the permanent residency points system that are creating difficulties. I expect to be able to say more about this early in the New Year.”

He certainly does need to address this and his need to stop the publishing of the Ritch Report is going to do all his good works a great deal of harm. The Open Government he promised four years ago will only be laughed at if he tries to promote that again.

His pushing ahead with his Ombudsman policy on the pretext of saving money is laughable and the motives behind it even I question and the answer I have fat the forefront of my mind is not one I like at all.

However, this is not a perfect world and I am not privilege to all the reasons.

I do applaud what has been achieved in such a short time.

We are moving into unchartered waters in the new electoral boundaries system and no seat is safe, except the Leader of the Opposition.

McKeeva is the Messiah (well he is perceived that in West Bay). McLaughlin will never achieve that status and no doubt he doesn’t want it.

Our premier deserves to be upbeat. And results matter more than broken promises even when coming from a perceived Messiah.