PSD Wants To Silence Opinion ; Poster Campaign Starts Monday ; We Fight Against Car Chipping
Politics
(11th July). ‘GR Wants To Silence Opinion’. The National Commission for Elections, and the Media Regulatory Authority, yesterday received a complaint from the government of Madeira. The complaint is aimed at the broadcasting media, expressing concern that programs of opinions about political parties are against the organs of power in Madeira, the responsibility of the social democrat ruling party, and there is an absence of counter opinion. The complaint reminds that we are now in a pre-election period, and that programs that were suspended before the European elections, are now intentionally being shown to the detriment of the PSD-M.
(10th July). ‘Gama Denies 10 Minutes To A Deputy Of PS-M – Júlia Caré wanted to say goodbye to São Bento with a piece about Madeira. She asked in April to speak on 1st July. Jaime Gama wouldn’t allow it’. The president of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal, and of the same political party as Caré, representative for Madeira at the end of her mandate, suggested she should turn to the newspapers to say what she wanted … she did. He told her he had read her interview in Madeira’s newspaper, and should return to the Diário to say whatever it was she wanted, leaving her somewhat perplexed. It seems in the interview she did in the Diário, she expressed her discontent with the procedures and bureaucracy in the Assembly of the Republic.
‘Election Posters Of PS-M Only In São Vicente’. However from Monday the socialist party aims to start posting it’s propaganda in Funchal, the second district on Madeira to suffer. The independent candidate in Calheta says she will not put up her posters until the first half of August. It seems each party has its own timetable and priority locations.
(9th July). ‘War Against The Microchip Reminds Of Seat Belts – PSD-M has produced a proposal to exclude Madeira from ‘micro chipped’ registration plates’. 16 years after President Jardim and his sidekick Jaime Ramos fought a battle to reject legislation in Madeira about the compulsory wearing of seatbelts. history is about to repeat itself. This time it is against a national programme to fit all cars with electronic tagging devices, which will become mandatory for all vehicle owners in Portugal. On Wednesday the social democrats of Madeira produced a draft decree in the assembly, which will exclude Madeira from that legislation. They justify this stance by saying that the ‘chip’ is to some extent to control tolls on ‘pay roads’, and there are none here. They also say that the initiative is an invasion of the privacy of citizens, making reference to a ‘big brother’ surveillance system. The chips will also be used to trace stolen cars, to ensure that car insurance is up to date, and trace owners of outstanding fines. Another piece of Jardim stupidity, though not quite to the standard of fighting the compulsory wearing of seatbelts. I for one would be very very happy to know that all the cars that are on our roads all have valid insurance, and that there is another deterrent to car theft. I would think that only criminals would be anti such legislation … enough said!
Economy
(11th July). Today’s main news headline : ‘Insolvencies Triple – The number of companies and entities going through processes of insolvency increased in the first 6 months of this year, compared to the same period of 2008, from 17 to 50′. During the same period the creation of new companies fell by a third, from 553 to 369, the worst performance in Portugal. Lots of statistics comparing Madeira with Portugal, and it certainly seems that in both these factors that Madeira is suffering these aspects of the recession worse than most.
‘Inflation Fell 1.6% in June – Compared to the same month in 2008, much due to the influence of transport’. The National Statistics Institute (INE) released the data yesterday, showing inflation to be -1.6%, still lower than the -1.2% in declared in May. The main areas of falling prices were in transportation, food, and non-alcoholic beverages.
(10th July). ‘Banif And Banco Mais In Negotiations – The get together could result in a merger’. The two banks are in an advanced phase of negotiations that could result in a fusion in various financial activities. Meanwhile the insolvent Banco Privado Português (BPP) was sold to the Sociedade Comercial Orey Antunes for €1.
