Camille cancels trip in order to vote

Planning Minister Camille Robinson-Regis had to forego  a trip to the UN in order to ensure the Government had sufficient members in the Parliament to pass the Provisional Collection of Taxes. Three members of the Government are expected to be out of the country by Friday when the Provisional Collection of Taxes Order is to be debated. Ken Valley is in Santo Domingo,  Eric Williams is due to attend an oil conference, while Prime Minister Patrick Manning left yesterday for  Jamaica and Cuba. Robinson-Regis, who was due to go overseas, had to cancel the trip because there would have been only 16 Government members against the UNC 16 on Friday.

Acting Prime Minister Joan Yuille-Williams yesterday dispelled rumours that there was anything wrong with Manning which required urgent medical attention. She indicated that the country had been advised that Manning would be visiting Cuba at this time and that there was a slight rearrangement of his schedule to accomodate the Caricom Heads of Government meeting in Port-of-Spain on November 8 and 9. Further testifying to his excellent state of health, she confirmed that Manning worked all night on Monday and left the country with a briefcase of papers to do more work.