Manning to Panday: Take a power mint

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning turned doctor yesterday when he advised Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday to use a Diana power mint to cure a mysterious throat ailment which prevented him (Panday) from addressing Shouter Baptist Liberation Day celebrations at the Port-of-Spain City Hall. Manning expressed regret about Panday’s absence and recalled losing his voice recently. The Prime Minister caused the entire gathering to erupt in laughter as he suggested to Panday that he would get “a speedy recovery from Diana power mints.” Manning claimed to have lost his voice on two occasions earlier this month when confronted by reporters about the resignation of Point Fortin MP Larry Achong as Labour Minister.

Speaking earlier in the proceedings, UNC chairman Wade Mark said Panday was nursing “a sore throat.” “I don’t think it’s larynigitis,” Mark stated. During earlier celebrations at Orange Grove Lands, Maloney, the Prime Minister warmly welcomed a Shouter Baptist delegation from Barbados. “The Barbadians are our brothers,” he told the gathering who joined him in welcoming them. Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados have referred a maritime boundary dispute between them to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea for arbitration. The Barbadians presented a gift to Manning in response to his graciousness.