At a government meeting on Tuesday, Bush made several misleading claims about the campaign and the cruise project before urging the people of West Bay not to listen to the campaigners, claiming they were posting false underwater pictures of reefs in the harbour, but to listen to government, who knew what was best for the people.

Bush was the chairman for the third meeting in government’s port promotional roadshow, which was held in West Bay. The speaker used the platform to accuse the CPR and its members of using the referendum as a way to get into the Legislative Assembly. But he also made some very serious misleading comments to the audience about the marine environment in George Town harbour, the motivation for the legal action the campaigners are taking and accused them of lying.

Bush said they were “dirty people” who were posting pictures on social media of underwater scenes and reefs that they claimed were in George Town Harbour when they were not. However, the he offered no evidence for this claim and there is no indication that any pictures posted in connection with the ‘no’ campaign anywhere were not genuine, given the amount of marine life available to photograph.

He said that while there may be some genuine conservationists, many of them were peddling conflicting stories just to stop the dock. “Be careful who you listen to,” Bush said. “Don’t be fooled by those campaigning against the dock because they hope it’s going to take them into the Legislative Assembly.”

But with government implementing a policy at these public meetings of only allowing written questions, the activists behind the historic people’s referendum were not given the chance to correct the misinformation delivered by the speaker.

While Bush misled his constituents, Premier Alden McLaughlin continued to show his impatience and frustration with the entire campaign and the successful triggering of the referendum. He described the national vote as nothing more than “a distraction” against the backdrop of many other issues, which had to be got out of the way as quickly as possible so government could get on with the business of running the country.

Making it clear that he believed the government had a mandate for the port project, despite the widespread and visible opposition to it, McLaughlin continued to dismiss the national vote as something the government had to deal with purely because of the Constitution, failing to recognise the wider public mood regarding this proposed project.

The premier also claimed that Seven Mile Beach remained the red line and if there was any indication that would be at risk the project would stop. But the CCMI has already warned that the beach is under threat, a warning that McLaughlin has dismissed.

During the written question submissions the premier was asked why the date for the national poll could not have been delayed by a few weeks, and to justify spending public cash promoting the port project when there was still so much information to be learned.

Without actually answering the questions, he instead criticised the CPR group, saying that nothing could ever please them. McLaughlin said government had been working on this project for six years, had already spent some $5 million on the process and it now faced a group of people who wish to derail it. The referendum, he told the audience, gave them their chance to test the reality of the country’s mood but government had a duty to get on with things.

Stating that if government has got it all wrong, a proposition he clearly didn’t support, he conceded that government would have to honour the result, but in the meantime he was not prepared to wait. The campaigners would not be allowed to delay the vote, he said, until they thought they had the numbers to win it. But the premier did not explain why the vote could not be delayed for just a few weeks. He claimed the day chosen, just six days before Christmas, was the earliest possible date the vote could happen.

“If the verdict is ‘no’ it will be a travesty and a terrible decision,” he said, adding that unless a court ordered it, the government “won’t delay the process just to satisfy CPR”.

McLaughlin accused the CPR of orchestrating a year long misinformation campaign, but he said that government believes the electorate is capable of judging what is true and what is not, as he suggested there was more than enough information in the public domain for people to decide.

However, there is widespread concern in the community that the lack of environmental and geo-technical information as well as the actual final business case makes it very difficult for government to hold a fair vote under such circumstances.

Representatives from the Verdant Isle group have confirmed that much of the environmental threat and issues will not be understood until well after the referendum. And they have confirmed that if the vote is a ‘yes’, construction work would not start until 2021 at the earliest because of the amount of studies and surveys that still have to be done. They also said that the massive task of attempting to move over a dozen acres of coral currently in the dredge footprint would take up much of next year.

The government’s public meetings continue on Thursday at the Elmslie Momorial Church Hall in George Town. See schedule here. Meanwhile, the CPR officially launches its referendum campaign tonight, Wednesday 21 November, by the court house in downtown George Town at 6:30pm.