Out on the Hustings

Carrie Lam's husband (left) denies having any extramarital affairs in the UK

The race to become the next chief executive of Hong Kong is well underway, and all three candidates are out on the hustings trying to shore up as many votes as possible for the March 26 election.

Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor's husband has already come out to quash rumours that he has a mistress in Britain. Lam Siu-por was asked by Citizen News portal if he had had any affairs before, to which he replied: "I can tell you all that I have no such problems. I have a very close relationship with Mrs Lam."

What kind of question is that?! If there were any pictures or videos of Lam Siu-por with another woman then maybe the media would be justified in asking that, but to ask that outright is bizarre.

Pan-democrats already vow to vote for John Tsang

He had told Apple Daily that such rumours probably arose because he spent so much time in the UK looking after their two sons while she was working in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile the pan-democrats on the Election Committee have decided en masse to put all their 326 votes towards Lam's rival John Tsang Chun-wah. While that's a nice gesture, he would still need 275 votes to win.

All of his nominations were from the pan-democratic camp so he'll have to work hard to get some pro-establishment votes...

Although Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee is out of the race, she is still focusing her energy on criticizing Lam as running a "shallow campaign".

"[The campaign] is insincere, making people feel that it is a facade," Ip said.

Regina Ip continues to attack Carrie Lam in the media

Ouch.

Ip added she felt Lam would not govern Hong Kong well even if she had 800 votes.

"It's too simplistic to say a high vote count could result in effective governance. It is ignorant of the deep-seated problems facing Hong Kong," she said.

Sounds like someone is either a sore loser, or is trying to prove someone is a paper tiger, or trying to piss off Beijing for not cutting her losses earlier.

The next three weeks are going to have a lot of fodder for people to chew on...

John Tsang Reveals Small Details

John Tsang reveals why he quit his job as Finance Secretary under CY Leung

Now we know why John Tsang Chun-wah quit his job as Financial Secretary to run for the next Chief Executive of Hong Kong.

He finally revealed that he quit in December after he had a row with Leung Chun-ying over the government budget. Tsang said Leung wanted to multiply the amount of new money earmarked for the next few years which would result in a deficit.

Tsang had told Sing Tao Daily on Thursday that he quit because he was unhappy but did not elaborate, and that he only thought of running for CE after he quit the job.

Today he was asked again by the media why he quit, and Tsang replied: It's not about one single incident. It's accumulated over time."

Since Paul Chan Mo-po has taken over the finance post, his first budget reveals there will be a deficit thanks to many infrastructure projects. Chan also decided not to put money into the Future Fund that Tsang had set up in 2015 for rainy days, instead spending it on welfare and sports.

Interesting that Tsang gives this curious bit of information that reveals more about himself and his ex-boss. While Tsang is right to be as fiscally prudent as possible, he was quite extreme about this -- Hong Kong is much wealthier than many cities, let alone countries!

So we can expect Tsang to be fiscally conservative if he wins as the next Chief Executive?

Young Hong Kong People Fear Poverty

Young people worry they cannot get out of the cycle of poverty as adults

Oxfam Hong Kong has released its poverty report and one striking finding is that young Hong Kong people are more concerned about the issue than their elders.

In a survey of 1,000 respondents, over half thought poverty was serious, with 65.4 percent of those in the 18-39 age range worried the most, compared with 47.6 percent of people aged 40-59, and 46.4 percent of those over 60.

Many elderly don't get financial assistance

Young people also felt intergenerational poverty was the most pressing issue, where a person grows up in poverty, but also continues to live with financial challenges as an adult because of poor education and/or health issues.

"They are feeling frustrated. I think they experience the problem now existing," says Wong Shek-hung, program manager of Oxfam Hong Kong.

Wong cited the government's 2015 Poverty Situation Report where almost one million people are living in poverty in the city, about 30 percent of them are elderly.

"The poverty in Hong Kong is very serious," Wong said. "Elderly poverty is still the greatest challenge to Hong Kong."

Of the respondents, nearly 40 percent of them felt the minimum wage should be raised to over HK$45 (US$5.80) an hour, up from the new rate of HK$35.50 that will be in effect from May. Oxfam has also called for the government to review the minimum wage annually instead of every two years as it currently lags behind inflation.

Some 30 percent of the poor are elderly people in the city

When you convert HK$45, it's not even US$6 -- this is shocking. And I thought working for US$10 an hour was terrible.

Chief executive candidate Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor says while she is accused of being a "welfarist", she supports big business because she believes it will lead to higher wages.

Company owners can very easily cry to her about how business has been so tough that raising wages would make their profit margins even thinner.

When is the government going to take a tough stand for the ordinary guy? We appreciate the recent budget with cuts on income taxes, but this just helps ease the strains of the high costs of things for another year; it doesn't help the average person get a leg up on building his or her pot of gold to really feel confident and optimistic for their futures.

Picture of the Day: Facelifting

How did this signage pass through many layers of Hong Kong bureaucracy?

This afternoon I happened to be near the Hong Kong Museum of Art in Tsim Sha Tsui that is undergoing a massive HK$930 million expansion so that it will have 40 percent more exhibition space by the time it re-opens in mid-2019.

As a result there's hoarding around the pink-tiled building and what does it say on it?

"We are facelifting!"

Since when was facelifting a verb?

Who approved the words on the hoarding, because it's not the right use of the word, which means a cosmetic surgery procedure.

As far as I know Chinese and English are the official languages of Hong Kong -- how did this sign surrounding a government-funded building get approved?