DLP at Crossroads

EIGHT MONTHS IN OFFICE, its strongest members and supporters are concerned that since the January 15 general election, the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) has not picked up momentum. This Minister of Finance has never been good at managing the economy. The whispers by DLP insiders are getting louder.

 

 

DLP supporters are extremely nervous about the Prime Minister’s recent comments about who is connected to big business. They are aware that there has never been a leader of the Democratic Labour Party who is as connected to big business as Thompson. Card-carrying DLP members and ordinary supporters feel disappointed that while they have to wait for their share of the fatted calf, the privileged have either benefited from a petroleum price increase or the award of insurance contracts. One person was so happy with his slice of the cow that he told the entire country that he was able to get in five days from Thompson what he could not get from the former government in 14 years.

You cannot go anywhere in Barbados without running into a disgruntled Dem, who is only too happy to stop you to complain about not getting an overseas pick, a pick in the Cabinet or some other job. The cracks are widening and the term is ticking by faster than Peter Wickham can count.

Despite trying to ride on Barack Obama’s popularity with a Hartley Henry staged photo op, which incidentally was also the diplomatic gaffe of the century, the Prime Minister and the DLP went into its conference flat and came out totally deflated.

The incessant bleating about what they found on assuming office is like three-day-old cou cou – scummy, sour and indigestible. Nothing the Dems say now will appease a public that is openly grumbling that they are not performing. Having given the DLP a chance, Barbadians are beginning to agree that it does not have what it takes to move this country forward, far less keep us where we were.

Thompson’s address to the DLP’s conference was as predictable as it was empty. We have heard various versions of this speech so many times during the past 14 years, that we can recite it.

It lacked innovation, vision, empathy and solutions to the problems which the Government are compounding daily. Barbadians do not expect this from a party that promised change. It was typical DLP old-style politics.

There was no progress report on the number of houses built by the National Housing Corporation; no report on the integrity legislation that was promised and not a word about the act requiring a two-thirds majority of Parliament to remove land
from agriculture.

It gets worse. David Thompson is reported to have said: “Let me make it clear that the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) will not dictate the work schedule or the pace of work of this Government. The Barbados Labour Party did not vote us into office and they will not set the agenda of this administration. Not now, not ever!”

Here is the rub. The BLP is not trying to dictate anything to the Government. It is the people who are calling for things to happen. Perhaps the Prime Minister should mothball his frequent flyer card and spend some time with his ears to the ground.

Government Hiding Failure

GOVERNMENT IS DISGUISING its shortcomings by continuing to claim they found plenty of financial irregularities upon taking office, an Opposition Senator claimed yesterday.

 

 

Kerrie Symmonds, the former Member of Parliament for St James North, was commenting on recent remarks made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Chris Sinckler who, on the eve of the Democratic Labour Party’s annual general conference, said the seven-month-old administration had been unable to fulfil all it’s election promises because of the financial mess left by the previous Government.

“To say the Barbados Labour Party had left a financial mess is an ugly disguise of this Government’s failure to deliver on outlandish and un-implementable election policies,” Symmonds told the SUNDAY SUN in response yesterday.Inconsistent factors

 

According to the Senator, the actions of the DLP Government do not indicate Barbados is in a financial bind. “It is absurd in the extreme to contend that there is a financial mess when the Government itself is preparing within the next few days, to commence free travel for all school children on state-run [Transport] Board buses.”

“Equally inconsistent is the fact that during the last three months we have had an Estimates exercise, a full budget debate, the issuing of a Central Bank’s Governor’s quarterly report and even an IMF article for consultation, and during none of these major financial exercises was a single word uttered about any crisis, inability to pay bills, or financial difficulties which should challenge a competent and dutiful administration,” Symmonds stated.

According to Symmonds, Sinckler’s comments indicate the first-time minister “is out of his field, and out of his depth on these critical matters of implementing policy as promised by the DLP Government”.Unfulfilled promises

 

Also, the former parliamentarian believes the DLP Government continues to fail to live up to most of its pre-election promises to Barbadians.

“Who has heard of any explanation for the failure to remove VAT from building materials for houses valued up to $400 000, which was a manifesto promise to be completed within 100 days of election?” Symmonds asked.

He added that Government has gone silent on a proposed home ownership revolving fund, which they had pledged to implement as a first priority to give interest-free mortgages to public servants.

“Even on the simple issue of transparency one wonders, whenever will we hear of an after-cabinet Press conference from the DLP Government again?”

Symmonds said Government’s litany of excuses for non-performance would not dissuade the Opposition from continuing to focus the public’s attention on some of the tragic failures of this new Government.