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by TREVOR YEARWOOD

THE BARBADOS LABOUR PARTY (BLP) still has a lot to celebrate, even though it lost last week's no-confidence vote in Parliament.

Opposition Leader Mia Mottley made this point on Sunday during a meeting of the BLP's Christ Church constituency branches that at times resembled a party with its dancing, cheering and music of reggae star Jimmy Cliff.

"We knew, as with most no-confidence motions, that you couldn't win it on the floor of the House," Mottley told the hundreds of party members and supporters at Deighton Griffith Secondary School.

However, the BLP knew it could "get the attention of the House straight away" and attract media coverage on issues of national importance, she added.

She charged that the Democratic Labour Party had not dealt with the substantive issues raised by the motion and had taken a position which indicated "this is simply about wanting to keep Government and not about doing the right thing" to address the CLICO problem.

She added: ". . . What you saw was a naked exercise of political power with the whip on."

She said the CLICO issue would not go away and the BLP would not back away from it.

Former BLP minister Clyde Mascoll said a no-confidence motion was "not about winning anything" but about making revelations.

The BLP's motion presented the party with an opportunity to educate Barbadians on the issues involved in the CLICO saga, he argued.

These included the decision-making of the Minister of Finance, whether it could be deemed sound, he said.

Source: Nation Newspaper of March 10, 2009.
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