ENERGY IS THE SOURCE of life and livelihoods – without it people would die, businesses would collapse and life as we know it would come to a halt. A progressive and sensitive policy, which allows access to affordable energy, is critical to the well-being of the country and its citizens.

Poor energy policy causes suffering to people at every level of society. The Barbados Labour Party (BLP) got its energy policy right. That was part of the reason Barbados prospered under the BLP Government. On the other hand, the Democratic Labour Party's (DLP) energy policy reflects the Dems' lack of understanding of how the economy works and the connection between energy policy, quality of life and the performance of the Barbados economy.

It is no accident that since the Prime Minister raised energy prices, the price of everything in Barbados – from food to fuel, from bottled gas to bread – has gone sky-high. Whether you are cooking, freighting, using water or producing goods and services, you need energy. We understand this, and under the BLP energy prices were kept down so as to also control and reduce prices in the wider economy. When prices went down internationally, the BLP passed the benefit of that decrease on to the public.

Unlike the BLP, the Dems are not passing on price decreases to you. The Prime Minister raised the price of petroleum products when the international market price was about US$130 per barrel. A barrel of oil is now about US$90 and although Bajans are suffering, the Prime Minister would not reduce the local price and ease our pain. It is shameful that with its high prices, the DLP is raking in more taxes on petroleum products than any Government in the history of the country.

We were told that the BLP left a debt of $80 million at Barbados National Oil Company (BNOC). What people were not told is that so much fuel is sold in Barbados that just by adding a few cents to the price, a debt of $80 million could be wiped-off in a few months. What the DLP, which promised "freedom of information", hid from you is that although they imposed a near $2 price increase on diesel, petrol and kerosene, and $52 between large and small bottles of gas, out of those massive increases only four cents goes to repay the BNOC debt. So why such a steep increase?

Let us explain how the taxes work! There are two taxes on fuel – VAT and excise tax. If a gallon of gas costs $1, the VAT on that is 15 cents. If ten gallons are sold, then the Government makes $1.50 in VAT. When the price is increased to $2, the VAT automatically moves to 30 cents and if the same ten gallons of gas are sold, the Government gets $3 in VAT.

Every time gas prices go up people have to pay more taxes and more for everything else; the lower the price at the pump, then the lower the cost of living. A desire to control the cost of living is the reason why when prices went up internationally, the BLP reduced the excise tax in order to keep prices down at the pump. The example used earlier shows how much more money the present Government is "raking-in" in tax, when there is a difference in price of just one dollar.

So, can you imagine how much taxes this DLP is "raking-in" on fuel by selling it to us at US$112, when the market price is US$90? Have they forgotten their promise to keep down the cost of living, or was that just a campaign gimmick? Instead of giving us "relief from the pain" from their high energy prices and taxes, the DLP has made itself the biggest price gouger in the country.

Past Weekly Columns

Artillery strategists and political advisors live by the maxim that the best form of defense is attack. Under attack from Barbadians on the failure of his Government to live up to its manifesto promises and the drift that has beset his Cabinet, the Prime Minister used the opportunity of a new audience on yet another overseas trip last weekend to do what he does best – resort to gossip and innuendo in a baseless broadside on members of the former government.
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Economists describe inflation as the increase in prices, while stagflation is described as high inflation and high unemployment or, when the economy fails to grow but prices rise any-way. With the DLP ruling this country, it is not surprising that the outlook for Barbados next year will be higher inflation and high unemployment. But, job loss; high unemployment and jobless growth have long been characteristics of DLP rule.
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We note comments attributed to Minister Steve Blackett, appearing in one section of the press of September 2, 2008. It was stated that high on his list of priorities is the fashioning of the NCF into a developmental and commercial body designed to boost the nation’s cultural industries and make the performing and visual arts, far more profitable for artistes, the creative designers, composers and others who make culture a way of life.
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When we left office on January 15, 2008, more Barbadians were employed than at any time in the history of the country. Unemployment was even lower than many European countries, despite their enormous natural resources.
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We wish we were not the ones who have to say - we told you so, but it is our constitutional duty to let the people of Barbados know that the Democratic Labour Party is in a mess and that it is overwhelmed by the level of confusion it has created since January 15th, as well as by the mess it continues to create daily.
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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.
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COUNTLESS MEMBERS of the DLP have been quietly singing Rupee’s “Feet don’t fail me now” as they pledge that nothing must keep them away from their party’s conference to prevent them from giving Hartley Henry and the supporting cast led by David Thompson “a piece of their mind” about the DLP’s non performance.
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Thousands of Barbadians are asking themselves how and why after years of making their contributions, they now find themselves at the bottom of the National Insurance pension pool since the Prime Minister’s Black Monday Budget. They also want to know what justice there is in contributing to an earnings-based fund only to see others who made smaller contributions receiving the same pensions that they do, less a dollar here or there.
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We thought we were witnessing a new phenomenon among the electorate - an uncharacteristic early withdrawal of support for a newly elected Prime Minister and Government. Then we happened across the words of the author of The Little Prince and knew immediately that the fault lay not with a demanding electorate but with a leader and a Government that have become disconnected with the people in world record time.
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We congratulate Dr. David Estwick this week for finally coming to the realization that former Minister of Health, Dr. Jerome Walcott’s proposal for a new general hospital for Barbados is the best solution for our tertiary health care needs for the next forty or so years.
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Disappointing might be an apt description of our national festival this year, sad as this is to thousands of us who were looking forward to some respite from the long, hot summer of high prices and higher taxes.
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The results are in. Nation readers have spoken. Seventy-one percent of them have the same opinion of this year’s Budget – “Not So Good.” The figures might be skewed if only because there was no opportunity to vote for a bad budget. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that in this case, for this Budget, not so good equals bad.
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Ever since our startled ears heard the Prime Minister’s Press Secretary inviting various interest groups to bring their shopping lists and come to a meeting with her boss in advance of this year’s Budget, we began to wonder just how serious the Prime Minister is about managing our economy.
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Colin Spencer is absolutely correct. It is time that the Government shows it is in charge – in charge of delivering on its promises; in charge of job no 1, 2 and 3 – lowering the cost of living; in charge of making things better at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital; in charge of keeping unemployment at historic low levels; in charge of maintaining air lift to keep the tourists coming; in charge of protecting our foreign reserves; in charge of reducing poverty; in charge and not only in government.
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Confidence is one of those peculiar human qualities that, fortune aside, most determines life’s winners and losers. Its absence can thwart genius while its over abundance can mushroom into arrogance and conceit. It can be harnessed for defense or used to attack. In its purest, most powerful form it can be wonderfully contagious.
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Despite the announcement in their Manifesto, reaffirmation in the Throne Speech and a $4.5 million vote in the Estimates, the Dems still have no clue how to implement their much touted constituency councils.
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It warmed our hearts on Tuesday to hear Minister Donville Inniss inform the House and the country that Barbados was embarking on the final phase of the Barbados Labour Party Government’s plan to secure the rights to our maritime space by applying to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to extend the outer limits of our continental shelf.
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The Barbados Labour Party is happy that the Prime Minister has taken our Leader’s advice to reduce the cost of diesel to at least some of the productive sectors by re-introducing the subsidy on diesel. We do not believe however that he has gone far enough and in fact he is still a day late and a dollar short.
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The revelation by former Prime Minister Owen Arthur last weekend that the David Thompson Administration is considering major changes to the conduct and character of elections in Barbados raised red flags all across a country that is admired for its electoral process throughout the Commonwealth and beyond.
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In October 1938, Orson Welles struck fear into the heart of a nation in the now infamous radio drama The War of the Worlds by announcing that the Martians had landed. Hundreds of thousands of Americans were panic stricken, believing the news bulletin format of the drama to be the real thing. Despite the ensuing furore the episode shot Welles to fame.
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The Government finally brought down its first Bill to the house on Tuesday. Four months in gestation, it was obviously a casualty of induced labour. The Minister of Health has stamped (or is it stomped) his authority on the composition of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Board through the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Amendment Act.
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Two myths exploded in the face of the Government this past week. Myth Number One: They had no choice in their pricing policy of fuel products. Myth Number Two: Their 100-day Manifesto promises were achievable.
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Well the 100 days have come and gone without so much as a whimper from the Democratic Labour Party Government. Prior to January 15th they had a lot to say and knew all the answers. Never before have we seen the shine come off the new ball quite so quickly.
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Why when asked by the Leader of the Opposition, Mia Mottley at the first sitting of Parliament to account for the use of CLICO’s private jet for three trips in the space of six days, did the Prime Minister studiously avoid any reference to his trips to New York and Miami, in the company of Leroy Parris, on CLICO’s aircraft?
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What is going on at the Ministry of Finance? All the signs are there. The world is on the brink of an economic recession sparked by the $1,000 billion credit crisis in the United States and its impact on the financial markets. The OPEC cartel has refused to increase production as the Age of Oil squeezes to an inglorious end, drop by torturous drop. The hijacking of Middle America’s corn by the bio fuel industry coupled with high energy prices and the explosion in demand for commodities created by China and India has ironically fuelled its own crisis of surging food prices.
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After eighty-five minutes of labour, the Prime Minister delivered himself of a draconian stillborn policy on Monday night in front of the entire nation and a limited press corps that must have been insulted that his most significant statement of the evening came at the end of platitudes, waffling and other insignificant generalities.
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We hear you. We are chastened. And we re-dedicate ourselves to representing the interests of all Barbadians in the best democratic traditions on which the Barbados Labour Party was founded nearly seventy years ago.
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Warmest congratulations are in order for Liz Thompson who was named as one of seven Champions of the Earth for 2008 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Liz will join HSH Prince Albert of Monaco, the Rt. Hon Helen Clarke, Prime Minister of New Zealand, Dr. Balgis Osman-Elasha of Sudan, Dr. Atiq Rahman from Bangladesh, Timothy E. Wirth of the USA and H.E. Abdul-Qader Ba-Jammal former Prime Minister of Yemen in Singapore in April for the presentation of one of the world’s most prestigious environmental awards.
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Statement by Mia Amor Mottley, Political Leader commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the founding of the Barbados Labour Party.
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“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak
Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.“ - Sir Winston Churchill
The Minister of Health and National Insurance would do well to heed these immortal words of Sir Winston Churchill when prescribing remedies for the investment of pensions funds owned by thousands of Barbadians.
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Debate on the Estimates of Revenue & Expenditure got underway at the beginning of this week and will end on Tuesday following a break for the Easter weekend.
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Cost of wildcat strikes – lost man-hours!
Cost of failing to follow established grievance procedures – job losses!
Cost of a stable industrial relations climate – priceless!
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The public swearing in of the Cabinet of Barbados at Kensington Oval was a time for much celebration among the Democratic Labour Party faithful and rightly so. It also showcased the Prime Minister at his gracious best. He called for national healing and unity and promised that there would be no victimization by the new Government.
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We can’t say we are surprised, but the first order of business of Tuesday’s Throne Speech was to abandon the Government’s much-touted 100-day agenda. Like a motorcar crashing into a brick wall we went from 100 to 0 at the stroke of a pen.
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We are amazed and astonished at the fact that so far there have not been any changes to any of the planned programmes and policies of the BLP Government. It is business as usual. We take this as a silent seal of approval of the job that we did on behalf of the people of 
Barbados.
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It is becoming clearer with every sitting of this still young Parliament that the Democratic Labour Party led by the Prime Minister has confused its electoral majority with a license to disregard legitimate questions asked on behalf of the people of Barbados on the floor of the House.
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