Weekly Column

David Thompson had this sizeable ‘duh’ moment a few days ago while touring a beachfront property in Holetown.

Must have been the sea air on the West Coast that inspired such a sudden epiphany.

Don’t get excited folks words mean little coming from anyone in this Government. Remember those 100-day promises?

The Prime Minister also used the opportunity to take a tug at the kite flown by his Minister of Economic Affairs over the weekend. It was the classic good guy, bad guy setup.

Dr. Estwick has already been suitably chastised by union boss Dennis Clarke for upping his kite before discussing it with the social partnership, so we will not go into that here.

What we must discuss is this Government’s refusal to take sound advice and the hardship it is having on Bajans as a result.

We are not going to fall for Dr. Estwick’s plea that Government has no choice and neither should you.

Having to tighten your belts is one thing, but not when it is due to the incompetence of the Three D Tag Team that is pulling on the belt so tight that you are in danger of passing out.

The fact is that the Minister of Finance made a series of blunders that led us into this quagmire.

First off, in 2008, his record-breaking, tax grab Budget, twinned with a horrendous increase for fuel came at the wrong time for our economy.

The Prime Minister announced to the Chamber of Commerce last week that he came to office knowing that Barbados faced many challenges.

He must therefore be held responsible for choosing the wrong measures at the wrong time.

Instead of generating economic activity and keeping prices stable his policies had the effect of suppressing activity and raising prices –pure and simple. He pushed the economy into recession prematurely.

Having caused a reduction in demand for goods and services by taking money out of people’s pockets and therefore leading to a reduced tax take, he came back in March of 2009 with Estimates that were unrealistic.

When Shadow Minister of Finance, Mia Mottley pointed out there would be a shortfall in revenue and the projected 5% deficit would be more in the order of 8-8½%, the Government benches scoffed.

She warned then too about the rapid decline in our foreign reserves. Again they scoffed. But we now know she was right. The deficit was recorded at 8.4% and the Prime Minister eventually had to admit he was worried about the falling foreign reserves.

During the Estimates and Budget Debates, with the fiscal space getting tighter and tighter because of Thompson’s previous blunders and a worsening international environment, Mia Mottley warned him on both occasions that there was no room for unnecessary, even if desirable, expenditure on programmes like constituency councils.

Purporting to know better the Government continued to introduce new programmes on the back of declining revenues.

This was nothing short of irresponsible by a Minister of Finance driven solely by the political survival of his Government.

And now today the public servants of this country are once again being asked to bear the fruits of the Prime Minister’s actions – go to the front line and take the lashes for the Government’s incompetence. A wage cut by any other name is still a wage cut.

Most Bajans will agree that their standard of living has already fallen.

To superimpose a wage freeze at this time when Government has led the charge for the last two years in increasing rates, fees and taxes is as unconscionable as it is unjust.

We hope that Barbadians are beginning to wise up to the Prime Minister’s silver tongue. His words, nor indeed his actions, can stand up to sound economic analysis.

Freeze that talk, Prime Minister! We can and should be doing better.
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