Weekly Column

A series of acts and statements by the David Thompson Administration have led Barbadians to the alarming conclusion that this twenty-month-old government has betrayed them.

There has been no outlandish statement this time about a manifesto not being a social contract. This time their actions have spoken louder than their words.

There is not a Barbadian who followed the last general campaign who would not agree that the Dems won the support of voters by promising to lower the cost of living. In the intervening period Thompson’s fiscal policies have been directly responsible for increasing the cost of food by 16% since January 2007.

The international financial crisis did not cause a 60% increase in water rates – David Thompson’s fiscal policy did. Neither did it cause the removal of the subsidy on petroleum products.

Thompson took a conscious decision to pass on a 75% increase to consumers and businesses, at a time when the economy could least afford it, which resulted in an almost immediate hike in prices and services across the board driving the economy into recession in the process.

The international crisis did not impose $200 million in additional taxation at a time when the economy still had some breathing room. David Thompson did. More price increases and more strain were heaped on an already struggling people.

The global recession did not prevent the Thompson Administration from bringing fiscal prudence to the management of the economy. Their own inability to recognize that their calculations were based on faulty revenue estimates did.

Try as he might, there is not a Bajan and certainly not a fisherman who believes the gobbledygook from Ambassador Kellman that the reason Barbados is not pursuing the fishing agreement is because of the recession. What will he tell us next fishing season if the fish migrate back into Tobago waters?

All of those who were fooled by Chris Sinckler into believing that the Dems would bring social justice to the administration of government must be hanging their heads in shame at the injustices meted out to their fellow Barbadians at the UDC and the Welfare Department.

It is certainly no fault of the Barbados Labour Party that Housing Minister Michael Lashley has been unable to deliver on the five hundred houses a year he promised. Were it not for the Labour Party’s housing initiatives that he found on assuming office he would have topped the now discredited ‘publish or else’ poll of things Bajans are most concerned about.

Of course this Administration’s inability to keep faith with the electorate got off to an auspicious start when it failed to deliver on a single one of the hundred day promises that it touted so heavily on the political platforms and its Manifesto.

During the honeymoon period of their first three months in office most people were prepared to give them a chance. Well dozens of chances have been squandered in almost every ministry by every Minister of this government.

In some jurisdictions repeat offenders are given three chances under the ‘three strikes and you are out’ rule. By now this administration would have been safely incarcerated so as not to pose a threat to the public.

Sound economic management is not a game of chance and neither is it a lucky dip. It is time that the government returns to the priorities that it promised the people and abandon the bells and whistles that it believes will ensure its re-election. The people have said they don’t want them.

What is the government waiting for?
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