To those political pundits who have determined that Leader of the Opposition David Thompson is too much of a choir boy for the hurly burly of politics got a rude awakening at the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) last night at Haggatt Hall. In a 90 minute presentation, David Thompson betrayed a high level of rascality when he ruthlessly prosecuted a case of corruption against Prime Minister Owen Arthur and his government. At the end on it all, David Thompson may have quelled all the doubts about his leadership caused by the 1994 Queens Park IMF Affair. He gave the stunned crowd the evidence which surrounds the much discussed cheque donation which was deposited to Arthur’s personal account. Again and again, the crowd was bombarded with video presentation of cheques and documents projected on the two big screens to support his charge. The high level of financial contributions by the former Caribbean Commercial Bank to Arthur headed by Mariano Browne at the time (Former Chairman of Enterprise Growth Fund) and the BLP during the 2003 general election was mind blowing. Additionally, the reference to the 4.25% commission demanded in the Eastern Lottery Gambling deal i.e. Barbados Cricket Association lottery which was pocketed by a high ranking government official has thickened the plot. He also introduced the name Hallam Nichols as the man who has been pocketing millions in commissions because of all the government business directed his way. Thompson made the point that Hallam Nichols and the Prime Minister are very close friends. The close friendship was illustrated when Nichols was invited to Arthur’s private wedding over Ministers in Arthur’s cabinet.
The ‘cheque’ which was deposited by Arthur to his personal account and Thompson’s expose of the ‘flyover’ project may have been the performance to date to firmly move the scales in favour of his party.
To all those present who heard the case leveled by Thompson against Arthur and the BLP, the verdict is GUILTY as charged.
Barbados Underground 
i hope everybody get the change they want and very happy with it for years to come.
Arthur said:
(Advocate Online, Jan 11)
“You have to ask yourself what is going to happen to Barbados politics if companies cannot feel confident of giving a little donation to pay for the posters and to pay for the manifestos and to pay for the ads and to pay for all this without their names being held up for disrepute in the public domain, he also stressed. ”
Is this the same Owen Arthur that is notorious for calling people’s name and exposing their private business in Parliament?
Is he saying that the total of $750,000 referred to by Thompson is “a little donation”?
At any rate, the accusation was aimed at Mariano Browne, not the bank.
The Nation 5th Dec. 2005
On October 12, Minister of Public Works Gline Clarke announced the memorandum of agreement had been signed and the flyovers were expected to be completed by January 2007.
A few days after he said they were prepared to go ahead with flyovers based on the information and recommendations from the Traffic Management Committee and police.
Clarke put the cost of construction of flyovers, widening of the highway and synchronisation of traffic lights at around $120 million.
Got that Mia.
Highway widening, flyovers and traffic lights – $120 million.
No Phase 1, Phase 2 rubbish.
Is your government totally incompetent or lying to us?
It has to be one or the other.
I Wid David & DEM!!! ,
There was a time that Owen was also bouncing checques. People like David Shorey and Rodney Wilkinson used to help him out by buying drinks for him and lending him money. He should be the last to talk about somebody. I remember him crying onTV saying that he did not know how much longer he could continue
Gline Clarke has always insisted that the project would go ahead regardless of objections raised.
The government is still saying that the flyovers will be built, but does anyone know if they have obtained Town Planning Approval? Last I heard, 3S had scheduled a town hall meeting to discuss the project, which is a town planning requirement. The meeting was cancelled. The government is speaking and acting as if nothing will come out of the public consultation that could cause them to change their minds about the flyovers.
This is ARROGANCE!
I always heard it was easier to tell the truth, since you do not have to remember what was said before. When one has to do too much explaining “protesting too much”, look out!
FOR THE PEOPLES SAKE OWEN MUSTGO NOW!
IT’S THE DEMS’ turn to drop a political bombshell.
The Opposition Democratic Labour Party (DLP) has cancelled all meetings tonight except its national rally at which leader David Thompson has promised to reveal “some of the ammunition I have in storage” and which he was planning to use during the aborted live debates in the lead-up to next Tuesday’s general election.
Titled Campaign Eye-opener One, this meeting will be held at Haggatt Hall, St Michael, near the Emancipation [Bussa] Roundabout. “Some people in this country may not like what I will have to say, but in the public’s interest I believe I have got to say what I know,” Thompson declared.
It was only last Saturday night that the Barbados Labour Party hinted of a bombshell at its Bridgetown meeting when it accused the DLP of wanting to take Barbados into bed with Taiwan instead of the People’s Republic of China.
Thompson said yesterday he would use the opportunity of a single, national political rally to reveal “the latest and most stunning example of governmental mismanagement and squandermania”.
While not giving further insights into the precise nature of tonight’s “bombshell”, the DLP leader said the revelations involved the reckless spending of hundreds of millions of hard-earned taxpayers dollars in a “highly suspicious and certainly non-transparent manner”.
“Mr Arthur has said this election is about leadership and the economic management of this country,” Thompson said.
“I want Barbadians from all walks of life and of all partisan political persuasions to come to Bussa Roundabout tonight and determine for themselves whether Owen Arthur and his BLP Government are deserving of another term, given the hard, cold facts that I will make public at that meeting tonight.”
“The moment I said I wanted a debate on governance, the BLP retreated from the idea of debates. I suspect the Prime Minister feared that I might have been onto something and he did everything humanly possible to pre-empt disclosure.
Red herring
“Mr Arthur came with this red herring issue of Taiwanese involvement in this campaign to detract persons from examining the real charges that have been levelled against him, dating back to 2003. The time has come for me to give chapter and verse on that entire episode that again involved some very questionable financial transactions.
“This election is not about China or Taiwan. I repeat for the umpteenth time that this Democratic Labour Party has not benefited in any way from a single contribution from either China or Taiwan. This election is about governance and the manner in which we want as a people to be governed. I gave notice during the Hardwood debate that I would have been calling names such as the late Johnnie Cochran in my wrap-up to that debate.
“I do not know if that was the reason for the sudden curtailment of debate, but after tomorrow night (tonight), I expect that the voters of Barbados will be in a position to answer that question for themselves,” he concluded.
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Please you folks that have the chance of a lifetime to remove this scourge of the earth the thing called mottley for the political landscape of this island, to please do so in your most clinical and exacting way known to you by voting for a 100 % WOMAN in the person of PATRICIA INNISS and VOTE FOR A NEW BEGINNING AND A NEW WAY FORWARD.
DE BUMBLE BEE // January 12, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Not even the KING BEE….our beloved Owen Arthur putting any FAITH in this SWING back nonsense !
The KING BEE accept that before the 20th December , 2007 the following remained CONSTANT :
** WE…… BEES entered the election with a 6% SWING against them !
** WE……BEES promised drop in food prices did not come about !
** WE……BEES Taiwan charge against the DEMS ain’t cut it !
** WE……BEES boast about INTEGRITY & ACCOUNTABILITY …..get EXPOSED with Clyde Mascoll & Owen big CHEQUE !
BAJANS…….ain’t FOOLISH……how could they believe CHAPO POLL with this ADMISSION ????
READ CARFEULLY……” A series of constituency polls commissioned by the BLP and conducted by the Cave Hill Associates Polling Organisation (CHAPO) ”
BIAS……..??????
LEADERSHIP is good theme.
INTEGRITY is a better theme by far.
Lord Straight Talk, ya all up in Mia craw… I got one for ya too.
BLP web site – ” a series of polls … conducted by the Cave Hill Associates Polling Organisation (CHAPO), a group of pollsters whose finding across the CAribbean have proven to be remarkably accurate..”
George Belle back in December – “In response, Belle said the Social Sciences faculty undertook the exercise because it had been seeking to develop a number of research projects since it had the resources to do them given that it could draw on people from a variety of disciplines. He added that this political poll had not been financed externally, but the department was hoping to get consultancies as it moved forward.”
So, is it a regional group of recognised pollsters with wonderful credibility, or a fledgling project out of George Belle’s SOcial Sciences Department?
Sigh propaganda becomes even worse when it’s so blatantly transparent.
What a world we live in, do you know that Mr Hammy Lashley’s Driver is the same criminal that was arrested today for the robberies in the North of the island the cutlass attacks and the beatings.
WELL DONE MR LASHLEY FOR YOU TO BE PART OF THIS PROGRAM OF TERROR UNLEASHED ON THE PEOPLE OF THIS ISLAND.
DLP AHEAD; BLP BEHAVES LIKE SORE LOSERS
BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS (JAN. 12, 2008) — The Barbados Labour Party (BLP) is behaving like a bunch of sore losers.
Facing the prospect of defeat after almost 14 years in power, Owen Arthur and his discredited regime are running scared. They are showing their true colours for the world to see.
An opinion poll published Friday by the Weekend Nation tipped the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) to win next Tuesday’s general election. The poll was done by Peter Wickham, the same pollster who accurately predicted wins for the BLP in the 1994, 1999 and 2003 general elections.
Now that its political fortunes have changed, the BLP is questioning the methodology of the poll and trying to smear Wickham’s reputation. The problem with the BLP is that they fooled themselves about invincibility for so long, it’s now hard to accept the real possibility of defeat.
It so happens that anyone who delivers a favourable report about the BLP, is their friend. However, the minute the report is unfavourable, you become an enemy. Childish behaviour! The BLP will be brought low on Tuesday. Pride and arrogance always come before a fall.
Some 35% of respondents in the Wickham poll declared support for the DLP, 5% more than for the BLP. With a projected swing of almost 10% against the BLP, Wickham is tipping the DLP to capture at least 20 of the 30 seats in the House of Assembly to form Barbados’ next government.
Field interviews for the poll were done last weekend. Wickham pointed out that since then, the DLP’s popularity had most likely risen further after the party made shocking revelations of BLP financial mismanagement and corruption at a massive public meeting last Wednesday night. Thousands attended.
The real shocker for the BLP, however, is DLP leader David Thompson’s rapidly rising popularity. It is a stinging slap in the face of the BLP which went to great lengths to tear down Thompson’s image as a leader.
Despite it all, in the space of just three months, Thompson’s national rating has shot up from 29% to 41% — just seven percentage points behind Arthur whose rating fell during the same three month period.
There is a growing groundswell for change in Barbados. Observers are saying it would take a miracle at this eleventh-hour to save the skin of the discredited and desperate BLP which has now resorted to the most outrageous tactics on the campaign trail.
The DLP is focused on bringing good governace to Barbados and not responding to BLP lies, propoganda, deciet, wickedness and filth. They have become spoliers of Barbados. We will ensure that the stealing does not continue and the miscreants brought to justice.
Let us compare the two political campaings todate.
The DLP have had the blp on the back foot from the outset of this election, theDLP’S campaing has been well thought out and has dealt with the issues facing the people and it is one that has been thought thru by ordinary citizens and the people of this island, on the other hand the blp has been run on replies to the DLP and fear Tactics and hype but most amazeingly it is not a campaign that was created by local minds with locals in their thoughts this campaign has been the brain child of one ROY BOYKE who is from TRINIDAD and he the CLOWN JEVAN from RED ADVERTISING my only comment to this is this is a sad display of your professional skills to the two of you.
However keep the work up it is helping the success of the DLP by leaps and bounds so congrats to you both.
While My heart goes out to the BLP, I think it is time to make a change. A change that will give Barbados back to the Barbadian people, I am not sure how feasible this will be but as a bajan living abroad for the last forty or so years and returning every one or two years I have seen the changes, some for better and some for worse with the changing of governments.
The cost of living has continued to rise and is too high for the average bajan.
It is now over to you Mr. Thompson to make some changes to meet the needs of the people of Barbados
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… and pray tell, what are you saying NOW? In 2012.
LOL