Does Mia Mottley Have What it Takes?

Mia Mottley, Leader of the Opposition

Now that Minister of Agriculture David Estwick has been sworn in the political pundits will wait for The Estimates Debate to continue with the speculation. Unfortunately for the Stuart led government the slim 2-seat majority will continue to exert the weight of public scrutiny. Not sure if the public will ever achieve a comfort level in the current circumstances. This is a new political path for Barbados.

During all the post-general election debate the leadership transition from Arthur to Mottley – the heir apparent in the eyes of many – has avoided deeper discussion. This is the second bite of the cherry for Mottley since her removal by Payne, Marshall, Toppin, Clarke and Duguid – the so-called Gang of 5 – which paved the way for the return of Owen Arthur. The result of the 21 February 2012 is now history, it saw the defeat of Arthur and the BLP.

BU had hoped in the wake of all that has happened the disaffected members of the ‘Gang of 5” would have rallied behind Mottley, and in the process send a message to the world that old wounds were in an advanced state of healing. Unfortunately for Mottley the report of an 8 to 5 vote exposes a deep division within the BLP parliamentary group. And yes members of the group are entitled to vote conscience even though in the highest chamber of the land the idea of doing similarly is dispensed with.

Prime Minister Stuart’s Second Term and Expecting Real Change From the Political Parties

Submitted by Hamilton A. Hill

Will Arthur stay on?

The tsunami of emotions that was campaign 2013 is now behind us and except for a battered ego here and there Barbados will settle down to a state of normalcy and life goes on. So too does business, though we hope not as usual.One can choose almost any angle from which to begin the advocacy for change, but the area of public influence and its manipulation is where this writer’s soap box is mounted.

There can be no denial of the biased stance taken by some in the media against this Prime Minister and his government. From the flat out ridiculous to those that bordered on disrespect, certain comments became a part of life in Barbados. That having been said, the governmental tic for tac that has been the staple of the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation since inception must be ended. As we recognize the ruling party as the government of Barbados those in the minority form the official opposition of Barbados, must be respected as such.The respect due would surely resonate across the country with the assurance of unfettered access to air time. Selective dissemination of news stories must be seen as unacceptable for as a people discernment is our strongest attribute. The souffle` that now coats the face of Peter the Pollster lends confirmation to such. It behoves this administration to extend the olive branch where the CBC is concerned as a step towards maturity at a parliamentary level.

Elections People Lose

Submitted by William Skinner

Clyde Mascoll, BLP spokesman on economic matters deemed a liability

Many years ago, during the turbulent years of political rivalry between Edward Saga and Michael Manley, in Jamaica, there was a very violent election and at the end it was dubbed: ”elections that people lose”. Sometimes, the only victors are the politicians and their lackeys. The victory of the Democratic Labour Party is a victory for Prime Minister Freundel Stuart. The jury will be out for sometime as to whether it was a victory for the people.

This election clearly demonstrated that the fed-up level, with both the Barbados Labour Party and the Democratic Labour party is rising; the electorate, caught between a rock and a hard place, decided that the money offered “to be put back in their pockets’ by the Barbados Labour Party, was not enough to convince them that they should bring the Bees back into office. They worried about the transport being privatized and pensioners having to pay bus fares; they worried about the Sanitation Services being privatized and having to pay for garbage removal. A people under the heavy yoke of a recession, that is not going away, are very circumspect. So, Stuart went out there and reminded them about schools that the Democratic Labour Party built and told the voters that while money in their pockets is good, their character and understanding the value of a vote is more important. A less colourful but more effective message in the end.

16 to 14 Result in Barbados General Election

Prime Minister Fruendel Stuart

Tonight is shaping up to be a victory for the people and for Barbados. I am pleasantly surprised and quietly proud. We have defied all polls, expectations and political/election stereotypes. BU has been a great conduit for it to begin. Let us move ever closer towards that much needed tipping point and let’s hope that those who lead us wake up and realise that this is a wake call to do better for all of us

– Observing(…)

A result which the most ardent of DLP and BLP supporter did not predict. Barbadians have witnessed a 16:14 result in favour of the Democratic Labour Party. The result also blew the Wickham CADRES model to smithereens, made all the more interesting that Wickham performed two polls leading up to the general election. BUs one regret is that even as the country faces unprecedented challenges – posed by the global economic landscape – we have a parliament which will struggle to do business given the result.

• See Barbados Today report of results

Beast of Ephesus rises again….

Submitted by Old Onions Bag

Prime Minister Fruendel Stuart known for his figurative language

Goodness gracious me. It’s happening all over again. DEMS’s worse nightmare as the beasts of Ephesus have once more risen to torment and torture the presumptuous. Wickham’s  latest ‘second poll’ we mean. With it, many DLP hacks’ hopes stampeded and diminished after yesterday’s rekindle of sparks.  PM Stuart’s nemesis too, as his popularity has once more plummeted back to behind that of Opposition Leader Owen Arthur’s. What does this mean? Ask  BU’s Hammy, who yesterday had most ceremoniously went to the pulpit and said a prayer to his Gods, after hearing the now premature good news. On thy breast plate, Freundel, once more unsheaf thy sword … whether the mother of all battles or the slaughter at Little Bow, definitely a wash pan a licks promised and wounds of a gushing kind galore.

But Wickham dear Wickham why the hair raising turn? You certainly caused many Bees to sit up from their honey making churns. Have you not heard that such thrift is not good for the feint and weak hearted turks? Or is this some new kind of  preamble to reactivate the indifferent to arise and lurk? Which ever way is up, it certainly has worked, for never in another General Election in Barbados has there been this much ephemeral. Could this be a permanent fixture of how things will be done from here on? Polling with a difference, a last minute thrill.

Owen Arthur Drops CLICO Bomb at West Terrace

3.3 million CLICO cheque paid to Thompson Associates

3.3 million dollar Thompson and Associates invoice

Exposed by the Deloitte’s CLICO Forensic Report is the fact a 3.3 million dollar invoice was generated by CLICO and eventually made its way into the account of Leroy Parris. BU finds it is ironic the leader of the opposition Owen Arthur was able to produce, at a political meeting last night, the 3.3 million dollar CLICO cheque and supporting invoice. Can anyone guess why? Here is a hint.

Unfortunately BU was unable to monitor the meeting until the finish which proceeded late into the night but here is a summary from Tony Hoyos’ Facebook page.

So an invoice for $3.3million was issued by Thompson & Assoc to Clico in Dec 2008 (while D Thompson was PM of Bds). Maurice King who was named on the invoice as providing some of the legal services billed on that invoice says he didn’t do any such work. The partners of the firm say it wasn’t their invoice. But Leroy Parris, head of Clico back then, authorised payment to T&A and the Clico cheque for $3.3m was deposited in a bank acc’t that the law partners say was not the firm’s. Then the same amount of $3.3m was paid from that acc’t back to L Parris as a part of his “gratuity”. And a few weeks later the public learned that Clico was broke. And nobody has been prosecuted yet for this? What am I missing?

Polls Apart: Arthur Now LEADS Stuart in New CADRES Poll

Peter Wickham, Head of CADRES

The most recent CADRES poll which surprised many that DLP leader Fruendel Stuart had eased pass Arthur has been reversed. Under pressure to explain the weekend poll which bucked a trend, Head of CADRES Peter Wickham took the sensible decision to redo the poll. The euphoria displayed by the DLPites has been short lived because the new poll has Arthur leading Stuart 37% to 32% with a 7% swing in play.

• Listen to Voice of Barbados Report
• Barbados Today Report

A DEM View Of the Recent CADRES Poll

Submitted by Stephen Williams

Prime Minister Fruendel Stuart eases pass Opposition Owen Arthur in recent poll – photo credit: Nation newspaper

According to the latest Cadres Poll, Freundel is out front. Wow!!! With that said, the DEMS must, therefore, press home the advantage as a result of our favourable showing.

However, I am somewhat sceptical about Wickham’s findings, that despite the fact that Freundel is ahead of Arthur, the DLP is still marginally trailing the Bees. I wonder if it is a case of who pays the piper, calls the tune! We all know the obvious bias of the Nation Group of companies. But, however you analyse the poll, it’s a body-blow for the Bees.

I am no political scientist, but I believe I have more than a modicum of common sense. It stands to reason, and rightly so, that if Freundel has surged ahead (in my humble opinion, he was ahead for some time) he would consequently bring along the DLP.

So, it must have been heart-wrenching for the Nation and the know-it-all Wickham, the avowed nemeses of the Prime Minister, to admit that Freundel Stuart is ahead of ‘Owing Arthur’ in their latest poll. Only last month, they were arguing it will be a landslide for their side. This must be a bitter pill for them to swallow.

Stuart Winning the Leadership Race as E-Day Looms

Click image to read Nation newspaper report – photo credit: Nation Newspaper

Based on the most recent CADRES poll Prime Minister Fruendel Stuart is winning the leadership race. What must be of concern is that the Wickham poll was conducted before Minister of Agriculture David Estwick delivered one of the most powerful presentations of the campaign so far at the NCF on Friday night.

How will this translate in the individual constituencies with a 3.4% swing in play makes it a very interesting general election.

Manifesto WARNING!

2013 BLP Manifesto

The manifestos of the DLP and BLP have been released about ONE week before the E-Day of February 21, 2013. Generally people pay very little attention to manifestos in most countries. A manifesto may be described as a political tool to get political parties elected. Although we know they are usually littered with pie in the sky promises, BU had hoped this one time around, given the unprecedented challenges which confront service-oriented economies like Barbados, the electorate would have been wooed and teased by a vision articulated by both political parties (espoused in the manifestos).  How do they plan to navigate the economic and social milestones currently strewn in our path? Why is it this one time our people could not have been convinced to turn-down the political rhetoric, and instead, engage in a level of collaboration hitherto never experienced in democratic Barbados? As a highly regarded small predominantly Black country here was an opportunity created by the prevailing economic challenge for us to lead; a role which is not unfamiliar in the post-Independence period.

Kudos  to the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) for being ‘first’ out of the blocks with their Manifesto launch – a sarcastic comment you ask?. Although a trivial point, it has not escaped the notice of BU that apart from the first page which features an aggressive air-brushed image of Owen Arthur reflected on The Team for A Better Tomorrow, Mia Mottley’s photo appears in the most prominent position. To those with an ‘eye’ for these things it is called subliminal advertising and it is designed to draw the eye and create an impression in the minds of the electorate.

During the stewardship of the DLP government (2008-2013) a few issues have always occupied the attention of the BU family. Heading the list is GOVERNACE! On Thursday an increasingly cynical electorate will have to decide which party leads (by a nose) on the issue of Freedom of Information (FOI) and Integrity Legislation (IL) among others.

Related Link: Manifesto WATCH

Notes From a Native Son: Politicians Must Come Clean about Their Programmes for Change

Hal Austin

Introduction:
In our democracy, politicians have the simple task of collectively being rainmakers, they simply bring talent together and, from that collection of outstanding individual instrumentalists, create a harmonic sound. Times of crisis call for innovative thinking, experimenting with new ideas, adopting what we in Britain call the Dunkirk spirit.

It is at historic points in the development of capitalism such as this that we see the best of what we have to offer, when the creators of new and imaginative ideas come to the fore, when those who have the future of Barbados at heart rise up.

With the sudden announcement of the general election, which gave off a smell of panic, we as a nation have had to sit and watch the humiliating nonsense of our leading politicians and the two rival parties, launching in to a campaign without manifestos, the roadmaps to their policies, for the first week or so. They were travelling up and down the country, talking themselves silly, without a detailed, or even outline, of the policies they hoped to introduce if the people of Barbados returned them to power. In other words, we have had a government which, after five years in power, could not come to voters with the simple message that they should be returned to finish off what they had started. Maybe, there were five wasted years and they could not ask people to vote for a non-existent unfinished programme.

LEADERSHIP Wanted!

Submitted by Looking Glass

Stuart and Arthur, our political leaders in waiting

Yes, we need somebody with a firm hand to guide the ship of state at a time of incredible peril (Advocate April/22/201). So far the actions and promises echoed by both parties suggest ongoing deterioration and servitude not a return to prosperity.

Interested in politics from age 9 the PM prepared himself painstakingly and thoroughly for political service (Nation 25/1/2013). Given such interest one would expect he would have studied other subjects in addition to law to learn and understand something about the social and economic aspects of the country. This apparently has not been the case. So far his actions suggest he understands little. He knows who is incompetent, whose white family avoids them like the plague and who embarrassed a certain Senator by begging for a job etc, but apparently nothing about the $62 million National Debt the DLP inherited and the ownership of assets like the Port, Airport, Gems etc. .

The 2006 IMF report noted “lack of scope for development, vulnerability to external shock, the need to address macro-economic imbalances, the high level of public debt, large external fiscal external account deficits, declining international reserves and noted the weakness in statistical information. The Report referred to the situation before the DLP took over. There was no industrial accomplishment to serve as a basis for non-cyclical job generation and no purposeful additions to fuel the economy beyond tourism. Without diverse production and no real surplus we will remain dependent. Read Fallacy In Shoddy Robes Dec/1/2010.

DLP ‘Hit the Ball Out of the Park’

Submitted by DLPite

A shot of the crowd in attendance on Wednesday night

The DLP’s meeting last Wednesday night was such a resounding success, it is hard to see how the Opposition could top that event. Mr. Stuart and his team hit a home run the other night. Keep it up guys!

Over and above the 14,000 odd people who turned up (some neutral observers put it at lots more) and who seemed very attentive until the Prime Minister ended the meeting, the content, presentation and overall atmosphere were very good.

Of particular  note is how each speaker dealt with the achievements. I was amazed that Government had achieved so much, and in a severe world recession to boot. Of course, Prime Minister Stuart was his usual self, confident very articulate, deliberate and sound; he had the audience in the palm of his hand. Ministers Michael Lashley, Sinckler and Jones were very good as well.