An interesting article by Sanka Price in the Nation today ‘Pension silver lining for nine’! ‘Thompson (Liz), Farley (Reggie) and Lynch (Barney) are eligible to receive a monthly pension of about $7,642.57′.
$91,710.84 a year!
And for how many years?
‘Both Farley and Thompson are in their mid-40’s and ineligible to collect their pension until they reach 50′. Noel Lynch was born on 26th December 1956, so will this be paid until he is 65 years old? If so, now aged 52 years and assuming retirement age is 65 he will collect a massive $1.18 million from the taxpayer.
Perhaps the former Minister of Tourism has had the last laugh?
Adrian Loveridge
Barbados Underground 
Ok, Adrian. Thanks for highlighting, that. You’ve indicated a desire for the post, so why don’t you apply for it????
I don’t know the procedure for becoming a senator in Bim but I’m sure an approach to the DLP would be viewed, sympathetically!
Go for it, now’s your opportunity!!!!
Will those ministers still be eligible if they are locked up in Dodds guilty as charged with under antiquated corruption legislation, or for just plain old tiefing?
This is why Integrity legislation is essential.
Pensions for MP’s are the work of the parties.
Guess how much a minister, not a backbencher, worked for per month in 1975?
$2000.00 plus $800.00 duty allowance. Source: Article by Sanka Price on Integrity Legislation!!
He was quoting Tom Adams.
Things sure have changed!!
Our Mp’s must be held accountable and do their jobs.
Thats why David Thompson should spare no one in investigating those 14 years of cost overruns. I am angered the we the people would have to dig deeper yet again to pay these unproductive corrupt people.
Massa day done!
MP’s who have served their country at the highest levels of government are more than entitled to a modest pension of 67% of their ministerial salary. The minimum requirement of at least three terms is also reasonable. How can the talented tenth of the black population be expected to spend their most productive years in the service of queen and country only to end up destitute? First these people didn’t want black people to take sick leave, now they would begrudge them a pension! Some people have gall. And what on earth this has to do with “integrity” legislation I’ll never know.
degap // January 18, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Massa day done!
MP’s who have served their country at the highest levels of government are more than entitled to a modest pension of 67% of their ministerial salary. The minimum requirement of at least three terms is also reasonable. How can the talented tenth of the black population be expected to spend their most productive years in the service of queen and country only to end up destitute? First these people didn’t want black people to take sick leave, now they would begrudge them a pension! Some people have gall. And what on earth this has to do with “integrity” legislation I’ll never know.
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and i will argue to keep this in place, becuase proper renumeration can play a small but integral part in combating corruption. The argument is about accountability from the Highest offices and persons in the land
1: Good governance set the best example for all to follow
2: Serious investigation and equally serious committment to bring those in high office that are guilty of malfeasants to account for their actions, also set the best example for all to follow.
To whom much is given, much is expected.
If you get a pension at a rate which our MP’s will get having received more than attractive salaries to do their jobs then there should be no inducement and hence no excuse to bend the rules.
Integrity Legislation can show up the benders.
I have no objection against pensions for MPs but I strenuously object to any so called instant millionaires receiving a pension, regardless of complexion!!
A simple declaration of net worth is good for the outgoing MP and his or her reputation. Everybody benefits.
So de gap, my answer to your question “How can the talented tenth of the black population be expected to spend their most productive years in the service of queen and country only to end up destitute?” takes the form of another question, … actually two … or four … and I can think of many more.
Which of the so called instant millionaires who have no opportunity to clear their names as no Integrity Legislation exists, do you consider to be part of the talented tenth of the black population?
What is their qualificartion which leads you to place them in the top tenth of the black population?
Are you not insulting the whole population of Barbados with your question by implying our politicians are the cream of the crop?
Finally, are you implying that after serving as an MP, a person cannot get a job in Barbados, even with the unemployment rate as low as it is?
If persons took a job requiring that they serve their fellow countrymen just to prevent themselves from being destitute they misrepresented themselves to their fellow countrymen.
Some are already attacking and blaming campaign staff while wondering what to do with their sorry lives. In the meantime,The confusion has started.
Both Suckoo and Sealy have REFUSED Health. So much for the Rescue Plan.
Delisle Worrell to be Minister of Finance in Senate.
Hartley Henry to be Communications and Works
And the in-fighting continues
Thompson has had to postpone his address to the Nation from tonight to tomorrow night… and the USUAL fighting rages on while Owen feeds his garden.
“Grand Corruption?”
MP’s are not entitled to a pension because it may or may not discourage corruption or because they will be unable to find a job in the private sector. They are entitled to it because they have earned it in service to their country. Again, the minimum requirement is 3 terms or 15 years, so by any definition, eligible MP’s would have spent their most productive years in service to their country. They can’t get those prime years back…Going back to Samuel Jackman Prescod, Bim has a long tradition of electing “the cream of the crop” from the coloured and black intelligentsia, and that has served us well. Now, that doesn’t mean that a few dimwits don’t fall thru the cracks once in a while…
Greed and a pathological sense of entitlement will make MP’s susceptible to corruption regardless of their lawful compensation. As for the former BLP administration, not one former BLP MP will be arrested never mind convicted for corruption in government office, no not one. With all of the smoking gun “evidence” in the hands of the new government, PM Arthur and his band of “instant millionaires” should be in chains by the end of the week. I still say the masses were sold a bill of goods, hoodwinked, bamboozled…
We have no problem with paying ministers good salaries and pensions for that matter, but they must earn it. At the moment our Ministers and others are moonlighting. We can bring examples but we do not intend to deal with the petty issues.
wuhlosswunnah igrunt
Both Suckoo and Sealy have REFUSED Health. So much for the Rescue Plan.
==========================
Tell David I would take it and fix it for him. He can write me at georgiegporgie@hotmail.com
Why all this praise for David Thompson?
I don’t understand, can’t you people see I am the new PM and David is my deputy?
Check the evidence:
On election night I left CBC and went to George Street to meet with my deputy David. Afterwards , I allow he to talk to the press first and then hand over to me.
I was there first for the swearing in.
Who you think was at Bay Street first thing Thursday morning? ME Hartley the PM. In fact I got there before David.
I will select the cabinet soon and then tell David what to say. That is what leadership is about.
Stop grabbing at straws HHPM
So what?!?
Heartly Henry is from EGYPT? He is an obvious part of the DLP team, and a critical part too if what the PM said on election night is taken to heart.
Far better than Bizzy Williams walking around bragging that he brought Danos here and convinced Gline Clarke and Owen to build the flyovers without drawings, bids, tenders or engineering inputs…. for $$
hundreds of millions
Judging from the DLP election strategy Hartley Henry is a brilliant Bajan leader so what is your point?
Good choice for advisor Mr PM.
…choosing good company is a critical part of successful leadership.
Henry certainly seems an improvement on the last incimbent, our late but not lamented, Royalrumble.
Kudos for winning the election, Hartley, but it wasn’t that difficult to strategise which flaws in the BLP administration to target.
You only had to keep up with the blogs to plan a cakewalk.
Straight talk // January 18, 2008 at 5:49 pm
You only had to keep up with the blogs to plan a cakewalk.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Couldn’t have put it any better.
Hopefully we don’t keep hearing for too long how brilliantly run the campaign of the DLP was or it will start to appear as though one set of braggarts has been replaced by another.
By all means, the Dees should bask in the glory for a moment, then get cracking doing the job they were put to do.
T-98 and counting. ….
The AG is in and he is responsible for drafting any legislation. Cabinet will only approve it and bring it to the house.
Go Freundel go!
Due respect to you John – I have yet to disagree with any of your substantial blog positions, but surely a campaign that could reverse a DLP position just 12 months ago where the very survivability of the party was a fair moot – to this great victory is no mean feat.
..and this, in an environment of a biased media and an incumbent government not particularly short of financial resources.
…be fair, it was brilliant. Even the timing and class with which the ‘glaring weaknesses’ of the BLP were dealt with were classic.
But I take your main point about getting cracking.
Bush Tea
I did not go to a single political meeting, Bee or Dee. I did see that the other party had a political meeting the day after in the press and read the report.
I saw a bit of them on TV
I didn’t see a single politician or canvasser and the sign on the gate in tha Nation photo marked “No Politicains” was not me. Loved that sign bad!! The highlight of the campaign.
I made my decision to vote to remove the party that was in since 1999. I acted on it first in 2003 and then again this year. I am still angry with myself that I voted Bee in 1999.
For what its worth, what I thought the Dees did well from what I saw of their campaign on TV and in the Press was to go toe to toe with the Bees and match them. I liked that.
It did worry me that there seemed to be alot of money floating about and wondered about the financing. To whom alot is given alot is required!! Time will tell who owes whom!!
The Taiwan rubbish backfired on the Bees because they had no proof, but even if they did it would not have mattered to me. By the same token, the cheques produced by the Dees did nothing for me. I remember Tom Adams!! … been there, seen that.
I liked the cartoons the Dees came up with, they were wutless without being tasteless and I appreciated the imagination.
The first wrestling match took the cake for me. the second was good too but did not need the words. Good artist.
The ads from the Bees were lacking in imagination and too predictable. They were good without being great. A full page ad that is 90% black does nothing for me.
No doubt the respective campaigns influenced other voters and to the extent that they did they were good.
I formed the impresion by writing down the numbers of voters as they were called Tuesday night and by looking at final numbers of voters in the Wednesday Nation that the falls the Bees experienced were not large.
That suggests to me the BLP canvassing machinery worked well and that there is a large number of voters who will vote Bee regardless.
I used to be one but I have put that behind me now.
The gains the Dees made were usually over and above the falls the Bees experienced. I think that indicates that not only did the Dees do a good job but many new voters were out who weren’t there in the past.
Some people say it was the youth.
However, I suggest that it is possible that people came out and voted with no party loyalty, just to get the Bees out, like me.
I do think the Dees countered the leadership issue extremely well and left Owen standing in the dust but he asked for it because he and the Bees just went on and on ad nauseum about it and actually believed it because they said it.
There wasn’t anything new in the Bees campaign.
I’ll be voting Bee next time unless I see something spectacular over this Parliamentary term or unless some other party surfaces with credible candidates.
I don’t subscribe to the notion that a party needs two terms in Government.
They gotta earn it.
Great post John. I concur.
You see what I mean John? How can I argue with you when you always sound so logical and well reasoned?
I fully agree.
Like you, I was convinced that the time to change the last lot was 2003. The challenge is to convince the required number of persons who may not analyse like you do.
Until 12 months ago, the DLP was well on the way to again failing to do that – EVEN WITH THE FULL CO-OPERATION OF THE BLP.
The campaign of the last year therefore assumes a level of turn-around that I would classify as ‘brilliant’.
…actually the passing off of Mascoll to the B’s was the key stroke to my mind.
I also followed some of the meetings – It restored my love and admiration for Bajans. The orderly atmosphere, jovial banter, complete feeling of safety is unparalleled in my estimation… I also found out that some of the candidates are real idiots … i mean REAL.
…but many were impressive -particularly the PM….and it was clear that Owen should have gone a few years ago…Mandela style..
Adrian Loveridge Rolling in $$$Dough$$$
It makes no difference how much money Mr Loveridge makes or loses, once he is doing so within the laws of Barbados.
He also has a right to voice his opinion on any subject and so do you.
What I cant understand and maybe you can tell me, is why you would want to defend any persons who after being voted into positions of trust would look to steal money from poor BLACK taxpayers of this country.
Anonymous // January 22, 2008 at 12:10 am,
Receiving a government pension is NOT “stealing money from poor BLACK taxpayers of this country”.
All pay taxes, by the way, black or white, rich or poor.
Loveridge has as much right to make money legally as the ministers have to earn pensions legally.
After mashing up the tax payers money,you really think they deserve a pension,no they guts full,the only thing they deserve is the new costoverrun hotel at ST.PHILIP.