Submitted by Amit from Pull!Push! blog
In yesterday’s print edition of the Nation, I read that Prime Minister Thompson would be asking Former Prime Minsters Owen Arthur and Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford, as well as former Minister of Finance, Sir Richard Haynes, to partake in a series of breakfast meetings to discuss the crisis facing our economy.
This came as a bit of a surprise to me as the divide between political parties runs deep. Despite that, here we have DT asking for the advice of two former PMs, both of whom are well known (famously and infamously?) for their command of economics. One who has led the country for several years, through thick and thin (OSA), the other who shall forever remain in the minds of some (if not most), Barbadians for the salary cuts and the threat of devaluation (but who prevented the devaluation in the end).
What DT was proposing excited me (no, not in that way). This is ‘Team Barbados’ at work, I thought. This is politicians putting aside their party politics and their ideological differences and working for and towards the common good. For the country and for its people! YES! CHANGE! The time has come. That’s how I felt, as a Barbadian, while reading the article.
However, the sceptic/cynic/critic in me wondered:
What’s DT up to? Is this the whole, ‘keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer’ thing playing out? If so, why call in LES (to give the appearance of balance?), or was it to curry favour with the electorate by showing, as mentioned above, that DT is above party politics. That he’s not to proud to ask for help, especially from those who have more experience, and that he was beyond political ideologies and differences.
DT’s plan made me think of President Obama and his attempts at going beyond party politics and getting politicians of all stripes to work together for the common good. Is DT getting political advice from Obama? Are they reading from the same play book?
In any event, it doesn’t matter any longer. At least, as it relates to the proposed breakfast meetings on the economy. The article in today’s edition of the Nation said it all, including:
Read the full article over at fellow blogger Pull!Push!
Barbados Underground 
Debt is debt. 2.7 billion is foreign reserves??? Time to quit sipping the kool aid . Both Arthur and Sandiford were deficient. Arthur managed to lose his government before the sh*t hit the fan, Sandi had to try to clean his mess up.
Where was the fiscal prudence? ask yourself what the balance sheet for government would be without VAT. Don’t even get me started on this recklessness is recklessness. Arthur was not all bad but his approach to debt was RECKLESS.
Credit is debt , it is not new money.