Mia Mottley, Leader of the Opposition
Dale Marshall, MP
Kerri Symmonds, MP
Speaker of the Barbados House of Assembly
Three Barbados Labour Party (BLP) members of parliament were questioned today by the police in connection with a Nation newspaper story penned by Barry Alleyne. The story based on a Voice of Barbados report has to do with coverage of the Opposition walk out of parliament in July 2013.
Barbados Underground 
Sending families home and talking about travel cut 50%. Stupse.
@ac”ac | December 13, 2013 at 7:04 AM | now this news about the speaker and the allegations concerning details surrounding an article in the nation have sent the opposition and the BLP yardfowls into a political tailspin”
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You cannot be fuh real. The economic imploding and the authorities, whomever they be, wasting time and valuable resources on nonsense???
And you support that xxxte? And for the record, yes, I think the BLP members ARE in a tailspin, not from the nonsense *potential charges* against a media house, but that a resuscitation job will need to be done on the Barbados economy.
ac…yuh musta read or been told about ‘the king’s new clothes’?
Yuh ent learn nuttin from that story??????
AC’s argument, likely to be soon taken up by many, is that the DLP did a huge favour to the 3000 workers who they will send home between January and March next year by keeping them in employment for periods ranging up to 5 years. i.e. the Government delayed the inevitable and should be congratulated for so doing.
That argument is an attractive one but omits any mention of what such a policy would have contributed to the overall economic decline of the country over that period and thus what is the real cost to Barbados of such a policy.
To pay those workers up to now the Government would almost certainly have leaned heavily on the NIS fund. A fund which a number of observers are suggesting is tottering under the weight of ill advised outlays that fall outside the ambit of typical NIS investments over the last few years and which may in a few short years cause the NIS to be unable to fulfill its commitments to pensioners and other beneficiaries.
Government would seem to have ignored the economic data which would have indicated that month by month Government was borrowing to pay the salaries and wages of these and other workers while its revenues decreased and expenditures went up. This would normally have been a red flag for any government but this one.
We are not told how many workers were brought on in late 2012 and early 2013 before the election and have remained on the Government’s payroll until now. This would have been a reckless policy in the face of the numbers available to the Ministry of Finance and would obviously not have been designed primarily to help those temporary workers it brought on but moreso to win an election.
That policy has now endangered the livelihoods of several times more workers than the ones brought on for election purposes as the economy has steadily shrunk to a level, through mismanagement by this government, that now demands many more workers being laid off than if corrective action had been taken much earlier when the problem was in its formative stages and would have been more manageable and less impactful on jobs. In addition it does not include any analysis of what the policy might have done to the private sector.
Government declined to engage the opposition to work along with it in utilizing a variant of the 8% sandiford solution. Such a solution, if it had been negotiated and implemented soon after the February 2013 elections, would have resulted in much kinder cuts some months ago.
I must say that I don’t believe that the 3000 layoff figure is likely to be the end. I think it may turn out to be much higher, given the really parlous state of the economy now as compared to Sandiford’s time.
In fact I think that the partial numbers the MoF presented suggests that it is not too late to shame the Opposition into joining with them to effect a new across the board wage cut solution as the MoF’s projections re. the likely success of the current measures to achieve his stated objectives seem to be somewhat optimistic and I think more cuts will be necessary as it becomes apparent that the measures will not do what he is projecting they will do.
Indeed, there also seems to be a measure of window dressing about these proposals that seem designed to impress the International funding agencies that the Government NOW has the will to really try to bring the deficit down especially since its bond offerings seem to be meeting up with some snags. The real cuts and austerity measures might come later.
Imagine somebody vomiting and then turning around and eating and drinking that vomit–uhmmp uhmmn ! ugh !
The writings of AC are like her own vomit that in a revolting way, she is eating
enough to make you puke eh people (commenters)
I’m a barbadian national studying abroad, in south america. I have been quietly following this blog and I am just so amazed that despite the fact that our politicians have not delivered anythin worthwhile at all, barbadians remain silent. The dlp govt is a MESS! This person AC is the epitome of pure hogwash. I do not even believe s/he has a brain. I am not sure mia understands the job that awaits her
Why waste money on importing rubber bullets and so many bullet proof vest while the hospital need supplies?
i hope that is just a rumour, it would be the most idiotic thing to do right now.
“Three Barbados Labour Party (BLP) members of parliament were questioned today by the police in connection with a Nation newspaper story penned by Barry Alleyne. The story based on a Voice of Barbados report has to do with coverage of the Opposition walk out of parliament in July 2013.”
ANOTHER SMOKESCREEN TO CURRY PYRRHIC FAVOUR WHEN THERE ARE SO MANY IMPORTANT ISSUES AFFECTING THE COUNTRY WHICH A WELL-OILED OPPOSITION CAN USE TO DRAW WELL DESERVED ATTENTION TO THEMSELVES.
Is there any truth to the talk a container of Bullet Proof Vests and Rubber Bullets where received by the RBPF? Where are the licorish journalist in Barbados who are suppose to investigate and bring the stories for ventilation?
David
Did you see the back page article in the Nation newspaper today? Kerrie Symmonds is a real jackass though. He there making a right ass of himself and the BLP with all kinds of foolish excuses when the average reader understands that the BLP members of Parliament are NOT willing to take a pay cut.
These idiots in Parliament take us for fools. Stupse.
When I first heard of this container of riot suppression supplies, I checked my usual sources for confirmation but only one was able to confirm. Normally, I require more than one source but for whatever it is worth, I was told that the container was delivered to the Barbados Defence Force.
Can you imagine that the QEH does not have gauze and these people could spend money to acquire things to crack skills. Now pray tell me when they crack skulls and there is no gauze, what would happen? It proves my point, they are poor planners, gauze first!
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@Back in time
Yes it is a disingenuous response by Kerri.
Can you imagine that the QEH does not have gauze and these people could spend money to acquire things to crack skills. Now pray tell me when they crack skulls and there is no gauze, what would happen? It proves my point, they are poor planners, gauze first!
LOL
The biggest I have laughed all year !