Yeah Yeah, now now tribalism and yardfowlism is acceptable because we are a democracy. What de f###.

I too am confused and question the sincerity of Mr Thompson’s invitation to Mr Arthur. Help me understand something, wasnt it Thompson that said Owen’s shelf life had expired? Isnt Owen the last “thief and rapist” of the economy? Some people on this blog have even said Owen’s legacy would be that of being the worse PM ever!

So if a person does all these bad things, why would you want any suggestions from them? I would think that is the last person you would want to hear unless you had deliberately planned on setting them up to take a fall.

This talk about the US reaching across party lines and doing this and that does not mean that we must copy everything the US is doing, because they are doing it dont make it right and furthermore the Republicans are still giving the Democrats hell with some of their bills, so it isnt all that rosy politics here.

Mr Thompson was given a job to do as PM and I am sure he could some economist in his party as well as Sir Lloyd to assist him. This is just another set of dirty politics and political games! Get on with running the country and if that job is too difficult for you let someone else in your party take over! The BLP had their turn it is now the DLP’s time to make their mark.

Somehow this smells of a very nasty plot and ploy and I think that instead of us Bajans calling on the politicians to stop being partisan we need to do the same and stop allowing ourselves to be hoodwinked

OUR CARIBBEAN: Government, Opposition dialogue

Published on: 5/29/2009.

by RICKEY SINGH

PRIME MINISTER DAVID THOMPSON’S RECENT PUBLIC INVITATION to have three former ministers of finance (two of them former prime ministers) join him for working breakfast sessions on domestic approaches to the global financial and economic crisis was a good idea that quickly went wrong by its flawed presentation.

What his offer did, from my perspective, was to revive interest in the need for structured dialogue, in every CARICOM state, between governments and parliamentary opposition parties to encourage widest possible cooperation in nation-building, especially at times of crises.

Trouble is that within CARICOM we have developed an abysmal record when it comes to consultations between governments and the parliamentary opposition.

This attitude is also often reflected in relation to dialogues between governments and civil society. Yet, the rhetoric on “democratic governance” continues to flow.

It is now almost four years since there was an inaugural meeting of Heads of Government and Leaders of Parliamentary Opposition at the July 2005 CARICOM Summit in Castries, St Lucia.

I am unaware of any follow-up meeting since; even after an agreement was reached on the modalities for future dialogue, with a view to stimulating interest in the functioning of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, across political boundaries.

The reality is that if there is no culture of structured consultations at the local level between governing and opposition parties, then there is really no motivation to make this happen at the regional/CARICOM level.

http://www.nationnews.com/comments/guestcolumnists/rickey-singh-5-28-copy-for-web

(Today’s Nation)

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Well said Ricky. Arthur was right when he said that the DLP is “poor-rakey.”

Thompson prooves Arthur correct by calling on old-men who are sick and have retired from active politics – for help.

Ricky now explains that a weak David Thompson is merely trying to re-invent the wheel badly.

First, Arthur’s: Politics of Inclusion, and his “Team Barbados Approach,”

Then, something that was done in 1995 – “dialogue between governments and Opposition parties within CARICOM.”

Tony,

You have already come to the conclusion that the DLP is “poor-rakey – even without any promting from Arthur.

If there were wise heads within the DLP, Thompson would not be calling sick-old-men out of retirement from active politics to help him.

It would be better to resign.

More than a third of British MEPs are paying their relatives hundreds of thousands of pounds, despite a ban by the European Parliament next month on employing family members.

The wives, husbands and children of MEPs are earning up to £40,000 a year to work as secretaries and researchers at a total annual cost to taxpayers of more than £700,000.

Campaigners called last night for all 78 British MEPs to stop employing relatives immediately to prevent any suspicion that public money was being misused.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6382831.ece

(London Times)

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DLP Ministers must be sucking their teeth in dis-belief, as this is what Thompson’: “Family First” is all about – employing family members as part of the DLP’s fatted calf doctrine.’

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.