onions…
you sure you ain’t write this and then jump in has the first poster??

onions,

Did I hear it right on the evening news that Reggie Hunte is asking for an investigation into the NHC? Was it him who was in the background egging Santia Bradshaw on? What’s going on in the DLP? Are they really crumbling as an earlier thread said?

@SCOUT RATS!

Exe.Vice President BHA…on the news this morning relaying the plight of the tourist industry….Cruise ship arrivals at there LOWEST EVER….hotels have for the first time begun to layoff workers..that she knows of .. so she says..yet PM Stuart can’t find an ear for Jordan…Man really what is going on here ? Not the way in my books….in an elections year? Why this almost seem suicidal for the DLP ? What is this ? Six months left before the bell and you want to be at your worst ? Normally PMS normally try to give of their best……wonder if this has anything to do with he phrase “Heads going roll “?

@!

It was this inattention to corporate governance issues which must be a worry for the Independent voter. What does it say about the political pickings that we have to consider the BLP and not have them address these kind of matters.

OPTION 1.
People want state funded education from primary to tertiary, free health care, a new hospital, subsidised housing , free garbage collection, subsidised public transportation,well equipped police force, subsidies on gas and fuel, secure government jobs for themselves and children and the best roads and infrastructure.

Option 2
People want lower taxes, less vat, less land tax,lower road tax, increased deductions, tax free allowances and lower duties on many imported items.

That is the challenge in modern Barbados. .
We want both – an abundance of services and low taxes.
Why do you think the opposition is so quiet on specific spending cuts, that is not by accident.
If we want lower taxes, let us decide that we want less of the items in option 1.
The political parties will not touch it because they know it would be political suicide so the BLP opposition will remain quiet on solutions and specific cuts but loud on criticism.
Let us get real in Barbados. There is no free lunch, if we want it we have to pay for it. If we don’t want to pay the taxes, then let us start sending home thousands of public servants (including family members and friends); paying for education like in the colonial days and make free health care a thing of the past because that is where the big money is being spent.
Then we could live a life of low taxes!

@Onions

Why do you think PM Stuart with a keen since of history and grounded in a deeper philosophical mooring than most would betray the political party to which he has been loyal for so many years?

You can write what you want but you really need to give your posits substance, you and others. The rabid party line will not cut it with those who remain unconvinced.

In fact one would have expected that the recent CADRES poll would have been more in favour of the BLP given your narrative.

@!

Unfortunately there is the reality that the DLP must face, how to effectively communicate to a public fed on a popular lifestyle of consumption for the last 14 years.

@Onions

To clarify: what Stuart stated was that if there was any treachery he identified head would roll.

!.

Finally somebody has started to put things in some sort of sensible perspective. I have never posted on a blog before but i read them everyday (or as often as i can) to at least see what some people are thinking. By the way David I think you are doing a reasonable good job in what must be a very challenging environment….kudos.

I have however found of late that the postings and comments on the blog are getting way to bias, nasty, repetitive and predictable. This is so on both sides of the political divide. Now maybe it is done to win the minds of readers but it can become tiring after a while. For the dems, the bees never did anything good, Arthur is a crook who sold out Barbados to the foreigners and raped the treasury. For the Bees Stuart is a completely dud who knows nothing, cant lead and cares not about the country. While Sinckler is a novice and worse thing that ever happen to the economy of Barbados.

Well all of that might be true in their minds and certainly they believe it. However few rarely if ever take a moment to consider the position that we as people have put our economy, society and its leaders in. We want everything for free with the highest possible standards of service but we done want to pay this tax or the other. Could you imagine that budget for the UWI has tripled in the last 8 years of so with not even a hint at even the smallest cost recovery. From 50 million in 2004 to more than 150 million last financial year. Tell me how many in Barbados will raise their hands to say we support the imposition of a higher education level to support that kind of expenditure. Similarly the QEH budget has jump by almost 70 million in the last decade with virtually not cost recovery and it is still climbing. Will any of us support a special health sector support levy? I doubt!

In Barbados we charge the lowest rates for water when compared to other regional states even with the 60 percent increase recently granted but yet nobody supported it. And worse yet, have anybody checked their natural gas bill recently? the charge is ridiculous! There is no way that that company could be covering their over heads with that type of charge. Read their financial report for last year and see they are losing money on operations. Can we agree to charge a proper rate for natural gas in Barbados? In this environment I think not. We all accept the the fare charged for bus fares at 2 dollars can never meet operating cost at the TB. Staff costs alone amounts to almost 40 million dollars. They have close to 1000 employees. Ok yes the politicians are to blame for packing it up with people, but are they to blame for the near 40 percent increase in fuel costs over the last 6 years, or the 30 percent increase in maintenace costs to keep the ageing fleet on the road?

But a 50 cent increase in bus fare has murdered the poor when all the experts make the point that the correct tariff should be around 3.50 to 4.00 dollars. Who on this blog is going support the retrenchment of at least 400 of those employees from the board to reduce that high wages bill?

Then is it really known that Barbados is one of the few countries in the world where garbage collect is almost entirely free for both household and even businesses. Yes! businesses in barbados dont pay to send they rubbish to the dump or to have it treated before it goes there. The las government wisely tried to create a new landfill and got richly abused for it. Nobody wants a dump near them. So in a small country with limited optons for land filling the government had to enter into a partnership with a private company to erect a treatment facility to treat the volumes of garbage produced every day by us so as to reduce the amount to be land filled and so extend the life of the existing and only land fill at mangrove. But this is costing government close to 30 million dollars every year. Check the Estimates and you will see. Now five years ago the SSA budget from government was 32 million dollars since the treatment centre costs were added it goes to 62 million. Who is paying for that? Where is all that money going to come from. And if we dont want to be charged a fee to cover at least part of that cost, how is the government going to set it off other than borrowering to do so?

Folks we have to get serious in Barbados and stop with this petty foolishness between the bees and the dees. Both have done good and both have done some bad too. Arthur did well in a positive and growing environment and made several advances for the country. We can see that. Sinckler for all the novice they say he is, has held a country together in arguably the worse possible economic and financial climate in recent memory. Yes there has been no spectacular growth in barbados of late, but where else in the caribbean or around the world have we seen it honestly. If st. lucia is growing a 2 percent, but has an unemployment rate to 21 percent, with no public transport system, and paid university education, limit medical facilities etc, are they better off that we are. If Grenada grows by 1.5 percent but 31 percent of the people cant find work and they have to do an IMF programme to get money to rund the country, are they any better than us? If Trinidad with all its oil and gas resources and large manufacturing sector cant climb out of recession (four straight years) why would we feel that we are doing ever so badly in Barbados? Britain cant get growth, Europe is in a mess, Canada is slowing down and planning to lay off 10 percent of its public sector work force to deal ith a decifict problem and the USA after a 800 billion spending (stimulus package) is quikly slipping back into economic decline proving that if the fundamental structures of fiscal balance are out of wack spending more is not hoing to help. The USA has only temporarily avoind the inevitable. The have to implement an auterity package to bring down their rising debt and hugh fiscal deficit. They wont be able to spend their way out of it as people in Barbados seen to think we must do in ours.

We can change the actors from B to D and back to D it will make little difference unless we are prepared to do the painful things required to correct our inbalances.

@ !”Let us get real in Barbados. There is no free lunch, if we want it we have to pay for it. If we don’t want to pay the taxes, then let us start sending home thousands of public servants (including family members and friends); paying for education like in the colonial days and make free health care a thing of the past because that is where the big money is being spent.
Then we could live a life of low taxes!……………………………..

You people are unbelievable, you spit up in the air and then let it fall right back in your face.

After outlining all the wants and expectations of Barbadians, why did your party from day began feed the people with this free mentality syndrome? Barbados is a society not only an economy and so the DLP began to give away:
*Free houses hence lower intakes at NHC
*Free bus fares for children when this could have been on a means basis
*Free big time concerts for Independence instead of the parades
* Every week free parties and receptions at Illaro Court
*Free food to new citizens at LESC
*Free fetes for young people all over the place to launch youth forums
*Free parties to give away a few keys
*Free summer camps to make sure the yardfowls get to feast on the fatted calf
*Free money in the football tournament
*Ministers flying all over the place first class

And I could go on and on on how you incompetent people wasted money but yet increased taxes killing the people and stifling the economy…….increase in road taxes, professional fees, land taxes, travelling and entertainment allowances, port charges which therefore increased the prices of everything, water rates, fuel rates, food prices.

It is not that Barbadians do not want to pay taxes but when they see this incompetent bunch messing up everything and wasting money whilst imposing the highest taxes ever imposed on Barbadians, you dont want us to complain?

Your days are numbered for burdening us!

THAT BAD !!!!!!!!!!…YOU NOW SHOCK ME …77 %….?????

onions,
Did you get an invite to the big Jubilee feast tonight at Government House?

I mean, Barbados is in deep financial trouble, this man Chris Sinckler has imposed crippling taxes on the people, collecting millions in VAT over their projections, could not say, well, let me revert to the 15% VAT to ease the burdens on the people, no, his colleagues thumped loudly on the desks in celebration that he was reaping these huge benefits off the backs of the people.

The DLP cannot ease the burdens of the people but could eat and drink lavishly off the backs of the people, them and their yardfowls.

They hosted the Prince and the Countess earlier this year, people objected at the expence incurred but I gave them a pass as we still have to acknowledge that we are still under the monarchy. The reception at Government house was huge and food and drinks flowed like water.

We had the Jubilee event at the Garrison last week, in light of the economic conditions why do they have to host another big Jubilee celebration bearing in mind they just had a big celebration at Government house a few days ago when the new GG was installed? Again food and drinks flowed like water!

And we are not to complain that these misfits are wasting taxpayers money as you know, they do invite a few of the who’s who in Barbados, the other thousand are DLP yardfowls to feast on the taxpayer’s expence!

Unbelievable!

It is sad when the intellectually bankrupt yardfowl can only see the party,party ,party.
As Harper W pointed out, the big money in government is spent on wages and salaries,QEH, Ministry of Education,- YOU CANNOT GO anywhere else in the budget to get 80 – 150 million dollars in spending cuts.
Parties are not the cause of the deficit,my friend. Indeed, there will always be catered functions regardless of which party is in power. Ask the BLP caterers what they would expect.
“Free houses hence lower intakes at NHC” – Again, a distraction.What absolute rubbish! Check and see that even before the decision was taken to convey the units to longstanding tenants, the arrears bill at the NHC was very high- that is , many people were living in the units and not honouring their rental payments. You know what happened when they learned that to qualify for ownership, the rent had to be paid, there was a rush to get the monies paid in. NHC actually saw those arrears come down.
Ministers flying first class – the BLP ex ministers were probably laughing when they read that statement.
We are fooling the public if we try to make people beleive that if you cut a party here and stop honoring long standing tourists at Illaro Court , that we will see some phenomenal drop in public expenditure. Wake up and get real.
The only place left to get major spending cuts is to send home thousands of public sector workers which would depress the economy or make people pay for education, garbage collection,etc.
There is no free lunch and that is why the BLP is being so quiet on where specifically to cut. They will be loud on criticism but very quiet on specifics.

You cannot have a consumption driven economy in Barbados without constant foreign exchange inflows. If in every Caribbean country we are seeing the phenomenon of reduced spend by the tourist , how the hell can we just have a stimulus- to stimulate what? Rapid Depletion of the foreign reserves which is the fastest way to the IMF. The only place left to cut government spending is that huge government wage bill. People do not want the government to send home thousands of workers but still want lower taxes.

We need the big foreign exchange inflows – the Four Seasons, the St. Peter’s Bay, Port Ferdinand, Sports Tourism events, Crop Over arrivals, international business,tourism from diverse sources,etc. Without the productive sectors leading the economic growth , any consumption spending would be short term and unsustainable.
The BLP must realise that the world economy of 2012 is not the world economy of the late 1990’s but the opportunistic politics of deception would never allow them to say it.

@HarperW

Welcome, what you read on BU is what you hear on the talk shows and therefore a mirror of the society. Have a read of CNN or Huffington Post blogs, it is the same, Democrats Vs Republican. As intelligent beings we have to pick sense form nonsense, importantly the Independents must read observe and keep striving from change. It is them who will have to do it, not the hacks!

So if the government does not have money, does it makes sense to continue spending themselves into oblivion?

We all have to balance our monthly budgets at home and to cut back to save a little for a rainy day, so why does it not make sense for the government to cut out all the unnecessary spending, the unnecessary parties….
* If the tourists are not spending much, why spend back what little they spent back on them?
* Was the David Thompson football spend necessary? I would have no problem with it if Families First footed the bill, but not our money!
* Really, why was a necessary to have a Jubilee event at the Garrison and a big eat up and drink up tonight? Are we trying to compete with what the Brits did last weekend?

If Barbadians see that the government is tightening its belt, people wont be angry but when they see that the DLP is finding every little thing to have a feast, they have every right to complain……..it would help with the fiscal deficit, not using fancy accounting tactics to say the deficit is coming down!

Jokers!

‘We need the big foreign exchange inflows – the Four Seasons, the St. Peter’s Bay, Port Ferdinand, Sports Tourism events, Crop Over arrivals, international business,tourism from diverse sources,”

WHERE WERE YOU PRIOR TO THE LAST ELECTIONS WHEN dlP APOLOGISTS AIDED AND ABETTED BY MR MARSHALL WERE ON BRASSTACKS DAY IN DAY OUT LAMBASTING AND CRITICISING TOURISM DRIVEN PROJECTS LIKE FOUR SEASONS, APES HILLETC.

PM Stuart said that everybody wanted to suck on the nipples and they were getting sore. Maybe, by the time he got around to Almond, all the milk was sucked out. Hence nothing will happen!

Just saying!

@ Sarge

Man ma bag so full wid D puddin n souse that I can’t think of nutting to tell ya but… it was sweet..Pig head souse is the best and I had two bowl fulls….wash down wid a ice cold coke…cloud nine brudds cloud nine…. Isleepy now…..dis is D life…ahhhhhhhhh

I honestly believe Stuart has reached the end of his tether.Funding for anything else is done.The bubbie has dried up for if the NIS Fund only has 23% of what was left when Arthur vacated…the county’s ass is grass..He dares don’t take it any further for fear of a revolt should pensioners and benefactors of such are unable to be recd payments. He dares not make this public for obvious reasons.. this would show up his Govt’s financial incompetency before elections. How else can you explain not helping RedJet with $8 mill at Crop Over time when Caribbean visitors alone at this time would recoup that in 3 weeks. No, all is not well in the treasury,Rather than face exposure.. he sends Chris with this buff up bogus story of how the VAT collected $186 million more than expected…This I also doubt for how else can that $120 Million in bounced cheques discovered only in January, be made good that quickly.?..For those who remember… I said Stuart will only call elections when all the money has ran out…Gentlemen…we are nearly there….When the BLP regains power I hope you remember these words…”this country’s finances will show what a newly bankrolled drunk does to $ 2,500 if given a free run on Baxters Rd a Saturday night, in the company of his alcoholic friends.

@ Prodi
Onions like most Bajans hooked on the pork….(both live n dead) ..lol
Onions ain’t going no way brudd….beside elections calling in November..watch.
Tonight a spot meeting in the Ivy…don’t forget BLP comrades.

Of course, Barbados needs foreign investment and that has been going on for decades.It was the late David Thompson who led the way in facilitating the investment that led to Royal Westmoreland.
The problem which was identified by the DLP previously is that you must have a dual approach because while you faciliate foreign investment, your citizens are crying out for housing solutions and about the skyrocketing price of land.
The BLP created a stuation that caused the people wanting houses on the NHC waiting list to go from 1600 in 1994 to 28 000 people in January 2008.
That was the real issue.

Lynette Eastmond – Barbados’ biggest snob says that she will win.Only if it was a contest on arrogance, Ms Eastmond.
You will get your hat trick of defeats- the good people of St. Philip West will ensure it.

here is a man sinckler that a year ago his poularity numbers were 6.6% now a year later his numbers have grown by a whopping 13,3% how in the world does that jell with what the BLP yard fowls are saying and what is written in the submission.