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Mini Budget Day in Barbados

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To the observer of the Barbados space post 2018 General Election, there has been non stop activity generated by the newly installed government of Barbados since taking the reins. There is an air of expectancy about what the Prime Minister will convey to citizens.

The unprecedented decision by the government to trigger a selective default has committed Barbadians to travel an uncharted path.

Many Barbadians although discomfited by the state of affairs that will for a long time prevent any reference to Barbados being a model country for others to emulate, appreciate that affirmative action must be taken.

The Barbados brand has received a huge dent!

 

 

 

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298 responses to “Mini Budget Day in Barbados”

  1. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    @ pieceuhderockyeahright June 11, 2018 8:59 PM

    As you see, no IMF loan! The guys working for this financial institution are not stupid.

    Told you so.

  2. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Fractured BLP June 11, 2018 3:45 PM

    A Simple Response: The government made the civil servants an offer, the unions’ executives approved of the offer, the unions’ memberships approved the offer also also at a meeting on the afternoon of Friday June 8. Today our Madam PM confirmed the offer. The civil servants are happy. Seems to me too that the bargaining process has been completed.

  3. David Avatar
    David

    By all reports in the press, Professor Michael Howard is not happy and does not believe the measures announced in the mini budget will yield the estimated revenue.

  4. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    pieceuhderockyeahright,

    doan raise yuh pressha. They hit the ground running but stumble out of the blocks.lol

    Smart Bajans will drive less, reduce spending on imports and plant a kitchen garden.

  5. sirfuzzy Avatar
    sirfuzzy

    Did not watch word for word the delivery of the mini-budget, but was lucky to see the condensed proposals.
    @ David. What can the Barbados Economy afford? At this moment we cannot afford that much as we find ourselves in a really deep hole of our own making. I don’t care too much for party affiliation (BLP or DLP) , unless you don’t care too much for Barbados, we want our country to strive and prosper. A rising tide lifts all boats(except the submarines).

    Barbados is in a hole. The first thing is to stop digging. concentrate our energies toward getting out the hole. This party divide and associated tribalism is not helping. We have a leader. The BLP forms the Govt.. We have a new leader, but not a rookie We should support our leader, but not follow any leader blindly. Objective analysis is required. We must be able to call a space a spade; correct/chastise our leader when she errs and congratulate when she succeeds. Don’t let Party affiliation cloud your better judgement. They will always be “two handed economist” if you take President Truman at his word.

    My suggestion in moving Barbados forward is to rethink our economic model. I am suggesting that we don’t accept the old or new economic theories that “others” say will work for us. I honestly think those economic theories are designed for “other” countries by “others” not truly familiar with Barbados. Often we take something that works in Europe etc, drag it down here, and hammering it into submission, or leave it on the beach to sunburn and proclaim that we have a new economic model. It works for a while, then often blows up or becomes out of date quickly. Often we cannot fix the model as we never really knew what are the true working or genesis of the model. Honestly most of the new economic models are drafted in foreign Universities and think tanks. The genesis behind these models are not about helping small countries like Barbados to succeed.

    Many will say that i talking foolishness. They will provide “some economic reason(s)” why my thoughts should be dismissed. But before you do that to me and my comments, i will offer you this. The economic reasons you are providing have their genesis where? Are you relying on the same text books and models from the same university or think tanks that i am saying are to viewed with some caution? Furthermore, the world was said to be flat. Those that saw it differently back then were heretics. Some were killed for their “non-flat earth” mouthing. Apparently not all were drinking the “koolaid” back then. Today, “flat earthers” are considered madmen, and we use the formulae of the “round earthers” to prove that earth cannot be flat. How convenient. LOL

    Bajans often say that Barbados is a God fearing nation. Honestly i have my doubts at times; but to each his own.
    My Bible also tell me that my God will supply all my needs. My Bible proclaims that there is an abundance that will overwhelm any person or nation once that person or nation does right my God(Jehovah). The fundamental tenant of Economics is based on “SCARCITY” i say no more. Jehovah cannot supply all my needs and have me in abundance if there is Scarcity. Scarcity and abundance are mutually exclusive. A Human engineered Economic model flies in the face of God and his divinely engineered Economics. Human engineered Economics only appears to work or succeed when Jehovah’s teachings are marginalised or forgotten.

    For Barbados to climb out of the hole we are in, and have the abundance promised to us by Jehovah, will require us focusing on the Bible and what is says about Divine Economics and not what is conjured up in think tanks and often godless universities. The further we move away from Jehovah and his teachings the tougher the economic tribulations will be and the longer the road back to normalcy for our nation.

  6. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Tron June 11, 2018 4:36 PM “higher taxes for the three Canadian banks: FCIB, RBC and Scotia.”

    Why are you here belly aching on behalf on the Canadian banks?

    Don’t those same banks charge even long time Bajan customers, customers who have never made a late payment 22% on credit cards? Don’t they also kill Bajans with fees. They sure as hell don”t charge their Canadian customers those same ridiculous fees.

    I know, I know. The banks are not greedy. They are just trying to “optimize” the ROI on behalf of their shareholders, who are all llittle old lady pensioners.

  7. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    I respect Professor Michael Howard but I am wondering where was this advice when it was sorely needed when Chris Sinckler was wrecking the economy.

  8. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    @Simple Simon June 12, 2018 1:40 AM

    You do not challenge your creditors BEFORE you have settled an agreement on debt restructuring. Do not forget that FCIB is also in the syndicated loan from 2013.

    You cannot beach a loan contract at the detriment of your creditors and then increase the taxes for your creditors. That is not working so for the Canadians.

  9. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Enuff June 11, 2018 6:42 PM ” Catalogue and online don’t even compare, one is static the other is dynamic. So dynamic, that you can fill in your height, weight and age, and your correct size is chosen. You see now why online is Grim the Reaper for brick & mortar? Fossilised aren’t you?”

    You know Hal may be right. In spite of filling height, weight, age etc. sometimes the online purchases just don’t fit right. Even tried buying a pair of dressy high heels on line? Buying a book online “yes” Buying shoes or clothes will will fit perfectly online “not yet”

    And you know why?

    Every human body is idiosyncratic.

    And toobesides have you ever tried returning an item bought from an online retailer in China or even the U.S. ?

    No free return shipping for us who live on small isolated islands where most small items are shipped by air.

  10. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Ever tried buying a bra from a Chinese online retailer?

    You can tell that the Chinese manufacturer have never set eyes on black women’s bubbies.

  11. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Hants June 12, 2018 1:31 AM “plant a kitchen garden.”

    Kitchen garden done plant. Ask Beautiful Beige for me to pray to her God for rain, not too much rain, not too little rain becausin’ ’bout here, t’ings brown.

    Literally.

    In my almost 70 years I have never seen a second week of June so brown.

  12. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    What gutter scraping nonsense about senator-to-be Althea Wiggins. Is this the level of Barbadian discourse? Rather than talk about the woman’s ideas ad suitability to be a senator, based on her politics, we are going head first in the sewer to rake up nonsense.
    Swearing and foul-mouthed language is part of popular Barbadian culture. Just read the various posts on this blog, most from anonymous elderly men and women, many of them in the ante-chamber of death venting their bitterness and spite.
    The most interesting thing about her proposed appointment is that a woman out of the country on official business, representing her country, is then barred from taking up her position because of a fractured constitution that not even a 16 yr old student would have written.
    That is the real issue.

  13. Voters always get tricked Avatar
    Voters always get tricked

    Here are a couple of suggestions:

    First of all Barbados should have a minimum wage of BD$10 or US$5 per hr.

    Anyone making BD$1600 a month as head of household should be exempted from these dracion additional taxes.

    They are already paying NIS and PAYE plus VAT on most purchases locally unless buying on the black market.

    Canada minimum wage is $11.15 up to over $13 Canadian by June 2019

    US lowest minimum wage is US$7.25 up to over US$11 in California.

    The living wage is now set at £9.15 an hour in London and £7.85 an hour in the rest of the UK. By comparison, the national minimum wage is significantly lower. Since October 2014, the national minimum wage has been £6.50 an hour for adults aged 21 and over, and £5.13 for those aged 18 to 20.

  14. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Kaymar strikes again. I am in agreement with Hal on this. The woman is an adult and if she washed Guy in cuss, so what? Meanwhile Guy busy trying to keep his High Commissioner pick by pretending to be the catalyst for the Windrush volte face. Yet was on standby in the east?🤣🤣

  15. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Kaymar’s column of 12:?? “he was “unable to verify or deny that such outrageous and unprofessional conduct took place at the Mission in London”.

    So the allegation is that the High Commissioner was cussed behind his back?

    I trust that he understands that bosses get regulsrly cussed behind their backs. Why we even have Ossie Moore jokes about cussing the boss behind ‘e back.

    Lolll!!!

    In any event the issue is moot, as it is unlikely that he will be High Commissioner for much longer, so I am not sure where Barbados Today is going with this.

  16. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Voters always get tricked June 12, 2018 2:21 AM “First of all Barbados should have a minimum wage of BD$10 or US$5 per hr.
    Anyone making BD$1600 a month as head of household should be exempted from these dracion additional taxes. They are already paying NIS and PAYE

    A Simple Response: People earning BDS$1600 per month do not pay any PAYE/income tax at all, since the first BDS$25,000 of earned income in exempt from any income tax.

  17. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/amazons-brick-and-mortar-bookstores-are-not-built-for-people-who-actually-read

    So if brick and mortor stores are dead, why has Amazon.com recently opened 7 brick and mortor stores?

  18. charles skeete Avatar
    charles skeete

    I always tell my children to try
    if they make the sincere effort and fail
    at least they would have made the effort and there is a basis from which we can move on to something else
    if there is no effort
    then things remain as stagnant as they have been for the last ten years under the silent microscope of supposedly educated men like Professor Howard to whom we were looking for guidance
    Now all of a sudden he has found a voice full of negativity
    I have no time for hypocritical commentators like him educated out of the public purse but like so many have refused to give back
    Had people like him been more vocal before and put country before party chances are we would not be in this according to the IMF in this precarious situation and his party would not have been decimated
    Those of you educated out of the public purse should stop playing politics because it puts your credibility on the line

  19. charles skeete Avatar
    charles skeete

    Yes I am a proponent of a return to the “means test” for the distribution of social services but it is one thing for me to sit on the outside and offer comments which I consider constructive without actually sitting in the drivers seat which might very well be different when I am in the seat and wasn’t it Mr Arthur who wanted to ensure that there was a graduate in every household.
    Was he going to achieve that noble ideal by making people pay for their University Education?
    Sometimes it’s best not to quote these who when they spit in the air
    the spit drop right back down in their faces

  20. charles skeete Avatar
    charles skeete

    Barbados today is inferring the Governor General of the allegations are correct and not malicious did not exercise due diligence in nominating Deputy High Commissioner Althea Wiggins to the Senate

  21. David Avatar
    David

    There is nothing wrong with probing the behavior of Miss Wiggins while functioning in the role of diplomat. If we pretend to want transparency in public office there cannot be compromise. Let her defend her tenure.

  22. David Avatar
    David

    @Prodigal Son

    The respect you have for Professor Howard comes from where? You cannot respect the man and then question his motives. To be fair to Howard he has never been bashful about putting pen to paper to share a view over the years. The archive is there to support.

  23. David Avatar
    David

    @sirfuzzy

    Like your comment for the most part. What has been lacking in the country and bellowed in this forum over the years is leadership. The ability of the political leader to whip stakeholders into a position where there is consensus and be in a position to leverage and maximize all the resources available. Such a position springs confidence where ideas and can do attitudes will come to the fore. PM Mottley all agree has received the overwhelming mandate and currently enjoys enormous goodwill. She is indeed in the moment and cometh the woman is the high expectation. The cold economic policies will come if the leadership is able to cultivate consensus even when certain tribes do not agree. It is an adversarial system (culture)that has taken root we will have to dismantle.

  24. Well Well & Cut N' Paste At Your Service Avatar
    Well Well & Cut N’ Paste At Your Service

    “Many will say that i talking foolishness. They will provide “some economic reason(s)” why my thoughts should be dismissed. But before you do that to me and my comments, i will offer you this. ”

    Never let anyone dumb you down to their level of lack of knowledge, keeping secrets from each other for decades that could have futher strengthened productivity and progress for everyone or try to immerse you in their destructive mischievous and stagnating political party affiliation and yardfowlism that has proven to be the most destructive force in 52 years, because they will never learn..

    those destructive human forces and menace to society have to first leave the earth,…before progress on the island will accelerate at its natural course…and before politicians and their dumbed down followers learn that the population comes before party affiliation…

    or as happened on May 24th, the electorate will have to destroy and dismantle them each election cycle, making them defunct like the ex government. .. until the political party affiliation philosophy which serves no useful purpose to the majority population, never did, is completely wiped off the island…and politicians and leaders of political parties finally get the message.

  25. Well Well & Cut N' Paste At Your Service Avatar
    Well Well & Cut N’ Paste At Your Service

    “Cheaper that setting up an expansive bureaucracy to means test/humiliate the children of maids and gardeners and gas station attendants.”

    Simple…I see your point, given the malicious nature of those who would be given that power to means test, so to eliminate that lack of empathy, everyone knows who the wealthy are on the tiny island, ask for proof of income etc, everyone knows who the 6 and 8 figures salaried are…means test those children of the wealthy instead of those who are vulnerable….for eligibility to receive taxpayer funded education, no humiliation involved and the clowns doing the means test will feel proud with their limited intellect.

  26. T.Inniss Avatar
    T.Inniss

    The hypocrisy in this place is mind blowing.

    Reading the various responses to that budget whether in the press or here on this site it is unbelievable.

    I suppose Mia can say like Trump did, that she can go on the busiest street (in her case Broad street) and shoot 3 people and certain people will cheer and say well done.Not a fella got a bad word to say – like what de hell yuh gone and do now – nothing so.Hmmmm

  27. David Avatar
    David

    You are obviously bring a perspective to the table that is not the case. BU commenters will criticize anybody at the slightest. We have had 10 years of rot under a DLP administration – see blog above as one example, people are searching for hope. Time will tell if Mia and team can improve the situation. What we have now – that was missing under the Stuart administration – is hope and a quiet confidence starting to ooze into the public that we can do it. Let us work together to improve Barbados, Stuart and dem had their 10 years and pissed it away.

  28. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    All enthusiasts believing in bloated bureaucracy and high taxes read this here:
    http://www.latinfinance.com/daily-briefs/2018/6/11/barbados-bondholders-await-clarity-amid-slide

    “Sean Newman, a fixed income portfolio manager at Invesco, said last week that attempts to restructure debt without removing the peg would prove dangerous. Without removing the pegged exchange rate and downsizing the public sector, be ready for Venezuela-type consequences,” said Newman on June 4.”

    Good luck to all naive “educated” cheerleaders! The Barbadian establishment is still too arrogant and unteachable to face the consequences. They want to keep their villas, SUVs and grand lifestyle, but do not want to pay for it.

    The latest budget qualifies for the Davy Jones´locker, but not for any agreement with the creditors or the IMF.

  29. Well Well & Cut N' Paste At Your Service Avatar
    Well Well & Cut N’ Paste At Your Service

    Piece…as long as the ideas are not sold or given to minorities to continue to strengthen their economic positions..but used as intended by government to benefit the most vulnerable and others who elected them….but we will know, because those in the society offering up ideas should know they should print a copy of their email, save the original…and monitor how and by whom their ideas are being used…and expose any abuse.

    Never give up an idea and then believe it will be used as you intended, it is your duty to make sure your idea is not misused causing more disenfranchisement to you.

  30. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    David BU

    You are correct re: “BU commenters will criticize anybody at the slightest.”

    I’m sure you’re able to recognize the difference between an individual bringing a “perspective” and having a specific agenda.

    Immediately after the May 24 general elections, T. Inniss suddenly appears on BU to criticize the new BLP administration. Inniss also “endorses” ALL contributions that are critical of Mottley, while labeling contributors that share an alternative perspective as “BLPites.”

    Do you really believe his/her appearance on BU is by coincidence? He/she “recruited” by the DLP to push their propaganda in this forum. And, as is the norm with DLP yard-fowls, they criticize this forum and the blogmaster, similarly to Fractured BLP and Mariposa.

    Inniss’ June 12, 2018 5:49 AM contribution is clearly indicative of an individual with a specific agenda.

  31. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    Tron

    Have you ever worked for the IMF……….or were you present at the recent meeting with the government, stakeholders and the IMF that you can categorically state the Fund will not lend Barbados money?

    Is Mottley so silly as to meet with the Fund on the eve of a “Mini Budget” without discussing the details of her economic policies?

    Do you know if the IMF endorsed the policies or not?

    If the answer to the above questions is “NO,” then your assessments are based purely on your personal assumptions and NOT fact.

  32. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    Artax,

    If the IMF endorses such policies, the gov should quickly communicate this,
    since I have no problem with any policy ensuring that the Barbadian financial system stays afloat.

    My agenda is not anti-gov, but pro-Barbados.
    So gov should really make it clear for all investors that they have the IMF´s backing for their financial course.
    Problem solved.

  33. T.Inniss Avatar
    T.Inniss

    Tron

    Let me warn you – posts like that of BLP hitman Artax is what you will get if you post anything that does not say:’How great thou art Mia”

    Reading your earlier posts I know you have cussed the last administration and praised this incoming one so you are no Dem yardfowl .However I believe that nothing Mia has done so far demonstrates confidence that she and her ‘advisers’ know how to really deal with this problem and all they are throwing up are a lot of quick fix measures and political PR responses.

    So for example, she reminds you that she told the people’watch me as I do it” – so she went ahead and did it,that is increase non-contributory pensions,remove tuition fees,give public servants increases – all in light of this ‘dire,dire,dire,dire economic circumstances’ which she keeps reminding us she found.

    But what does it matter – Massa likes it – as Charles Herbert tells us – he is pleased – so you know when he is pleased – the underlings got to dance and grin and be pleased too.

  34. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    Inniss,

    I tried to tell the decision-makers since five years again and again that a reduction of the public service is no cruelty but a necessity.

    I am perfect with every Barbadian government as long as it protects the economic environment. I had personally no problem with Mr Sinckler if he had delivered the right numbers. Pecunia non olet!

  35. John Avatar
    John

    xxvii. Introduce an essential road repair and debushing programme that will cost $25M;

    Mr. Speaker, we owe our sugar farmers $14.5 million. My Government will seek to settle this matter over the next three years. We will provide sugar farmers with a partial settlement to the tune of $5 million in this financial year.

    xxvi. $10M to purchase equipment for the Ministry of Transport, Works & Maintenance;

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Pay the farmers their $14.5 million now!!

    Use the $25 million to give them an incentive to clear and plant.

    The result will be debushing which is continual and self financing as it was in the past.

    Save the foreign exchange outflow to purchase equipment ($10 M) which will fall into disrepair and be scrapped as always,

    Use that $10 million to fix roads by hiring contractors who maintain their equipment.

    ie, create self financing employment in the economy!!

    SHRINK GOVERNMENT!!

    This house of assembly is not only unconstitutional but it does not think ahead and look to create self financing opportunities for the benefit of the whole country!!

    Where is the tractor mower with the boom and brush cutter today?

    Can the press provide us with a picture?

    Is it laid up somewhere awaiting parts and being cannibalized?

    Is part of the $10 million earmarked to purchase another two or three or four?

  36. John Avatar
    John

    I am optimistic about our future, because once again we can aim to produce a graduate in each household. Tuition fees have been removed from the backs of those who could not afford it. To that we now add an entrepreneur in each home.

    We will abolish undergraduate tuition fees for those attending the University of the West Indies with effect from the next semester. In return we will require each student to contribute to the development of social capital by giving back a minimum of 100 hours in approved service to the country. We will introduce safeguards against the explosion of enrolment and estimate that this measure will increase expenditure by $22 million directly.

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    We don’t need sterile social scientists, historians and lawyers who contribute little or nothing to employment.

    We need STEM cells to fix our ailing country and create growth!!

  37. Well Well & Cut N' Paste At Your Service Avatar
    Well Well & Cut N’ Paste At Your Service

    No one needs sugar, they need food, free up the land to the population for agricultural purposes for those so inclined. …and not only for political pimps and yardfowl….

    add the introduction of growing medical marijuana…so entrepreneurs in that field can excel and generate jobs and incomes in the more depressed areas of the island..free up the land to the people.

    .,.enough with the low paying enslavement sugar plantation jobs…this is not the past, it is the present moving into the future.

  38. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    I support the PM’s prerogative to appoint whomsoever she wants to the Senate, yet I hear discordant voices like Hal A being critical of young Adams with the flimsiest of arguments. Now that there is a report that young Ms. Wiggins may have cussed her boss in full view of her subordinates Hal A writes in support “Swearing and foul-mouthed language is part of popular Barbadian culture”. I left Barbados a long time ago but I have never heard that cussing your Boss to his face was part of “Barbadian culture”. I may venture to say that cussing your boss in any culture is a sign of insubordination and would ensure that you get your walking papers toute suite.

    I look forward to the upcoming debates in the Senate at least they should be filled with spicy language in contrast to the Kumbayah sing a long in the H of A.

  39. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    @Simple Simon
    Read the submission in its entirety I wrote that a means test be applied to filter out those who didn’t need Gov’t assistance to attend University.

    @Charles S
    [wasn’t it Mr Arthur who wanted to ensure that there was a graduate in every household].
    ++++++++++
    Can’t two things be true at the same time? If Mr. Arthur wanted a graduate in every household doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t want to have some people pay for their University education.

    BTW I thought that “graduate from every household” was from Prof. Beckles.

  40. Well Well & Cut N' Paste At Your Service Avatar
    Well Well & Cut N’ Paste At Your Service

    The marijuana trade is now in the trillions of dollars for generating income for metropolitan countries….billions for larger islands like Jamaica and Trinidad…there is room for small islands to generate significant income as well..

    What sugar what…that should be a mere sideline business since europe is phasing out its uselessness and everyone is more focused on the income from marijuana. …which will also free up the uselessly backlogged court systems.

    And keep the greedy minorities out of it, the guys from the ghettos who have been planting in the bushes for 40 years only needed seeds and water…of course government can fund small start ups in the marijuana trade….small funding for greenhouses etc…. $5,000 is a real start for equipment….one just needs a marijuana seed bank.

  41. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Tron
    I tried to tell the decision-makers since five years again and again that a reduction of the public service is no cruelty but a necessity.
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    Well then your thinking is just as linear – and as flawed – as is that of the ‘decision-makers’.

    There is nothing fundamentally wrong with a large public service.
    It is a quite viable approach to national strategic management.

    What SHOULD be put in place is that such a public service be COMPLETELY SELF FINANCING by way of productively providing needed services.
    In such a philosophy, salaries and benefits would NOT be negotiated in absolute terms, but would be determined by a formulae that is built around the productivity of the various units within the service.

    You may have missed it, but the PM INSISTED that future BLP budgets would be deficit-free …and will even produce a small surplus down the road.

    This is actually what is needed…. and what the DLP idiots failed to appreciate.

    If the public service can employ every Bajan (even those in the diaspora who want to be both in church and chapel) and still make a profit …. why should there be cuts in numbers?

    You need to think outside of the box.
    The new PM obviously has that ability….

  42. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    Bush Tea,

    Show me the perpetua mobilia. Then I consent, fair and square.

    So far we have a fixed wage hike. If the salaries of the public servants were bound to productivity or the ability of self-financing, then we had no flat salaries for the last 10 years but a huge wage cut.

    The excessive wages hikes of the early 2000s were not in line with any increasing productivity. They merely tracked inflation.

  43. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Sargeant,

    I am not big on vulgar language, but again you have mis-interpreted what I have said about Mr Adams. I know yo guys in Canada are too cold to think for yourselves.
    I questioned – QUESTIONED – the grounds on which Mr Adams was appointed. Since at the tie the only reason given was his “impressive financial career”. Based on his CV, I questioned that.
    So as not to repeat the argument, I made it clear that I| was a big supporter of a meritocratic society and if Mr Adams had the training and experience to add value to Barbados as a society, then he should be appointed. Based on his CV I do not think he does.
    As to supporting Ms Wiggins, those who use an alleged show-down with his manager as an excuse to disqualify her from sitting in the senate are mentally disturbed.
    Oppose her appointment, yes, but not on the frivolous ground of residence and most of all on the trivial, nonsensical basis of having had a public row with her boss in front of junior colleagues.
    Was she disciplined at the time? Go away and grow up, you aging pompous idiots.

  44. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    The unseemly behaviour of the public servant at the Court of St James implies that the decision of BARP to part company with her and her short stint there,was a wise one.The fact that the President is a Noott trained Weymouth graduate should have put that Dem woman to be on her best behaviour or suffer the guillotine no nonsense approach of the Major’s management style and which he shared with select students.
    OSA ‘wild boys’ comment and Mia’s severe castration of the DLP should give Grenville Phillips Solutions Barbados the encouragement to replace the DLP as the opposition party in Barbados.Irrespective of what is thought to the contrary by the dithering dribbling old duffers of that party ,it is to be regretted that Phillips does not have a voice in the Senate.He is worth far more than the French speaking non essential deputy.Some people have no class.The DLP has become a pariah in bajan politics compliments of the people of Barbados.

  45. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    Hal Austin the eternal JA.May he Rest In Peace.

  46. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    @Hal A
    Go away and grow up, you aging pompous idiots
    ++++++++++++
    Hey pot meet kettle! Who opposed Ms. Wiggins appointment on the basis of residence? I don’t believe that Ms. Wiggins residence was questioned as she was working in London on behalf of the Gov’t but the nebulous wording of the 12 month prior residence ensured she was caught up in the crossfire. BTW who has been a more vocal proponent for the removal of that piece of coopted language from the Constitution? If I remember you were against the changing of the Constitution because it meant that Adams would benefit.

    About pompous and aging have you read what you write or looked into the mirror recently? As for idiots you have more than a passing acquaintance with the term.

  47. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    The budget boggles the mind.A budget formed out of politricks with an attempt to fool the imagination of the public that measures are in place to handle the debt
    The most gaping holes in the budget lend themselves to area of expenditure which includes wages increase in non contributory pensioners fund and the removal of University fees for students which in effect goes against the recommendations of the IMF
    Hard to understand how the measures Mia put in place would be sustainable to collect enough revenue and bring down the debt
    The fact that barbados economy is attached to a global community should be included in the decision making as to how barbados economy if having to undergo any global economic shocks can sustain itself with govt economic policies
    It seems as if govt has not learned such lessons from the past

  48. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Again it boggles the mind that govt can put so much confidence in a one nest basket that of tourism whose main source of tourism fell flat during the global crisis
    It seems as if this govt has planed to fail because of not learning lessons from the past.

  49. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Sargeant,

    You are an idiot. Again you are personalising the opposition to the appointment of Mr |Adams, even thug I again explained my position.
    My opposition to he proposed change in the constitution had nothing to do with benefiting, or not benefiting, Mr Adams. I said if there were constitutional reasons barring his appointment, then the Prime and/or Cabinet should have moved on – unless he was bringing to the table something that other eligible people could not.
    To change the constitution simply to benefit two chosen people, to my mind, bordered on perversion. I stand by that.
    As I have said, I have never met Mr Adams or his father and they do not feature in my little world, so it is not personal. I t is a principled position.
    The argument about Ms Wiggins becoming a senator is as different argument. I believe that UPP and Solutions Barbados nominees should have dominated the senate appointments.
    It is bordering on legally sanctioned corruption to have a lower house with 100 per cent of members belong to a single party, then having the prime minister appointing 12 out of 21 senators. This is elective dictatorship.
    What we got was the appo0intment of BLP grandees by the BLP government, and the next generation of the DLP ruling elite by the governor general.
    Just in case you do not understand, an alleged foul-mouthed row between Ms Wiggins and her manager at the high commission should not disqualify her from her senate appointment.
    That our senior representatives should behave in this way is a shame – but then this is popular Bajan culture.

  50. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    The IMF would look at this budget and think out loud Here We Go Again
    Nothing here to save barbados economy from a rainy day

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