Former Prime Minister Freundel Stuart in a rare public appearance since the last general election delivered a speech last Sunday at the DLP St. Philip North branch meeting. Thanks to Piece the Legend for the following audio snippet. So far the blogmaster has not been able to locate the full speech by Stuart (some people…
Former Prime Minister Freundel Stuart in a rare public appearance since the last general election delivered a speech last Sunday at the DLP St. Philip North branch meeting. Thanks to Piece the Legend for the following audio snippet. So far the blogmaster has not been able to locate the full speech by Stuart (some people will say disappointing).
Additional link posted by Ping Ping.
@ Northern.
I is only a little one door shop keeper but how come we restructure we debt service and yet the debt service gone up? Could this be the TRUE TRUE cost of the restructuring now showing it head?
Cause I remember a few old nuisance on BU was asking bout the TRUE NET COST and dem say hush it is a state secret!
Lord I going have to call MASSY now and cancel the new fridge I did order for the beer!
So we spending $910 instead of the revised 578. Ok so let me travel slow cause some of the fellows on these blogs head hard when it come to figures. So $910M is more than $578M. So 910-578= $332M more we got to find to service we debt AFTER we restructure it. WAIT let me make sure no VAT not hiding in there cause again that could be more confusion! No it’s ok no vat in there.
I don’t know why wunna like to bring up these small matters for. After all we do is spend bout 50% per cent more than we budget for! Lord I wonder if WO fees in there as a one off payment?
Anyhow I ain t holding my breath for no explanation.
@John A February 19, 2020 2:46 PM “Lord I going have to call MASSY now and cancel the new fridge I did order for the beer!”
Please don’t do that. We BU people, we don’t enjoy warm beer.
John A.
I don’t know a lick bout accounting but I am sure you will teach me and the others like me.
But if you didn’t service you external debt on the last budget and you got to service it now, after the settlement, wouldn’t it be fair to expect an increase on the up coming budget?
Don’t kill muh now. Just asking cause I am totally ignorant.
@ William Skinner February 19, 2020 11:06 AM
I have called him a joker on this Blog and also referred to the fact that all he wanted to do was sell land. A man totally bereft of ideas: he could not even get Barbados’ income and expenditure balanced. An over rated demi-god The ingrate would not even repair the Public Library. I hold him in mind for that also.
@John A February 19, 2020 3:05 PM “So we spending $910 instead of the revised 578. Ok so let me travel slow cause some of the fellows on these blogs head hard when it come to figures. So $910M is more than $578M. So 910-578= $332M more we got to find to service we debt AFTER we restructure it.”
Haven’t passed a math test since the 11+ but I noticed that sum too, and I get the same answer as you, and my belly start to hurt right away.
Because we women don’t have any balls to get squeeze, but belly searchers hurt just as bad.
I here wondering just where in my belly I gine get hit in the budget.
all parties blame each other. how long can that go on?
i suspect that every time the BLP is questioned about some tax increase or economic faux pas implemented by them they will say we had to do it because of the last 10 years. and bajans without thinking will say yeah that “bloody DLP govt ” and MAM and the BLP will walk away with a smile on their faces and a pleasurable nod to their friends and family.
ask unnuh selves why did the BLP hire a two bit firm called white oaks right off the bat. we were never told why, only some flippant explanation that they were the right fit. then there is all these capital projects involving a man cursed by the BLP during the election. simply ask unnuh selves Cui bono?
the imposition of all these taxes, on whom will they fall? then look at who got exempted from VAT and who got tax forgiveness? for godsakes why would a country in deep debt not try to collect some taxes, not even 10cents on the dollar? again Cui bono?
and how could govt forgive VAT? it is not theirs? that is money / taxes paid by customers to govt via a company. if it is not paid to govt it is technically theft from the customers and govt has no right to give it away.
and really what gets my gall, is the Drug Dealers invitation to the opening of parliament. that has never been explained if it can be.
so yeah keep blaming the DLP for the past 10 years whilst we wilt under the next 5
“In addition he is old and cold, isolated and lonely.”
even worse he only just found out that the cousins in buckingham palace made him, without his knowledge and permission pay off slave masters for enslaving his own ancestors all the way up to 2015 from the 1960s or 70s….now how cold is that, and they call me cold…, with all the british limey shite him and Greene puff up their chests and post on here, they never knew..lol
one must sometimes be kind to pets…
@Northern, quite “adroitly” said above …. I particularly liked “Had it not been for his keen stuartship, Barbados may have collapsed. The administration provided solid and competent leadership, through a most difficult period.”
But be careful that your tongue don’t impregnate your cheeks dem as you got it upside in dey so deep!
@Greene, there is a time for sweet political oratory … No doubt Stuart still has some verbal awesomeness to behold…. But senor, any one who lied so wantonly and presided over such an abjectly corrupt, inattentive and callous administration is NOT THE ONE for sweet political prose.
He should NOT be offering public political comment to party nor nation…30 -0 is a statement of complete REJECTION…. If you are that leader then leave the spotlight.
Hal is right… Time for him to sit back with a guy like Bobby Morris maybe with advisory input from some experienced Brit or US journalist and write about that stunning dismissal by the Bajan electorate…. In detail explaining the lies, the mistakes, any successes.
Pull the scab back and talk about DT; talk about why we got here again after the pain of the Sandiford problems; talk about how his government seemingly shafted so many Black Bajans with the CLICO scandal…. TALK boldly.
Write about Inniss and Sinclair and his education minister.
Write for historical clarification… but BS speeches…No sireee.
Many here loved to listen to Tom’s oratory and Don B was the closest thing to orgasmic bliss just from political oratory.
So what if Stuart can reach those heights … he is forever the freaking utterly most failed PM in Barbados history and we really do not want to hear his rhetoric (and excuses or sweet words) NOW.
That makes no sense!
Yes he needs to apologize for the inane comment re his speaker, re his blatant lie on Cahill knowledge, for sewerage flowing in the streets and for any number of other callous acts… and then he needs to ride off into wherever failed politicians ride to… Go research his book!
Hal knows exactly what i mean, but am sure Al Sharpton whom he wanted kicked out of UK for representing Black people’s rights against racism in the killing of the young man years and years ago, can’t remember if it was a police killing, but i remember Hal’s article very well, “we don’t want his kind here, send him back to US” it said…
well am sure Al Sharpton probably still can’t stop laughing his ass off, because if nothing else, he would be well aware what the Brits did to the Caribbean African descended post the Windrush scam…forcing them without their knowledge to pay off slavemasters for enslaving their ancestors and for decades is no fun…..so we can ignore Hal in all his comeuppance glory.
Greene
Why shouldn’t the DLP get blamed for the “lost decade”?
If they were still in power today they would still be blaming the last recession which was over in 2009, high oil prices and Brexit but not their incompetence.
The BLP government was only in power less than two years they would be coming off the same recession (10yrs) after with less FX and a more run down country that it was when the DLP took over. Brexit saga is still going on and oil prices are highter than 15, 16, 17,
Yet the can point to things like fixing the sewage plants, garbage trucks and road works for examples.
Do not tell me anything about they borrowed money because over the lost decade the DLP borrowed, taxed, printed – tourism records, oil prices at lowest in the 15, 16, 17. yet the only thing done was the completion of the st john policlinic (for political reasons)
If DLP to to blamed for the suffering of the lost decade then why should the BLP be blamed for the suffering of the last two years?
I know it is not the form for BU to discuss ideas, too taxing. But if the report in Barbados Today is accurate, then according to this anonymous former DLP minister, there are explanations for the failure of the Stuart government.
But, his recall does not help, since there is an appalling ignorance of the performance of the global economy in thee immediate aftermath of the 2007/08 global crisis.
How long did it take the global economy to return to growth? What were the macro-economic policies, led by the G20, that are credited for this positive return? And who said it was the worst crisis in 100 years? When did Brexit become an issue in the UK, and what was its impact on the UK economy?
Nearly two years after laving office senior DLP politicians, and their academic supporters (ie Frank Alleyne and his council of advisers), cannot even get their facts right. All this adds to their perceived incompetence.
But instead of debating ideas, the prowlers and snake-grabbers are out seeking blood. It is the Bajan Condition during full moon. A failed nation.
Former Prime Minister Freundel Stuart is receiving backing for his defense of the Democratic Labour Party’s (DLP) stewardship of the country in the ten years prior to losing all 30 seats at the May 2018 polls.
This morning a former member of the Stuart Cabinet, who did not want to be identified, stressed that while he is no longer involved in active politics, he too stood proudly behind the DLP’s handling of the country’s affairs during a period which is referred to by some as the “lost decade” because of the economic inertia which the country experienced.
Like Stuart, the former minister contends that the government at the time was forced to contend with some very tough external challenges and that the Stuart-led administration would have done the best that they could have to weather the storm. However, he made it clear that he was by no means suggesting that mistakes were not made.
“I view our tenure two years later, the same way that I viewed it two hours after. I thought and still believe that it was a challenging period but there were achievements for sure. It was a difficult time to govern and I was part of a government that had its fair share of international challenges. I do not accept any characterization of some decade where nothing took place,” he said.
The former minister was referring to issues such as uncertainty within the major tourism source market of Britain due to Brexit, the world recession of 2008, instability of oil prices which hit record highs and a struggling international business sector. During the DLP tenure Barbados experienced 23 credit downgrades from the main international and regional credit rating agencies as well as falling foreign reserves which threatened the stability of the dollar.
However, in his interview with Barbados TODAY, the source contended that there was not much he could point to during the two-year tenure of the Mia Mottley-led administration that would indicate that Barbadians’ lives have been improved.
“If we are going to describe our ten years as a period of nothingness, then how would you describe the last two years? Other than spin, hype and PR, what is there to show? If we were lost prior 2018, are we now found? Where are all the jobs? Where are all the promised construction? The schools are in a mess and crime is out of control, taxes are killing people and people can’t get no money to raise their children. Crime is in a mess, could you imagine that 49 people got murdered last year. If ours was the decade of nothing, then I just want somebody to tell me what we should call the last two years?” he questioned.
Last Sunday a resolute Stuart, maintained that the DLP administration, tasked with tackling the fallout from the world’s greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression had performed admirably in the circumstances.
“The Democratic Labour Party between 2008 and 2018 did not have the luxury that Barrow had or that Tom Adams had or Sandiford or Arthur had. We had to deal with the worst crisis that happened in the western world since the Great Depression and some people say was the worst in 100 years…The crisis with which we had to deal was much more severe,” said Stuart.(Quote)
The full speech by Stuart can be viewed here.
why didn’t the DLP collect the VAT that was forgiven? I would have help them/ made thing easier for them a whole lot if they did!
@ John2
But don’t forget W0 say they negotiated a 2 year moratorium on debt payments, so based on that the debt service for the next 2 years should be way lower. So if we budgeted $578M and spend $910M where the 2 year moratorium went?
Or if the moratorium in there and we still over spend by $300M, what exactly did WO negotiate in bullet payments.
You see when these miserable people like Vincent, Walter and Hal was asking about the TRUE net cost of the exercise nobody didn’t answer.
@Hal quoting from Barbados Today, which is seemingly quoting a former DLP Cabinet Minister “This morning a former member of the Stuart Cabinet, who did not want to be identified, stressed that while he is no longer involved in active politics, he too stood proudly behind the DLP’s handling of the country’s affairs during a period which is referred to by some as the “lost decade”
So this member of the political class was happy to take the taxpayers money as wages, and happy to take the tax payers money as a lifetime pension, but is afraid to identify himself?
And we are supposed to take him seriously?
Surely you jest dear Hal.
We can’t, we won’t discuss ideas with a duppy.
Stupssseee!!!
@ john2 February 19, 2020 4:21 PM “why didn’t the DLP collect the VAT that was forgiven?”
Why you so like asking difficult questions?
You is bare trouble den.
Where our friend Mariposa to answer your hard question?
talk talk talk about everything thing thing and deliver little little little
“why didn’t the DLP collect the VAT that was forgiven? I would have help them/ made thing easier for them a whole lot if they did!”
both useless governments refused to collect the VAT, it was stolen by the tiefing business people over a period of 2 decades, particularly the Courts VAT..they just collected the money at Point of Sale and kept it, wholesale theft, and these shitehounds allowed them, this government wrote it off instead of jailing the thieves, they never would have allowed you to collect a dime, the bribing was already in…they would have jailed you instead.
No honest government does that…1 billion dollars of the people’s money stolen by their briber friends and no one held accountable.
It must be the height of stupidity – of the Mount Olympus kind – a former minister of a Cabinet of Barbados would retreat to anonymity and the traditional media is happy to run with it.
Come to think of it I sure a minister say that the SUCCESSFUL debt restructuring was going save we $1billion in 4 years. Then another top Advisor to the state so ” No we will save $500M Over that period. Then I hear how W0 get we a 2 year moratorium on payments that will give us ” considerable breathing space.”
Now all the sweet talk and tra la la done, we spending $332 M more than budgeted servicing debt in year one after the claimed successful restructuring.
Somebody help muh hey!
Thanks Ping Pong, will update the blog.
#denial
@ David.
Good point. Lol
as long as they are not forgiven they can be collected in the future. tax forgiveness is final. Cui bono? what deals were struck?
it is instructive that the unions marched holding out for 23% increase or something so, with the private sector and the BLP and in 2 minutes of negotiation with the BLP settled for 5% when taxes and cost of living rose beyond 5% but look at what the private sector got?
Austin it seems you want democracy for Mr Stuart to speak which is fine but do not want persons to oppose such.How unreasonable can you be?Let me be clear i do not want to hear anything from Mr Stuart or any of the ex ministers.They had their opportunity and in my view outside of Mr Sealy were dismal failures and were rightfully crushed in 2018.This should tell you how most bajans feel about them.
It must be the height of stupidity – of the Mount Olympus kind – a former minister of a Cabinet of Barbados would retreat to anonymity and the traditional media is happy to run with it.
I fully agree.
The minister was/is a coward and his request for anonymity is indicative of his acceptance that they failed.
An insight to the mindset mentality that formed our government.
no it is not. it is simply indicates that he wants not to be named. maybe it is against the code of his present employment. it would be better to criticise what he said
@Greene
Please!
quote] An insight to the mindset mentality that formed our government.]quote
please
GREENE
You didn’t answer the question!
the country was in deep debt under the DLP, why didnt they try to collect even 10c per dollar?
it would have help DLP weather the recession and would have taken money from the BLP supporters – less money to support Mia – both of which would have help the DLP to do better in the elections.
Greene
the whole of Barbados know who that anonymous minister is
listen to Freundel speechifying. tangentially he handled that and other issues rather well, dont ypu think?
even so the BLP has a chance to rectify that issue, why didnt they?
Let the DLP continue to defend its management of the period termed the lost decade. This time it will be 40-0 zip.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/02/17/amazon-says-it-will-begin-collecting-17-5-per-cent-vat/
Dear Amazon,
Can you create a Barbados VAT collection department and put me in charge?
I promise that I will collect every penny that is due.
I have an account in Barbados, so there is no fear that monies collected will not be deposited.
Kr,
TheO
@Greene
Does any sensible person believe that a BLP or any government would have been able to resuscitate the economy in less than two years? Give us a Rh break.
David,
have i said that?
David,
i dont think so. who said that? 5 years and a lot of luck perhaps
@ Greene
This Mottley government is trapped like a hare in oncoming headlights. What is its economic policy? Apart from something called stabilisation, it has none. It defaulted on its debt, then claim its foreign reserves are growing. If you do not pay your debt and continue to be paid, of course your bank account will rise.
It talks about people in the Diaspora should invests in Barbados; but invest in what? Where are the investment vehicles? It is a government that talks, and talks, and talks, but is lost.
Two years is more than enough to halt decline and set out on growing a strong and progressive economy. But you need sound policies, not fancy speeches..
@Hal
dont look back now. but they are coming
spot on, mate. that notwithstanding she ought to be given a bit more time.
my gripe with Mottley is that she flits from one thing to the other, is always butting in on other ministers and has not articulated how she will arrest the murder problem as she does for everything under the sun
@ Greene
No attention to details. Short attention span. Needs a constant high – a crowd to be preaching to. @Grn, empty vessels make the most noise.
John A
in that case the external debt that was in the restructuring should not be on the books yet.
The only other debt I can think of was the loan from republic bank to top up QEH, NHC and TB and that would come any where near 300M.
Will probably have to wait for additional information/break down in the budget.
would not come
@ John2
We will wait for the next central bank report rather than speculate.
Two years is enough says who? The great economist in the cold UK? Go and watch rugby do.
I think budget is march, CBB report late april the earliest. a break down may be out before either. Maybe the junior MOF will provide the info soon.
I think he has an eye on BU.
@John2
Search BU archives for Straughn, he is on record to say that there is no value to be found on BU pages Lol.
@Greene February 19, 2020 5:34 PM “…maybe it is against the code of his present employment…”
And you trying to tell us that some company or individual has hired a former DLP Cabinet Minister?
ROFLMFO!!!
Wuhloss!
Hold ma belly!
i suspect that every time the BLP is questioned about some tax increase or economic faux pas implemented by them they will say we had to do it because of the last 10 years. and bajans without thinking will say yeah that “bloody DLP govt ” and MAM and the BLP will walk away with a smile on their faces and a pleasurable nod to their friends and family.
ask unnuh selves why did the BLP hire a two bit firm called white oaks right off the bat. we were never told why, only some flippant explanation that they were the right fit. then there is all these capital projects involving a man cursed by the BLP during the election. simply ask unnuh selves Cui bono?
the imposition of all these taxes, on whom will they fall? then look at who got exempted from VAT and who got tax forgiveness? for godsakes why would a country in deep debt not try to collect some taxes, not even 10cents on the dollar? again Cui bono?
and how could govt forgive VAT? it is not theirs? that is money / taxes paid by customers to govt via a company. if it is not paid to govt it is technically theft from the customers and govt has no right to give it away.
and really what gets my gall, is the Drug Dealers invitation to the opening of parliament. that has never been explained if it can be.
Xxxxxxxxxx
I love reading from afar.
Exposes the Hyprocisy and fooling of the Voting Public.
I am convinced that if Bajans CONTINUE TO go with either BLP or DLP they DESERVE EVERYTHING HAPPENING TO THEM WHILST LIVING IN SUFFERATION WHILST THE POLITICIANS ARE PUNCHING ABOVE THEIR WEIGHT ON ELECTRONIC SCALES.
Baje
Who do you think they should go with next election?
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