The Central Bank of Barbados economic review of the economy was delivered today by Governor Cleviston Haynes.
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The Central Bank of Barbados economic review of the economy was delivered today by Governor Cleviston Haynes.
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@ Tron
Please show us how the BDS $ is worth 10 or 20 cents. Furthermore your relentless assault on the working class and the public servants is wearing thin. The radical thing to do is to freeze public servants salaries for ten years and use that period to retool the workers to the new economy. The next thing to do is to reduce personal income tax across the board and introduce a 2 to 3 percent sales tax to be revised after five years. The next thing is to abolish all the senseless garbage and waste taxes and let that money remain in the pockets of citizens. The object of the post CONVID economy is to make living comfortable and meticulously manage your Human Resources.
I am telling you right now that if we devalue the dollar , the country will be economically hopeless in two years.
In terms of national sacrifice by leaders . The cabinet should be immediately reduced to no more than seventeen. All junior ministers called parliamentary secretaries should be fired. Ministers and MPs salaries should be reduced and there should be a freeze on MP salaries for fifteen years. The stipend given to Senators should be set at $100 per month and it should not be taxed.All parliamentarians should pay $10 per meal and no alcoholic beverages should be served or sold on the precincts of parliament at any time. All graduates should repay the government ten thousand dollars as soon as they graduate and become employed. They should not be allowed to leave the country until the money is paid. Student loans should be abolished immediately.
All schools from primary to secondary should meet 45 percent of operational costs by fund raising activities and school projects. All schools must have properly run commercial activities on campus. All concessions to run school canteens etc must cease. Students will now run the canteens as part of their education and be accountable for profit making under the guidance of commercial officers that will be given territory. These officers / mentors should be strictly volunteers.
David
As I said earlier some one need to spend , I don’t expect it to be the private sector so government has to take the lead until….
@John2
Once you accept that fiscal spending by government does not generate the kind of growth we need. This is a slide taken from presentation delivered by Marla a coup;le years ago.
https://barbadosunderground.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/marla-icab.png
Whether a government or a private company the same rules of economics apply. 2 books were never written thus the rules below stands.
Spend more than you earn = deficit
Spend less than you do= surplus
As much as we would like this to be different for state and private sector that will never be the case.
Both can run a deficit for a while, however with greatly reduced cashflow neither can maintain it. Sooner or later one has to either balance income and expenses, or reduce the deficit to what one can service. Here again debt service requires cashflow so we back to Base 1 then with a greatly reduced cashflow.
So In the end both the start and arrival point remain unchangeable for us all.
@ David.
Good example that brings home the point well.
@ William Skinner May 3, 2020 5:38 PM
“Please show us how the BDS $ is worth 10 or 20 cents.”
Wake up out of your nationalist dream. My assertion is evidence-based.
Look at the price of milk here:
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_price_rankings?itemId=8
USA: USD 0.84
Comparison Barbados (not listed): 6.00-7.00 BBD
7 to 8 BBD = 1 USD
or compare the price of a BMW X5 xdrive 40i of the latest design:
USA 65,000 USD
Comparison Barbados: 450,000 BBD
6.9 BBD = 1 USD
The nation has suffered since the 1970s from the myth that 2 BBD equal one (1) USD. Anyone who can count knows that prices in Barbados are 100 to 400 percent higher than in North America and Europe – with the exception of the islanders themselves.
@ John A May 3, 2020 6:05 PM
The figures confirm what all (except the 90 percent of the natives who have been fuelled by nationalism and insulanism) have long known: That the public service in Barbados is a bottomless pit, which does not promote growth but on the contrary prevents it.
The government advisers to ANY local government since OSA will of course never change their idiotic advice. That would require an understanding of the basic rules of economics – and they obviously lack that.
@Tron
Your talk of “devaluation” is scaring the masses. You must try to use more euphemistic language like “revaluation” or a “correction”.
@ Hal
It is not rocket science. What we have here is sophisticated spin bowling. It’s very simple to read once your feet can move.
The Prime Minster had an economic plan that was based almost exclusively on a loan to boost foreign exchange and to raise taxes. The plan received wide spread support. No problem.
Then came the COVID-19. The economy and all the projections of the PM ,through no fault of her own fell into shambles. I repeat through no fault of her own.
Everybody in the world suddenly realizes that the post COVID economy must reflect a new reality. In the real world a new reality means new social and economic policy.
The PM decides to spend nearly two hours and really with a cherry here and some new icing there; brilliantly reintroduces the exact plan that she had in place before the coming of COVID-19
I give the PM full credit for the management of the on COVID -19 crisis.
As Minister of Finance I give her credit for how she was managing the economy before the COVID but I am still baffled by why she could not come up with new and creative ideas to at least show how we will readjust to the post COVID-19 economy. I was bitterly disappointed to say the very least.
There is nothing new about: Sam Lords Castle; The Sandals extension ;
The SAGICOR construction project or the Hyatt.
I other words , the PM pretended that such policies reflected the new post COVID reality. They do not.The buck stops with her and she needs to seriously get her advisers to give her better advice.
@Dullard
Currency alignment is the socially safe word. Lol
Trump is desperate. When an animal is cornered and desperate it attacks wildly. Between now and November he is going to start a military war. China is the wrong foe to mess with. Military war is no match for a biological warfare. A country deserve the leadership it gets.
@ Tron
Why are you resorting to ad hominem attacks about nationalism?The evidence you supplied in no way reflects what you have been promoting on BU.
You have not been able to clearly show that destroying the public service and giving workers slave wages , will earn foreign exchange.
That is the debate we are ultimately attempting to have . How can you talk about reducing wages when it has been revealed that there are black people in this country earning $250 per week? What will you reduce that to? Do you now want them to live in holes like rats?
Sorry, William!
I am in no way advocating devaluing the BBD without compensation. The compensation would be the abolition of the extremely high import duties. On balance, purchasing power would then be as high or low as before.
Now one could argue that the government would be deprived of money by the abolition of the tariffs. I do not agree with this thesis. The lower BBD rate boosts tourism by increasing competitiveness in the international market. This increases tax revenues here.
@ fortyacresandamule May 3, 2020 6:19 PM
To use a cynical term: If Trump pulls this off during the pandemic, at least it won’t increase the damage to our tourism industry. We can only admit 0 tourists, but not -10,000 tourists.
David
will check graph later
note I said – it is unavoidable, Barbados will run a deficit for the next few years as the economy recovers.
I don’t expect any (positive) growth any time soon. Government spending would be to reduce/limit how far we slide. the further we slide the longer it will take to get back to where we were.
A.
Private businesses and economy are very similar and ideally we would all love them to be making a surplus, the accounting rules are still the same but every economy is different and cannot be ran exactly like you would run a private business.
my number will be fictional.
With no tourism right now private company Sandals can afford to close its door and send home 5000 workers and it will be a positive for Sandals/Butch bottom line
Now what kind of effect do you think Sandals decision would have on first the livelihoods of those 5000 and then secondly on a small economy like Barbados ?
All the hotel can now afford to send home all their workers and be in a better position when thing turn around, The more worker we have going home is a bigger detriment to our economy.
Do you think that private business sandals have to bother about the taximen not getting business?
Government is not implementing mass layoffs or salary cuts for civil servants simply because government fears the next elections. I call this the logic of the ballot box.
However, there is a solution: suspension of the parliamentary elections until 2030. In my view, the emergency legislation that has just been enacted allows the state of emergency to drag on indefinitely and therefore allows to postpone elections. The people legitimized this step in May 2018 with a 100 percent majority.
Our Most Honourable Prime Minister should now move forward with no fear, dissolve the Senate and Parliament and, together with her ministers, pass the necessary legislation to remedy the crisis – for a period of 10 years. She owes it to the common good of all and her citizens.
An emergency democracy must not cling to outdated patterns of thought, but must serve the nation. Call it dictatorship or like me, one-party democracy.
Government crisis?
Haynes says: money printing, yes, maybe
Mascoll contradicts: no money printing, everything under control
Our Most Honourable Prime Minister must clarify the situation.
For decades, the residents of St. Joseph, have endured a scarcity of water. We are told , there is no money to relieve them of this predicament. Yet, in today’s Nation, the head of the major tourism association,while welcoming the $200 million given to his association as part of the socalled-stimulus, is stating that it may not be enough and the industry is not going to recover anytime soon. This fully contradicts what the Minister of Tourism stated less than a week ago. He said eight months.
Now pray tell how can we not find the money to remove the indignity of the residents of St Joseph unable to even wash their hands ,, during this crisis but “just so” we can find $200 million , to give tourism.
How on this earth or the next, can we boast of a two billion dollar this and that but citizens in ; St. Lucy, St. Joseph , St. Andrew and St. John, are denied the basic right to have clean drinkung water. And when they do get water it is brown because of underlying problems with the old rusting mains. The strange thing is that they have to pay their water bills while praying for a water tanker to come by. Strange indeed.
WS: It is good to see that some are still discussing bread and butter issues instead of following the ‘what if’ train.
To the ‘spot on’ posse: There is and can be no evidence that we would have a better outcome to the COVID-19 crisis if your airy-fairy policies for handling the crisis were followed.
Bead and butter: A more useful exercise woul be to point out how the system favors one group over another.
Discuss how there is no money for one group and ample funds for another group.
Highlight how the government (BDLP) continues to favor one group of citizens above the other. Hundreds of millions for you and dirty water for my family.
It appears we are so devoid of ideas that we must ride the ‘one-trick’ pony called tourism well past its collapse.
Pouring money into the tourist industry at this stage may be nothing more than a give away or a shift of money from the public coffers to private pockets.
All issues have to be discussed. People will have different interest. It comes down to efficient use of scarce resources supported by a solid plan. It will never be perfect but we need the best leadership and good execution to give ourselves a chance.
@ William
Smoke and mirrors, dear boy. I have said that the difference between Stuart and the president is that one was grossly incompetent, while the other is not only arrogant with a right of entitlement, but has a vision of irreversibly changing the nature of Barbadian society. And she will do it, in my view, by 2023.
It is easy to say the private sector will invest Bds$800m, while they are given much more in tax breaks, unpaid VAT and national insurance, grants, unpaid loans, and irresponsible NIS ‘investments’.
Only the dumb and silly will buy in to that nonsense. We must get rid of the Social Partnership, it resembles Hitler’s corporatist control. While Hitler was gassing the Jews, blacks, gypsies and homosexuals, Germans were building Volkswagen and other world class industries.
Unemployment was not a problem in Germany after 1933, when it was about 6m, to 300000 in 1939, the start of the war. Maybe Owen Arthur can learn a few tricks from the Fuhrer.
@ Hal
@ TheOGazerts
There is a glaring act of accountability going on here and a perverse deception. I have argued on this blog, that the concessions given to Sandals,were not excessive when looked at the fact that every time Barbados is mentioned in a Sandals ad worldwide, the spin off benefit is far more than what Sandals got.The only part of that agreement, I oppose is the absence of local rum products.
I said that the current administration, was reckless in delaying the Sandals project on the West Coast. It bends over backwards to accommodate Maloney, whom to date has not employed one single hotel worker but played political hard with an international brand such as Sandals, that has earned foreign exchange; is involved in the community; has one of the most comprehensive employee training programs in the industry ; all such benefits redound to the benefit of the immediate communities and locals get proper training that they can utilize beyond Sandals. My main argument for getting the project on the West Coast going was to employ people who were retrenched and give that area a needed economic lift. We have people in the country driving vehicles that cost a half million dollars but sleep well at night paying their workers $250 per week.
@ Hal
I am going to be intellectually honest. As you are fully aware, to date I have not agreed with your position that we have a failed state. My position stands. In recent posts you have been concerned about an undermining of our democracy by the current government. Quite frankly, I did not draw myself into such because , I know that this blog is highly polarized and it is foolishly encouraged.
However two recent events have me quite alarmed.
1. The PM’s attempt at bold deception in regards to the so-called stimulus;
2. If the column by Caswell in reference to the appointment of the Deputy Commissioner of Police is accurate, these are indications of intended abuse of power and if proven your position on attempts to undermine our democracy will be more than convincing and cause for concern. We have already witnessed the shameless attempts to marginalize the current COP by using the former COP as a consultant who reports directly to the AG.
While I will continue to support the gallant efforts of the administration in its remarkable efforts in fighting the virus , I would not be hoodwinked by the administration.
@ William
I acknowledge and appreciate your position vis a vis the undermining of our democracy. I think the real problem is the absence of any serious public debate on the subject, not even by our academics. Be that as it may.
My fear is that by the time we become aware of how this elective dictatorship is impacting our society, it will be too late, or at least to reverse it will be a much tougher job. Take my word for it, the Mottley government is not democratic.
As to Sandals, we need to look under the bonnet and not just at the paint work of this ride. Butch Stewart does not mention Barbados in his marketing campaign as a favour to Barbados, he does it to promote Sandals.
We need to ask questions about how Sandals operate: when customers book holidays, say from the UK, how much of the costs actually reach Barbados? Is that money paid in the UK, intransit to Barbados; or is it paid in the UK, intransit to the US? Or does it stay in the UK?
What is the local taxing regime for Sandals? Do we conventionally tax profits? If so, is there a Sandals internal market? If there is, are local individual resorts charged competitive market rates for goods and services ie management and legal, or are rates determined by the Sandals finance director and Stewart?
You mention the promotion of foreign rums, what are the tariffs paid locally on these rums? Or do they enter Barbados tariff free? All this may be proper and above board, but there is need for transparency.
We just cannot accept government’s word that it is acting honourably; governments do not act honourably.
@Hal @WS
Wonderful discussion. The Dullard said weeks ago that all we will see post COVID19 would be a doubling down on tourism. No new ideas, no innovation but a lot of hot air. Just decades-old failed policies given a fresh coat of paint and a new name. While not surprising, this has been extremely disappointing to watch unfold. The most disruptive event in decades and the best our horde of ministers/ advisors/ consultants/ tsars can do is throw more money at tourism and hope for the best?
While the average working class Bajan is scrambling, we have an incompetent gov’t dispensing ever more largess to the parasitic “business” class. Yet no one is saying a word.
Meanwhile the President’s coterie of friends, relatives and associates is growing larger (pun intended) and laughing all the way to the bank as the muppets brag about how pretty the President can speak. A country gets the leadership it deserves…
@ Dullard
You say it eloquently. I could not match it. In the meantime, have a look at a finance minister with three top notch economic advisers/consultants, White Oaks, two highly qualified ministers, both with post graduate economic qualifications, civil service economists in all key departments, then when it came to new post CoVid ideas, she appointed a special committee, the majority of members of which are still secret.
But, before they can report, she goes ahead and publishes her so-called stimulus, all the time with the parasitic Social Partnership at her shoulder.
Where is our political leadership?
Smoke and mirrors, dear boy. I have said that the difference between Stuart and the president is that one was grossly incompetent, while the other is not only arrogant with a right of entitlement, but has a vision of irreversibly changing the nature of Barbadian society. And she will do it, in my view, by 2023.
It is easy to say the private sector will invest Bds$800m, while they are given much more in tax breaks, unpaid VAT and national insurance, grants, unpaid loans, and irresponsible NIS ‘investments’.
Only the dumb and silly will buy in to that nonsense. We must get rid of the Social Partnership, it resembles Hitler’s corporatist control. While Hitler was gassing the Jews, blacks, gypsies and homosexuals, Germans were building Volkswagen and other world class industries.
Unemployment was not a problem in Germany after 1933, when it was about 6m, to 300000 in 1939, the start of the war. Maybe Owen Arthur can learn a few tricks from the Fuhrer. {Quote}
@ Hal Austin
A WHOLE BUNCH OF NONSENSE.
Somebody asked you to explain the smoke and mirrors. Instead of doing that, you spinning the issue to hide up the stupid statement and now talking bout unpaid NIS, VAT and loans and NIS investments.
What the hell does that have to do with the $800 million investments? You should be asking the government if they are going to use the methods they have to recover the money people owe. As you used to say, they could put the names of the people and the amounts they owe in the papers.
Then what the hell Hitletr gassing Jews and building Volkswagen got to do with the Social Partnership?
@ Hal
@ William
@ Artax
I have said this government does not understand the depth of the water they are in post covid and their recovery plan confirms it.
What does their plan depend on completely as it’s recovery? Yes the said tourism that has been decimated. They are banking on $800M dollars in activity coming from a source that there is now a global over supply of and that’s hotel rooms.
Where in this plan is there say a $50million dollar agricultural plan for green houses and revitalization of the sector?
Where is the new guidelines for the alternative energy sector inclusive of financing packages and an increase in production to the grid?
All it is that I see us betting the house on is the same tourism, which having crashed has brought us to where we are today. So let me see if I understand the logic.
With tourism failing globally and having driven our economy into the ground, we as a country will be banking on tourism to be our recovery. Makes perfect sense to me so carry on smartly. We couldn’t get an annual occupancy average over 60% in tourism pre covid, but post covid we going build more rooms and that will be our salvation and plan for economic recovery.
Somebody help me what am I missing here on this logic?
@ Hal
@ Dullard
It goes beyond a collective visionless political leadership. Our problem is right there in the primary schools, where subjects such as Civics have been basically abandoned; where we no longer stress how our country is run. You see the products every where.
A simple analysis ,devoid of intellectual one upmanship , would reveal a citizen who has been led to believe that being half naked on Spring Garden is culture ; radio announcers who don’t read so are shamefully unaware of simple basic English etc
Garbage in; garbage out. What is the real purpose of a primary school education? The primary school, out side of the home ,is the first indoctrination to formal government. In the home the child would have been exposed to informal government. The child who is at first exposed to informal and truly democratic governance; walks into a primary school and becomes exposed to formal government via the class room.
When you see state presentations reflective of platform electioneering; you get a fairly substantial understanding of the collapse of primary school education. When you hear the language being skillfully overhauled to attract and mislead the populace you get a clear understanding.
When a call in radio program becomes the first, second and third voice of a distressed populace, you know that at any moment,unless something changes very quickly, especially in the post COVID-19 economy , we might be very well in deeper trouble than we think.
The home and the primary school is where you learn to respect your nation and when given the opportunity to lead whether you come from the Ivy or the biggest plantation; whether you black of white you see yourself as the servant of the people.
The simple truth: if you were never taught how can you learn. Just go to a circus or a dog show; you see service dogs at all airports. Police dogs are given military funerals.
And then somebody will try to convince me that people with university degrees don’t know how to stand up in a line and wait their turn.
As the elders would ask :Where did they go to school?
@ William
At the risk of boring people, at St Giles we did civics. We were taught by J.O.Morris how our society was managed. By the age of 12, I, and my colleagues, were fully aware of who our government were and which party they represented.
In the mid-1950s Barbados had seven newspapers, so people had an interest in reading. We have produced some of the outstanding journalists in the Caribbean: from Carlton Proute, Robert Best, Jimmy Cozier, to Carl Moore.
This is not looking back with rose-tinted glasses, or intellectual oneupmanship, it is an objective reflection of the steady decay of our society.
There is one thing we can all bet on: children of the professional class are not victims of this dumbing down; they are the ones who are sent off to Canada, the UK and US to study, they are the ones who get private tutors.
@ William, the Ivy and its environs produced some outstanding people, many of whom have been outstanding on the national stage.
@ Hal
Same thing with Bay Primary. We knew every minister. On the lighter side; you can’t teach me anything about the Ivy and your distinguished Alma mater. My ties there are extremely deep. Believe me , you are highly respected in your hometown.
Nothing you wrote above can be remotely described or accused of intellectual one upmanship. It is the truth! Peace my brother.
“With tourism failing globally and having driven our economy into the ground, we as a country will be banking on tourism to be our recovery. Makes perfect sense to me so carry on smartly. We couldn’t get an annual occupancy average over 60% in tourism pre covid, but post covid we going build more rooms and that will be our salvation and plan for economic recovery.
Somebody help me what am I missing here on this logic?”
you are NOT dealing with intelligent leaders, even those they SELL THEIR OWN PEOPLE OUT TO ON A DAILY BASIS…says so openly when among themselves and even when around others from the majoirty population……it’s no secret….all you have are a bunch of fast talking con artists and opportunists posing as leaders, they do not know what to do outside of the SCRIPT THAT WAS HANDED TO THEM IN 1966…it’s 2020 a whole new ERA and they STILL DON’T know what to do….
This is not: John A; Hal Austin ; PLT or WARU
Shift from tourism in economy reboot’ – Marshall
by Randy Bennett
Government needs to look beyond tourism to jumpstart the economy in the short to mid-term, the head of the UWI think tank has suggested.
Predicting that the country’s main economic engine will be out of action for at least another 18 months, Dr Don Marshall, the head of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) at UWI Cave Hill said the COVID-19 pandemic is the latest reminder that Barbados cannot continue to depend on tourism.
He told Barbados TODAY: “Anytime that you are relying on the discretionary spend of Europeans and North Americans to drive your economy and you get a pandemic of this nature happening then you have to rethink immediately.
“And it is because we cannot depend on that discretionary spend in the short to medium-term that we have to start looking at inventions, start looking at creations, start looking at what is the best way to incentivize those entrepreneurs and small businesses.”
Responding to Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s recent “mini budget” as well as Governor of the Central Bank Cleviston Haynes’ forecast for the economy, Dr Marshall said there were few surprises.
Last week Mottley announced a “neverbefore-seen” two-year $2 billion economic plan.
It includes a $400 million stimulus package for businesses to retain staff as well as plans for $210 million to be spent on households across the country.
The PM also revealed that $800 million in investments were expected from six major projects.
While admitting that Government did not have much wiggle room in the current situation, he said the continued focus on tourism has to shift.
He said while he also understood that Government would want to provide relief for everyone at this time it was simply not possible because of financial constraints.
Dr Marshall told Barbados TODAY: “The scope of the plan and the remarks of the Governor of the Central Bank weren’t too surprising.
“I think we can accept that clearly the measures made out by the Prime Minister last week could not be the sum total of what is required going forward, because we have to rebuild a tourism economy by way of looking past the traditional ways in which we do things by way of building into that equation the idea that tourism will not drive this economy for at least another 18 months.
“My only criticism would be the monies earmarked for construction around the tourismrelated projects…because judicious choices have to be made about what businesses we wish to stay and what businesses we wish to incentivise going forward in this new environment.
“We cannot postpone the question of diversification of the economy and the Government sooner rather than later has to sit down and tweak its industrial policy and in tweaking it they will have to reorient what it is doing with available money. $200 million earmarked for construction projects around the tourism model that is crashing around us with the collapse of the airline industry is something that I think has to be rethought.”
The respected academic said there was a need now for Government and stakeholders to revise development plans and industrial policy targeting.
In completely agreeing with Governor Haynes’ prediction of a 13 per cent decline in economic activity this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Marshall said it could possibly be worse.
He said he had previously forecasted that Barbados’ economy would contract by about 15 per cent of GDP [gross domestic product].
Said Dr Marshall: “The Governor’s predictions are spot on. You don’t want to be the bearer of bad news but unfortunately if the new normal is going to feature periods of reopening and then periods of closures, because we are opening albeit under a 24-hour curfew scenario.”
But while agreeing with the decision to cancel Crop Over 2020, he said a space could have been provided for artistes.
He said he would have preferred to see creativity linked to Crop Over being highlighted by way of productions of online content for plays, music, arts and fashion.
“Once you cancel Crop Over you are more or less telling all the creators in our spaces that there isn’t a market for their cultural creations,”
Dr Marshall said. randybennett@barbadostoday.bb
William…thank you.
they think it’s a reflection on bloggers, well that’s on them..
@ WURA-War-on-U May 5, 2020 10:03 AM
So what is that academic toff saying that has not been prosecuted on BU over the years?
The likes of Bush Tea and Brother Hants have been saying what this pipsqueak is parroting now from his ivory tower on the Hill which has been a major contributor to the current state of affairs.
Why doesn’t he comment on the status of the 40 acres Edghill endowment fund as a token of reparations?
@ WURA
URW. Also apologies for error in your title . I actually had it as WARU.
Miller…they will make it sound like no one has thought of or said the same things before and for goddamn YEARS, right on this blog…..they will act as though it’s the most brilliant thing they have ever thought about…when they should have TALKED ABOUT AND IMPLEMENTED DIVERSIFYING FROM THE GO NOWHERE TOURISM AT LEAST 30 YEARS AGO….now that we have regurgitated it a thousand different times in a thousand different ways….they will act like it’s something brand new..
, but ya can guarantee…THAT NOT ONE OF THEM KNOWS HOW TO GO ABOUT DIVERSIFYING AWAY from dependency tourism, they will have to hire another gaggle of useless consultants…pay them multimillions of taxpayers money and still manage to COCK IT UP….and turn themselves into laughing stocks..
…..all those billions of tax dollars wasted EDUCATING FOOLS……over decades and look at the state of the island…
William..no big deal…
Any similarities…?
The U.K. Needs a Real Government, Not Boris Johnson’s Puppet Cabinet
This prime minister has set his government up to fail. We can’t afford that right now.
By Jenni Russell
Contributing Opinion Writer
May 4, 2020
Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain on his first day back at work in London last month after contracting the coronavirus.
Credit…
Frank Augstein/Associated Press
LONDON — On the day a paler, thinner, notably less boisterous Boris Johnson returned to work after his near-death coronavirus experience, a Tory member of Parliament tweeted a GIF of a magnificent lion perched on a mountaintop, his mane blowing in the wind. “Good to see @BorisJohnson back at the helm!” he wrote.
This fawning sycophancy is not the norm in British politics. We haven’t, on the whole, run Trumpian courts, or implied that our prime ministers are kings among men. And yet, unusual and unwelcome as the adulation was, the tweeter had a point.
Mr. Johnson’s cabinet is so markedly weak, with so few politicians of intellect and experience, that the prime minister’s absence for nearly a month left an alarming void. A shifting cast of ministers stood in for him at the daily pandemic press briefings, with performances ranging from mortifying to faltering or defensive to occasionally, thankfully, competent.
The lack of depth in the cast around this cabinet table was mercilessly displayed, as was the nervousness of many of those obliged to face public interrogation at such a critical time. Some, like the new chancellor, Rishi Sunak, could handle their own briefs, but not one felt able or authorized to even begin to address the big questions Britain now wants answered: What is the route out of lockdown, and how should deaths be balanced against isolation, loneliness, futures and jobs? All those queries were diverted, with evident relief, to the stock response: We’ll have to wait until the boss gets back.
Against that background of anxious, stalling stand-ins, Mr. Johnson’s reappearance has, indeed, felt like the welcome return of a big beast. The country needs a leader. But his dominance is no accident. It’s the consequence of the deliberate choice he made after he became Conservative Party leader last year to expel principled opponents within the party and to surround himself with smaller characters, ones who will neither threaten nor challenge him, politicians chosen on the whole more for their malleability and their loyalty to Mr. Johnson’s Brexit project than for their talent.
Mr. Johnson’s calculation then was that the quality of his cabinet was pretty much immaterial. His priority was to deliver Brexit and economic policies that the Conservatives’ new Brexit-supporting voters were demanding. That would be driven by Mr. Johnson’s small team of political advisers in No. 10 Downing Street, led by his ruthless, controlling, Machiavellian chief adviser, Dominic Cummings.
In this centralization of power, a core group of insiders and allies would decide the government’s agenda and come up with the ideas and the strategies for carrying it out. The job of cabinet ministers would be to do, meekly, as they were told.
No opposition was permitted. Senior, able Tory politicians of independent spirit were passed over and exiled to the backbenches. Any cabinet ministers who imagined they were strong enough to subvert the new system had a harsh lesson in January, when its second-most-senior member, Sajid Javid, then the country’s finance minister and a Johnson ally, was ordered to fire all his advisers and replace them with those appointed by Mr. Cummings. He refused and was forced to resign. A fear of breaching the line has haunted the remaining ministers and encouraged timidity ever since.
The onslaught of the coronavirus has revealed how dangerous it is to deliberately weaken the cabinet in this way. In Mr. Johnson’s absence, his alternative power center at No. 10 could not hold. Not only did its principal members, including Mr. Cummings, fall sick themselves, but in this emergency, political advisers couldn’t take the place of an absent prime minister. Britain needed and wanted to see powerful public figures in the lead. What we got were politicians anxious about the future verdict of their puppeteers.
Britain needs better than this as it faces the most petrifying, unpredictable, multifaceted calamity in three generations. The breadth of the problem demands as much wisdom, competence and insight as can be brought into Downing Street. Last week, Mr. Johnson promised to consult widely, even with the opposition. He should extend that to where it counts, to a temporary cabinet and government of all the best and tested Tory talents.
Instead of contriving an obedient cabinet, he should model himself on those previous prime ministers who included rivals and ex-leaders in their governments, knowing that the vexations of resistance, argument and persuasion were a price worth paying for averting errors, clarifying problems, and learning from those who had been scalded by earlier crises.
Many ex-ministers would respond to a call to serve for a short time in the national interest. Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, could help expand the National Health Service. The former chancellors Kenneth Clarke and Philip Hammond and former prime ministers John Major and David Cameron could deploy their knowledge of financial crises and banks that won’t lend. Mr. Javid would be an infinitely better home secretary than the inadequate Priti Patel, and the critical backbencher Tom Tugendhat could run the Foreign Office. Mr. Johnson’s predecessor as prime minister, Theresa May, could use her best quality, her famed attention to detail, to oversee food and support for the shielded and vulnerable or the delivery of personal protective equipment.
Would this even be legal? Yes, easily: Technically, a member of the cabinet must be in the Parliament. Those who aren’t currently M.P.s could be appointed to the House of Lords, a step the prime minister is empowered to take. If the most anonymous and mediocre half of the cabinet were replaced by names like these, the caliber of the executive would soar overnight. Notable former politicians who didn’t wish to join — or were from other parties — say, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown or William Hague — could form an advisory panel. If Mr. Johnson worried that his temporary coronavirus cabinet would impede Brexit, its members could agree not to interfere with that.
None of this, of course, is likely to happen. Mr. Johnson dislikes sharing the limelight. That’s one reason the most experienced member of his cabinet, Michael Gove, wasn’t picked to deputize for him while he was out sick. But it is in Mr. Johnson’s self-interest, as well as the country’s, to act, for one notable reason.
His path to the top has been based on a simple strategy: He’s not a knowledgeable, able, policy-driven leader. He’s an optimistic figurehead who prefers an easy life and gets competent people beneath him to do the actual work. That strategy risks falling apart now because neither Mr. Johnson’s narrow group of advisers nor the ministers he appointed for their loyalty are the people best qualified to handle the grave perils ahead. He should broaden his base and stop his chief adviser, Mr. Cummings, ruling by fear. Britain doesn’t require a lion in this moment; it needs a leader with the humility and confidence to recruit every necessary talent to this fight.
Virgin Airways stated on BBC today that they do not expect vacation travel to return to 2019 levels for 3 years.
@John A
Virgin Airways is being overly optimistic in order to coerce bailout corporate welfare money out of the UK taxpayer.
@PLT
From what I read today it looks like both the parent company of BA and Virgin have decided to return planes to the leasing companies and operate with smaller fleets going forward for the next 3 to 5 years.
They are not willing to “wait and see” either as their decision has been made already. They have reading between the lines, said even with government aid they are reducing the fleets still.
@ John A
Whatever happened to LIAT?
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@ Hal
We ain t hear much bout them recently that’s true.
@ John A
Is LIAT still flying? Has it furloughed any of its staff? What does its balance sheet look like? We now know that the Antiguan plan to jointly own it with Branson is now on the back-burner.
Is the 49 per cent of LIAT owned by the government of Barbados/NIS part of the CoVid stimulus?
SOURCE: REUTERS: The European Commission is set to include Barbados, Panama, the Bahamas, Mauritius and nine other countries to its list of states that pose a financial risk to the bloc because of anti-money laundering and terrorism financing shortfalls, a draft document shows.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/05/06/eu-adds-barbados-to-money-laundering-blacklist/
@Hants
This will always be an issue for jurisdictions like Barbados. They are always moving the goalposts.
Good to see BIBA strongly condemning the action especially during a pandemic.
Do not be surprised when things settle a bit more and travel resumes, to see Trump offering travel incentives for Americans to go to places like Puerto Rico and Florida. If will be a case of home drum must beat first and the money must stay in the USA and it’s territories.
(Quote):
Good to see BIBA strongly condemning the action especially during a pandemic. (Unquote).
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Another forex-earning cylinder and high-income job generator about to go on the blink and possibly permanently.
It’s time the Queen Bee- now find herself wearing a crown of stinging troubles more than any of her male predecessors- consults her diary of international admirers and vicariously dispatch her redeemed diplomat OSA to the cyberspace via webinar to deal with this dystopian threat to the stabled State called Bim.
It would be interesting to find out if Malta is on that current list threatened with EU blacklisting.
Or is this just a proactive move to protect the tax havens in the EU family from the pending fallout and falloff of laundered money from the Covid financial infestation?
Are you going to witness a shift of the Covid-contained offshore money from the South to those EU protected jurisdictions?
Not so very long ago, Mia’s party destroyed (literally) the DLP at the ballot box. With this mandate she hinted – heavily – that the local population did not make the cut and that what the country required was an influx of migrants and a tripling of the population in order for our economy to reach its full potential.
She hinted that a hotel corridor was to be built on the west coast and that Barbados would have to develop a real estate template where buildings would touch the sky.
The tourist industry was being groomed to prepare for an influx of tourists at an unprecedented level. It was expected to be the country’s undisputed number one industry.
With the arrival of Covid-19 we will never know if Mia’s ambition for building a new Barbados would have worked. What we do know is that her plans have been crushed; just in the same brutal manner that her party inflicted over the hapless Stuart.
Mia’s plan for the Barbados economy was flawed from the beginning as it was rooted on the dependency of the outsider. Sadly, she overlooked the majority population aspirations. To her cost, she has realised that she has no control of the major airliners. She does not have the power to instruct Virgin, British Airways or Air Lufthansa to increase their flights to Barbados. Nor can she encourage immigration to a country whose economy is on life support. We know that she remains fond of Citizenship By Investment.
We are now suppose to belief that the discredited Sinckler and the elderly Owen Arthur can bring some vigour and creativity to the Barbados economy. The same goes with our established domestic business class “elite” who should not be relied upon to build a successful economy.
If the former paragraph remains Mia’s plan B than I am truly underwhelmed. The only remaining question would be does Mia have a plan C?
@ TLSN
The president does not have a Plan A, B, C, D or E. She does not like details.
It is amusing the EU seeks to put Barbados on a Black List and with the other hand give 20 million (according to a Reuters report) to Iran to fight Covid, a country under sanction.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-eu-iran/eu-to-provide-20-million-euros-in-humanitarian-aid-to-iran-idUKKBN21A2IS
@David
Yours@4.59am
What does one have to do with the other? It is called humanitarian aid to help the people of the country and you are aware that there are many Iranians who are not in agreement with their Gov’ts policies but it would be suicide to do so openly although a few have tried and paid with their lives or long jail terms.
This disease has no borders and it is (or should be) every country’s intention to stamp it out worldwide because no one is safe if it flourishes any in location no matter how remote it is from their borders.
@Sargeant
What will imposing a sanction on Barbados do during a pandemic? Create a humanitarian condition perhaps? Especially if we accept what BIBI officials are saying that the decision crunching was done on 2018 scenarios which were addressed or in the processed of?
Barbados can use the ” extras” to create a begging for Aid strategy.
There are enough Ministers in the ministry of….and Czars with reduced work loads.
Covid 19 is more devastating than a tropical storm or hurricane.
@ Hants May 6, 2020 12:16 PM
We also owe this classification to the behaviour of local authorities in the Donville Inniss case. If the offshore financial sector fails, the public should remember COP and DPP.
@ TLSN May 6, 2020 3:07 PM
We must not take all daydreams seriously.
500000 or 1 million inhabitants sound like Haiti to me. The island is already hopelessly overpopulated. The local economy supports a maximum of 200000 citizens.
@David
If you have a beef with the EU’s position on sanctioning Barbados in relation to financial irregularities you should state your opinion but don’t conflate it with the EU’s humanitarian assistance re COVID19 to Iran.
Barbados has a PM who is very articulate who is surrounded by a bevy of Ministers and financial advisors who can give voice to the country’s displeasure at being included in a rogues’ gallery of recalcitrant nations that are unwilling to abide by guidelines as established by the EU.
@Sargeant
The blogmaster is doing as you suggested, sharing his opinion.
Has Ms Mottley returned to work officially? If so, when?
Re: UWI
Mr Robinson is no professor, but a senior lecturer. BIG difference.
You need to keep up. Robinson was made Professor months ago.
Is she a financial analyst/adviser/economist? What is his experience, apart from sitting on the NIS and the central bank?
@ David May 8, 2020 2:01 PM
Is this the same son of a cock robin who promised over 5 years ago to have the NIS financials prepared and presented in the soonest of time?
Isn’t this promotion to professorship in BS the classic example of the “Peter Principle” in full bloom?
BTW, he cock robin junior, would have made an excellent Tsar during this Covid crisis as you watch the sinking of NIS soon to be nicknamed the Social Security (SS) Bajan Bismarck.
@ Miller
For years government been looking in the NIS cheque book and saying it got money in it so we must be sound. Of course if you is a rumshop and got to pay the coke truck that could work, but when you got payables for 20 years due to taxpayers I not so sure dat is a good idea!
@ John A May 8, 2020 3:08 PM
The NIS is nothing more than the ATM of the government and the five white contractors. Look at Norway or Singapor, how the sovereign wealth funds invest their money there.
@ Miller May 8, 2020 2:25 PM
Mr Robinson’s promotion is a farce. In other countries, he would have ended up in jail for the Apes Hill Plantation scandal.
This shows once again that in Barbados it is mainly the weak, the stupid and the lazy who are supported.
@Tron
you may recall the former most senior employee at the NIS, was promoted to the Director of Finance under your most honourable and supreme leader. He also sits on the Board of the Central Bank along with Dr.Robinson, and the NIS Board. Former NIS Board member Mr. Jordan, is now the Minister responsible for the NIS, while former Board member and currently elected BLP MP Mr. Gooding Edghill is the current NIS Chair. It would seem the NIS Board is a good place from which to move ‘on and up’. The lack of formal reports from the NIS, nor the NIS actuarial audits highlighting performance issues, are clearly not a reflection on any of the senior staff or board members, All should likely be recipients of this year’s Productivity Awards, hopefully to be handed out by fellow NIS Board member and head of the BWU Ms.Moore.
*Mr Robinson is no professor, but.. *
Neither is the Avinesh but yet he and the BLP apparatchiks promote this false narrative.
By the way we haven’t heard from him in a while. What’s the latest news on White Oaks?
This link is to clarify whether Robinson is a professor, some of you like to ‘run with it’.
https://www.barbadosadvocate.com/news/dr-justin-robinson-promoted-professor-uwi-cave-hill-campus
Could be White Oaks agreement has a pandemic clause.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-05-08/distressed-caribbean-countries-face-a-dilemma-they-re-too-rich
What is he professor of?
Could be White Oaks agreement has a pandemic clause
Meaning what exactly?
What is the situation with the foreign creditors?
Is this too much to ask?
Meaning we are in a pandemic said to be the worse in history duh.
@ Dullar d
I December we were told the government had reached a provisional agreement with its creditors, which in normal language means just dotting the I’s and crossing the t’s.
It is now May and we have not heard anything about a full and final agreement. It is a reasonable questions to ask: hat is the current state of the agreement and, if it has not been finalised, is White Oaks still being paid.
But there are also long-standing questions that still have not been answered. The Mottley regime came to power on May 25, 2018, and on May 30, 2018, it had signed its agreement with White Oaks and had defaulted. That needs a lot of explaining.
Was the official Opposition party in discussions with White Oaks prior to the general election? If so, can this be considered treason? If not, what happened with those days to rush through the agreement?
And, equally important, had any member of the government, its advisers or associates previously involved professional or in any other way with White Oaks, its partners or employees?
As a nation we have very short memories and are quite often satisfied with smoke and mirrors. If BU has a role in the Barbadian public debate, it is to hold power to account. If it does not, then it has become part of the problem.
@Hal
Exactly.
@ David
Meaning we are in a pandemic said to be the worse in history duh.
If you have no clue there is no shame in saying so buddy. A simple “I don’t know” would have been good enough.
PS: Contrary to what may be paying you to convey, COVID-19 is not the cause of all the economic and social ills in the country.
@Dullard
Appreciating sarcasm is obviously beyond you.
Seem like the good ship Barbados is still on course
https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/05/09/health-protocols-to-influence-hotel-design/
The pool of tourists is shrinking
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/the-coronavirus-economy-is-exposing-how-easy-it-is-to-fall-from-the-middle-class-into-poverty/ar-BB13NcGm
Appreciating sarcasm is obviously beyond you.
Maybe! Look at the moniker.
Point taken Dullard!
@Dullard 5.51 am
a good read. Including a picture of the blue and white euphoria of noted smuggling exploits.
IF the current active threads on BU, plus the various comments, are not enough for any FDI to exercise the highest level of ‘Caveat Emptor’, then they must have assessed the current conditions are very ripe for some nefarious deals.
Source: Nation news
Source: Nation news
“Cox described the stimulus as an effort aimed at “the most vulnerable in the society, trying to support those groups. That’s something that is welcome”.”[quote]
Seemed to me, a large financial blanket was tossed over all, and each group got to pick out that for which they qualified. a.k.a shot gun approach. I guess that’s the difference between aiming and targeting.