Government Using Throne Speech to Signal Fresh Guard

The eagerly awaited second session of parliament is set to restart today from about 10AM- see Order Paper. The decision to prorogue parliament from the 8 August 2020 caught political pundits by surprise and has been the source of robust debate.

The Government has determined that it is necessary that we take fresh guard. The Parliament of Barbados will be prorogued on the 8th of August, 2020, with us resuming in a new session on the 15th of September with a new Throne Speech and with a new direction as to where we must go in order to meet these extraordinarily different circumstances from the original Throne Speech of two years ago

Prime Minister Mia Mottley

Even before the pandemic struck the global economy, Barbados had been struggling with a non performing economy. The Mottley government took an immediate decision to enter an IMF program (BERT) on winning the governbment in 2018 that included a restructure of domestic and foreign debt with the contracted services of White Oak. The big concern was carrying the risk of low foreign reserves with a junk status credit rating and a high debt to GDP load- reported in 2018 as the third highest in the world.

If was not difficult for the Barbados government to manage an economy in free fall and at the same time whip confidence in a proud people who were suffering from economic fatigue, along came COVID 19. The prime minister in her wisdom- time will tell- decided to leverage the parliamentary tools at her command “to take fresh guard”.

It would be remiss of the blogmaster if the minority view offered by the contentious Pachamama in this forum was not added to this commentary.

We have been telling this PM, here on BU and through back-channels, that this ‘reset’, so-called, is highly misconceived.

Our suggestion is that an election should be called to ‘reset’ the political-economy. Not the farcical and ritualistic contrivances as planned for sometime this week.

Her sequestration, seclusion, on the gold coast should have been unnecessary as neither she nor those beating a trail to meet with her has anything of material importance to tell her beyond pomp and pageantry.

Pachamama

We are living in an unprecedented time. We are attempting to navigate uncharted waters. The challenges confronting Barbados is not a binary problem to solve. Those who enter the debate by injecting absolutes should be viewed with suspicion.

The blogmaster urges the Prime Minster and other leaders in civil society to ignore the power of this moment at our peril. This and future generations will be affected by decisions taken today.

And in the visitation of the winds,

Who take the ruffian billows by the top,

Curling their monstrous heads and hanging them

With deafening clamour in the slippery clouds,

That, with the hurly, death itself awakes?

Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose

To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,

And in the calmest and most stillest night,

With all appliances and means to boot,

Deny it to a king? Then happy low, lie down!

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

Shakespeare’s Henry IV. Part II, 1597

– See Parliament TV

407 thoughts on “Government Using Throne Speech to Signal Fresh Guard


  1. Recitation of Repetitions

    by Dr. Derek Alleyne.

    “The MAM administration presented the Governor General with a 55-page document that induced perspiration in an air-conditioned room.”
    Bruce Campbell, in anticipation of the Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau’s Throne Speech following the prorogation of the Canadian parliament, was moved to write “moments like these — pandemics, depressions, wars — are historical turning points, often marking a time period when fundamental change toward social and economic equality become possible”.
    Canada like Barbados has to respond to not only the effects of COVID-19 but also to the uncertainty of a global environment. For Campbell Trudeau needed to “protect Canadians’ health and safety, support unemployed workers and help struggling businesses in this time of pandemic-induced shock”.
    I had hoped that one of the many paid advisers would have found time to read some of the efforts by global governments to move forward after the recent shock.
    Unfortunately Barbadians were treated to the most boring and long-winded recitation of old promises, vague policy initiatives and a few side attractions designed to divert the public’s attention from the real world in which they live.
    The world that confronts policy making is steeped in growing inequality, race and class divisions, frightening global warming and uncertain financial and economic options.
    The MAM administration presented the Governor General with a 55-page document that induced perspiration in an air-conditioned room.
    All the stimulus packages were communicated back in May, June and July. Plans for the South Coasts Sewage Systems have been repeated since 2018.
    The same is true of water woes in the north and eastern parishes, legislation to address integrity in public life, family court, appointment of public servants, restructuring the sugar industry and the trust loans and enterprise funds.
    A repetition of the diaspora and its importance, the value of the foreign offices, the pit eradication project, hurricane resistant roofs introduced in the budgets of 2018 and repeated in 2019.
    Only once, and that was David Thompson’s 2008 administration, has a Throne Speech gone over 20 pages.
    What was Tuesday’s exercise about? Surely it provided MAM with an audience; an event to dress up and opportunity to reach the world stage and to remind Barbadians that MAM was Co-chair of the Development Committee of the World Bank and that Barbados will be hosting the United Nations Congress on Trade and Development.
    Her justification brought memories of the BLP’s opposition to former Prime Minister Sandiford’s efforts to construct the venue of Tuesday’s “sitting” when Barbados agreed to host the SIDS conference.
    The opportunity also provided the MAM’s administration with a chance to play politics (never before done within a Throne Speech) and to repeat the absolute misrepresentation of the last decade. The irony of that oft-repeated claim of a lost decade is that BLP labelled chief architect Chris Sinckler, was called into service by MAM herself.
    But the speech from the throne was also about deflection.
    Hence MAM seized the opportunity to return to marijuana, this time not about the promised plantations of the herb but about decriminalization.
    It also was good ground to raise republicanism and same sex marriages. The latter issue provides for another divisive debating topic that can engage the general public in religious, social and moral arguments that have no end.
    Republicanism is not an issue-the Stuart administration promised it-and the last BLP administration spent money on consultations near and far only to push the issue under the bed. In any case referenda have been promised.
    But the proof of any mix is in the eating and in this case the performance. The MAM opposition took issue with the printing of money and made heavy water of the fiscal debt policy of the Stuart administration. It has found a way through the BOSS to print money and will have to run huge deficits. For how long only God knows!
    Barbados has borrowed its way to a foreign reserve comfort level but the debt has to be repaid. All these stimulus packages are worth nothing if they do not yield foreign exchange earnings and employment creation regimen.
    MAM has spent lots of taxpayers’ money on public relations. The news media have been kind if not generous to her. Barbadians have been tolerant accepting all her edges and frills as though they are a new fashion.
    COVID-19 has shown the importance of workers to human survival, to health and safety. The ingredient in the socio-economic mix that is important to moving forward is productivity.
    MAM’s administration’s throne speech took aim but never fired ammunition to get the engines of growth moving forward.
    After the pageantry, we go not forward but nowhere making the exercise an opportunity missed to make a difference.
    But that is the nature of MAM: Just show!
    12 hrs · Public


  2. @ Greene

    Dr Derek Alleyne has spoken the truth. But nothing he says is new. It has all been said here over the last two years, including the lack of originality in her principal economic adviser. He has also spotted her character perfectly.
    The nonsense about the Diaspora is meant to be funny. Would anyone living in a properly functioning democracy, with checks and balances, a working legal system, proper health service, give that all up to settle in Barbados on sentimental grounds?
    At best they will do what people I know do. Come to Barbados during the autumn and return to where they live in the spring. It is a pity that Barbados does not draw on the talents of the many people living in the Diaspora.
    I believe David Thompson would have, had his life not been cut short.


  3. A well-functioning democracy? A proper health service?

    Wuh part dah is he talkin’ bout????

    Not the US! Not the UK!

    Maybe Canada?


  4. Lying John,

    You are the worst person to talk about Christianity!

    Barbados is not a theocracy. Religion is a matter of choice. God-given choice! No government should chose a religion and foist it upon a person.

    And if you believe there was a Sodom or a Gomorrah and that God destroyed them because of sodomy you are just another fundamentalist who should be ignored. Moses parting the Red Sea, Noah on some big boat of animals and Adam and Eve in the garden talking to a serpent – all nonsensical!

    Stop trying to fix the sodomists and fix your lying self! Your lies do more damage to us than their sodomy does.


  5. Hal AustinSeptember 17, 2020 7:49 AM

    Hal yes, she is clearly talking about a current account surplus. However, she did not reference the period that it related to and further, that it has now, due to the pandemic, reverted to the deficit as had been continually occurring under the DLP for years.

    There is no doubt that, as with many countries, the pandemic has thrown everything off.


  6. @ Crusoe
    I suspect this is what she meant, but I dare not try to read her mind. She will have to spell it out for me. All I will say if if she is talking about the current account in surplus, after just over two years of crisis, I do not believe her. I will want to see the evidence.


  7. The BLACK POPULATION…have a right to voice their DISPLEASURE WITH ANYTHING….it’s THEIR COUNTRY…THEY FUND IT…

    “I belong to neither the BLP nor the DLP. I have voted only three times in my life and I have become disenchanted with politics.

    I voted twice for Michael Lashley and once for Ralph Thorne having leftSt Philip. I do not profess to be a scholar of any standard but I read and understand a bit of what is told to me and what I overhear.

    What the Government did to Dame Sandra Mason yesterday morning was deliberate and unethical.

    The office of the Governor General is not a creature of any party and her public utterances – whether actually hers or acting as a mouthpiece – should not be filled with partisan statements.

    We all know that the sentiments made public yesterday during the throne speech were those of the Government – specifically Prime Minister Mia Mottley.

    The message she had to give Barbadians through Dame Sandra needed no input of partisan politics. Come on Miss Mottley, show some bloody grace! You are the Prime Minister already,

    You are not campaigning to be Prime Minister. But to have Dame Sandra reading a speech going on and on about government responding to “economic mismanagement” and the country being damaged socially and otherwise by the “lost decade” and poverty increasing over the “lost decade” and all that, was uncalled for.

    The PM would know that Dame Sandra would obviously be reading her speech. This obsession with power will be the ruin of some of our regional leaders.

    You all have souls to contemplate and health to pay more attention to, than trying to use all means necessary to influence the gullible and to hold power.

    Nothing has improved in Barbados since the Government changed.

    In fact, the living hardships for Barbadians have got worse..

    I voted for Thorne because I got fed up with the DLP but now I am fed up with Prime Minister Mottley and her Government too.

    Learn from the demise of the late David Thompson who was Prime Minister for less than two years. He probably thought he would be in power for two or three terms too because the was young.

    It doesn’t pay to be brutish and manipulative in politics. Government is a continuum and I am sure that since Independence, every Opposition can point to something the Government of the day did that did not help the economy, poverty alleviation, society or whatever.”


  8. Stop cutting and pasting nonsense. @William Skinner posted this this morning. Read and stop the nonsense. I think you should seek counselling. It is irritating.


  9. Just remember, remove Elizabeth and you have to remove the ENTIRE COLONIAL CONSTRUCT, YOU CAN’T KEEP ANYTHING…

    “Anti-colonial campaigner Bert Samuels believes that Jamaica should follow in the footsteps of Barbados in dumping the Queen of England as head of state.

    Samuels, a reparation lobbyist, said that the retention of the monarchy in Jamaica’s constitutional arrangement is an affront to the spirit of national independence granted 58 years ago.

    “It is more than time for our people to experience true independence with the decolonisation of our Constitution, the justice system, and also to remove those whose predecessors enslaved us from the pinnacle of our constitutional arrangement,” said Samuels.

    “There is no way that a Jewish state would tolerate a descendant of Adolf Hitler being at the apex of its constitutional arrangement.”

    The Mia Mottley government declared on Tuesday that it plans to remove Queen Elizabeth II as head of state next year, marking the first time in nearly three decades since a Commonwealth country dropped the monarch.

    Barbados Governor General Dame Sandra Mason made the announcement in a Throne speech, revealing that the Caribbean nation would move “toward full sovereignty and become a republic” by November 30, 2021, on the country’s 55th anniversary of independence from the British empire.

    Jamaican prime ministers, including Portia Simpson Miller, Bruce Golding, and the current holder, Andrew Holness, have all talked tough on severing the Crown as head of state but done little beyond the microphone.

    Samuels, an attorney-at-law, said that he is pained to hear courts commencing daily with the “absurd” shouting by the police of “God save the Queen”.

    He said, however, that he does not support a referendum on the issue.

    “What I support is its abolition. You hold a referendum on something that you believe may have strong support. We don’t need that. We do not need any vote on this issue. It is abhorrent,” Samuels stated.

    Holness, upon assuming office in 2016, included a proposal to make the island a republic in the 2016-2017 legislative agenda.

    “Jamaicans have embraced the Queen and embraced our legacy in terms of the laws and the system of governance we have, but the deep, burning desire we have for full independence still exists,” he said then.

    Samuels threw new bait to the Holness administration to follow conservative Barbados, often called ‘Little England’ because of its Anglophile pride, in setting a timeline for the abolishment of the monarchy.

    He praised Barbados as having “a leader who is educated, bold, and forthright on this issue”.

    “We certainly hope our leaders can be as forthright,” said the attorney.

    Samuels said that he has been moved by his “own spirit of dignity” to twice write to the chief justice requesting the abolishment of the utterance ‘God save the Queen’ in the courts.

    Trinidad and Tobago, which celebrated its independence on August 31, 1962, weeks after Jamaica’s, dropped the Queen as head of state to become a republic in 1976. Guyana also became a republic in 1970.

    Mauritius is the last Commonwealth country to have done away with the Queen as head of state. It did so in 1992.

    President of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), Steven Golding, agrees that Jamaica needs to “Brexit the monarchy”.

    “It is my hope and prayer that if we are not fully there yet, we are well on our way. With what we are seeing in Barbados, I don’t think we will escape going to another general election without this issue coming more to the forefront.

    “It is our tax money that we continue paying for the upkeep of King’s House, where they can go and arrest a Jamaican for picking a few ackees off a tree,” Golding said of the seat of the governor general, representative of the Queen.

    The UNIA president’s father failed to get traction despite expressing a desire to cut ties with the monarchy before Jamaica’s 50th anniversary in 2012.

    “I have long believed that if I am to have a queen, it must be a Jamaican queen. I would not wish to see us celebrate 50 years of Independence without completing that part of our ‘sovereignisation’, for want of a better word,” Bruce Golding told legislators in a parliamentary address.”


  10. One thing missing, considering the pandemic and actually, something that I suggested in this forum many moons ago, when the DLP was mid term, was mortgage protection for homeowners. Then, I referred to periods of strain and the need to ensure that homeowners did not lose their properties without an appropriate effort to assist them and to ensure that their property was not lost to reckless appropriation.

    Such a measure is now shown to be sorely needed, yet is still lacking. While the measure that I had in mind was one of a long term financial guideline to be embedded in legislation, in the current scenario, an emergency measure protecting homeowners for a period of one year to two years, while the country rides the pandemic strain, is necessary.

    This in turn will allow homeowners to give some leniency to tenants, in fact, such persons should also be temporarily protected. These are not normal times.


  11. @ Crusoe

    In Barbados we have a form of Mortgage Indemnity Guarantee MIG), which provides cover fore the lender. It is fraudulent. As you know, it operates by the borrower paying for a percentage of the insurance, say 75-80 per cent. MIG is outlawed in the UK.
    If the borrower defaults, the lender claims on the policy, yet they go on to repossess the home and sell it at whatever price they can get, usually to organised buyers. And this is allowed by the regulator.
    What mortgage borrowers need is compulsory income protection, so that if they are out of work for, say six months, it gives them time to make arrangements.
    Government can make this compulsory in much the same way that it does with motor vehicle third arty insurance.


  12. Now that was a good comment about mortgage protection. The lenders operate just as you say in many cases. It definitely should be outlawed and the solution is as simple as you say.


  13. @Greene
    One thing missing, considering the pandemic and actually, something that I suggested in this forum many moons ago, when the DLP was mid term, was mortgage protection for homeowners. Then, I referred to periods of strain and the need to ensure that homeowners did not lose their properties without an appropriate effort to assist them and to ensure that their property was not lost to reckless appropriation
    ++++++++++++++
    How would that work? Would appreciate if you would flesh out that suggestion rather than leave us hanging……….


  14. @Hal Austin September 17, 2020 10:08 AM “I believe David Thompson would have, had his life not been cut short.”

    As I said to said to someone last week, “Owen de’d, de’d, de’d, he int coming back.

    David too de’d, de’d, de’d, he int coming back.


  15. DonnaSeptember 17, 2020 11:59 AM

    And if you believe there was a Sodom or a Gomorrah and that God destroyed them because of sodomy you are just another fundamentalist who should be ignored. Moses parting the Red Sea, Noah on some big boat of animals and Adam and Eve in the garden talking to a serpent – all nonsensical!

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

    Ark’s been found on the mountains of Ararat.

    Sodom and Gomorrah found.

    .. and scientists can explain the parting of the Red Sea …. tsunami!!


  16. “The President will have a little more than ceremonial functions but akin more to what we have now. The matters relating to certain appeals and things like the chairman of the Privy Council in terms of the exercise and prerogative of mercy. There are certain things that will be vested in the President as they are in the Governor General. We will work out those transitional arrangements,” she said…(Quote)

    Here is the president again explaining her plans for a Republic, a decision not yet made, not in the Barbados parliament, not before the Barbadian people, but to Australians.
    I have said before, she has no respect for our parliamentary democracy or, indeed, for the Barbadian people.


  17. Steupse! Give me a break!

    You need to stop. Every story does not proof make.

    And every sin does not a crime make.

    Lying is a sin. You do it EVERY DAY Should we charge you for it? How about adultery? Premarital sex? These are all acts that many Christians say are sins. They are mostly left to God to judge. Only some lies with provable dire consequences are prosecuted by the State. That is very fortunate for you.

    Lookah, cyah yuh lying ass and let others do what they want with theirs!


  18. Someone ought to tell this clown, that Barbados has NO CULTURE, outside of being ENSLAVED AND COLONIZED…neither of which are cultures…..if she had talked about reintroducing African culture and spirituality more than ONE DAY A YEAR. …she can then be taken seriously…

    being enslaved…is not a culture

    being colonized ….is not a culture

    being assimilated into colonial indoctrination and brainwashing pre and post fake independence…….IS NOT A CULTURE…

    being REDUCED TO LESS THAN HUMAN…is not a culture…

    then they run around everywhere falsely claiming to be so educated…

    “She added: “I can’t imagine that countries [like] the United Kingdom would want anything other than a British head of state. I can’t imagine the United States of America similarly, so we just see this as a natural step.”

    Barbados is not the first former British colony in the Caribbean to become a republic. Guyana, Dominica and Trinidad and Tobago all did so in the 1970s.

    All three remained within the Commonwealth.”


  19. The PM announced to the Barbadian people after a long ago study, the recommendations of which we have known for ages and after discussions that have also been ongoing among us for ages. There has never been a time when the people have been so awakened to our racist colonial past and its consequences that still exist today. Now is the time to act. As the queen said, “It did not come out of the blue.”

    It is a policy statement of intent which she knows she can achieve because we the Barbadian people placed her and her 28 colleagues in the position to make decisions on our behalf.

    The Throne Speech was addressed to the Barbadian people and was accompanied by an explanation.

    Those who do not agree can still speak.

    It is dishonest to say that she spoke or explained to the Australians first.

    I am a Barbadian who actually lives here and choose to throw my lot in with Barbadians who plan to live here and not up in England.

    I hardly concern myself with what Boris does because I DO NOT INTEND TO LIVE THERE AGAIN and his country is no longer the superpower carrying the sway. When I do concern myself with what Boris and Co. decide, it has to do with obvious villainy like Windrush. But certainly not Brexit policy, the goodness of which is a matter of opinion.


  20. Maybe the fowl slaves can explain to me, since when being subjected to 400 years of British rule became a culture, because it’s obvious Mia does not know, she thinks being under brutal colonial tyranny is a culture, maybe that’s why their true African culture is only celebrated ONE DAY A YEAR…in colonized Barbados….

    yall have no goddamn shame or respect for your ancestors…


  21. The point has been made before and I believe it bears repeating if the PM knew she was going to take the country on a path to becoming a Republic why did she allow her minister John King to make an abject fool of himself on the subject of Nelson? Why did her party not even mention the subject of a Republic in its manifesto? It wasn’t as if the BLP thought it would lose the Election so the mention of a republic via a Referendum wouldn’t have hut its chances. I have no quarrel with the country becoming a Republic but it appears that we are in the make up as we go along territory as the Nelson contretemps was a few short months ago so does it mean that the PM has arrived at a “Come to Jesus’ moment to go from the public angst over Nelson to the full blown commitment of a Republic?

    The time table for conversion to Republican status is short if we are to meet the 55th anniversary of Independence deadline where the bread and circus act will be in full display.

    Lets hope that the change to Republic status means the abolition and removal from public reference of all the Colonial and honorific titles that have survived for 400 years and are bestowed to politicians and hangers on who are members or supporters of the Party in power.


    • @Sargeant

      Could it be the PM decided to pivot because of the rise of the #BLM? This is a legacy building opportunity!


  22. @ Sargeant,

    The PM was given a 30 to 0 victory. Do you really think that she is not going to use that awesome power given by the majority of voters ?

    Her obvious ( to me ) intention is to create her legacy as the greatest prime minister and leader of the Republic of Barbados.

    ASk Miller and Piece the Prophet if uh doan believe me.


  23. Is something wrong with aiming to be the greatest prime minister and leader of the Republic of Barbados?????

    🤷🏽‍♂️


  24. @Hants
    Well said.
    This PM has needs to distinguish herself which exceed her predecessors.
    We can only hope the benefactors are the people she governs.


  25. I am baffled! Who exactly is promoting mediocrity? I asked if something is wrong with aiming to be the greatest prime minister and leader of the Republic of Barbados. Now one can be the best and still be mediocre but there is nothing in my statement that promotes mediocrity.


  26. Brian Lara, one of the worlds best batsmen, received numerous accolades and awards for his prowess with a cricket bat. Alas, the WI cricket team, even with this “head and shoulders above others” batsman in its team, struggled to win matches.
    His legacy is still intact though.


  27. Raw BakeSeptember 18, 2020 3:41 PM

    And then pushed out by the mediocre board, when he was still at the top of his game. The board ruined West Indies cricket. Poor management.


  28. It was the master:servant mentality. The Board still sees itself as a board of control. They don’t see the players as equals. But the causes were more complex than that. The ICB is also to blame.


  29. And then pushed out by the mediocre board, when he was still at the top of his game. The board ruined West Indies cricket. Poor management.

    Crusoe

    A thorough analysis of Lara’s behaviour in West Indies cricket will prove you are wrong.


  30. “We can only hope the benefactors are the people she governs.”

    A sweet piece of bowling. Deliciously clever and wicked.


  31. DonnaSeptember 18, 2020 4:06 PM

    It was the master:servant mentality. The Board still sees itself as a board of control.

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

    How come WI cricket only thrived when there was a board of control?


  32. The only problem Brian Lara had was that we don’t respect genius. There is no living creature or human, outside of Sir Garry Sobers, who is really a living God, that ever held a cricket bat in their hands , who is a better batsman than Brian Lara.
    The problem with West Indies cricket, is the same problem with Barbados. We rested on our laurels and allowed the island to deteriorate. When the West Indies were dominating cricket, we never planned for the future. We thought that no other country will have caught up with us.
    Just this morning, I read in Barbados Today that we allowed Bridgetown to fall into disrepair for thirty years. I guess we can call that the “three lost decades”. West Indies cricket has suffered a similar fate.
    Somehow a superb collection of pure bred political invertebrates , determined that Barbados fell into massive mismanagement all within ten years and they call it the lost decade.
    Like I said recently we no longer drive manuals so any clown can pass a drivers test without knowing how to balance a clutch or “push start a car”.
    Ignorance is now automatically driven.


  33. The cricketing world has moved on and developed skill sets beyond our comprehension.

    Like Viv Richards, Brian Lara was studied, understood and overcome.

    Protective gear got better and better and reduced the physical danger fast bowlers caused.

    The paths to supreme fitness were explored and mapped.

    In the days of Sir Garfield Sobers, those skill sets were not available.

    It isn’t only that we rested on our laurels.

    If that was the only cause it could have been easily overcome.

    The cricketing world just moved on and left us behind.


  34. @ John
    I agree with you to some extent. I have arrived at the conclusion that our cricketers are not good athletes. Just take a look at tennis players and the effort they make to break into the 100s.
    Our entire structure of cricket is essentially defective both on and off the field.
    BTW , over sixty years of tourism and we never even thought about an international beach cricket tournament.


  35. William Skinner September 19, 2020 7:22 AM #: “The only problem Brian Lara had was that we don’t respect genius.”

    Mr. Skinner

    I’ve heard that argument on several occasions. You remind me of my friend, the late David ‘8 Ball’ Blackett, who used to say Lara should be allowed to behave in any manner he chooses to, because he is ‘a genius.’

    I don’t believe there’s anyone who won’t agree Brian Lara was an exceptional cricketer. People “respect genius,’…… they don’t respect bad behaviour.

    You’re purposely choosing to ignore Lara’s head became ‘swollen with pride’ and he was not a ‘team player.’ He never used to stay at the same hotel as the team; never travelled with the team on the bus to practice sessions and matches, choosing to arrive at the venues by taxi; broke the team rules by allowing girlfriend to accompany him on tours.

    Read Wes Hall’s management report on Lara’s disrespectful behaviour during the 1995 WI tour to England. He walked out of a team meeting after an argument with then captain Richie Richardson. He was persuaded by then WICB president, Peter Short, to rejoin the team after being absent for three days. Some members of the team, including Curtley Ambrose, were not happy when Hall announced Lara was rejoining them. However, as a result of his behaviour, Lara was fined 10% of his tour fees. He responded by withdrawing from the WI tour to Australia.

    Lara also undermined Courtney Walsh’s tenure as WI captain. But, when appointed aptain, he emphasized the importance of team unity.

    As I mentioned previously, no one can dispute Lara’s cricketing ability.


  36. @ Artax
    I never condoned Lara’s behavior. However, I don’t think that Lara’s genius and I mean genius , in its purest form , was ever fully accepted.
    I do agree with you that he did display unsportsmanlike behavior and this must be condemned.
    Point taken.


  37. “The point has been made before and I believe it bears repeating if the PM knew she was going to take the country on a path to becoming a Republic why did she allow her minister John King to make an abject fool of himself on the subject of Nelson? Why did her party not even mention the subject of a Republic in its manifesto?”

    punching above their weight……🤣😂🤣😂😂.


  38. Be Jeez!

    Here you go again! Likkle black boys need to be controlled! No. They need to be MANAGED. There’s a difference. Mutual respect. Guidance nor orders from the elders. Once the youngsters know you have their interests at heart it works more often than not.


  39. It is very easy for great success to go to a young man’s head, especially sporting success.

    Lara needed someone in his life to keep his feet on the ground. He needed a friend or family member to treat him just like they did before and not to make too much of him or his achievements.

    I remember a superstar rocker saying his wife kept him grounded. As soon as he got home from touring in front of adoring fans she would ask him to take out the trash.

    “Baby, I’m back!”

    “Welcome home, hon! Could you take out the trash, please? ”

    Pretty soon she did not have to ask. It was his cue to bring his rock god self back down to earth and become human again. It worked like Pavlov’s dog training bell.


  40. “A manifesto is a pre-election document. It means nothing after the election is over”

    yep..vehicle of deceit, weapon of lies.


  41. @Donna
    It is nice to know that you still have eyes to hear.

    There seems to be an insatiable need for international recognition and validation that is fast becoming embarrassing. Never has a leader of a little island been in such demand. Seems like everybody wants a piece.

    Like the man said above, after all the legacy building, we can only hope that we get more than just a good ride.


  42. Carnival Cruise Lines is paring down amid the coronavirus pandemic.

    The company said it will cancel all voyages until at least Oct. 31.

    Other voyages are canceled into the spring.

    Anyone who had a cruise already booked will receive a credit or refund.

    Parent company Carnival Corporation, which owns nine brands including Carnival Cruise Line, also announced plans to sell 18 ships.

    The company is selling its older, less efficient ships….(Quote)


  43. Utility seeks exemption from paying compensation due to Covid-19
    BWA begging for an ease

    The COVID-19 pandemic has so crippled the Barbados Water Authority’s (BWA) ability to function that it needs a suspension of the service standards it is required to meet.
    That is what the state-owned utility has told its regulator, the Fair Trading Commission (FTC), in an application which, if granted, will mean more than 100 000 individual and corporate customers temporarily cannot apply for compensation.
    The BWA has followed the Barbados Light & Power Company Ltd in filing for a “force majeure exemption” – unforeseeable circumstances preventing fulfilment of a contract.
    In the eight-page application drawn and prepared by BWA attorney Ona S. Harewood, the state-owned utility asked for the standards of service to be suspended effective March 16, 2020, “until the public health emergency is declared to be at an end by the Government”.
    The BWA said that since Barbados had its first two confirmed cases of COVID-19 on March 16, the country declared a public health emergency.
    The application noted that the agency was unable to function normally, even though it was deemed an essential service and “was instructed by the Prime Minister to restore services to those customers that had been disconnected due to non-payment”.
    Limited staff
    “The situation confronting the organisation is anything but normal. With a very limited staff working from home, the BWA has to ensure that Barbadians have access to water,” the BWA told the FTC.
    “Given the restrictions and stay-at-home protocols imposed by the Government, this became a critical service/ deliverable for the BWA. With low and declining water levels in its reservoirs, tankers have been struggling to keep up with and satisfy the demand, especially in the higher elevations.
    “This has to be done in addition to the usual responses to burst mains and pipes across the island. The BWA also has to ensure that staff are adequately protected and that vehicles are constantly sanitised.”
    The application noted that “while some companies have been cleared to resume operations, the BWA is still working out a safe re-entry plan that takes into account all of the new protocols, for example, social distancing.
    “The payment centre has reopened but is operating
    on a limited basis and customers have to wait on the outside as the lobby is too small to accommodate social distancing,” it said.
    “The BWA has a large staff count and the office structure does not lend itself to social distancing. As a result, operations are still in a state of flux and there is no clear indication when normal operations will resume at the BWA.”
    The BWA told the FTC that its customer base of more than 100 000 were the ones “likely to be affected by this application”.
    In a notice on the application, FTC general legal counsel/ commission secretary Cherie Jones said individuals wishing to comment on the application had until October 9 to submit written comments.
    “This application may result in the suspension of the Commission’s Standards of Service Decision 2018-2020 for the period requested by the BWA or such other period as the commission may determine,” she noted. (SC)


  44. Still 12 months for severance claims
    Workers still have 12 months to claim severance pay, the Ministry of Labour has confirmed.
    Last night, it issued a statement saying it was important to clarify the matter due to several “erroneous” statements circulating in other sections of the press.
    Trade unionist Senator Caswell Franklyn had been criticising Government, saying it was hurting workers by changing legislation which left them with only four weeks to apply for severance.
    “It is not correct to say that the amendment to the legislation changes the period that a worker has in order to make a claim for severance. The sections of the Severance Payments Act that speak about four weeks and one year were not affected by the amendment,” the ministry said.
    Four weeks
    “They remain in place and in force. The worker has four weeks to trigger the process and the claim remains alive for one year. The worker has one year to claim severance. These provisions have not changed and remain the law.”
    It added that the Severance Payments (Amendment) Act 2020
    made provision for an employee to “trigger” a claim for severance if placed on layoff or short-time for 22 consecutive weeks or 18 or more weeks within a period of 24 weeks.
    “An employee who wishes to make a claim for severance in the circumstances has to inform the employer of his intention within four weeks of becoming entitled. The time frame of four weeks is exactly the same as that specified in Section 6 of the Severance Payments Act – Cap. 355A,” the statement read.
    It also drew attention Sections 37 (a) and 37 (b) which indicated that in spite of the provisions of Part 2 of the Severance Payments Act (where the amendments were inserted), an employee would not
    be entitled to a severance payment unless the sum of severance was agreed and paid, or written notice of a claim was submitted to the employer before the expiry of 12 months following the date on which he/she became entitled to claim.
    (BA/PR)


  45. Water works ahead of schedule
    Residents of St John, St Joseph and St Andrew may get water consistently this Christmas should work on the Vineyard Water Augmentation project continue at its current pace.
    This is according to Minister of Transport, Works and Water Resources Ian Gooding-Edghill, who said work on the project, upon which several rural communities are pegging their hopes for relief from prolonged water woes, was progressing at a rate that could see it finish ahead of the January 2021 completion target.
    Gooding-Edghill, along with high-ranking officials of the Barbados Water Authority (BWA), took the media on a tour of the project yesterday to get a first-hand look at the progress made in the last month. He disclosed that all of the pipe work would be completed by mid-November while the installation of the two tanks would begin at the end of this month.
    On track
    “The installation is on track. The management and engineers at the Barbados Water Authority have confirmed to us that we should see the project coming to fruition, potentially way ahead of schedule. All pipe works will be completed by mid-November. Commencing September 28, we are going to do the foundation works for two water tanks at Mount Pleasant.
    “The tanks are being shipped from the United Kingdom and they are currently at the port in that country and they are due to be shipped very shortly.
    “Those tanks should arrive in three weeks’ time and the contractor assigned will begin installing them immediately, and working round the clock, we expect to also bring forward those timelines,” he said.
    Giving a breakdown of the work done so far, the minister said the seven contractors on site had been going the extra mile, especially with regards to replacing the mains.
    Much progress
    “I am pleased to say that the seven contractors are working very long hours, ensuring the acceleration of the programme . . . . We have made significant progress on the pipe installation and I want to commend them, especially when one takes into consideration the weather conditions.
    “We have at Vineyard and Mount Pleasant 9 055 feet to be completed and we have at this stage completed 66 per cent of that or 5 980 feet. From Mount Pleasant to Eastmont, the length there is 15 289 feet and we have completed 33 per cent of that or 5 150
    feet,” he explained.
    However, he cautioned people not to get carried away because the gains made could be eroded by inclement weather or other unforeseen hiccups.
    It was for this reason that he was reluctant to provide any revised timeline, noting that it was best to wait and see if any major challenges arose. (CLM)

    Source: Nation


  46. Priorities, timelines not made clear
    By Shawn Cumberbatch shawncumberbatch@nationnews.com
    Barbados Economic Society (BES) president Dr Simon Naitram is concerned that Government’s proposals for economic renewal are so vast that it will “take an enormous effort” to get even half of them done.
    The economist is therefore advising the Mia Amor Mottley administration to establish a clear list of priorities “based on which policies will generate the largest benefits to Barbados, rather than simply picking the low-hanging fruit first”.
    His view about the vast nature of the policies and programmes outlined in the Throne Speech were shared by economist Professor Emeritus Michael Howard.
    The former University of the West Indies (UWI) lecturer said not only was the Speech “too long and overburdened with details”, but there were “a myriad of things to be done without a feasible and definitive timetable”.
    Naitram and Howard, however, told the Sunday Sun they agreed with the decision to suspend the debt reduction portion of the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme for the next two years.
    Main concern
    Giving his assessment of the Throne Speech, Naitram said the main concern with the plan as outlined “stems from the sheer breadth of the policies proposed”.
    “A Government in a small country like ours necessarily has limited capacity to implement new policies. It will take an enormous effort on the party of the Government – both elected officials and bureaucrats – to get even half of these things done.”
    The economist, who lectures at UWI, Cave Hill, added it was clear from the economic plans announced that Government continued to pick tourism as its “preferred horse”.
    “The Government is assigning $300 million to the BEST (Barbados Employment and Sustainable Transformation) plan, intended to support the tourism industry. In contrast, $70 million is being assigned to an Industrial Transformation Fund. Fund Access and the Trust Loans Programme are getting a combined $30 million to support small entrepreneurs,” he observed. “It is unclear whether this choice of how to allocate funding is because the Government sees tourism as our way to a brighter future, or whether it is simply because we have already invested so much time, energy, and money into the tourism industry.” Naitram said the conditions to be imposed on the BEST plan were critical to instigate significant structural change in the tourism industry, and he believed Barbados “cannot continue to socialise the losses from tourism while privatising the profits”.
    “We cannot continue to leave the ownership of our largest industry in the hands of a small elite. And we cannot continue to promote a tourism product that has little to do with the lifestyle of Barbadians. These are key areas of change which the BEST plan can demand in return for the taxpayers’ enormous financial support,” he said.
    “The fiscal costs of this plan are high, and the question has to be raised about the sustainability of a tourism industry that requires near permanent Government support.”
    While noting that the jobs created by the 12-month COVID-19 Relief Programme would be beneficial, Naitram found that “the only real concern with the project is how it will be scaled back once the 12-month period is over”.
    He also pointed to some “critical elements” that the BEST was recommending to be prioritised.
    These were “an emphasis on digitisation of Government services, new ways to finance business, eliminating barriers to doing business, and a clear look at new immigration policies to boost our human capital and population size.
    “We hope these policies do not get lost in the pipeline. These proposals are critical to the success of the Government’s plan to make Barbados a modern and prosperous society,” he added.
    $300 million plan
    Regarding the economics of the Throne Speech, Howard said he wanted more details on $300 million plan, calling the sum of money “quite large in a time of uncertainty”.
    “Although this industry is highly important, I would have liked to see details relating to the source of the funding for the programme, the specific nature of the contract obligations between the businesses in this programme and Government, and the obligations of workers.
    “One wonders whether a plan like this would succeed in rescuing the tourism workers, given the possibility of a second wave of COVID in the major source markets. I await details before making further comment.”
    Howard added: “Further, I do not believe it is possible for Government to give similar sums of money across the board to all other businesses. Government still needs to be mindful of the country’s scarce financial resources at this time, and the possibility of further economic decline.”
    He said that debt reduction under the BERT programme could not be a priority now when “the Barbadian economy is in distress”.
    “I agree with the decision to suspend the BERT plan with respect to national debt to give some elbow room in a time of uncertainty, and the suffering of many Barbadian people.
    “Although structural economic diversification has been recommended for years, this is a medium- to long-term task, and cannot solve our problems in the very short run. We have to concentrate on our present realities,” he said.
    “A Government in a small country like ours necessarily has limited capacity to implement new policies. It will take an enormous effort on the party of the
    Government – both elected officials and bureaucrats – to get even half of these things done.”

    Source: Nation


  47. Atherley: Aspects of Speech disgusting
    Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley yesterday labelled certain parts of last Tuesday’s Throne Speech “disgusting” and at odds with all things cherished by Christian-minded Barbadians.
    In a fiery contribution at a press conference hosted by the People’s Party for Democracy and Development, Atherley, the president, also charged that Barbadians had been betrayed by the current political administration led by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, and the country should be very careful in the coming months leading into the next General Election.
    “I found a few things in the Throne Speech to be quite disgusting,” he said after a press conference held at the Opposition’s office at Worthing Court, Christ Church.
    “On the issue of civil unions, the Government has clearly said we will recognise same-sex unions in Barbados, and they gave undertaking they would not commit to same-sex marriages. I don’t know there is a difference. Even if you accept unions, you are putting a legal frame around that. Where have Barbadians said that is what we want?”
    He said Barbadians’ values were at odds with that position, and he queried if a proposed referendum would be on same-sex unions, same-sex marriages, or both.
    He also contended that Barbadians should be very wary of the direction down which the current political administration was heading.
    “There has been a breach of trust by the Government. And it is my strong view that representative government in Barbados is under threat, and Barbadians should guard themselves very carefully against that,” he said.
    He cited the specific narrative in the Throne Speech with regard to the acceptance of same-sex unions by this political administration as one that should raise flags with Christianminded Barbadians.
    “If you didn’t know what before, then what you see emerging from the Throne Speech should clearly put Barbadians under guard. What is taking place is a societal reconstruction in an image which is at odds with what is normally Barbadian and held to be highly cherished values.”
    Imbalance
    Atherley urged Barbadians to speak through their right to vote in order to right the imbalance currently in the House of Assembly.
    “It is up to the people, when opportunity is next given, to make sure the imbalance in numbers is corrected and the threat to the erosion of representative government in Barbados is eliminated.
    Whatever the make-up of the next Parliament in terms of the labels attaching to parties occupying the seats of power, that imbalance has to be corrected to ward off the threat which is not coming but is with us today.”
    He said Barbadians did not vote back in 2018 for societal reconstruction.
    “We voted for economic transformation. We voted for societal upliftment and advancing of the masses, especially the workers of Barbados. This is not what we are getting. Instead, we are getting construction reconstruction in an image unpopular with the average Barbadian.”
    According to Atherley, the Throne Speech had brought a unilateralist approach around significant issues which could change the value system of Barbadians and the country’s cultural direction. (BA)


    • PdP: Govt all optics, no solutions
      People’s Party for Democracy and Development (PdP) spokesperson for culture, Alan Springer, says the Mia Mottley administration continues to use smoke and mirrors tactics to keep Barbadians focused on optics while a lack of social development remains.
      Addressing a press conference yesterday at the Opposition’s office in Worthing Court, Christ Church, he said it was unfortunate that most of what came out from the recent Throne Speech was the proposed changes regarding personal marijuana use, the acceptance by Barbados of same-sex unions, and the news that Barbados would become a republic by next year.
      “It would appear that the whole basis of Tuesday’s Throne Speech is built on a smokescreen from this Government to cover for the absence of far more serious concerns facing Barbados. Missing was a commitment to tackle crime, the rising murder rate, guns on the street, the whole question of economic recovery and worker enfranchisement.
      “These were all omitted from the Throne Speech in favour of a number of non-urgent matters and the opportunity to make a grab at drastically and significantly altering the cultural landscape of Barbados,” Springer added.
      Cannabis user
      “Only someone who is allegedly a cannabis user, someone who is a member of the LGBTQ community and someone who would have a considerable personal vested interest in Barbados becoming a republic would stand to benefit,” he said.
      Regarding the soon-tocome provisions surrounding personal marijuana use, Springer said there were way more questions than answers.
      “How are we to determine half an ounce or less in a volatile street confrontation? Are police to be issued with a set of scales to confirm the correct weight? If not, where is the line to be drawn between a youngster insisting it is less than half an ounce and the police determining it is more, and the aggravation that is likely to result from such a confrontation?”
      Springer said it should also be made clear if
      members of the Royal Barbados Police Force were to be trained in making observations about drug dependency since the new provisions would allow them to refer drug addicts to the National Council on Drug Abuse for counselling. (BA)


    • PdP: BEST not all that good
      The BEST isn’t really that good.
      That’s according to financial consultant Sean Tudor, who yesterday ripped into one of Barbados’ newest policies aimed at helping the country recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
      Speaking as a spokesman on economic affairs of the Opposition People’s Party for Democracy and Development (PdP), Tudor had several reasons why the Barbados Employment and Sustainable Transformation (BEST) Plan, outlined by Governor General Dame Sandra Mason in last Tuesday’s Throne Speech, was not a properly thought-out rescue mission for workers in the tourism sector.
      The $300 million BEST programme has three main features, including that Government would make an investment in tourism firms, enabling them to reengage all of their workers on 80 per cent of their normal salary for up to two years should the need arise. Workers entering the scheme would not lose their existing rights to severance pay if they are laid off again at any point within the next 12 months.
      Speaking at a press conference hosted by the PdP at the Opposition Leader’s office at Worthing Court, Christ Church, Tudor said he saw many weaknesses in that programme.
      “The Throne Speech lacked a coherent economic platform and vision that empowers and unleashes Barbadian innovation. This is not a workers’ programme,” he stressed. “BEST would be best for hotel owners. It is not about payroll support.”
      Tudor said it was hinged on tourism facilities retaining at least 75 per cent of their workforce, which could lead them to letting go a quarter of their staff.
      “Then you could take people and put them on two-days and three-days, and pay them 80 per cent of the normal rate of their wages. You are putting people in a bind. They would actually get more money if they had received unemployment benefits.”
      The financial specialist added that under such circumstances, the workers’ spending power would be reduced significantly and fall below their monthly expenses.
      “People would be left in a zone where they are not getting enough to live on, but they are afraid to quit the job, and not get severance anymore.”
      According to the Throne Speech, the resources would only be available if tourism numbers and revenues remain below the levels required for the survival of the sector.
      Tudor noted that if, optimistically, $150 million became payroll support for the 15 000 hotel workers targeted, that would only equate to $833 per month per worker before National Insurance payments would be deducted.
      “This is just not going to work,” he told the media.
      He said because the hotels had no revenue and no cash flow, they would have to access the $300 million from BEST, which would lead to workers being forced into debt and dependency.
      “It just won’t deliver for workers,” he said.
      (BA)


    • BERT move ‘no shift in Govt policy’
      Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Ryan Straughn, says Government is in no way shirking its responsibilities despite the recent announcement that the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) plan is on hold for the next two years.
      He was speaking during Friday’s online Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados Public Sector Conference 2020 session, held under the theme Re-engineering Public Sector Management.
      “I just want to make it clear that this is not a departure from the fundamental tenants of the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation programme,” Straughn said, adding that Government would now be in a position to source additional finances to meet the demands created by the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic.
      Last Tuesday, Governor General Dame Sandra Mason delivered the news on the suspension of BERT during the Throne Speech at the State Opening Parliament at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
      Straughn said Government would lose about $450 million in revenue for this financial year, in a best-case scenario, but it was faced with a situation of sourcing additional funds to help both individuals and businesses.
      “That suspension in debt reduction means that the financing that we now have to procure through our multilateral partners, which we have already started the process, meant that we have borrowed money this year that we did not intend to borrow,” he said.
      “The change in mission, temporarily, is designed to ensure that over the long term, Barbados’ economy will still be in a position to maintain our objectives under the BERT programme.”
      Defended decision
      Straughn also defended Government’s decision to pump $300 million into the tourism and hospitality sector under the new Barbados Employment and Sustainable Transformation (BEST) programme. Funding for this initiative is set to be taken from the international reserves which were recorded at $1.6 billion at the end of June.
      “The [BEST programme] was designed specifically to respond, in a very strategic way, to ensuring that we re-engineer the way the Government engages with the private sector, in order to ensure that over the course of the next two years that we can keep as many businesses,” he said.
      However, general secretary of the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados, Dennis De Peiza, speaking at a press conference also on Friday, questioned the move.
      “We have had global and regional competition, and with the dependency on tourism, the vulnerabilities are very clear now that COVID has come. But we have not seemingly looked at how we could diversify the economy of Barbados. We need to look at where we can place significant investment so we can get some level of comfort, knowing that if the tourism product does not take off going forward, that we have a driver of our economy,” he said.
      He added that agro-industries, manufacturing and business technologies were some sectors to focus on. (RA)


  48. Throne Speech a masterpiece
    By Ezra Alleyne
    Last Tuesday’s Throne Speech was a masterpiece of political craft. It gave little or no room for Opposition criticism of substance. Verla De Peiza, president of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), called the speech “cold soup warmed over”. Some said it was too political.
    A Throne Speech, at any time, but particularly after the proroguing of Parliament, is, obviously, a quintessential political act. Moreover, this one, coming as it did after the “thief-in-the-night” arrival of COVID-19, would merit being seriously classified as meaningful, only if it set out the changed and therefore different policies devised to cope with the upturned apple carts of the global and local economies.
    Such a speech would literally have to be political, and if it was not political, it would be a waste of time. If it succeeded in stating the policy changes, and this one does, it most emphatically could not be properly described as cold soup warmed over!
    The economy, which the Government inherited and the policies on which it was elected, have been so dramatically affected that an entire U-turn in policy is now required. In May 2018, there were not 35 000 unemployed. COVID-19 has thrown the economy into a major tailspin.
    35 000 unemployed
    But 35 000 are now unemployed and the tourist industry is in a virtual and realistic pause. A new set of policies will be necessary. Different considerations will be needed to become ingredients in the salad-like mix of policies required to re-secure and protect the new political economy.
    To suggest that it was too political is to praise the speech, as Tom Adams used to say, with “faint damns” paraphrasing Shakespeare.
    Walter Bagehot, the revered British writer on the English constitution, recognised that pomp and ceremony associated with the proroguing and opening of Parliament attracts the imagination of the people.
    I think he is right. Pomp and ceremony help to send a potent signal to the ultimate power in the country (that is, the voters) that (in this case) it cannot be business as usual, and that there has to be change of direction and policy.
    For what it is worth, the State Of The Union address, which is hailed as the American version of a Throne Speech, is also a supremely political event. So what am I hearing?
    ‘Move Nelson’ De Peiza did not warm, it seems, to the idea of republican status. She is quoted as remarking that the best representation of one’s past would be the swift removal of Lord Nelson from its prominent position in Bridgetown.
    Dragging Lord Nelson into this debate does not speak to us about the substance or otherwise
    of the speech. I note with appreciation that George Pilgrim has wisely stayed out of the De Peiza-Mia Mottley exchange. He is focused on his objective, overtaking De Peiza whose attack on the Speech was directed at the wrong areas.
    Now had she pointed out that Barbados is already a de facto as opposed to a de jure republic since the people and not the Queen in Buckingham Palace are now the ultimate power in the land since 1966, she could have praised the late Right Excellent Errol Barrow.
    His Independence Constitution removed power from the Foreign and Colonial Office in London and transferred it to Government Headquarters on Bay Street, St Michael, Barbados. He made Barbados a de facto republic, and while De Peiza may choose to talk about moving Nelson, words are your only weapon when you have no power.
    As it is, she played right into Pilgrim’s hands. He will now be able to argue that while De Peiza has many admirable political qualities, she missed the point. Wrong target!
    It is like choosing the wrong ball to hit a six. You are almost certain to get caught inside the boundary . . . and for once, the ever alert Prime Minister Mottley responded to her and referenced the upcoming contest with Pilgrim.
    This was a brilliant Throne Speech. It contained policies required for reordering of the economy and rebuilding the society. I think it also had a few unintended concealed openings into which the unwary might fall.
    Ezra Alleyne is an attorney and a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly.


  49. I avoid topics like BERT and BEST because b l may not be able to handle the heavy listing.

    I also avoid (LESS) Little Ezra’s Silly soliloquy. Puff pieces with fancy titles that deliver nothing. If he is being paid, he should refund the money.


  50. I avoid topics like BERT and BEST because b l may not be able to handle the heavy listing.

    I also avoid (LESS) Little Ezra’s Silly soliloquy. Puff pieces with fancy titles that deliver nothing. If he is being paid, he should refund the money.


  51. What nonsense Ezra Alleyne is talking? His reference to the recent Queen’s Speech as a masterpiece of political craft is, to put it politely, silly? The Queen’s Speech should be about the nation’s new economic direction, following the impact of CoVid, instead it was nearly three hours of waffle.
    His nonsense about the government inheriting an economy is party propaganda; it did that over two years ago and has gone on to make things worse. His almost weekly reference to Walter Bagehot will give the impression the great man would recognise the UK constitution in 2020. It is tiring and nauseous.
    Is the Queen the ultimate power in the UK? Therefore, why the reference? Ezra gives the impression he is well versed in constitutional law, but his writings do not display any of this knowledge. In fact he is a one-eyed man in the land of the blind. He was the expert on the CBC show on the speech and failed, in my mind, to display his expertise.
    The independence constitution did not make Barbados a de facto Republic, it confirmed Barbados as an independent sovereign state, a grown up who had left its parents’ home.
    His claim the speech contained proposals for reordering and rebuilding the economy says more about his economic illiteracy than it says about the speech.
    References to George Pilgrim were malicious and wicked. Pilgrim did not react to the Queen’s Speech because he is not party leader.
    It was a long and boring speech with repeated policy proposals and nothing that speaks to the medium and long-term future of the nation.
    Ezra should take a break from ranting about the constitution. Bagehot died nearly 150 years ago; admittedly that is what Ezra Learned at law school in London in the 1960s, but the complexity of the British constitution has moved on. He needs fresh reading matter.


  52. “Trade unionist Senator Caswell Franklyn had been criticising Government, saying it was hurting workers by changing legislation which left them with only four weeks to apply for severance.”

    don’t mind that shite, if Caswell don’t stay on top of these traitors in 12 months ya will hear those victims of government crying just like the NIS victims and the disabled who are still not getting their money….never listen to the liars of parliament.


  53. Jobs plan thumbs-up
    Experts back Govt programmes to get people back to work

    by SHAWN CUMBERBATCH
    shawncumberbatch@nationnews. com
    GOVERNMENTS’ PLAN to put Barbadians back to work will positively impact 12 500 people, says special envoy to the Prime Minister of Barbados Avinash Persaud.
    The financial analysis also expects that “the return of confidence that this massive reemployment will trigger could add even more jobs”.
    The employment creation effort, as prosposed in the Throne Speech under the $300 million Barbados Employment and Sustainable Transformation Programme (BEST), and $40 million 12-month COVID-19 relief programme, was welcomed by Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados president Lydia McCollin, who said it represented “money that is well spent in the circumstances”.
    Persaud told the DAILY NATION that the authorities estimated that “employment reengagement part of the BEST Programme will save over 6 000 tourism jobs, or around half of the broader tourism sector jobs”.
    “A further 4 000 jobs will be created by the Green Investment Plans of BEST and the COVID Relief Programme. I estimate that there will be an additional 2 500 jobs created indirectly from this activity, making a combined jobsimpact of around 12 500.”
    Lasting impact
    Persaud explained that on their own “these two programmes will offset at least half of the lasting impact of COVID”.
    “The plan is that a series of previously announced projects will tackle the other half,” he said.
    “These include the $250 million HOPE affordable housing plan announced in the Throne Speech, the $100 million public investment programme announced in the supplementary budget measures, and the $1.4 billion of planned private sector investments in new hotels and renewable energy like the Green Energy Park. These plans will collectively get Barbados back to work, training, and investing in the future.”
    He also stressed that “the reality is that not everyone is affected by COVID or affected as much”.
    “The international business sector has held its own and Government tax revenues have held up in that area. Some hotels and villas – with the emphasis on some – and in part as a result of the 12-month
    working visa which has caught the world’s imagination, are reporting good bookings from October,” said Persaud.
    Without need for support
    “They will be able to re-engage their staff without needing or wanting Government investment in their firms.”
    McCollin’s assessment was that “the economic measures outlined by the Government cover several key sectors and address many of the specific challenges caused by the almost total closure of the tourism sector because of the COVID-19 pandemic”.
    “ICAB supports the objectives of the stimulus programmes, which are to save businesses and to preserve jobs. It is our view that the $300 million to be spent in the BEST scheme for hotels and tourism facilities, and the $40 million to be spent on the COVID relief programme of job creation for 12 months, represent money that is well spent in the circumstances,” she said.
    “The financial support to the tourism sector will reduce the possibility of the loss of businesses in the sector. Among the several conditions associated with the financing, we are particularly supportive of the direct link to job retention and the requirement to buy local inputs from farmers manufacturers, artists, etc.”
    McCollin added that “at a macro level, we support the decision to adjust the ambitious targets in the BERT programme”.
    “The decision to pause for two years, the long-term debt reduction target will create some of the fiscal space to support the stimulus programmes announced in the Throne Speech,” she said.

    Source: Nation Newspaper


  54. Target worries
    BERT committee fears financial goals may not be met
    THE SOCIAL PARTNERSHIP body tracking Barbados’ economic reform fears Government is in danger of missing its targets in the next financial year.
    In its seventh public report since being appointed, the BERT Monitoring Committee (BERT MC) also voiced disappointment that “several anticipated projects have not proceeded as initially anticipated”.
    The BERT MC, which is co-chaired by Barbados Private Sector Association chairman Edward Clarke and Barbados Workers’ Union General Secretary Senator Toni Moore, raised the concerns yesterday in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic’s negative effects.
    The latest report covered the period ended June 30, which coincided with the seventh set of targets under Barbados’ Extended Fund Facility with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
    The BERT MC noted for that period that “despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic [Government] has continued to achieve all of its performance targets and, in particular, the primary balance surplus of one per cent of GDP and the growth in net international reserves to levels well above the programme target”.
    However, it added: “The severity of the impact of COVID-19 and the resultant significant levels of unemployment coupled with the shrinking of GDP are the principal risks to the programme and the committee is concerned that, even with the lowering of the fiscal surplus
    target and the supplemental funding expected, it will be a significant challenge to meet the targets established for the coming fiscal year.
    “Close monitoring and further collaboration and negotiation with the IMF may be necessary as the uncertainty surrounding the recovery of the tourism sector remains very significant.”
    Clarke told the DAILY NATION prior to the release of this latest report that because of the challenges he was not surprised by the Throne Speech announcement that the debt reduction component of the IMF programme would be suspended for two years.
    “I think looking at the kind of debt that we have added since COVID, as well as the decline in GDP, your debt to GDP will not go down. And with forecasted negative growth for this year and next year, we will be worse than we were pre-COVID,” he said.
    “Over the next two years I think that it is important that we try to maintain the fiscal side of the equation, but it would be extremely difficult to lower your debt to GDP ratio at this time in this economy.”
    Government had agreed with the IMF that public debt would not exceed $13.4 billion. At the end of June the stock of total debt, including Central Government’s domestic and external debt, Central Government’s guaranteed debt, and arrears, was $12.4 billion versus the agreed cap of $13.4 billion.
    The watchdog body also noted in its report that “the continued elevated levels of unemployment raise concerns regarding social implications that the country may face as
    the periods of unemployment benefits come to an end”.
    In light of this, it said it was “critical that the counter-cyclical measures announced so far to mitigate the situation are implemented as a matter of urgency and it is disappointing that several anticipated projects have not proceeded”.
    The BERT MC found comfort in Barbados’ “healthy international reserves position, together with the successes achieved in the domestic and external debt restructurings to date”, which it concluded “stand the country in a much stronger position to meet these challenges”.
    The entity noted that since its last report, it “has continued to receive reports from the Government . . . on its progress for each of the months of April through July 2020 towards the targets agreed in the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) agreed with the IMF”. (SC)

    Source: Nation


  55. BERT WOES
    UNEMPLOYMENT AND STALLED PROJECTS A CONCERN
    by Marlon Madden
    The local team tasked with monitoring the International Monetary Fund (IMF) backed Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme is raising concern that Government will find it increasingly difficult to meet its targets for the coming fiscal year.
    The BERT Monitoring Committee made this prediction in its latest report for the period April to June, while adding that Government may need to go back to the IMF to seek further tweaks to some target dates.
    “Close monitoring and further collaboration and negotiation with the IMF may be necessary as the uncertainty surrounding the recovery of the tourism sector remains very significant,” the team said.
    Lauding Government for achieving its performance targets for the review period, especially the primary balance surplus of one per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) and growth in the international reserves, the committee said this continued to be achieved in spite of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
    However, the team, which is made up of representatives from the private sector, labour union and creditors’ group, said it was concerned about some challenges ahead.
    “The severity of the impact of COVID-19 and the resultant significant levels of unemployment, coupled with the shrinking of GDP are the principal risks to the programme,” it said.
    The monitoring committee also said it was concerned that, even with the lowering of the fiscal surplus target and the supplemental funding expected, it will be “a significant challenge” to meet the targets established for the coming fiscal year.
    “The continued elevated levels of unemployment raise concerns regarding social implications that the country may face as the periods of unemployment benefits come to an end.
    It is critical that the counter-cyclical measures announced so far to mitigate the situation are implemented as a matter of urgency,” it added.
    The team also expressed disappointment that several anticipated projects have not proceeded as initially anticipated.
    “However, it continues to be comforting to know that the healthy international reserves position, together with the successes achieved in the domestic and external debt restructurings to date, stand the country in a much stronger position to meet these challenges,” the team concluded.
    Government has met all of its fiscal and performance targets to the end of June.
    However, of the five structural benchmarks that were set to be achieved by the end of June, two of them have been met while the deadlines for three have been changed.
    The deadline for Government’s actuarial review of the civil service pension system with a view to reform it has been changed to the end of this month.
    A December 2020 deadline has now been set for Government to table a revised public pension law to enhance the sustainability of the public sector pension scheme, as well as for developing a plan to recapitalise the Central Bank of Barbados and address medium and long-term challenges for the National Insurance Scheme stemming from the debt restructuring.
    The relocation of the ASYCUDA World under the control of the Customs and Excise Department and ensuring that realtime access is available to the Barbados Revenue Authority (BRA), Ministry of Finance and Central Bank was met.
    Structural benchmark outlined for the BRA office was also met by the end of June.

    marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb

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