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
Each of the 30 zeroes will assert Barbados is a Christian Nation!!
Good attempt to WATER down the blame of who is responsible for “the lost decade”
That comment was placed on the wrong blog.
For this blog.
IMO …..Throne speech was a waste of time!
One of the 30 zeroes is a reverend and not a peep.
… oops, sorry, a bishop, a very reverend.
Dr David Alleyne is spot on
@ 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.
A well-functioning democracy? A proper health service?
Wuh part dah is he talkin’ bout????
Not the US! Not the UK!
Maybe Canada?
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.
Not a peep into the people’s bedrooms, you mean?
Maybe the bishop is not a creepy old man!
No government should choose not chose
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.
@ 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.
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.”
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.
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.”
Ha, Ha, why the hell you don’t go on ya FB page…
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.
@ 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.
Peter Wickham is on CBC talking drivel.
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.
@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……….
@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.
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!!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00hvxkl
“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.
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!
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.”
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.
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…
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!
@ 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.
Is something wrong with aiming to be the greatest prime minister and leader of the Republic of Barbados?????
🤷🏽♂️
Keep promoting mediocrity…and that is what ya will get, plant potatoes reap potatoes…
@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.
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.
And potatoes are my favourite food. I plan to plant and reap them by next year.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“We can only hope the benefactors are the people she governs.”
A sweet piece of bowling. Deliciously clever and wicked.
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?
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.
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.
@ 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.
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.
@ 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.
“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……🤣😂🤣😂😂.
@Wura
You missed the memo.
A manifesto is a pre-election document. It means nothing after the election is over.
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.
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.
My comment on Lara was not really about Lara, even though it was on Lara.
Raw Bake,
I understood it to be about Mia but we got distracted.
“A manifesto is a pre-election document. It means nothing after the election is over”
yep..vehicle of deceit, weapon of lies.
@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.
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)
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.
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.
Listing=lifting
Reverend Joe has suddenly woken up!!
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.
The speech was 2hrs 10 minutes.
@Hal
99/100
Based on David’s review I penalized you for stating the incorrect time
“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.