In this second of a two-part series on the 2026 General Election in Barbados, we examine the behaviour of the news media. The media treated Solutions Barbados fairly in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 elections where they tried to give all political parties daily coverage. In the 2026 election, their behaviour changed. The Nation and Barbados Today interviewed our candidate, Mr Robert Toussaint, on the day he was nominated. That would be the first and only time they would interview him – to this day.
The entire Barbados news media, including: CBC TV, CBC radio, Starcom radio, the Nation and Barbados Today blanked our candidate between Nomination and Election Day. Solutions Barbados was the first party to publish a manifesto. The press described the BLP, DLP and FoD manifestos but ignored ours – entirely.
DANGEROUS PLANS.
The press may be justified in suppressing Solutions Barbados’ plans for the residents of Christ Church South if they were a danger to the public. A sample of them follow, so that readers may decide how dangerous they actually are.
We planned to freely train all willing unemployed youth to be employable within 8 weeks in a Finishing School. They were to learn to: speak, write, listen, calculate, draw, play the keyboard and do tasks at a high level to help them become confident and capable adults. The aim was to make our youth less vulnerable to joining criminal gangs.
We planned to freely train all willing residents to start and grow profitable foreign-currency earning businesses in 8 weeks, with little start-up money. The aim was to provide each household with a separate income stream and make them less vulnerable to being exploited by bad employers and financial lenders.
VERY DANGEROUS PLANS.
We planned to set-up a non-profit construction company to train and employ unemployed residents who wanted to learn to safely construct and renovate houses.
We planned to identify the owners of all dilapidated and abandoned houses and negotiate an arrangement where we repaired and rented them out. The rental income was to be split between the homeowner and non-profit company until the repair cost was repaid. The aim was to beautify all residential areas.
We planned to install one Photovoltaic (PV) panel on every roof at cost, with no profit. The aim was to provide some alternative power if BL&P electrical power is off – whether due to a storm or unpaid utility bills.
We planned to economically strengthen the roofs of all houses for the cost of the labour and materials, but no profit. The aim was to reduce the misery normally experienced by families who lost their houses during a major hurricane.
Disputes between homeowners and contractors are frequent. We planned to freely provide professional adjudication services by listening to both sides and giving preliminary rulings on construction disputes. Any party may have the matter finally settled by the court. But the preliminary ruling should let them know the likely outcome, and prompt them to settle before starting a long and costly court process.
MAKING ENEMIES.
Solutions Barbados has the internal resources to implement all these plans. The plans are dangerous to: (i) criminal gangs who will have fewer members, (ii) bad employers whose employees will have options, (iii) banks and other financial lenders because people may spend the money they earn rather than borrow (iv) paros who will have less abandoned buildings to occupy, (v) hardware stores who will not see increased sales on construction materials after storms and (vi) contractors who will have less rebuilding work after storms.
Our plans are most harmful to those who have an interest in keeping most Barbadians with limited disposable income. They tend to give political donations. Since starting Solutions Barbados in 2015, I found that all our plans to liberate people from their working-poor, rent/house poor poverty tend to be suppressed – while the plans of others to manage people in their poverty tend to be promoted. The news media, whether knowingly or unknowingly, simply played their part.
Grenville Phillips II is a Doctor of Engineering, Chartered Structural Engineer and President of Solutions Barbados. He can be reached at NextParty246@gmail.com
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