|
|
|
 |
|
Opposition Leader: Barbadians struggling to make ends meet
3/16/2010
GOVERNMENT has been characterised as being totally incompetent and incapable of managing the economy of this country having subjected the island to the prolonged economic difficulties which it currently faces.
This was the charge from Opposition Leader Mia Mottley, who blasted the David Thompson-led administration, accusing it of being asleep at the financial controls of this country while the average Barbadian continued to struggle to make ends meet.
“I wish that all Barbadians could go to sleep tonight comforted that they had heard their Leader and Minister of Finance deliver a set of promises and clear guidance that would allow them to see their way clearly through this year ... To say that the Prime Minister has perfected the four branches of arithmetic as defined Louis Karl would be to understate his competency in this regard. What he has not mastered is the basic competencies in the management of the economy. Indeed, the first half hour of his speech, he did everything in his power not to focus on the economy and to make a virtue of the fact that he believes to deal with the economy, you must ignore the economy,” she said.
Mottley charged that the ill-informed policies of the Government have created a situation whereby families were struggling to make ends meet.
“If this were only a debate where members were only speaking and the consequences were irrelevant, it would be bad enough, but the reality is that the consequences that will be faced by Barbadian households and businesses continue to be dire. It is fair that to say that the Minister of Finance has spawned an economic firestorm which he cannot now control and which threatens to devour the progress and well-being and Barbados. The actions and inactions, the wait-and-see approach, the incompetence, the lack of confidence, the deeply philosophy which is causing the means to create the economic firestorm to which I have referred,” she added.
The Prime Minister was chided for his lack of consistency on certain issues especially in relation to the matters surrounding the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH). The Opposition Leader blasted the Prime Minister for not knowing what to do with the premier health care institution.
“They themselves have seen the number of flip-flops that he has shown. I refer to the Barbados National Bank, when in 2008, he said that it would be sold, to finance the construction and/or refurbishment of a new hospital. Then in 2009, he urged the country to support Government purchasing the entire Barbados National Bank and repatriating it to Barbadians and by 2010, he was saying again that it would not be sold,” she stressed. (DB)
Email
us your comments. | Top
|
|
|
|
|
