Unsustainable giveaways

The campaign promises put forward by the Barbados Labour Party over the weekend have been dismissed by the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP).

The DLP candidate for St. Michael Central, Steven Blackett, who is the Minister of Social Care, Constituency Empowerment and Community Development, dismissed outright plans by the BLP Leader, questioning how those plans will be financed. Speaking on Sunday night at the launch of the DLP’s 2018 Campaign dubbed ‘Do D Ting! Vote Dems’, he described the promises as unimaginative and lacking innovation, “just ignorant unsustainable political giveaways”.

“She is going to fix the sewage problem overnight; she is going to increase pensions 150 per cent in Barbados; she is going to purchase garbage trucks and she is going to buy Transport Board buses. She is going to increase public servants’ salaries; she is going to reinstate free education at the UWI; she is going to make the $120 million foreign debt payment that is coming up fairly shortly, while abolishing the NSRL. So she is going to increase expenditure and eliminate earnings and revenue,” he said.

He added, “So you can expect ladies and gentlemen that that will be Christmas in May and the five M’s will be in effect – Mia Mottley’s Money Making Machine.”

Blackett’s comments came as he told the crowd that the DLP Government has, despite the challenges, ensured that there were measures in place to protect the people. The Social Care Minister maintained that while some of the economic indicators are not where government would want them to be, most of the social service offerings are reaching the persons for which they were intended and touching the lives of most that require them.

He said his ministry has been rolling out programmes with “broad enough cover and influence” to strengthen weak family units and communities. All this, he indicated, is intended to change the lives of those captured in the social safety net of Barbados. He made the comments while charging that the none of the other political parties have said anything “earth shattering” as it relates to their plans for the social policies of the country, but the DLP has been and remains committed to safeguarding the people.