Yearwood says DLP no scapegoat

Democratic Labour Party (DLP) leader Dr Ronnie Yearwood has accused the Government of trying to use his party as a scapegoat for its failures.
During his address at a spot meeting in Four Roads, St Philip on Sunday, during which he repeated the refrain “30 but nothing”, he said that while the Mia Mottley administration had won all the seats in Parliament, it seemed to be pointing fingers of blame at the DLP when it fell short.
“You have every single thing available to you as a government at your disposal. You have the entire machinery of government, every single taxpayer’s dollar, every single admin officer, every single secretary, every single research officer, every single consultant. You got the Parliament buildings, you got the opposition office, you got everything, but yet you produce little to nothing; 30 but nothing. How is that even possible unless you are literally the most incompetent set of leaders that Barbados has ever seen post-Independence? There is no other logical reason for your failures,” Yearwood asserted, adding that Prime Minister Mottley had been found wanting.
“So all of a sudden every problem in Barbados is a Democratic Labour Party problem? You can’t get the IDs fixed but the DLP caused it? You can’t get the roads fixed but the DLP caused it? The statistics on employment, the DLP caused it. You didn’t get a republic constitution, the DLP caused it. How the DLP caused it? How we gine do it?
“We have no seats in Parliament . . . . We cannot get up there and stop you from doing anything. You have the ability to transform and change this country, but every single day you fail. Thirty but nothing.”
Yearwood further accused the Government of wanting to “control” the narrative and information about the state of the island’s affairs.
If challenged or criticised, the DLP leader said, the Government was dismissing other information as “misinformation” or “disinformation”.
“Let us keep our eye on that. Let us understand that democracy functions in support of opposing views, even if you do not agree you have to agree on the principle to have that view,” he said. “I am very concerned about where we are for democracy.”
As it relates to the Trident identification card project, Yearwood said he was concerned that Barbadians were being “taxed to vote”.
Last week, Chief Electoral Officer Angela Taylor said while the new digital card is currently free, residents who have not registered for it by June 30 will have to pay $60 for it.
“By attaching a cost to the ID project, you are actually introducing a tax to vote,” Yearwood contended. “Your ID is connected to voting and if you are not able to pay to get an ID then therefore you cannot vote. How in modern Barbados is that correct?”
He went on to give the BLP administration a failing grade on a number of projects saying that the Government “botched” road repairs, housing, renewable energy, education reform and economic reform. The only successful thing the BLP did, he said, was borrow money and increase internal debt.
Yearwood added that officials were not giving the true picture of the tourism industry, claiming that while the public was being told the island was rebounding, the occupancy rates at many hotels were low.
(SZB)