​​Thorne staves off palace coup, but will peace reign

Opposition politics are hard; it is a grind to win your way back to office. The levers of power are held by the governing party who are able to ingratiate themselves to the electorate.

 The Barbados Labour Party (BLP) knows what it feels like to struggle through opposition politics. Who can forget the “sweep” that left the BLP with just three Members of Parliament, and out of which economist and late Prime Minister Owen Arthur emerged.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley understands how cruel opposition politics can be. On October 18, 2010 she was removed as Opposition Leader by five of her ostensibly closest allies on the opposition benches of the House of Assembly. They marched to the Governor General’s official residence at Government House and declared she no longer had the confidence of those who did not support the government.

The five MPs instead said they supported St Peter MP and former prime minister Owen Arthur, who immediately assumed the leadership of the BLP.

Fourteen years ago, it was Mottley’s leadership trials, today it is the turn of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP). Those who anguish over the infighting in the party should consider the fact that the DLP’s birth arose from fractions in the BLP as ambitions and visions of the political titans of the day, did not align and so there was a parting of ways.

Aside from the historical context, the situation facing the 69-year-old political party is much more dire and reports of its possible demise are not exaggerated.

The question on the lips of most Barbadians who do not wish to see the country devolve into a one-party state, centres on the immediate future of the DLP and its ability to recover from the embarrassing debacle that occurred over the weekend, as it tried to stage its annual conference.

Despite its devastating 30-0 defeat at the polls in 2018 and the snap general elections of January 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the DLP is still regarded as the only other viable political party option for voters.

The many third-party movements that emerged during the last two general elections, have faded into obscurity as they lacked organisational structures and very few of their candidates had any name recognition with the Barbadian electorate.

So, what next for the DLP? We are forced to concur with the positions of local political scientists, who see an extremely tough road ahead for the DLP to regain the confidence of voters to the extent of affording them seats in the House of Assembly.

Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne seems to have successfully amputated troublesome parts of his political body in an attempt to sustain the life of the DLP. After what appeared to be a Trump-like siege of party headquarters at George Street  over the weekend, it seems the political leader successfully staved off a palace coup.

In so doing, it looked like Thorne’s experienced, tactical, calm, yet decisive approach to handling what could have been an explosive confrontation has won him favour with the majority of party faithful who showed up.

The selection of a team of spokespersons that included fresh and some familiar faces should help to stabilise and anchor the party, despite the barrage of criticism from Barbadians fed up with the infighting and public airing of internal party matters.

We suspect that the two unknown factors are the yet to be named replacement for the highly competent and accomplished Senator Tricia Watson and the thinking of Prime Minister Mottley on whether the time was ripe for another general election.

Political watchers have assessed a historic third clean sweep of the polls could be in the offing if Prime Minister Mottley perceives it was prudent at this time to head back to the polls. 

It is fair to say that a growing number of Barbadians are looking at alternatives on the political front. The discomfort is fuelled by dissatisfaction with some social and economic conditions. Important also, is the recognition by many that it is not a good idea to have no opposition in Parliament or to have such a weak opposition that it serves little or no purpose.