After Criticising The Government For “Ramming Through” Constitutional Changes – DLP & Thompson Support The Government… Huh?
Things are heating up over at the DLP Blog. They have posted many new articles and are as enthusiastic as a child with a new kite – just like the BLP was before they discovered that the openness of a blog means that people hold you accountable for what you say and don’t say.
The DLP have put up a piece called Nothing But Contempt. It looks like it was scooped from one of the newspaper websites, but there is no attribution or link. Here is the story…
Thompson: Nothing but total contempt
OPPOSITION LEADER DAVID THOMPSON has accused Government of demonstrating “total contempt” for Parliament by trying to use the institution to rubber-stamp Cabinet decisions on constitutional changes.
He launched the broadside yesterday during debate on the Financial Management Audit Bill and a proposed amendment to the Constitution, complaining that the Opposition had been given mere days to study the changes.
“I’m not staying that the Constitution must not and cannot be amended,” he said. “It can, Sir, but these decisions were made by the Cabinet and are now foisted on this Parliament, Sir, in almost hours leading up to the Estimates Debate . . . . Rubber-stamp
“And I’m saying that is unsatisfactory. It marginalises this Parliament; it is an assault on parliamentary democracy, and what we are being required to do is essentially rubber-stamp decisions that are being taken elsewhere . . . .”
After the short notification, the House was “being pushed and pilloried” to pass the bills, according to Thompson.
“People will wonder what kind of Parliament is this . . . . What kind of banana republic approach, Sir, is this, that an important amendment to the Constitution can be circulated four or five days before it’s debated,” he added. Piecemeal approach
Thompson said that despite the Administration’s promises to the contrary, it was adopting a “piecemeal” approach to amending the Constitution.
“(Over the years) we have had several constitutional amendments . . . and the way in which the Government is going about these constitutional amendments shows total contempt for this Parliament and marginalisation of the parliamentary system of government that we have,” he charged.
In a point rejected by the Government side, Thompson said the changes being debated by Parliament had legal implications for the Estimates Debate.
“We are going to start a debate on the Estimates next Monday,” he noted. “The Estimates that will be laid before this Parliament, as I understand it . . . will be laid on the basis of the new arrangements contemplated by this legislation.
“Unless the changes are passed by both Houses of Parliament, we will be debating Estimates constructed on a basis that is not currently part of the laws of Barbados,” he warned.
Despite the criticisms, Thompson said his party supported the bills which he said were aimed at improving the system of accounting in Government and upgrading and strengthening the role of the Auditor-General.
Thompson Blusters But Then Says, “Yes Massa”
I can’t figure out the DLP and Thompson. They bluster against the rammed through changes to the Constitution – and then vote for it!
They voted for the rammed through change in bookkeeping without calling upon the government to stop the change or to run two systems in parallel for the standard five years – which is what happens when a responsible business switches accounting systems or fiscal reporting dates. They never pointed out why the government is so anxious to ram the bookkeeping changes through parliament.
Thompson and his band of idiots weren’t even intelligent enough to stand their ground. They could have, and should have, mobilized supporters to protest outside parliament at this “assault on parliamentary democracy…” as Thompson called it.
The Constitutional Changes Are An Assault Upon Parliamentary Democracy
Too bad Thompson doesn’t think it is important enough to do something about!
But this was not the first, nor the last time that the DLP has proven themselves to be an incompetent and ineffective opposition.
Thompson and the DLP sat silent when the government surrendered our sovereignty to foreign troops and police on Bajan soil – then sent their DLP supporters to the comments section at Barbados Free Press where they falsely claimed they objected to the legislation. They talk about instituting transparency and integrity legislation, but only when they have a majority government.
Of course they could institute integrity and conflict of interest rules tomorrow for their own people, and could have put forward a private member’s bill every day for the last 12 years to embarrass the government into doing something… but nope. Not even a squeak.
I can’t figure it out… Is the DLP and it’s leader stupid or asleep – or are they just waiting their turn for the piggy trough and they don’t want to change anything that would spoil their big feed?
God Please Help Barbados!
We have a crooks for a government, idiots for an opposition and eunuchs for a media.
Barbados Free Press 