ANOTHER GOVERNMENT MINISTER is downplaying the results of the recent CADRES poll.
Member of Parliament for Christ Church South John Boyce said on Saturday at the constituency branch’s annual dinner and award ceremony at Almond Bay, Hastings, Christ Church, that the results, which showed an increase in the popularity of the Opposition Barbados Labour Party, amounted to a small “normal swing” against Government.
Prime Minister Freundel Stuart and a number of his ministers have downplayed the significance of the poll, with Minister of Housing Michael Lashley declaring that “polls don’t vote”.
Boyce said: “There are a bunch of people running around in Barbados excited by a poll of which, of course, they only published part, which demonstrates something like a two and a half per cent swing away from the administration.
“This is a normal swing for a Government, and a Government in power naturally has to be able to deal with a percentage swing from anything like three per cent to five per cent; if you cannot deal with such a swing as an administration, then you cannot maintain Government.”
Can’t please all
Boyce maintained it was impossible to please all the people all the time, so there would always be those upset by some of the policies the administration implemented, adding this would also hold true in his own constituency.
“Decisions I have had to make as an MP for Christ Church South have sometimes not been what all the constituents wished would happen,” he conceded.
“I have not necessarily been able to provide jobs for everyone [who] has come to me asking. I have not necessarily been able to provide housing for everyone who has come to me asking.
“The point is: as we continue our effort to fulfil these requests, you can rest assured that, as MP, I will continue to carry your message to the decision makers of Government and we will endure to the end,” he said.
Boyce went on to speak on the “wanton wastage of money in a totally uncontrolled environment” before the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) won the election of 2008.
“Nobody would want to remember that in 2008 we inherited an ABC Highway which was pure marl. We have not only completed that highway, but we have gone into Warrens and put into place a solution which is already seeing tremendous benefits.
“[And] I believe we have been able, at the Ministry of Transport and Works, to bring in place a regime which takes Barbadians around this country safely and in a timely fashion and we intend to maintain that protocol,” he said.
Boyce said another issue was inadequate housing, complaining this too was something his Government had inherited.
“We inherited 25 000 applications for housing at the National Housing Corporation,” he calculated. “It is not something we can finish in four years; it is something we have to work with – we have to deal with the acquisition of land; the vesting of land in the proper regulatory department; and we have to deal with the occupation and construction of these houses – but the record of the DLP is a proud one, as we can demonstrate all throughout Barbados, in terms of housing solutions,” he said. (CA)