A NEW GOVERNMENT has been installed and a new Leader of the Opposition is also in place with a slate of shadow ministers.
The Estimates have been laid in Parliament and the country will soon be taken up with the debate over what Mr Sinckler presents from his black box in the form of the year’s budgetary proposals.
So why, with so much going on in Government, are the radio call-in programmes, letters to the editor, online blogs and other media still clogged with people arguing over why the Dees won and the Bees lost the elections?
I have worked in my professional capacity on both sides of the fence, helping to plan and execute a few election campaigns, but I will never ever lay claim to being a political analyst. As such, I will never pretend to be able to walk in the shadow of an Albert Brandford or a Peter Wickham or try to fit into the shoes of either man or any of their contemporaries.
Nevertheless, that has not prevented me from indulging in my own bit of layman’s analysis. In so doing, I have arrived at what I consider to be the sole reason for the DLP winning and the BLP losing the elections, the nail that sealed the coffin.
In doing so, I weighed and threw away the possible influence of the widespread allegations of vote-buying on the results. I also examined and threw out the window the assumed impact of the leadership quality comparisons of not only Mr freundel Stuart and Mr Owen Arthur but also Mr Chris Sinckler and Miss Mia Mottley.
I even considered the campaign platform performances of both parties and, based on my own first-hand assessment of what was fed to the electorate nightly at national, regional, site and other meetings, I concluded that not even that was the causative factor of the final results.
So, Mr Gilkes, you are probably asking, who or what made the difference between the Dees being reelected to office and the Bees being returned to the Opposition benches?
This might shock you, but in my opinion it was one old woman.
I know it sounds stupid, brainless, outrageous, moronic, absurd, foolish, nonsensical, idiotic and a slew of other adjectives, but I am contending, without any fear of contradiction, that all possibility of the Bees winning, despite the nail-biting finish, were dashed by a single female pensioner.
I do not know who she is, where she came from, how old she is, whether she is married, single or divorced, if she lives in town or country, if she has her own roof over her heard or is taken care of in a state institution – nothing whatsoever.
The first time I saw her in my whole life was the first night she appeared on national television attempting to board a Transport Board bus and was told by the driver that she would have to pay or get back off, despite the proof she held in hand that she was a pensioner and entitled to ride free.
True, it was nothing but a commercial gimmick but that “poor” pensioner played her role with such conviction and with so much disappointment, hurt and pain wrapped up in the few simple words she uttered as she stepped back off the bus, that I knew there and then the fat lady was singing, with her the voice.
• Al Gilkes heads a public relations firm. Email algilkes@gmail.com
