U.D.P. chair: ‘Economy was healthy;’ Prime Minister’s response: ‘He’s a fool’

By Aaron Humes: Senator and Chairman of the United Democratic Party, Michael Peyrefitte, says that in his view the now-ruling People’s United Party (PUP) are finding the business of government a tougher go than expected, especially with regard to the economy.

But it was and is not the UDP’s fault, he claimed after Wednesday’s meeting of the Senate: “History has shown that United Democratic Party has never left a broke government for the P.U.P.  History has shown that the P.U.P. has always left a broke government for the U.D.P…. What do you mean that the government is broke? That is absolutely nonsense. I have to take the words of Said Musa, and don’t let them tell you that the government is broke. The government is not broke. The taxes are performing aren’t they. So they inherited a healthy economy…”

But there is a caveat to that, he noted further – the warning from outgoing Prime Minister Dean Barrow that his successor, in Peyrefitte’s words, “…would be facing a stiff situation and decisions would have to be made. It seems as if though they are not ready for those decisions.”

The PUP’s poetry in campaigning, Peyrefitte added, has given way to stilted and confused prose: “Add to that the fact that before they were elected, they claimed that it was such an easy job to do. They claimed that all you have to do is snap this and snap that and crime would go down and business will be booming and people would be living in this great euphoric state. That is what they said. They promised the world. They claimed that they could fix it in one week. They claimed that they could fix it right away. All it shows is that they have no plan. It is almost that they didn’t expect to be elected and now that they are elected, they are frightened.” 

Even so, Peyrefitte further noted, “They can try to blame the U.D.P. all they want because they are still finding millions to buy vehicles. They are still finding millions to do roads. They are still coming with appropriations bills to the House and Senate for millions that they need and millions that they would get.”

In response, Prime Minister John Briceno was reduced to calling Peyrefitte “a fool,” saying at a later press interview: “Everybody can tell you that we are suffering, that we are going through a difficult time. His former prime minister pointed out in a lengthy interview on one of his press conferences saying that he weeps for the government to come. So how can the chairman of the U.D.P. say something so stupid, so ludicrous that we have a healthy economy? Doesn’t he walk, well I don’t think he can walk the street. If he would only look around and see how people are living, he would understand that there is a financial crisis, there is an economic crisis, that people are suffering. Even the representative of Albert on the House on Friday said that she was visiting the people of her constituency and saying that things are really, really bad. So what planet is this man living in? What, he wants so much attention that he will say things like that because he is really making a fool of himself, and I really don’t like talking about people like that. But how dare him say something like that. How dare him?”

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