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Opposition Leader Godwin Friday speaking during the Budget Debate in Parliament on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025.
Opposition Leader Godwin Friday speaking during the Budget Debate in Parliament on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025.
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Opposition Leader Godwin Friday on Tuesday led off debate on the EC$1.85 billion budget that Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves presented the previous night, saying a careful analysis of the fiscal package shows that the government is trapped “in a bubble of their own making”.

The opposition leader said that Parliament “can’t take the minister at his word”

“We’re seeing that over and over again, the numbers and the fiction that is presented in the estimates and the promises that are made in the budgets that we cannot trust the government to mean what they say.”

Friday said this is the case despite the promises that the finance minister outlined in his Budget Address on Monday as having been fulfilled by the government last year from that year’s budget.

He said St. Vincent and the Grenadines has been through a lot in recent years.

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“In recent times, we have had natural disasters, and those have been compounded by many man-made errors, a lot of them stemming from the government,” the opposition leader said.

“We have had social and economic hardships thrust upon us, but much of them are also made by our own hands, and again compounded by governmental indifference, neglect and downright incompetence and the devastating impact of Hurricane Beryl was the most recent and the most tragic that we have had.”

He said it is his duty to represent all the people of the nation and that he and his colleagues will hold the government accountable.

“… we’re not all simply doing this to be negative, but it’s simply the role that’s been entrusted to us,” he said, adding that the opposition commends the government when things are done well.

“This is not a game. This is not a sport. It’s a serious business, especially in this particular exercise, the budget, where we are here to represent the best interest of our people.”

He said that over the years, the opposition, including the previous leader, Arnhim Eustace, has had “a really very difficult task of trying to get this government to respond constructively to what we point out to them.

“They have been stubborn and pig-headed in their approach, believing or giving the impression that they alone are the only fountain of wisdom, not just in this Parliament, but on the planet.”

Friday, however, said that circumstances have caught up with the government and it is clear for all to see that the government has lost its grip and the affairs of the nation.

“They have lost touch with the issues, and as a result, the actions have been ineffectual, and the result is our country is literally falling apart. It is evident in the most obvious things, like the infrastructure, never mind the bragging, boasting of the minister yesterday — the things we can see

“It is also evident in those things that we have to uncover, …. through diligent research and careful analysis of what is before us, but they, on the other side, after so many years in office, they have allowed themselves to become trapped, if you like, in a bubble of their own making.”

Friday said that what is worse is that the situation is  “inflated every day by their egotism and their self-adulation, which has kept them more and more isolated from the concerns of our people, and deliberately or otherwise, they have become oblivious to those concerns.”

He said this approach cannot continue without causing “irreparable harm to our nation”.

“Our people have taken note of it. They tell me this when I walk about in Kingstown, maybe not in the same words I’ve used here today, they tell me it when I go for the villages in the far reaches of this country, when I go to the southern Grenadines, the lament and concern  is consistent the that the government does not seem to appreciate their circumstances.”

He said that more people are seeing the realities beyond the rhetoric of the members of the administration.

The opposition leader said that in his interaction with the people, “they turn to me with a certain urgency and saying, ‘We gotta get a change in this country Friday, and we’re relying on you to make it happen’”.

Vincentians are expected to go to the polls by November this year, ahead of the February 2026 constitutional deadline.

Lawmakers are expected to approve the EC$1,849,341,997 on Friday after a week of debate.

The fiscal package is a 14.4% increase over the approved budget for 2024 and is broken down into recurrent expenditure, inclusive of amortisation and sinking fund contributions of EC$1,150,713,466 and capital expenditure of EC$698,628,531.

The budget is to be financed from current revenue of EC$907,729,320 and capital receipts of EC$943,612,687.

In the recurrent estimates, the 2025 current expenditure, exclusive of amortisation and sinking fund contribution, amounts to EC$913,313,475.

Current revenue is estimated at $907,729,320, meaning that there is a deficit of EC$5.6 million.

The 2025 current revenue of EC$907.7 million is 11.9% or EC$96.9 million above the amount budgeted in 2024.

4 replies on “ULP gov’t trapped ‘in a bubble of their own making’”

  1. Friday statement that the ULP is “trapped in a bubble of its own making “,makes intuitive sense in the Canadian lingo. As a Canadian I fully understand the point that the opposition lead is making. However, does the average Vincentian understands the term ? Let us say in the eyes of the ordinary Vincentian, is the term understand or make sense?. The answer is No.

    Compare and contrast it with the jargon of the Comrade. The Comrade can switch from one dialect to another freely.” He can say ah we na like that “This is readily understand by the average Vincentian. Friday has to be careful that is message to Vincentian is not lost in the doldrums of the or the belly of the migrating whales that frequent the shores of the oceans surrounding Bequia..

    Should the message to Vincentian is lost. What will be the overall effect? Six in a row. This is a warning Friday if you are reading this post. Cambiar la message. Change your message.

  2. Sherisha Harry says:

    “Trapped in a bubble of its own making, ” is this a vincentian term or a Canadian term? The opposition leader resorted to Canadian ism rather than Vincentianism. In so doing the message bis lost in transit , given that few Vincentians understand the term unless they consult the dictionary.

    Including among Canadianism are words like in the” neck of the woods, “low lying fruits and terms like a person whose elevator don’t go all the way up.In contrast Vincentians will use the sequence of words as mentioned in the following ways:

    (1) In my neighborhood
    (2)Susceptible
    (3) Brainless/stupidity/dotish

    Godwin Friday when your messages are lost in transit you are unequivocally guaranteeing six in a row. Only you can decide if you will be in opposition for another 25 years. I see you are stubborn and hard headed. Modify the message or else be condemned to six in a row.

  3. Kenton it appears as if you are involved in cenorship. If you are not in favor of a comment you don’t or choose not to publish it. Is this censorship Kenton Chance style even if the comment does not expose the company to a financial exposure?

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