Many Barbadians were looking forward to the televised debate on Law on Order last night on the CBC TV 8. Instead news broke in the afternoon that there is some confusion about the format the debates should follow. The Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in a clear the air statement today had this to say:
For this coming election the corporation has increased the number of debates to four. The topics are: Law And Order, Social Policy And The Environment, Economic Management And Leadership. The Barbados Labour Party has confirmed its willingness to again participate in the debates and is agreeable to the four as proposed by CBC. The Democratic Labour Party is seeking to change the format of the debates to have two by representatives and two by leaders. As a consequence, the CBC has postponed the recording of these debates – Source NationNewspaper
It seems strange to
BU that the
BLP have been making an issue of Leadership and if what is reported in the Press is accurate, David Thompson seems willing to go head to head with Arthur.
Why is the BLP avoiding the extra debate with Prime Minister Arthur? We would have thought that Arthur would welcome it. This willingness of Arthur and the BLP to run away from debates comes against the backdrop of Arthur not participating in parliamentary debates over the last year. Coincidentally, Arthur’s distaste for debate in the Lower House occurred soon after last year’s clash with Thompson over an alleged donation of
$750,000.00 which was deposited to his personal account. Some people are of the view that after the poor showing by Liz Thompson and Clyde Mascoll in the no-confidence debate this had the effect of influencing Arthur to dissolve parliament.
We are sure that the BLP have a good reason for wanting the one leader format of the debate to continue. In the BU household when we look at the preceding events, something does not add-up.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.