MEMBER of Parliament for St Joseph (left), Dale Marshall, and his counterpart from St Andrew, George Payne, arriving at Parliament yesterday. (SP)

WHERE THERE is no hope, the people panic.

Opposition Leader Mia Mottley conveyed this warning to the House of Assembly and the public yesterday during her reply to the 2008 Budgetary Proposals.

She said Prime Minister David Thompson had all but crushed the spirits of Barbadians in his Budget Speech on Monday.

"The most dangerous thing that has been done in the last six months, in my view, has been to cause this country to believe that there are no options. There is nothing further from the truth. This country has options. This Government has virtually told people that the country is in crisis.

"Now, Sir, when the leader of a country tells you that you are in a crisis, you've got to worry. There are ways in which you can speak with the public that will inspire them still to meet challenges without causing their spirits to be broken," she said.

Mottley pointed out that the current economic challenges facing the Democratic Labour Party Government were also faced by the former Barbados Labour Party Government.

She explained that when her party was in power, they too dealt with rising oil prices. Between the year 2000 and January 2008, the previous Government faced an almost 800 per cent increase in the price of oil, she said.

According to the Prime Minister, said Mottley, the price of oil had gone from US $104 to US$145 – a 37 to 38 per cent increase in oil prices.

She said oil in 2000 was at US$12 a barrel and upon leaving Government in January 2008, oil had reached US $104 a barrel – an increase of US$92.

"What is more important is that there were at least six to seven six-month occasions where we faced the similar fate that this Government faces today where the price of oil increased by more than 35 per cent. Let me remind the House of some of those increases:

* Between January and June of 1999 Barbados faced a 55 per cent increase in the price of oil – more than this Government has faced in the first six months of this year.

*Between April and October, 2004, Barbados faced a 45 per cent increase in the price of oil, and we didn't tell the country they were in crisis or to send home people. Rather than that, unemployment figures continued to go down and foreign reserves continued to grow.

* Between February and August, 2005, there was a 38 per cent increase in the price of oil – exactly akin to what this Government has had to face in the first six months of this year. And, Sir, we did not predict an increase in joblessness as the PM predicted yesterday."

Mottley said challenges were not new but what was new was a Prime Minister who chose to panic people by telling the country that we were in crisis and we had no options".

(MR)