Healing Bees

Article by TIM SLINGER

LEADER?OF?THE?OPPOSITION OWEN ARTHUR has signalled that the rift which surfaced in?the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) last November after he replaced Mia Mottley is on the mend.
Speaking at the BLP’s political meeting at College Savannah, St John last Friday night, Arthur said despite differences the party would be a united force to be reckoned with.
“We will have our differences in the Barbados Labour Party [BLP],” Arthur told the cheering crowd. “Some of them may be major differences but at the end of the day, we will work it out and the Barbados Labour Party will hold itself together.”
Arthur also acknowleged the contribution of that night’s speakers, which included Mottley who spoke on the BLP platform for the first time in the campaign.
“I want to thank those who have contributed to this campaign,” Arthur said. “I want to thank those who were on this platform tonight.
“I do not bear any animosity to anybody in the Barbados Labour Party. I truly believe in the politics of inclusion for this country and for the party as well.”
Arthur, who took back the reins of party leadership from Mottley after a controversial parliamentary group vote, said the party must always be a family and a community whatever the circumstances.
“Whatever else that would have happened to us and whatever else that would happen to us in the future, I will try my best to hold the Barbados Labour Party together,” he added.
Mottley, in her presentation started by saying: “Here I am,” to rapturous applause.
“I want to say how good it is to be appearing in the regions of College Savannah overlooking Consett Bay and sharing this forum with my colleagues in the Barbados Labour Party,” she said.
“I want to say that I accept the judgement of my colleagues even if I have reservations about the manner in which it was done. But if you belong to a party you belong to a bigger cause and the one constraint that I put on it last October, and will forever put on it, is that principles in life come before party and party comes before individuals,” Mottley said.