DEMOCRATIC?LABOUR?Party (DLP) supporters have been cautioned not to relish in the perceived or real problems of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) and warned not “to take a political six for a nine”.
The advice came from political analyst Hartley Henry as he made a get-ready appeal to members of the DLP St Joseph Constituency Branch at Grantley Adams School last night.“
I hear the excitement in the voices of some Democratic Labour Party supporters who speak to the likely fortunes of the party in the next elections in the context of real or perceived problems and divisions in the Barbados Labour Party. I wish to warn my beloved party against taking a political six for a nine!”
Henry said: “The Barbados Labour Party at no time in the past 40 years was seen or perceived as either an effective Opposition or an attractive Government in waiting. They simply do not do Opposition well.”
He described the BLP as an election fighting machine that existed “purely to fight and to win elections. It is not the BLP of yesteryear. It bears no resemblance to the party once led by Sir Grantley Adams, even Tom Adams; and certainly not Henry Forde or Bernard St John.
“In this new dispensation, the BLP is about mounting the best possible bid to win elections.”
Henry said that he did not think that the Barbados Labour Party would go into the next general election a divided party.
“Those in here who subscribe to that . . . had better change their thinking. The Labour Party went into the St John by-election divided and disorganized because they knew, deep down, they didn’t have a chance in that match-up. There was no haste or urgency to deal with perceived problems.
“I want to suggest to the Democratic Labour Party that the forthcoming general election campaign will be a horse of a different colour. Whether real or artificially created, the Barbados Labour Party will mount a united front next time around.”
Henry said that there were persons “who had vested financial and other interests in seeing that party returned to office and they are not going to permit the egotistical shenanigans of a few Johnny- and Jenny-come-latelys to scuttle its chances”. Henry said that if the BLP feud was not resolved very shortly, Owen Arthur, now Opposition Leader, was unlikely to lead the BLP into the next general election.
“The one thing that consumes Owen Arthur more than the thought of winning the next elections . . . is the fear of losing the next elections.
Henry challenged the DLP to “girds its loins, put on the breastplate of armour and prepare for the mother of all battles in the next general election. This is do or die for an entire generation of BLP operatives and they are not going to hand us a second term on a platter”.
Henry told the St Joseph constituents to take their brand and product to the market and be prepared to interface with the people.
