Estwick: Listen or else

THE FREUNDEL STUART Cabinet has been put on notice – ignore an alternative path from colleague Dr David Estwick to deal with public sector lay-offs and risk him breaking ranks.
The ultimatum, so to speak, came 48 hours after he told the DAILY NATION, following a near five-hour pow-wow with Democratic Labour Party (DLP) general secretary Donville Inniss, Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite, Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler and other Cabinet colleagues, that he was “very comfortable” as a member of the DLP.
Estwick, who is Minister of Agriculture, made his position clear yesterday as he explained the present recession being experienced here was more severe than any other Barbados had experienced before and therefore a different approach was needed to get out of it.
“I have said to the Cabinet I will not be part of the retrenchment exercise. I have said to them over and over that I cannot be a hypocrite to my intellect and common sense, and if the Cabinet ignores me then I will be true to myself.