2015-2016 Budget Reveals “Muscular Spending”

Dean Barrow

Just before midday, Prime Minister Dean Barrow made his 2015-2016 Budget presentation which he promised would be the shortest ever, but which still ran for forty-nine minutes. He prefaced the substance of the address by proclaiming that the muscularity of the voters in municipal elections would, as promised, be rewarded by the muscularity of government spending.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“We cannot disappoint those that did not disappoint us. They came ‘all in’ on our great transformation enterprise after we promised that the tide would be fully at the flood. Now we must not let them down as they did not let us down. And the rural areas, though not in play last Wednesday, also need to inherit their share of the kingdom, come as equal participants into this time of plenty. The upshot is, Mr. Speaker, that I serve notice right now that I expect to come back to this House with a mid-year Supplementary. For what I present today cannot long survive the tectonic shift caused by last week’s results. And so I declare now that the political muscularity of the voters must be matched by the spending muscularity of the Government. And the appointment with a historic destiny that these elections presaged will, I swear, be fully kept by this United Democratic Party.”