The residents of Verchilds Village and Constituency # 4 in general braved inclement weather to hear the leadership of the PAM discuss the pressing issues of the day at the 4th public meeting in the pre May Day week of activities. The night was chilly and it rained several times but the crowd was not deterred and stayed until the very end of the meeting.
The speakers were customarily passionate as they repeated the by now well known catalogue of errors that has become synonymous with this Labour Administration.
Dr. Charles Warner, candidate for Constituency # 3, set the stage by creating a jovial atmosphere for the crowd by suffusing his presentation with ironic anecdotes and made fun the various attempts of Administration officials to attack the PAM candidates.
His description of carefully looking around to see if a certain minister of "biggest cooper fame" was present when he got out of his car with a passenger generated laughs from those gathered. He was very well received as he pointed out both the differences and similarities between Old Labour and New Labour while showing that despite cosmetic fixes "the leopard cant change his skin."
This comic relief was well appreciated as the following speakers dealt with very depressing subjects. Mr. Roy Fleming, candidate for Constituency # 2 brought hard truth home as he again exposed the perfidious nature of this Governments treatment of sugar workers when the industry was closed. The attempt to rob them of their severance and the colossal waste of meager resources that tripled the losses of SSMC in only seven years were explained in great detail to the attentive crowd. ~~adz:Right~~
The majour subject of taxes, as usual, drew great response from the crowd as The Hon. Shawn Richards discussed the bread and butter issue of taxes. The IMF report was on hand to be directly quoted and the public was, for the second time, informed by the PAM rather than the Government of majour changes to the tax code that will result in a bigger tax burden on the individual.
It was hard for the crowd to keep silent upon hearing that not only will we have to contend with the VAT but there will also be the re - imposition of personal income tax all because this Administration has irresponsible accumulated such an onerous national debt.
The final speaker, Political Leader Mr. Lindsay Grant, delivered a charge to the crowd exhorting them to stay at home on Labour Day and resist the explicit attempts of this Government to manufacture support.
He repeated the tragicomedy of errors that has characterized this Governments policy toward workers with special attention paid to the police and newly named but just as insecure Government Auxiliary Employees. The meeting ended on a strong note despite the weather.
