Letter to the Editor: A Nation Abandoned in the Budget Debate
Our government is not serious. Seven MPs and six Ministers abandoned their duty to present on the 2025 Budget — a budget that defines how the nation’s money will be spent and what direction we will take as a country. Instead, they left the people with silence, empty seats, and unanswered questions. How do you justify this level of negligence? It’s as if they all decided to “skud” on exam day, leaving the classroom empty while the people they claim to serve wait outside for answers.
The Opposition’s role is to ask tough questions, to challenge, and to demand accountability. But how can they do that when entire ministries failed to submit business plans? What exactly would the Opposition be responding to? A summary filled with fluff and vague commitments? This is not governance — it’s a staged performance with missing actors. Imagine a championship cricket match where half the team never shows up to play. Worse yet, imagine showing up to find there’s only one wicket on the field. That’s what this feels like — a rigged game where only the spectators lose.
The bigger question is this: Does this government think it is above accountability? When Ministers decide that presenting their budget proposals is optional, it signals something far more sinister — that they believe they owe the people nothing. Are we to accept this as the new normal? Will the Prime Minister now declare that his team no longer needs to account for how public funds are spent? Will they decide that transparency and good governance are mere suggestions, not obligations?
A budget is NOT a side project. It’s NOT a casual memo tossed around in a WhatsApp group. It is the financial backbone of our future. Ministers who fail to present their plans are signaling to us that they have none. It’s baffling, bewildering, and downright insulting. It shows a blatant disregard for the people who elected them. They don’t even have the decency to pretend to care.
This government’s approach to leadership has become a masterclass in blame-shifting and evasion. Every failure is someone else’s fault. Remember Antigua Airways? Remember the “ground fakings”? The Prime Minister was “duped,” he says, as if being tricked is now a badge of honor. He behaves like a child who didn’t have toys growing up — and now, with the whole toy store at his disposal, he spends his time playing games with the nation’s future.
This is not leadership. This is recklessness. Antiguans and Barbudans deserve better. Wake up. Rise up. Demand better. Our democracy can only survive if the people hold leaders accountable. If we accept this brazen disrespect, we may one day wake up to find that we have no accountability left at all.
I am
A Disappointed Citizen.
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The writer of this letter, A Disappointed Citizen, aka a UPP Representative.
Does it matter from which corner the observation comes? The fact that you refute nothing, says that you understand nothing that is being expressed.
@Antigua Forever
The UPP MPs and their puppet masters know they messed up. They claim to know all the issues – all that is wrong and need fixing. They got the budget estimates. They heard the main budget presentation. They supposedly have solutions to every issue. Yet they REFUSED TO ADDRESS THE NATION.
The majority of citizens and residents with common sense see straight through their little stunt. The puppet emperors have no clothes. They had NOTHING OF VALUE to say.
This is not just an indictment of the MPs themselves. It shows that the UPP leadership, its coaches and consultants have all failed in this epic crash out. The progress of our nation is so manifestly obvious that they engineered this PR stunt to avoid debating for the second budget in a row, hoping the public is dunce lakka dem and would go along with it.
The UPP damage control campaign is in full effect. We can probably expect another 3 to 5 of these ludicrous editorials. Meanwhile real Antiguans and Barbudans who don’t drink the UPP coolaid can see for themselves that our twin island paradise is on the move.
Town was totally buzzing this evening. Money a spend. The economic buoyancy is obvious to people who live here, and who don’t live in blue coolaid copium filled bubbles. Record tourism figures, record construction sector performance which has resulted in shortages, and the list goes on and on.
UWI Five Islands which they opposed is ready to expand massively. Tek dat in your pessimistic, progress-hating UPP nen nen! Nuff and edge up! Talking about “coming to Five Islands will water down the UWI brand”. These self hating losers can go have tea with Satan in hell. Our youth deserve the best opportunities. If Pringle is content with BSing round the place and boasting about making more money in opposition than ever, good for him. But the country is moving on as the empowerment agenda continues to bear fruit.
I think just like the alpha Nero debate the opposition should have sat there and debate it to go on record for the world to hear their objection ,so too is this budget debate they lost a golden opportunity to show their brilliance to the world, and don’t talk about how sherfield Bowen would have torn Gaston to pieces, maybe the opposition leader don’t want to be out shined because both Bowen and walker would a take Gaston to the trash.
@Eldread Maybe Trevor would put up a decent fight but who knows. A man that comes to parliament but leaves his notes at home doesn’t seem too effective at taking anyone to the trash. Sherfield Bowen? Nah. The streets are talking. He knows what’s up. One foot out the UPP door. More to come on that one.
Yes, they should have stayed and said what they had to say. Things are supposedly so bad but you don’t want to go on record? Even the UPP sinking ship captains know that all they have is fluff. Antigua is on the move! Perhaps its the return fire they were afraid of. It is a debate after all. You chat crap and someone on the govt side will take you to the trash.
@Leadership Matters. I agree with you 100%.