McLean ‘nauseated’ by gov’t approach

| 14/11/2019 | 25 Comments
Cayman News Service
Opposition Leader Arden McLean responds to the 2020/21 Budget, 13 Nov 2019

(CNS): Opposition Leader Arden McLean said he found the government’s approach to this budget “nauseating”, when he delivered his response to the premier’s Budget Policy Statement on Wednesday. McLean accused the PPM-led administrations of hoarding public cash for six years, only to spend it all now when an election was round the corner. McLean said the public was not fooled, as government had done little to address ordinary people’s lives but instead catered to a select few.

The opposition leader said government had relied on the discredited economic model of trickle down, which had failed. He said that having listened to their claims of how well things were going during the statement and Budget Address last week, “quite frankly it was nauseating”, adding that it was not hard to manage the public purse when revenue was coming in the way it had over the last couple of years.

“It is nauseating that on the eve of an election they try to ingratiate people when they should have been helping over last six years,” McLean stated about the government’s record-breaking planned spending in the 2020/21 budget period.

He accused the premier of not paying attention to people’s needs and said they had already rejected him at the polls. “But we legislators put him back in place to do it again,” McLean stated, as he pointed to the days of horse trading in the wake of the 2017 General Election. At that time, neither of the two parties received a majority but the largest group, made up of independents, was too divided to form a government.

“The voters removed three of his minsters… yet we decided that we would saddle them with same thing,” he said.

McLean refuted claims made by the premier and finance minister about their good stewardship, saying they had failed to get the basics right. He pointed to the lack of equality and the cost of living eating up people’s entire wages, and how young Caymanians could not find appropriate work or business opportunity after years of study and sacrifice when they came home.

He said people wanted to commute to and from work in a reasonable time, for fuel not to consume half their pay and have basic food items within reach and the chance to buy land and build a home.

“Government has failed to provide basic living conditions for the ordinary man,” he said, accusing government of “bearing gifts” because an election was coming.

McLean said government had failed in critical areas, from education to health, ignoring the plight of those who have lost their homes, allowing exorbitant communication costs and poor access to the internet, failing to hold the bulk fuel suppliers to account, dragging its heels on e-government, dropping ideas when special interest complains while ignoring the complaints of the regular public.

He singled out the health ministry for particular attention, saying that every area under the minister’s responsibility was failing, from its inability to collect the garbage to the confusion over environment policy. He urged the minister to stop making excuses and address the incompetence, and let the public know exactly what the plans were for the dump.

McLean also revealed that, despite a provision in the Constitution that allows MLAs in non-government constituencies to make representations to Cabinet, especially around budget time, his request had been completely ignored. He said he wrote to the premier making the request in September and has still not received a reply.

“The attitude of the government towards the opposition is disturbing,” he said, taking aim at the government’s neglect of the ordinary man.

See the opposition leader’s response to the budget on CIGTV below:


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Category: Government Finance, Politics

Comments (25)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    alden …how about an audit of est tibbetts expansion when you were in charge??
    a road they are still fixing today…..

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  2. Anonymous says:

    I wonder where are all the motions that Arden has brought in the last two years to correct all these things that he is accusing Government of doing wrong or not doing at all. What actions has he taken to correct education, fuel, communication, the dump. Nothing, that is his big accomplishment. Why has he waited two whole years to act interested in anything . Right now he and the opposition( except Ezzard) are riding on the CPR train hoping it will get them elected.For two whole years people were asking ” Is Arden still in the LA, is he sick or something, because we don’t hear him.” Maybe he was sulking because he was not made Leader of the Opposition from the beginning and only came to life when he got the Leader of Opposition post.It is one thing to criticize Alden”s inaction but it really falls flat when you Arden have contributed even less..

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  3. Anonymous says:

    Nausea…symptom of pregnancy…I wonder if Arden is pregnant…with jealousy, badmind, guilt…I would say that he should retire to continue wasting his breath on radio because that’s all he does but with elections coming soon, voters will finally vote him out. He does nothing for East End and should have been out from the last time instead of being saved by his team of hard working loyalist campaigners who were just trying to keep some power to feed their families…If Arden is the Action man…where is the action? Time to stay East End and make dem man teach you how to fish and be productive making an honest living. Arden is the complete opposite of Alden in intelligence and common sense. Arden speaks idiotically like Trump but at least Trump get things done.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    A bunch of Caymanians trying to do a mans job. Playing who’s the bigger failing fool. And making sure the public pays them for it. Same circus, same clowns, same show over and over.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    Anyone notice how completely different the Compass reporting of McLeans speech was?
    Looks like someone’s living in an alternative world 🙈

  6. Anonymous says:

    Was never a big fan of Arden but he seems to be only one right now speaking out for Caymanians…most of the leaders have their own pockets as priorities.

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  7. Caymanian Politrix says:

    Not a fan and would want McLean ever to be Premier but he is right on this one. I just hope someone decent will run in Red Bay and that Alden can’t be Premier again…

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    • Fair and Balanced says:

      Shows how much you know: he can’t be Premier in the 2021 to 2025 term because the Constitution says that a person can only be Premier for a maximum of two consecutive terms. So Aldart would have to wait until 2025 to be Premier again.

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  8. Vote No on Dec 19th, Lets give Alden and Verdant coal for Christmas says:

    Yep almost all of the more visible works and projects were left to this year so they can have a convenient 2021 date of completion as usual to be used as political footballs

    Just a list of the projects I can remember by no means is this conclusive
    Road works just now starting to kick off (as usual)
    Mental Health Facility
    Runway Expansion
    The New School ( or should I say old school?)
    Capping off the dump
    The ‘small’ BT Hospital (which is to be announced next year) https://caymannewsservice.com/2019/10/hsa-small-bt-hospital/

    Of course not forgetting the fabled George town ‘revitalization’ will be campaigned on in 2021 but not started until midway through the term so it finishes near the 2025 election

    The Cruise Berthing Facility was meant to be the crown jewel, but we all know the people will be putting a stop to that at least 😉

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  9. Right ya so says:

    It’s all politricks – just depends which side you sit on… I wish the backbenchers/opposition would stand up & be counted a lot more often and earlier than they do. They all seem to turn up just as the horse has left the barn!

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  10. Anonymous says:

    I see nothing but the truth spoken by Arden here. And I usually take what he says with a grain of salt.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Yep Arden has been a decent Opposition Leader, still not quite as concise verbally as I would like from our political class but he gets where hes trying to get … eventually, given time, a few digressions and a ramble or two

      I still feel a younger face would be a nice change in the Opposition leadership in this country however, the *literal* old dogs have been at the helm for far too long
      Sadly egos are still the main deciding factor in that regard

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  11. Anonymous says:

    politics…zzzzz😴😴 but for once i agree with arden!!!! he not afraid of telling truth!!!

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  12. Anonymous says:

    If the truth be told Arden is also responsible for the “independents debacle” in the 2017 election. Things would have been much different if he and the member for Northside had done what they were supposed to do.

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  13. Anonymous says:

    Got to leave it to Alden, he and Mac have been in this game so long they know how to make things work for their benefit..Money talks and they know that.. I’m going to be there this year to collect my turkey and ham and whatever else they are giving away…can’t promise them my vote though…

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  14. Anonymous says:

    What you should be vomiting about is what your friends about to do to our harbour!!

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  15. Anonymous says:

    Hear pot cussing, saying kettle black…

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  16. Anonymous says:

    You could buy a lot of duty free watches with a billion dollars of the people’s money.

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    • Anonymous says:

      You can sell quite a lot of watches too if you use $250m of future tax revenues to build a cruise pier ( and harvest some healthy construction contracts along the way too).

  17. Anonymous says:

    As Arden stated in the LA when he delivered his speech that Alden intends to “run with it” again and spend all the money to try to get re-elected, this did not work in 2005 when he built those still unfinished schools and will not work again.

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