If I Were PM Mia

 

 

If I were PM Mottley

I would do a January again,

I tell you, even to mention this

Causes the DLP pain.

 

Caught in January, 22

With their pants down,

Not a single seat did the DLP win

Second time around.

 

Now four years after

Not much has changed

Apart from greater splintering

And more disarranged.

 

More was expected

With the advent of Thorne

But there was some seismic activity

And the DLP lost its form.

 

Now out of shape

And severely splintered,

There is seemingly no chance

In the immediate future.

 

Hence, my advice to Mia

Is to call the election,

Do not wait, I am advising her,

Until 2027.

 

She will be guaranteed

Another thirty-nil

And five more years until 2031

To have her fill.

 

 

 

Thus, she will be revered

Like Barrow and Arthur:

Both had three successive terms

And lost thereafter.

 

 

 

Then she could go one up

If her life is spared,

Another General Election win 2036

Will move her clear.

 

I must be dreaming

And talking in my sleep,

If you heard me fellow Barbadians,

Please do not repeat.

 

Rather, tell the DLP

To get their act together,

For if this is not to come true

They must do better.

 

Nothing among four

Is nothing at all,

Zero is what the PM would call it;

That is her call. 

 

Zero charge to parents

For free education,

Never mind, of course, there is

Burdensome taxation.

 

Ralphie doesn’t get it

But neither do I

And that I have long left the system,

I cannot deny.

 

 

 

So, Ralphie and Ronnie,

Kemar and Karina,

Please come together and instead,

Fight PM Mia.

 

You might get a few seats,

Maybe four or five

And in memory of Errol Barrow,

Let the DLP survive.

 

For it is about to die

Imploding from within

And prospects for winning a seat

Appear quite dim.

 

 

 

But I am not PM Mia

For she is one of a kind

And she will call the next election

In her own time.

 

Stewart Russell © December 10, 2025

 

Trickle Down

 

Two basic strategies

Well, maybe three,

Determine how the poor fares:

To eat or stay hungry.

 

Barbados, a two-party system
Now basically one,

With two thirty-love drubbings

One is almost gone.

 

A hand-up recently

Seems not appreciated,

A cross-over appears to be loved

But also hated.

 

Vehemently both ways

And thus, a split,

A cavernous split in my view

Where foes won’t quit.

 

Before the death throes

Of this famous party,

It was an alternate Government,

Hale and hearty.

 

Now it struggles daily

So much from inside

That it seems particularly bent

On political suicide.

 

A mere trickle of life

A defector from the BLP foes,

The second in a real sense

Adding to the DLP woes.

 

 

Double party leaders

Both from the other party:

One just a few years back,

The other recently.

 

A trickle down from the BLP,

A hope for more to follow

But this hope seemingly dashed!

Too much to swallow.

 

A BLP/DLP in the making?

Don’t ask me!

Better ask the Prime Minister:

Mia Amor Mottley.

 

If infiltrators or not

She would probably know

But there is some trickle down,

That’s for sure.

 

 

Talking ‘bout trickle down

It’s an economic strategy,

Practised for a very long time

By the BLP.

 

Take care of the employer

And the employee will eat

Crumbs from the master’s table;

Isn’t this neat?

 

Grantley practised it

And so too, did his son Tom,

Owen halted it for two terms

And then continued on.

 

It was taken up by Mia

Particularly so recently,

Everybody’s against the consumer:

BLPC, the PM and FTC.

 

More than likely, though,

Trickle down will trickle back up,

Under a BLP administration

This is the poor man’s cup.

 

 

Barrow’s DLP was different

That insignia long gone,

Ever since its founding principle

The DLP has moved on.

 

Take care of the poor

And the rich will get their share,

From the rich the poor have to buy

So, the rich won’t have a care.

 

Trickle down trickles back up

It’s so obvious to me,

It was so with Grantley and Tom,

It’s so with PM Mottley.

 

I said two basic strategies

Well, maybe three,

And I guess you are wondering

What that third one be.

 

Well, it is welfare-ism:

Line them up for handouts,

It was revisited during COVID:

A BLP ploy without a doubt.

 

From the masses up

Or, trickle down,

When either is handled poorly

The poor is less strong.

 

Put money in their pockets

Then send the taxes sky high

Or trickle down that doesn’t reach

And they will still die.

 

Two obvious practices

By two distinctive parties,

Now that there is essentially one,

Who will fight fuh we?

 

 

Ronnie versus Ralph

With the BLP running free

Well, except for the Marcia Weekes Show,

Dem fighting fuh we?

 

I wish I could hear

Another nine have crossed,

Twenty-ten would be just right

To temper the boss.

 

A BLP/DLP party?

Anything is better than this,

A vibrant Opposition in Parliament

Is what I miss.

 

A repeat of history

Re a parting from Grantley,

Why can’t we have it again?

This time from Mottley.

 

Stewart Russell © May 13, 2024