Leader of the Opposition in the federal parliament Hon. Mark Brantley says he is “appalled and dismayed” By the content of the Throne Speech delivered By Governor General Sir Cuthbert Sebastian during Wednesday’s opening of parliament. The Concerned Citizens Movement parliamentarian said that the speech which outlined the programs, plans and policies of the federal government for the next five years, did not indicate “any interest whatsoever” in doing anything on the island of Nevis. “I found the Throne Speech remarkable; remarkable not for what it said, but remarkable for what it did not say. I thought today that it was appalling that a Throne Speech was delivered and there was not a single program, not a single plan, not a single position adopted which could say to the people of Nevis that the federal government was going to do something in the island of Nevis,” he lamented. Brantley said it struck him as an “extraordinary development” that a government now comprised of both Kittitian and Nevisian representatives would not be more inclusive. He questioned the role of the Nevis Reformation Party’s Hon. Patrice Nisbett in the federal body. Nisbett was appointed to the Douglas-led Cabinet as Attorney General and Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs following the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party’s victory at the January 25th general elections. “We heard about police stations, we heard about agricultural farms, a new reform home for boys, infrastructural development, various government injections to get the economy going and an additional cruise pier at Port Zante. We heard all manner of things, yet we did not hear a single federal program for the island of Nevis and it struck me as odd because the Hon. Patrice Nisbett is a member of the federal Cabinet,” Brantley said. The typically vocal Brantley questioned the benefits to the NRP and people of Nevis in having a coalition government. Brantley said unlike many, he had not criticized Nisbett for taking the Attorney General position, instead congratulated him both in public and in private but adopting a ‘wait and see’ approach. “Well today I confess, we are not off to a good start because if the plans and programs for the next five years do not include Nevis then one must ask why Patrice Nisbett and the NRP are part of those plans and programs, because we must try our best at the end of the day to look out for the island and people of Nevis who have elected us and sent us to parliament. “Certainly when these matters were being discussed in terms of setting the agenda for the next five years I would have thought that they would have said to the Hon. Patrice Nisbett, “Well what does Nevis need? You have helped us; you have come and joined our Cabinet, so how now can we help Nevis?” I was truly truly shocked and amazed that a coalition government could produce a Throne Speech which demonstrated not an iota, not a drop of hope for the people of Nevis,” he said, adding that the exclusion of Nevis from federal plans was a long standing complaint of Nevisians. According to the Opposition Leader, “It appears that the only thing that Nevis can look forward to from this federal government for the next five years is the imposition of Value Added Tax (VAT) which will come By November 2010.”
