Golding chides Government for poverty

PEOPLE’S NATIONAL Party (PNP) President Mark Golding has lashed out at the Government for what he claims is failure on the part of the Andrew Holness-led administration to positively impact the lives of ordinary Jamaicans.

Golding, who was addressing party supporters on Sunday during a constituency conference in West Portland to install Doreen Forbes Campbell as the party’s prospective candidate for the next general election, argued that despite the reduction in the unemployment rate, poverty has worsened under the Holness administration.

“The Government has not responded to cushion the prices on the people, who are suffering,” commented Golding.

“They talk about unemployment at four and a half percent, but it just shows you what a lopsided economy we have where you can say you have unemployment at four and half percent, yet we have virtually no growth in the economy – one per cent growth projected and we have poverty going up. In 2021, it went up by six per cent [on] whatever it was when previously measured.

“And since then, the COVID stimulus dry up. The cost of living gone up and up and up. Inflation, [too]. And the Government has not responded to cushion the prices on the people. So we know poverty is worse than ever,” Golding lamented.

“Comrades, the People’s National Party is the only hope for Jamaica at this time. We will come to the task of government with the passion for the upliftment of our people. At the end of the day our mission is to take care of the poorer class of people,” he added.

According to Golding, emphasis must be placed on education, to ensure that children at the basic school level, primary level, and high school level are able to get quality education, to ensure that brilliant minds are developed in charting the way forward for Jamaica’s future.