Barbados Today

Don’t just criticize, come into the political trenches!

That was the challenge issued by Government Senator Harry Husbands today to those in society who he said were seemingly bent on attacking politicians and behaving as if they were the regulators of the political class.

In a direct warning to non-elected members of the Senate, Husbands said: “We the nominated people cannot and should not see our role as standing in the way of legislation which has been discussed and duly adopted by people who are elected.

“Simple solution for this problem . . . . The elected people are held in check by the people out there who will have their say quite shortly, and they are held in check by the law courts.

“Anybody else who aspires to hold elected people, whether they are from whatever party . . . should try putting on a pair of shoes, come after March 5 and walk around and knock on some doors,” the Government senator told Senate colleagues during debate in the Upper Chamber on the Appropriation Bill 2018.

Husbands, the Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Education, further criticized those who he said “appoint to themselves the authority to keep politicians in check”.

“If you want to keep politicians in check, go and study law and become a judge or put on a pair of shoes, jeans and a T-shirt – red or yellow or orange – and go and knock on some doors and say, ‘I would like your vote’,” said Husbands, the Democratic Labour Party’s candidate in St James North in the coming general election.