DLP - wha gine happen?

Time to look ahead now and try to make some predictions.

Last night a friend from Jamaica queried of me what does the DLP's victory mean for CSME and the Caribbean integration movement?

To be honest, shamefully - I did not know. I know the Bees have been very pro-CSME but I have not heard the Dems expressing anti-CSME sentiments and Barrow was instrumental in forming CARICOM. And like me, Thompson is clearly about putting Caribbean integration into practice (wink, wink) as his wife is Lucian. Though that may not be a clear indication of pro-Caribbean unity sentiments, I would like to think it is so and I hope that continues because I am and have always been firmly pro Caribbean integration. (I'm trying to download the manifesto again to check their CSME proposals but the DLP site seems to be mad busy).

On other issues - I skimmed the manifesto the night before elections - I have not read everything as I just looked at the areas most interesting to me - land use, enterprise and culture.

I found the land use proposals very encouraging. If what is said in the manifesto is carried out, they will definitely take a firmer hand with land policy than the Bees have. And land prices may get more reasonable again as governmental controls may cut down on some of the wild speculation that have driven up land prices so much in the last decade - basically quadrupling the cost of land in many places since the late 90s.

I was especially interested by that proposal for 500 lots of $5 a square foot land in the first months of the administration - run, don't walk to your credit union or bank and secure your loan NOW!

I also thought the suggestions for zoning the land to determine who can buy in certain areas (locals and inland tourism in the East, agriculture in the center, tourism presumably stays on the west) and who can't, to be interesting. Though I must wonder - how will this apply to the returning nationals who are driving a lot of the demand and a lot of the price hikes in many areas? Will they be counted as foreign buyers or as locals? And will they just ease around the zoning rules using family they have here?

On culture - I was rather disappointed, particularly because I have studied and am interested in the cultural industries. There was just a paragraph that spoke about culture in general, sociological terms and decried the 'bashment culture' and urged us to get back to wholesome values. All well and good but what about the industry of culture? Will they continue the initiatives pushed by the Bees who seemed very invested in developing the cultural industries (and who had lots of specific proposals in this regard in their manifesto) or do they not consider that a growth area, (perhaps in light of rampant worldwide intellectual piracy?) What will become of the mooted Festival and Events Bureau? Will the NCF indeed be restructured? What will become of the proposals to revamp the Empire Theatre and the Daphne Joseph Hackett theatre? It remains to be seen.

Now to the most fun part of predictions - who will get what in the new Cabinet? Freundel Stuart has already been named Attorney General which is smart, especially considering he challenged Thompson for power in recent years - keep your friend close and all that...

Other guesses - James Paul as Minister of Agriculture and other assorted green stuff like Energy and the Environment. Patrick Todd as Minister of Education, Michael Lashley may well switch from Shadow to actual Minister of Housing (I thought he was the DLP's best shadow minister when they were in Opposition - he actually brought up issues). As for Minister of Tourism - I'm guessing either someone young and promising like Esther Byer-Suckoo or Stephen Lashley or they will appoint a non-sitting Minister. Chris Sinckler should definitely get something big and prominent as should Denis Kellman (for the sake of keeping him placated). The rest, we shall have to wait and see.