Dear Editor,
I have listened to budget presentations and debates on a number of occasions, but have never quite paid keen attention, or had the patience to listen out the three/four hour presentation. Also I had a long time ago come to equate it with increased prices and a higher cost of living, and have also noted how scarce some commodities get along with price increases before the budget is presented.
But my most significant observation is that the budget presented always appears to be cast in stone as if we were made to fit it instead of it to serve us.
The debates conducted after its presentation are simply empty parliamentary formalities, intended not to alter one single iota, no matter how sound, substantive, well thought out and convincing the opposition arguments are. It’s all a waste of time, nothing pointed out is taken into consideration. Opposition contributions are heard and gone with the wind.
This whole boring annual show is often seen as the time to increase the cost of living, only this time around it was preceded by VAT. I fully agree with what one M.P in his presentation said “we must transcend politics”, but this is like reaching for the end of the rainbow. If the order is that nothing presented in the budget can be changed, “we propose you oppose” end of story, then clearly debates are only to allow opposition parties to have a say as a matter of right by virtue of their status.
Thus it seems to me designed not for any meaningful participation or input, but to make clowns of us, this is why the masses pay no attention to this parliamentary circus, especially when one sees the kind of glee and fun derived from presenters during these exchanges. We are only being treated like a joke from the highest level – parliament.
Yours faithfully,
Frank Fyffe
