ULP has caused decline in morals of Vincentians – Dickson

New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate for South Windward Noel Dickson stands firm in his belief that mismanagement of funds by the current Unity Labour Party (ULP) administration has caused a decline in the morals of Vincentians, especially the youth.

“When people lose their livelihood, as we know is happening in our country, it causes others to compromise their moral {{more}}standards; so some of our females unfortunately turn to prostitution,” Dickson told NDP supporters at a meeting last Saturday.

Dickson, who was first to address the meeting held at the Belmont Lookout, told supporters that he believes that the current ULP administration is a threat to the national, social, economic and health security of Vincentians.

“We deal with the issues confronting our nation and let me say each time…I must let you know that this current administration … is a threat to our national security…in addition to being a threat, it is also a blight to our country.”

The NDP candidate explained that because of the leadership of the ULP, the country’s economy is at the lowest it has ever been and this has serious implications for Vincentian livelihood.

“Our economy is a mess…the global economics is being blamed for our situation, I am saying no to that. I am saying that the mis-management of our little resources has contributed to our economic plight currently.”

According to Dickson, it is the mismanagement of our resources which has led to businesses closing their doors, high unemployment and families struggling to feed their children and send them to school.

“It brings our people to the point where they are picking and choosing what day to send their children to school,” Dickson stated, to much applause.

During his address, one person could be heard shouting “Well, tell me what you going to do!”

Dickson, however, paid no attention to the heckler and continued, saying that he believes that the country’s poor economic state is causing persons to break the law to survive.

“It is happening also where a lot of our people go about robbing…and so we thief from one another to make a living…if we check in the prisons, you would notice how many of our young people are in the prisons and that is a threat to our social and economic security.”

The former banker told the supporters that international investors have no confidence in the ULP administration and so have chosen not to invest in the country.

“There are international organizations that do not have any trust or confidence in this organization…there are persons who are willing to invest in St Vincent and the Grenadines, but not with this administration in office and that is threatening to our economy.”

Dickson indicated that if the NDP is to win the next general elections, their focus will be on turning the economy around within the first year of them taking office.

He said to do this, the NDP administration will focus on rebuilding the agricultural sector.

“…That is where your food security lies, in the land, and we are saying that priority will be given to our agricultural sector.

“We believe in agro-processing, we believe in taking our agriculture a step forward, thereby providing some employment for our people.”

According to Dickson, there has been no significant development in his constituency of South Windward since 1994.

“We are going to change that; we are going to pick up where we left off from 1994.”

The meeting also heard addresses from NDP candidates for West St George and Marriaqua, Julian Ferdinand and Curtis Bowman respectively.

The meeting, which had about 100 persons in attendance, had to be cut short, due to inclement weather.(CM)