ULP slogan strikes a nerve with Opposition Leader

The Unity Labour Party’s (ULP) slogan, “Wear red and hut-up dem head” has struck a nerve with leader of the opposition Dr Godwin Friday.

“I have noticed that in one of the advertisements the ULP have put out to encourage their supporters that they must wear red and hurt-up their head. Now, who speaks like this in this day and age?” the opposition leader commented on Thursday April 5 during a press briefing at Democrat House.

Friday addressed the slogan hours before ULP supporters took to the streets of Kingstown for a march and rally celebrating their 18th year in governance.

“This is a message intended to divide and conquer the people, not one about building the country, because no one can build the country with only half the people invited to participate,” Friday said while speaking to journalists.

He added, “We must reject once and for all the old-style politics of division and hate practiced by the ULP and its leaders.

“To their diminishing number of supporters, I say this, remember when they tell you to ‘hurt-up their head’, they are talking about people who sit next to you in church on Saturday or Sunday, they are talking about teachers who help your children prepare for their exams, they are talking about people who play cricket, football and netball on the same team with you, and they are also for many of us talking about members of our own families who do not share our political views.”

Friday said that he chose to mention the slogan to make the point, that politics must not be used to divide people to the point where they feel it is okay to “hurt up their head”.

“…For it carries a lot more meaning. It means it is okay to hurt you neighbour, to prevent him from making a living, to deny his children opportunity to get ahead, to do things to people who that would make them, as they have said, suffer and die,” Friday commented.

He added that in his opinion, “We cannot build a brighter future for ourselves in this country if we continue in that way.

“The ULP have decided that is how they intend to win, and it is how they have governed. For me, it is much better for our country and for our souls that we return to a politics of embracing of old foes, of reaching out to everyone, and of adhering to the principle that whatever we build and create in this country, we will do it together and share in it equally.

“That is the message we must all carry, and we must do so not out of political expediency, but as a commitment to our people. We are too small as a country, too decent as a people to allow ourselves to become so divided that we relish hurting our neighbour that way whether in their head, in their wallet or otherwise,” Friday said.

He added that he rejects politics of fear and selfishness and all persons must reject this also.

“We can start by letting Ralph, Camillo, Julian and Straker talk their hateful talk to themselves, while the rest of us set our sights higher unto the hills, so to speak, from whence cometh our salvation as a people,” Friday said.

The opposition leader said that the politics of divide and conquer helps only the politicians who profess it, and only for a while.