In 2001, Price received the Order of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), Caricom’s most prestigious award conferred on those members of the community who have advanced the cause of regionalism. It could not seriously be urged that he had contributed anything substantial to advance the cause of Caribbean regionalism.

Any discussion about the charismatic leaders of the decolonization process in the Commonwealth Caribbean during the late 1950s and 1960s would undoubtedly include the leaders of the so-called “big four” countries: Michael Manley of Jamaica, Forbes Burnham of Guyana, Eric Williams of Trinidad and Tobago and Errol Barrow of Barbados.

Trade unionism was the acknowledged route to political power in the Caribbean and Price, Burnham and Barrow were involved to varying degrees with trade unions but ultimately, it seems, primarily as a means of obtaining or consolidating party political power... In British Honduras, Price, along with a core of at least five others, formed first the People’s Committee (PC) at Price’s home following the devaluation of the British Honduras currency in December 1949.

I fear the Canon dost protest too much when he plaintively repeats that that they are not lawyers and that we have to trust the PM. Does not the Good Book counsel that trust should be placed in God, not man? The Churches should never have entered the negotiation with the PM unarmed. They should have taken their legal advisor. Unless of course they felt that in God they had the supreme advisor; in which case, He failed them miserably.

The government's pattern of behavior of publicly attacking and vilifying in the media reputable citizens of integrity who disagree with its actions dashes any hope that it is a government that can be trusted to wield unchecked powers responsibly and impartially. Do people really need any further evidence that their politicians are not yet ready to be vested with such expansive powers?

Understanding how the court declaration that UNIBAM seeks contradicts the Supremacy of God has proven as elusive as the Cheshire cat, perceptible perhaps only to those prone to celestial flights of fancy.

The Barrow rigmarole is this: take the offensive and deflect criticism by announcing radical (but ineffective, even stupid) legislative measures; watch the controversy unfold as the media (prone to react and not to probe) and interest groups take the bait; match words with “action” by tabling constitutional amendments which, in any event require a 90-day delay, by which time the urgency for action might have passed. Begin again at step one when the issue re-surges.

But let’s face it: he is not cutting it as party leader. Everyone is saying it behind his back; friends and foe alike. Every PUP polled by Flashpoint believes that rather than strengthening, the party is weakening. They don’t think he is growing into the role as leader, or that he can.

Minister Heredia delivered the treacherous blow. What was unexpected was that the PM would stand by and watch them go down, leaving them to exclaim as they fell: “Et tu, Barrow? Then fall Santiago and Stanley.”

Three years after the general election of February 2008, this is how the political balance sheet looks: the PUP resembles the UDP of old in Opposition – broke and fragmented; the UDP now resembles the PUP of old – confident, bold and well-financed. This picture is unlikely to change significantly over the next twelve months, in which case, the temptation to go for a fresh mandate might not be only irresistible, it might be good political judgment.