OPPOSITION Leader Portia Simpson Miller used the stage at a divisional conference ofe her party in Spaldings last Thursday to chastise the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government for a number of its policies and decisions since taking office eight months ago.

Among the things for which they were criticised were the size of the Cabinet, the country's relationship with Cuba, party members holding dual citizenship, its decision to abolish tuition fees and the push to substitute wheat flour with that made from cassava. But the hinge of Simpson Miller's argument was the increase in food prices in recent months.

SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU: Minnie Clarke (Miss Minnie), former mayor of May Pen, wipes away tears of joy as Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller (left) and Richard Azan, the party's representative for North West Clarendon, visit her at home. (Photo: Kimone Thompson)

In an emotional presentation, she made comparisons between prices under her government and those under the present JLP administration, and appealed to Prime Minister Bruce Golding to consider the realities of the poor.

"I hurt. I hurt for the household helpers earning $3,700 per week to go to the supermarket with four or five children. [They have to buy] flour, sugar, rice, cornmeal, cooking oil, and chicken. And they have to now be subsidising from buying a chicken to feed their children on a Sunday, to buying canned mackerel. I say to the Government now, be a Government of conscience and find a way to do something more," she pleaded.

"I tried to stabilise rice, flour, sugar, cornmeal, chicken, all the things I know would affect the masses. [But] under driver Golding, cornmeal price gone up, flour price gone up, rice gone up, sugar gone up, chicken gone up, chicken back gone up, bread gone up, cooking oil gone up, petrol gone up, gas oil gone up, taxi fare gone up, light bill gone up, water gone up, and this is the man that had declared that 'we are too blessed to be stressed, and Jamaica is too rich to be poor'. But I say to him tonight, stress ah kill di Jamaican people. Help!"

Prices were so high, she said, that some corner shops were selling bread by the slice.

"Imagine...I have never heard of that in Jamaica before. And I agree that there are international conditions but when I was prime minister, I operated under the same international conditions and I was being criticised by the then Opposition," she said.

Before the rally, which took place on the grounds of Spaldings Primary School, Simpson Miller toured sections of the North West Clarendon constituency with the party's representative, Richard Azan. She went into Cobbla, Alston, Silent Hill and met with a group of children in the town of Spaldings.

It was one of four political meetings taking place across the county at the time, but both the party leader and Azan insisted the purpose of the Clarendon tour was not to mobilise supporters for elections but to inspect some projects started under the PNP, which had apparently stalled under the new regime. They said it was also to fulfil Simpson Miller's campaign promises to meet with supporters more often.

Even so, general elections may be imminent based on the outcome of the dul citizenship case between West Portland MP Daryl Vaz (JLP) and the PNP's Abe Dabdoub.

"I've been silent," Simpson Miller said. "We've been watching them for seven months and then it turned eight months. I was giving them time to come into their own, but it's time now. The honeymoon is over."