‘A PNP pickney’, Opposition claims ‘paternity’ for economic turnaround
Published:Thursday | March 13, 2025 | 5:30 PM
Opposition Spokesman on Finance Julian Robinson says the ruling Jamaica Labour Party cannot claim “paternity” for Jamaica’s economic turnaround, saying to do so would be claiming a "jacket".
A 'jacket' in Jamaican slang refers to a child whose alleged father is not the biological father.
Speaking during the Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on Thursday, Robinson said without the People’s National Party’s leadership from 2012 to 2016, the country’s economic fundamentals would “still be in the perilous state, that they were in at the end of 2011 when the JLP left office”.
"Andrew Holness and his government cannot claim paternity for fixing the economy! If they try, to claim paternity, we would call it a jacket! And if you did the DNA, the DNA would say a nuh fi him pickney, a PNP pickney!" he asserted.
Robinson said during the PNP's tenure it undertook a challenging debt restructuring and committed to maintaining a 7.5 percent primary budget surplus.
He said by the time the PNP left office, it had reduced public debt to approximately 120 per cent of gross domestic product.
"We birthed economic stability after the JLP botched attempt at it in 2009, we are committed to it in 2025 and will ensure that we entrench it so that no one can play with this important foundation for high and sustained economic growth," Robinson said.
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