‘No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot’

By Unity Labour Party

The issue

Facts and the truth are sacred virtues on matters of public policy. On issues of public policy, save and except in circumstances of war or for the maintenance of national security, it is always virtuous to be open, transparent, and truthful.

Winston Churchill, Britain’s war-time prime minister, once famously averred that in war the virtuous lady of truth must be surrounded and protected by a bodyguard of lies, an understandable sentiment in precarious times, but this must always be constrained, and contained, within narrow limits. However, the routinisation of deliberate lies, falsehoods, downright dishonesty, and disingenuous innuendos in matters of public discourse is deplorable and ought always to be avoided; it destroys trust between the citizen, on the one hand, and the political personality or public commentators, on the other hand, and it gravely undermines popular democracy, freedom, and justice.

The second President of the United States, John Adams, was emphatic on this issue: “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or dictates of passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

In her intriguing essay, “On Lying and Politics”, the 20^th-century philosopher and apostle of liberty and democracy, Hannah Arendt, concludes: “Conceptually, we may call truth what we cannot change; metaphorically, it is the ground on which we stand and the sky that stretches above us.”

And the 19^th-century American man-of-letters and humourist, Mark Twain, is emphatic that: “No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot”; thus, the headline of this article.

NDP’s practice of the art of lying

The opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) is a well-known exponent in the dark practices of the art of lying on matters of public policy and public discourse. Indeed, lying routinely is at the core of their political praxis — theory and practice; it is an ever-fixed mark in their political DNA.

The NDP’s instinctive proclivities for lying, untruthfulness, and dishonesty have been honed, and have arrived at a state of settled maturation, through their schooling under the tutelage of Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL), its successor entity Cambridge Analytica, and assorted malignant off-shoots, from the United Kingdom with links to entities in the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Bahrain, Egypt, Switzerland, and elsewhere. Among other things, these agencies and corporations which manufacture and trade in mass disinformation and lies have worked, and their operatives continue to work, for the global companies which are engaged in the selling of citizenships and passports of small countries, including some in the Eastern Caribbean. Thus, their opposition to the Unity Labour Party (ULP) which rejects citizenship and passport selling, and their symbiotic embrace of the opposition NDP, which proposes with the gusto of maniacs, the disreputable and discredited policy of selling the citizenship and passports of SVG, which invites notorious vagabondry and corruption, and is antithetical to the people’s interest.

In SVG, the NDP and its hangers-on of some greedy, unscrupulous lawyers, accountants, and wannabe money-managers, are determined to have one last possible fling at selling citizenship and passports in the very narrow, and closing, time-window divined by the European Union, Britain, United States, and Canada. In this narrow, and narrowing, space available, many of the purveyors of this disreputable scheme, in SVG and globally, are determined to thief as much as they can, as fast as they can, without restraint or compunction. Thus, their conjoined efforts at lying and mass disinformation against the ULP on behalf of the NDP. Follow the money, follow the lies!

SCL and its off-shoots

SCL was founded in 1990 by Nigel Oakes of the UK, who served for some time as its chief executive officer. Its leaders and owners, over time, have had close ties with the Conservative Party in Britain, the British Royal Family, the British military, the Trump-led Republican Party in the United States, the United States Department of Defence, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. It was steeped in conservatism, colonialism, imperialism, and even racism. It had, at one time, the name of a misguided Sir James Mitchell, founder and leader of the NDP, proudly festooned on its letterhead as an “Adviser”. The SCL closed its operations in 2018 but morphed into other entities due to regulatory and legal difficulties.

The SCL self-proclaimed its embrace of the propagandistic ideology, strategy and tactics of Hitler’s chief propagandist, the Nazi, Herr Goebbels. It prided itself on being “a mind bender” engaged in psychological manipulations, and, “the orchestration of sophisticated campaigns of mass deception”. SCL’s philosophy and strategic operations dissolved into its various offshoots. The SCL, and its successors, acted for the NDP in SVG in the 1998, 2001, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020 general elections; the SCL ran the NDP’s campaign in the Referendum on the Constitution Referendum in 2009! Their principal target to destroy was, and is, Comrade Ralph!

In both the UK and the United States, SCL and its offshoots were subjected to investigation by the regulatory authorities for malpractices in their operations. In 2020, the former Chief Executive Officer of SCL and Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix, signed a “disqualification undertaking” which was accepted by the British Secretary of State for Business. On Sept. 14, 2020, the publication, The Insolvency Service, commented that: “Within the undertaking Alexander Nix did not dispute that he caused or permitted SCL Elections Limited or associated companies to market themselves as offering potentially unethical services to prospective clients.”

The ULP is in possession of intelligence that the principals/former principals of the SCL Group and offshoots, and “the King of Passports”, who resides in Switzerland (with links to China, Hong Kong, and elsewhere), have personalised their campaign against Comrade Ralph. In addition to the potential money from their proposed sale of SVG citizenship and passports, they insist that it is also hugely personal against the Comrade. After all, the only leader globally whom they have never defeated is Comrade Ralph; the only party they have not conquered in any general elections is the ULP. In one of their offices in London, there is a large photograph, on indestructible paper, of the Comrade at which they threw darts. Interestingly, at the Emancipation Day activities, three years ago, organised by the West Kingstown Party group of the NDP, there was a large photo of the Comrade at which tennis balls were thrown; prizes were awarded if the thrower struck the Comrade’s nose, mouth, eyes, or head. They were practicing to buss his head, in accordance with the vibes of the SCL and associates. This unacceptable climate of hatefulness engendered a disposition which resulted in someone hurling a missile at the Comrade in August 2022, on his way to Parliament, and “buss” his head; it was bad enough; it could have been worse.

Lies galore by the NDP

Everyone who follows politics in SVG knows of the brazen lies and untruths of the NDP in relation to the following, among others:

1. The Argyle International Airport;
2. The Rabacca Bridge;
3. The Education, Health, and Housing Revolutions;
4. The Infrastructure Revolution in the building of roads, bridges, sea defences, and river defences;
5. The Arnos Vale Cricket Stadium;
6. The Sir Vincent Beache Athletic Stadium;
7. The Sporting and Cultural Revolutions;
8. The Modern Port Project;
9. The Modern Medical and Diagnostic Centre;
10. The proposed Acute Care Hospital at Arnos Vale;
11. The Extent of Disaster Preparedness and NEMO;
12. The Unemployment Rate in SVG;
13. The Poverty Rate in SVG;
14. The UNDP Human Development Index on SVG;
15. Economic Growth;
16. The Fiscal Condition of SVG, including its Public Debt;
17. The False Allegations about Public Corruption;
18. The Issue of Good Governance, Transparency, Freedom, and Accountability;
19. The Foreign Policy of SVG;
20. The Regional Integration Policy of SVG;
21. The Condition of the NIS, BOSVG, Port Authority, VINLEC, CWSA, and other State entities;
22. The words and actions of Comrade Ralph and the ULP leaders.

The NDP just cannot help themselves; and they are becoming more desperate with their lies and antics. Their quarter century in opposition is addling their brains.

Final summation

The lies by the NDP, the Internet Crazies of the NDP and fellow-travellers, some NDP activists masquerading as trade unionists, some NDP activists masquerading as calypsonians, the NDP-centred “Nice” Radio and Hot97, and by their foreign operators and so-called “mind benders” are being easily exposed by the ULP and independent truth-tellers. Still, there are some idiots who will never be persuaded by facts, mountains of authoritative evidence, and the truth. But always, the people say: ULP for SVG!

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