McLean accused the PPM-led administrations of hoarding public cash for six years, only to spend it all now when an election was round the corner. McLean said the public was not fooled, as government had done little to address ordinary people’s lives but instead catered to a select few.

The opposition leader said government had relied on the discredited economic model of trickle down, which had failed. He said that having listened to their claims of how well things were going during the statement and Budget Address last week, “quite frankly it was nauseating”, adding that it was not hard to manage the public purse when revenue was coming in the way it had over the last couple of years.

“It is nauseating that on the eve of an election they try to ingratiate people when they should have been helping over last six years,” McLean stated about the government’s record-breaking planned spending in the 2020/21 budget period.

He accused the premier of not paying attention to people’s needs and said they had already rejected him at the polls. “But we legislators put him back in place to do it again,” McLean stated, as he pointed to the days of horse trading in the wake of the 2017 General Election. At that time, neither of the two parties received a majority but the largest group, made up of independents, was too divided to form a government.

“The voters removed three of his minsters… yet we decided that we would saddle them with same thing,” he said.

McLean refuted claims made by the premier and finance minister about their good stewardship, saying they had failed to get the basics right. He pointed to the lack of equality and the cost of living eating up people’s entire wages, and how young Caymanians could not find appropriate work or business opportunity after years of study and sacrifice when they came home.

He said people wanted to commute to and from work in a reasonable time, for fuel not to consume half their pay and have basic food items within reach and the chance to buy land and build a home.

“Government has failed to provide basic living conditions for the ordinary man,” he said, accusing government of “bearing gifts” because an election was coming.

McLean said government had failed in critical areas, from education to health, ignoring the plight of those who have lost their homes, allowing exorbitant communication costs and poor access to the internet, failing to hold the bulk fuel suppliers to account, dragging its heels on e-government, dropping ideas when special interest complains while ignoring the complaints of the regular public.

He singled out the health ministry for particular attention, saying that every area under the minister’s responsibility was failing, from its inability to collect the garbage to the confusion over environment policy. He urged the minister to stop making excuses and address the incompetence, and let the public know exactly what the plans were for the dump.

McLean also revealed that, despite a provision in the Constitution that allows MLAs in non-government constituencies to make representations to Cabinet, especially around budget time, his request had been completely ignored. He said he wrote to the premier making the request in September and has still not received a reply.

“The attitude of the government towards the opposition is disturbing,” he said, taking aim at the government’s neglect of the ordinary man.