By Rickey Singh
–in Bridgetown
THE OPPOSITION Barbados Labour Party (BLP) succeeded in staging an impressive march on Thursday against a new controversial “land tax” with police confirming some 5,000 participants involved in a “protest walk” from Parliament Building to Government Headquarters.Leading from the frontline for the estimated three-quarter mile distance through the capital, Bridgetown, was BLP’s leader, Mia Mottley, a lawyer  by profession and a former Deputy Prime Minister.
Contrary to earlier expectations of internal dissent within the BLP affecting the march, an evidently pleased Mottley was beaming over the show of solidarity for what’s viewed as the first of a series to get Prime Minister Freundel Stuart’s administration to scuttle the officially tagged “Municipal Solid Waste Tax” (SWT).
Prior to Thursday’s march,  varying  conflicting views were expressed by some influential BLP parliamentarians prior to and during a public rally in Bridgetown on Sunday night (see last Thursday’s Chronicle), with some using derogatory language  like “snakes in the grass” to lampoon unnamed colleagues.
However, for Thursday’s protest march—for which Mottley had declared her readiness to “walk alone” if necessary, there  was a full turn out of the BLP’s parliamentary representatives with one notable absentee—former three-term Prime Minister and party leader, Owen Arthur.
A respected economist and international consultant by profession, Arthur is one of the BLP’s team of 14 MPs in the 30-member elected.
House of Assembly.
Yesterday’s ‘Barbados Nation, reported, under the headline “Arthur may leave BLP” that the former Prime Minister said he was “not supportive” of what the party was proposing.
More startling was his hint of likely parting with the BLP as he had become “tired of being (perceived) as a source of discord in the party….”

LATE NEWS:Mr Owen Arthur officially informed the BLP late yesterday of his resignation from the party.