Earlier on we said that the Ashcroft empire is in retreat but you can be sure that they are reloading to rain down upon the Barrow Administration with legal, tactical and political fury. On Monday the Prime Minister conceded that Ashcroft would now do everything in his power to get his party out of office. But the situation posed for the PUP is intriguing. It is now known that the brother and cousin of Party leader John Briceno sold Ashcroft-affiliated entities shares in Speednet the parent company for SMART earlier this year for $8 million. So it is perceived publicly as predictable that party leader Briceno would have to vote against the bill which dispossesses his family’s business partners. And so he did.
But what about his Deputy Leader Mark Espat who once used his bully pulpit in the house to class Ashcroft with, “modern day pirates and profiteers whose only loyalty is to the bottom line...” Well Espat changed his tone if not his tune on Monday in the house, he played it cagey, he abstained in
the vote on the bill – leaving the door slightly open, knowing that the old adage always applies: the enemy of my enemy is my friend – meaning if Ashcroft is out to destroy the UDP politically, then he has a common cause with the PUP.
Sound political strategy, but a tough turn for Espat who has publicly vilified Ashcroft more than any other public figure and certainly more than Prime Minister Dean Barrow did on Monday. Still, politics, they say, is the art of the possible...so is it possible that Espat and Ashcroft could team up against the UDP? That’s what we asked him on Tuesday – and again, he was cagey.
Jules Vasquez,
“Mr. Ashcroft and his money can still make a big difference in our democratic process. Don’t you and he then have a common cause which is toppling, unseating, voting out the Barrow administration?”
Hon. Mark Espat, PUP Deputy Leader
“If contributions are made to the People’s United Party then I would hope that it would be done in the very near future in a manner that would be transparent so that we don’t have the kind of misunderstanding that apparently took place between Mr. Barrow and Mr. Ashcroft so that the donors know that the people will know and the people know who the donors are.”
Espat said he will declare his support of the takeover only if it proves that it can achieves better rates and access for consumers.
