Is UNC & T&T's honeymoon over?
Well, a time has passed since the electorate placed its faith in the UNC, and I find myself wondering, what does that verdict look like now, twelve months in? Is there enough time to judge? Perhaps not completely, but it’s clearly enough to feel the early weight of prospects. It’s fair to ask whether we’ve reached the so-called "honeymoon period," which always comes to an end.
Has the government settled into its role, or is it still acting and responding like an opposition? And maybe more importantly, how much of its energy is being spent moving forward versus drawing up what it inherited? There’s no denying the environment they walked into.
After a decade of PNM governance, the country wasn't in a strong position. Oil and gas products had slipped noticeably, by roughly a third, and several important-promoted “game-changers" either stalled or became burdens to untangle. Petrotrin’s check still casts a long shadow, and the Dragon Gas deal remains a further pledge than lucre. Indeed, systems like Sandals, which formerly carried great prospects, ended up as notes in a longer story of missed turns.
By the time the UNC took office in 2025, the figures alone revealed a disquieting picture. There was a $4.42 billion deficiency in a single month. A debt-to-GDP rate that had climbed from under 40 percent to over 80 percent in a decade. Billions have drawn down Heritage savings, and debt is mounting, much of it still opaque. State enterprises operating for many years without audited accounts. An overdrawn position exists at the Central Bank. It wasn't just a delicate handover; it was a foggy one, and understanding where the plutocrat had gone proved so gruelling that it delayed the initial fiscal budget.
And yet, a time later, the question isn't only what they inherited; it’s what they’ve done with it. There have been triumphs, at least on paper. The promised 10 percent pay envelope increases have begun reaching unions like the PSA and NUGFW; however, there has been pressure to back away, particularly with groups like TTUTA and TTRNA.
Some crusade commitments were delivered: the reopening of the Couva Children’s Hospital, a modest reduction in SuperGas prices, and the long-bandied “stand-your-ground" legislation eventually brought into law. These are indeed significant ways, even if they don't yet feel transformative.
At the same time, there are areas where progress feels less certain. Access to firearms licenses hasn't improved in the way many anticipated, especially alongside new security laws.
States of Emergency have come and gone, but their impact seems to dull with reiteration. And if you ask the average citizen whether they feel safer now than they did some time ago, the answer is unlikely to be a confident yes.
So where does that leave citizens?
If I’m being honest, it feels like a time of roots rather than advance, a period of adaptation, of sorting through what was left before, and of trying to balance delivery with damage control. There are signs of movement, but not yet the kind that shifts the public mood in a meaningful way.
However, I’d rate it a five out of ten if I had to put a number to it. Not a failure, but not yet a success either, more like a government still finding its footing while carrying further weight than it might have anticipated.
The real story will be written many times over the coming years. Momentum can build. Direction can sharpen. And in politics, as in life, early chapters don't always tell you how the story ends. For now, it remains veritably much an open question, one where, as I see it, everybody still has a chance to win.
Sarge