WITH REFERENCE to your editorial of April 27, I think in the context, the more courteous approach should be to give Dr Omar Davies the opportunity to speak first and then criticise the speech he has given.

The anxiety and fear that the Bruce Golding administration will be pilloried for making a Budget presentation that has been described elsewhere in this publication as 'pitchy-patchy' and as incomplete and a cruel tax on the poor, has led you to criticise Dr Davies before he has responded.

Surely, at 18 months old, the administration is old enough to face the music for itself, especially for the lyric it has written for itself and the rest of us, without the noble institution of The Gleaner feeling the need to shield it from criticism, even before the criticism has been made.

I am, etc.,

GARNETT ROPER

garnettroper@hotmail.com

Portmore