ST CATHERINE, Jamaica — “We are not going to be distracted. My shoulder broad, my back big,” Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader Andrew Holness assured a massive party rally in Gregory Park, St Catherine, last night.

“We have seen this played out before. They try to demonise the leaders of our political party. But, they are having a hard time trying to frame Andrew Holness. And there is a reason why it is so hard for them to frame me. You know why? Because they come from an era that is past. They are the past. I am the future,” Holness told thousands of cheering Labourites attending the meeting.

Holness also quoted the lyrics of two popular reggae songs: “Say if you live in a glass house, don’t throw stones; and if you can’t take blows, brother, don’t throw blows”, from Peter Tosh’s “Glass House”; and Toots and the Maytals’ “If you trouble this man, it will be a bam bam”.

He said that the People’s National Party is trying to make the election about him. However, he said that just shows that they don’t have any plans, because the election really is about the people.

“It is about your life, about the plans that the political parties have to make your life better. You always listen to the plans and decide which plans are good and which plans are bad.  They haven’t come to you with any plans. All they come to you and tell you is that things are better off,” Holness said.

“We have come to you with a plan. A plan to grow the economy, create jobs, make your life easier, to provide you with water, health care and security,” he stated.

“For the first time in Jamaica, you are seeing a campaign that is solely issues based. We have focused entirely on the issues. We haven’t gone out to attack anybody. We haven’t gone out to draw any red herring across the trail, we have just focused on the things that you say that you want. So we are not going to be distracted,” he concluded.

Balford Henry