On the eve of the tabling of the Budget, I will offer my own Pre-Budget Report Card. The most obvious letter to grade the Government’s performance with the economy is a D. D for Desperation. D for Distraction. D for Deflection.

The Premier’s recent rant in the House of Assembly smacked of desperation. He oversold the miracles of fintech and now that Bermuda has been underwhelmed with the results, he seeks to blame the One Bermuda Alliance for being “negative”.

Apparently asking for an update on the number of promised jobs for Bermudians is an attempt to destabilise the Government.

Apparently asking about the $1 million promised by Arbitrade to help to build the recently cancelled incubator on Park Place is not in the best interest of Bermuda.

Instead of owning that the development of this new industry is not flourishing in Bermuda as promised, the Premier is lashing out and leaning back on tired old conspiracy theories to shift the blame and to distract from failure to stimulate the economy.

To distract from the issues of a flagging economy suffering from an absence of new stimuli and a declining population, the Progressive Labour Party government’s press conferences have become filled with electoral-style rhetoric with very little substance. It would seem that the “Minister of Propaganda” is now hard at work preparing speeches, using the ones he drafted while in Opposition as his guide.

Walton Brown, for example, gave a bombastic press conference last week with a speech he was seemingly reading for the first time. In it, he claimed all sorts of wonderful news about how we are not in a recession, but failed to mention that the only thing buoying the numbers was the $60 million of machinery that had been purchased for the airport and the St Regis project in St George’s.

When asked about the late retail sales figures, the minister deflected and blamed his civil servants for technical delays. Lo and behold, the very next day, another month of bad results were released and the date on the report was January 2019.

Yes, you always need to check the small print. Are you willing to believe that the minister called a propaganda-filled press conference in mid-February and simply forgot to include the retail sales report that was prepared for him weeks prior?

Judging from the Pre-Budget Report, we are to expect $50 million more in taxes this year — but no one in Government seems able to say from where — not one single dollar in savings from the Government and yet another year of a broken promise to balance the budget.

Perhaps a D is too generous.

• Nick Kempe is the Shadow Minister of Finance and the Opposition Senate leader