Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller addresses an NEC meeting in Clarendon yesterday. - Norman Grindley/Acting Photography Editor

Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller chided the Govern-ment yesterday for not heeding warnings by the People's National Party that the fallout in the United States economy would affect Jamaica.

"It is always better to be late than never, but imagine, Comrades, if they had listened to us from as early as April of this year, they would have taken the necessary action," Simpson Miller told a meeting of the National Executive Council at the Vere Technical High School in Clarendon yesterday.

She said for months Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw, did not acknowledge the impact the crisis abroad would have on the nation, though the party had warned that small and medium-size enterprises and the tourism industry would be hurt.

"For months, he rejected the reality, preferring to exist in his own world, frolicking in Wonderland," the opposition leader said.

"He is still campaigning, bursting scandals after scandals and fails every day to qualify or have a reasoned discussion with the Jamaican people about the state of the economy," she said.

Smell the coffee

"I hope for the sake of the country he has finally woke up and smelled the coffee ... and end the blame game."

She said it was time for the Government to recognise the difference between a popularity contest and mature leadership.

"It is time for the Government to drop the façade like everything is controlled and level with the people truthfully," she said.