Good Morning, Antigua and Barbuda.

Good Morning, Sons and Daughters and Friends of Antigua and Barbuda in the Internet audience across the region and around the world:

This is a unique day of grace in Antigua.

Pastors representing the entire Christian Community in Antigua and Barbuda have united in a consortium to call our nation to special prayer at an open air Service of National Healing.

In response to this call from our country's united clergy, we will assemble in our thousands at the Antigua Recreation Ground in St. John's this afternoon.

Countless others here and overseas will be with us in spirit and in prayer at the Service of National Healing this afternoon.

The theme of today's Service of National Healing is "One nation, healing together".

The vast majority of right-minded Antiguans and Barbudans have embraced this theme.

Right-minded Antiguans and Barbudans are thankful for this opportunity to give Glory to God.

Later today, we will raise our voices like trumpets in praise to The Almighty for blessing our nation with peaceful change and transition.

We will be praying for healing, for reconciliation and for lasting peace in our nation.

Before and after the 23rd of March, I prayed for a united nation.

Before and after the 23rd of March, I invited all in our nation to come into the Big Tent of the United Progressive Party.

I shall continue to reaffirm my dedication to that Big Tent.

There is room in that Big Tent for all who are dedicated to the ideals of good governance.

I welcome into that Big Tent all who want Antigua and Barbuda to absolve itself from the firmly founded reputation of a country whose government was for sale.

I welcome into that Big Tent all who want integrity, decency and moral values in their government.

I welcome into that Big Tent all who prefer a hand-up from their government instead of handouts.

In my weekly broadcasts, as on other vehicles, at other opportunities, I have repeatedly emphasized that I see myself as the Chief Servant of the Antiguan and Barbudan people; all of the Antiguan and Barbudan people.

I have stressed it before, I now say it again:

The School Uniform Grants that the Government will be distributing will be for children of ALP parents as well as those of UPP parents.

The $350 School Uniform Grant will be for primary school children of ALP parents, as well as for primary school children of UPP parents.

The $500 School Uniform Grant will be for secondary school children of UPP parents as well as for secondary school children of ALP parents.

Children of ALP parents as well as those of UPP parents will receive nutritious meals in the School Meals Programme.

Every senior citizen, ALP as well as UPP, will soon receive a decent pension.

These pensions exceed those that were paid to senior citizens under the previous administration.

All families, ALP families as well as UPP families, will enjoy the UPP's Dollar-A-Barrel Christmas Bonuses to the nation.

Neither ALP nor UPP senior citizens are any longer required to pay the $35 Airport Departure Tax.

There is no discrimination, there will be no discrimination, in the services and benefits that the UPP administration is delivering and will be delivering to the Antiguan and Barbudan people.

No one will be left out.

No one will be left behind.

It is my obligation as Prime Minister to ensure that no section of the Antiguan and Barbudan society is excluded from freely enjoying those benefits.

It is also my obligation to ensure that the fundamental rights and freedoms of the Antiguan and Barbuda people are safe, and where appropriate, that they are strengthened.

It is, as well, my obligation to ensure that the Antiguan and Barbudan people are alert to the state of their nation's affairs.

In this context, I must alert the national community to unfolding Opposition agendas to subvert the will of the people who voted for change in our country.

The Antigua and Barbuda Constitution mandates that our government, our Prime Minister and our Cabinet emerge from a political party.

Party Politics is therefore central to our Parliamentary Democracy.

As Leader of the UPP, and as Chief Servant of the Antiguan and Barbudan people, I consider myself under continuing obligation to raise the consciousness of all the people I serve.

Fundamental to this is continuing political education for a society that the Constitution calls upon to make political decisions when it chooses its government.

This is how our democracy works.

This is how our country is protected from repeating the mistakes of the past.

That is one of my missions in these Sunday broadcasts.

You no doubt remember that shortly after the March 23rd elections I emphasized that these broadcasts would not be Weekly Prime Ministerial Addresses.

Amusingly, there are persons who take offense that the National Anthem does not precede these radio broadcasts and my National Addresses as Prime Minister.

Though it is difficult for some people to comprehend, I have absolutely no aspiration, no intention, to be an imperial Prime Minister.

In this context, we are conscious that as we pray this evening for one nation, healing together, there may well be opponents actively plotting destabilization and disorder.

The ALP leadership repeatedly makes it clear that it does not respect the wishes and the collective will of the electorate.

Opposition ringleaders, rejected by the people, are on the Bird radio system around the clock, concocting bile, dispensing a diet of hate, assassinating people's characters, vilifying the clergy, and sending coded messages that many persons believe to be bent on inciting insurrection.

The threats to disorder and disruption have been insistent and undisguised.

The deposed despots are calculatedly manipulating the minds and emotions of their followers.

They seem to be setting their followers up to save the skins of ALP bigwigs whose dates with justice are as sure as the sun will rise.

In a single 24-hour period, last week, they were spewing a torrent of hate, including race hate.

They were talking civil disobedience.

They were invoking the spectre of guns and tear gas.

They went so far as to talk directly about the overthrow of governments.

That was not all.

In the same 24-hour period, the Bird radio system actually conspired to broadcast an on-the-scene radio report from the coup in Grenada in the early eighties.

These are the tactics of anarchists attempting to whip followers into crazed mobs.

In the face of all of this, the nation must be especially vigilant.

And our prayers for peace must be sustained.

The ALP leadership and their satellite organisations appear to want the nation to voluntarily induce a collective loss of memory.

It is as though some people believe that Antigua and Barbuda would be better off if the nation was immediately struck by a permanent attack of amnesia.

Will this country benefit from erasing the memory of the sins of the oligarchy that ruled for so many years?

Should this nation be induced to forget that a people who forget their mistakes are quite likely to repeat those mistakes?

Would the Christian faith have lived for two millennia had the Passion of Christ been forgotten?

Would nuclear weapons be now in mothballs had we forgotten the horror of Hiroshima?

Should we attempt to cover up the high crimes and misdemeanors of the ALP leadership and their accomplices that are now coming to light?

Four days ago, evidence turned up which establishes that from last year, expenses at the Royal Antiguan for at least four ALP campaign consultants from Trinidad - That's right, expenses for at least four ALP campaign consultants from Trinidad - were routinely being charged to the Office of the Prime Minister.

Should the endemic corruption that has pauperized this country so deeply, and which has contributed so directly to the crippling debt with which Antigua and Barbuda is now burdened, be shrouded in silence?

I consider myself duty bound to right whatever wrongs exist.

That involves justice for the perpetrators who extravagantly used public office to satisfy personal greed.

That will help to ensure that henceforth, every individual occupying a position of public trust will be reminded that crime does not pay.

Related to this the government has prepared Integrity in Public Life and Prevention of Corruption legislation, which will go to Parliament shortly.

We will also introduce Equal Opportunity legislation to deal with discrimination and hate crimes on the basis of race, religion, class, gender, age disability, political affinity or place of origin.

It is not, and will never be business as usual. Government must never again be for sale in Antigua and Barbuda.

I am Baldwin Spencer.

Wherever you are at this moment, I pray God's Blessings on you and your loved ones.

At the Service for National Healing this afternoon, I will be praying for all of you, for all of us, and for our beloved Antigua and Barbuda.