The governing party insisted yesterday that it was “pro-business” and rejected a suggestion that it was reframing the election as “business vs the people”.But Families Minister Glenn Blakeney, the incumbent for Devonshire North Central, said that some “big businesses” were “disingenuous”.“In this community there seems to have been, in some degrees, with regard to some big businesses a level of disingenuousness.“We have to be equals at the table of diplomatic protocol being honest brokers,” he said.The Minister added: “When you look around the country, notwithstanding the challenges that businesses across the board have in a depressed economic climate, it does not help to contract when you are a big business when it impacts employees if you can help it.”He said he understood the business imperative to take care of the bottom line but some big businesses had enjoyed “the lion’s share of the economics in this community” and the economic pain should be “spread across the board” and not limited to Government and employees.“Businesses will argue that they are feeling pain too. Well, let’s talk about it by addressing it in a very honest way.“And what we’ve tried to do, and continue to do, is to engage business at all levels — the EEZ zones, the small business perspective to the larger international conglomerate companies and corporations, where we dialogue to try to understand where we need to find the level of compromise that is a win-win for every member of this community.“So we are pro-business but at the same time we have to call out business when we believe there is a level of disingenuousness.“And we are not going to point a finger and name anybody because we don’t intend ever to throw people on the bus — we want to engage people and try to work it out.”The remarks came at an Alaska Hall press conference in which Mr Blakeney criticised what he called the One Bermuda Alliance’s “Cuts and Pain Commission” — and just two days after a Progressive Labour Party town hall meeting at which former Belco CEO Vince Ingham painted the business community as self interested and lacking in social conscience.“The constituent in my view who is giving the least of all is the business community,” Senator Ingham said.He was roundly criticised by business community representatives.Asked whether Mr Ingham was wrong, Mr Blakeney, the PLP’s candidate for Devonshire North Central, said: “In the context of what he intended, there is a level among some businesses that would be best described as disingenuous for lack of a better term”.But he said he was not willing to name the businesses when asked.“That does not help situations — when you try to throw curve balls at the people you are trying to engage — because, of course, they also have Bermuda’s best interests at heart. But its about disagreeing without being disagreeable.”Mr Blakeney had warned in his prepared remarks that an OBA government would make radical cuts to critical programmes through their “Cuts and Pain Commission” — surrogate language for the Opposition’s proposed Spending and Government Efficiency Commission — which, he said, would be made up of “big business people”.“Let me paint a picture of what could happen in the coming months if the OBA is elected. The OBA would appoint the Cuts & Pain Commission that would be made up of big businesspeople.“These big business people will recommend a series of deep and radical cuts to jobs, recommend a series of deep and radical cuts to education, and pensions — the very programs that Bermudians rely on and that have carried us through this economic crisis.“The OBA will feign protest in public, but, then, they would accept the Cuts & Pain Commission recommendations and make these radical and destructive cuts.”He said: “We already know that the UBP had a secret plan to gain power.“The real question is, do they and their secret Cuts & Pain Commission have a secret plan to cut public education, infrastructure investment, the EEZ and much more?”His speech prompted this newspaper to ask whether, in light of Sen Ingham’s statements on Wednesday, the party was now reframing the election as a battle between “big business” and the people.And it was pointed out to Mr Blakeney that the Opposition’s SAGE commission would simply seek out efficiencies in Government operations.But he said: “They cannot cut and spend at the same time.”Also in attendance at the press conference were five other members of Cabinet — Premier Paula Cox, Economy Minister Patrice Minors, National Security Minister Wayne Perinchief, Tourism Minister Wayne Furbert and Health Minister Zane DeSilva.OBA candidate Sylvan Richards said that Mr Blakeney’s comments on the SAGE commission proposal “represents just about everything wrong in politics today — fear-mongering and spin to make a good idea seem bad”.“Our SAGE Commission is simply a way to get broad input on ways to bring responsible spending back to government, to stop waste and make sure hard-earned taxpayer dollars go further to support programmes that help people get by,” said Mr Richards.“It will include members of government, people from large and small businesses and other respected individuals from the community. It is to be a broad-based effort to restore sanity to Government spending.”Mr Richards added that Government had run up a $1.5 billion debt and had spent more than it took in for five consecutive years, forcing it “to make drastic cuts in social programmes from Mirrors to the Sunshine League; cutting the Day Care allowance and, just last year, 97 educators.”The OBA also took aim at Sen Ingham saying that he was in charge of Belco, the Island’s utility when it cut power to more than 1,100 customers over a three-month period “because they were struggling to pay their bills.”“Where was Mr Ingham’s ‘social conscience’ when the organisation he led literally ‘turned the lights out’ on Bermudians hard-hit by the recession?“In whose interests was Mr Ingham acting when the organisation he led pulled the plug on more than 1,100 Bermudian households?” an e-mailed statement from the Opposition asked.“The OBA has concrete plans to help Bermudians cope with the high costs of living.“We will reduce the cost of electricity by properly regulating the energy sector, work with social agencies such as the Salvation Army to provide good transitional housing and support programmes for the most vulnerable in our society and ensure stronger family benefits by working with employers to extend family and maternity leave for caregivers, parents and guardians. That is real change for real people.”