Dr Peter Phillips, the re-elected leader of the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP), came out blazing in his presentation at Sunday’s 81st annual conference of the party on Sunday.

One could be forgiven for concluding that he was himself energised by the challenge to his leadership by Mr Peter Bunting and his supporters. Dr Phillips was, as Jamaicans like to say, in his ackee.

Aside from the best delivery we have seen from him, the speech gained him high marks for some good ideas that, on the surface, are worth further consideration on their merit. And even where the ideas were not all that new, they had some relevance. They raised some important questions too.

We took special note of his plan to achieve a virtual renaissance in education, supported by a more effective use of the Students’ Loan Bureau. What he didn’t do, however, was to tell us specifics. For example, is he contemplating lowering interest rates on student loans?

It is great to speak of providing a scholarship to the first child in each poor family. But without more, it is difficult to fathom Dr Peter Phillips’s vision. The broken families of which he spoke, include mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters scattered across the island. How then will he identify the first child in the family?

We like the sound of the vision to tackle broken families. It remains the Achilles heel of our society. Solve that and we solve half our problems. But that is not going to happen because a party leader makes a promise from a political platform.

Dr Phillips spoke of ensuring that the 55 per cent of contributors to the National Housing Trust (NHT) who do not access its housing benefits because they are not qualified, will benefit under a Government led by him. Here again, no specifics.

With regard to the NHT, we depart from him in two respects: He likened the Trust to a ‘pardner draw’, saying these contributors ‘throw their hand but get no draw’. He should remember that all contributors get refunds with interest, whereas with the ‘pardner’, the contributor gets back less and had better hope that the ‘banker’ remains true to the scheme.

Moreover, the NHT is a social good, especially in the provision of jobs through construction, which employs large numbers of low-skilled people, among whom are contributors to the NHT.

So we should not pretend that they get no benefit.

Still, we would like to see a scheme that makes it easier for all its contributors to access a home. Perhaps one means of qualification could be based on the number of years one contributes to the fund.

The PNP leader’s plan to step up land titling to the estimated 700,000 squatters will resonate with that sector of Jamaicans who still carry the effects of our history of landlessness, or even where they own the land, have no documentary proof that can be taken to the bank.

Dr Phillips is yet to tell us how he would achieve greater land titling and provision of land to the landless, beyond what has been done by the current administration and by past administrations, including some he has worked in.

The most important question, and this applies to all the plans he has outlined, is how will he pay for these programmes? Where will the money come from? Dr Phillips needs to crunch the numbers, wheel and come again.