WHAT THE HELL WAS THE SPEAKER TALKING ABOUT?

The Speaker of the House of Assembly is someone who the people in Jamaica would call “butu”.  He is low class and crude.  He is in a place where he should not be but alas democracy arranges some strange results. So, most people remember in support of our assessment, the melt down performance of Halson Moultrie, the Speaker of the Assembly, when he was offended by the PLP.  He attacked Fred Mitchell personally with the most vile things.  He took away Glenys Hanna Martin’s right to sit in the Parliament.  He prevented the Opposition from speaking.  Then after the vote of no confidence was moved for that silly behaviour, he promised that he would do better.  He has not.  There was another meltdown of sorts on Wednesday 19^th September.  He gave a long and rambling dissertation, more fit for the University of The Bahamas classroom than the House.  The speech left the whole country puzzled. What the hell was he talking about?  The Speaker seemed to be arguing for the separation of the executive functions of the Parliament from the Cabinet Office.  He said that he was no longer going to take advice from the Attorney General on the law and that he would consult wacky Dame Joan Sawyer, Union President Obie Ferguson, Maurice Glinton Q C amongst others. He said the AG advises the executive.  He said that the Cabinet was too large and thought that an act ought to be passed to limit the Cabinet in size so that Parliament can control the Cabinet. This is great stuff if he meant it.  However, it was filled with fulsome praise of the Prime Minister who is just as lost in space on these issues. The real thing is that the Speaker is pissed off at the Secretary of the Cabinet who will not agree to spend money on projects which he thinks the Parliament should have.  The report is that he wrote an angry letter to the Secretary of the Cabinet denouncing the decisions.  So, he wants his own budget and absolute control of that budget by the House. We agree but why not say that instead of trying to dress it up in this phony constitutional lecture and obsequious praise for useless Hubert Minnis.