And while that grand revelation that all the fuss made about the 11th amendment was for basically nothing, happened in the waning hours of 7 hour meeting, sparks flew from the very beginning, during the Speaker's announcement.
Yesterday evening we told you that the Leader of the Opposition's No Confidence Motion was rejected, because it, quote, "infringes on Standing Order 38(5) by imputing improper motives in respect of a Minister and a Minister of State and by making assertions of malfeasance against the Prime Minister. In addition, the substantive part of the Private Member's Motion seeks to have debate on the lawfulness or otherwise of a matter, that is, the Portico Agreement, which is the subject matter of an existing claim before the High Court." End quote.
But that rejection didn't go too well with the LOO, Shyne Barrow. He wrote a scathing email to the Speaker of the House, which she read out loud, before recusing herself during the privileged motion debate.
Here's how that went.
Valerie Woods, Speaker of the House
"It is necessary for me to now subsequently inform you of the response received. The response was sent to the clerkNA@bna.gov.bz. the email has been accessed and opened by all staff of parliament. Greetings… the email was sent at 6:14 yesterday by the Leader of the Opposition and it states: greetings, you, madam speaker have exposed yourself to be a complete waste of time as the Speaker of the honorable House."
"You repeatedly act as a shield for the government, shamelessly misinterpreting and misapplying the standing orders to protect the prime minister and his government from public scrutiny and accountability. When the UDP was in government, we were not afraid of the opposition, we allowed for no confidence motions as we are true protectors of democracy. With each erroneous ruling, you expose yourself as a complete biased speaker that will stop at nothing to protect the PUP government. I was foolish to believe a former PUP senator and candidate will be anything other than a partisan hack. Signed, Honorable Dr Shyne Barrow, Leader of Opposition, House of Representatives, MP for Mesopotamia."
"I will remind all members that this chair does not make determinations on the whim, this chair seeks the the legal counsel of the attorney general's office as you all know, the parliament does not yet have its own parliamentary legal counsel. In addition to that, the chair seeks the guidance from the well experienced staff of parliament. In addition to that, the chair looks to the precedence that has been set, in this case, there was a no confidence motion tabled in the previous parliament and it is clear that that no confidence motion did meet the threshold where it did not contravene standing orders."
"It has been a flagrant display of disrespect to the House in particular and to the chair. That will be a matter for a privileges committee consideration. Subsequent to that, it should be noted and the record will reflect that in addition to being a blatant disregard for the respect of the chair and authority of the chair, it is simply false."
"Subsequently, this morning at one hour approximately before the start of this meeting, there has been a privilege motion presented. That privileged motion has me, the chair, as the subject matter. That motion has been lodged by the Leader of the Opposition. Therefore it will not be appropriate for me to preside over a privilege motion as we all know as members of the House, privilege motion trumps all business. Therefore I will not vacate the seat as chair and invite the deputy speaker to take over."
