Amid the distortion, evasion and absurdity around the swanky and expensive renovation of the second Official Premier's residence in 7 years, of which I'll discuss in a follow up comment, I wanted to point out something else that's been going on over the past couple of weeks.
One of the key elements of parliamentary systems is the right of the Opposition to ask probing questions of the Government. And the United Bermuda Party has been using this quite effectively over the past few years in particular. Too effectively evidently.
Why do I say that? Because the Government has taken to not answering Parliamentary questions in Parliament; Sen. David Burch has pre-empted the proper Parliamentary response with his answers in the Senate last week about his quango consultancy and then yesterday regarding Clifton.
Why would they do that? Simple. Because they're ashamed of what's going on and they don't want to be subjected to probing follow-ups on the floor of Parliament, preferring to hide behind the Department of Communication. [Note: more on Parliamentary Questions can be found in this week's View From the Hill]
Parliamentary Question time is a long established precedent that must be respected. It's one of the few tools that the Opposition have to drive accountability. Sadly, the Speaker of the House is the PLP's poodle. Otherwise he'd demand that Parliament be respected by the PLP Government.
I'll follow-up later on the content of yesterday's press release.
Posted by Christian S. Dunleavy