Always it’s what you mean by Is!

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]uesday’s House session started late. Who knows why? You might as well ask why the Pope is Catholic. Or why the sky is blue. No sooner had prayers been said than the obvious mismanagers of the people’s business got down to, er, business. The first item on the day’s agenda, read out by the finance minister, centered on a loan to pay for a water-related project in Dennery North, represented in parliament by opposition MP Shawn Edwards.

Obviously some people, perhaps out of habit, encourage Kenny Anthony in his delusions! Pictured left to right: Ernest Hilaire and the Vieux Fort South MP.

He quickly expressed his enthusiastic approval of the project. But he had more to say. A lot more that had little to do with the motion itself. For close to an hour the Dennery rep prattled on about how he had initiated the project before his party was booted out of office, who deserved credit for the initiative, who was bending over backwards to steal his thunder.

Others on his side of the table contributed ear-numbing echoes of the Dennery North MP. And then it was time for the agriculture minister and MP for Babonneau to deliver his rebuttal. Taking into account the incessant fish market cross-talk that seems beyond the control of the Speaker, a ritual that could easily have been over in fifteen minutes, thirty tops, swallowed up close to two hours. Or appeared to.

Would it not have been enough for the Dennery North MP simply to have said he endorsed the project and the loan to pay for it? Did the agriculture minister and Babonneau MP have to waste the people’s time on a meaningless rebuttal of ego-boosting schoolyard persiflage?

Later on, the Castries Southeast MP, while addressing the always combustible issue of St. Jude Hospital, mentioned that he had made certain statements during a recent guest appearance on TALK. In his own turn the Castries South MP found cause to challenge his colleague on the other side. In effect, he implied that if the Castries Southeast MP actually said what he purported to have said on the TV show, then he lied. Again another time-wasting cross-table exchange ensued, with the now-you-see-him, now-you-don’t Vieux Fort South MP flinging from his seat his own share of explosive mud. As if from a stool at a Bois Patat bar, he interrupted the prime minister’s delivery to yell: “What the hell is that?” Quite atypically, the former prime minister quickly apologized for his demonstrated gross lack of self-control.

Alas, he soon was back to his normal self. At another juncture, while feigning incredulity, he swiveled in his chair to face his partner in grime who had referenced the TV show TALK: “You watch that show?”

“No, I don’t,” came the self-defensive response. “I only got a transcript.” My reaction from my living-room armchair: Ernest Hilaire—like most politicians including his once upon a time leader—may have the salesman’s ability to fool some of the people some of the time. But surely regular TALK viewers will easily recall the episode shortly before the SLP rally that promised the nation a new prime minister before December. The featured guest on the occasion was none other than the Castries South MP, Ernest Hilaire. Several callers had taken the opportunity to quiz him on a number of issues.

Then again, perhaps it is viewing the show that in the Red Zone is verboten—not actually appearing on it!