24 November, 2014

Dear Sir,

It has become abundantly clear that our legislature, who are elected by the voters of this Island and are deemed to be honourable members of our august house of Parliament, has now been hijacked by a virulent virus of low brow and very base behaviour.

We hear the Lord’s prayer offered at the beginning of every session of the House for divine oversight over the deliberations of the people’s business. This is in keeping with Christianity being the official religion of our country. What we have been subjected to of late however seems to be a culture of evil heretofore unheard of in the normal cut and thrust of political debate, with one-upmanship and brinkmanship being the normal rules of engagement.

Now it seems the female members of the House are fair game for at least one member of higher profile to impugn with the foul and low brow accusations on a selective basis. Mr Editor this behaviour is outrageous and of the sewer variety, it is reminiscent of thug and hoodlum tactics. It has been allowed to become so bad one would feel the need for the House to be tented to remove such a vexing pest from the property!

What makes this so thoroughly ironic is that the chief offender uses the holy writ to give emphasis on other occasions to win political points. How often we hear scripture being quoted to support the righteous cause of a political position by the same member. Little thought is employed as to the injunction of having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof!

That member of course is the leader of the Opposition and the leader of this country in waiting and needs to do better, much better.

Where is the repudiation and rebuke that should come from his own support base, in the interest of public decency. If any male member on the Government benches had the nerve to engage in such disgusting and revolting remarks it would lead to melt down in and outside of the House, and rightly so.

Mr Editor are there not enough issues in this country of a very contentious nature for our legislature to get it’s teeth into without resorting to the gutter and under belly of cheap debate! Clearly there are, no doubt about it.

Lastly it is worth mentioning that when scurrilous and very filthy remarks of a sensual and very degrading nature aimed at our women in public life, it is like extracting hen’s teeth to get an apology from the worst offender.

Our leaders must show themselves worthy of the designation honourable by their conduct and the things they say. In their fury and partisanship they need to be held accountable for what is unacceptable and morally reprehensible, also we need to see punitive censure employed for repeat offenders!

Wayne B Scott