Parliament ended abruptly last night after the Opposition UBP party stormed out in protest when the Speaker of the House refused to initiate debate over a motion to be moved by Opposition MP Maxwell Burgess.

And questions have again raised over Speaker Stanley Lowe's performance and independence as the disgruntled Opposition members questioned the party's treatment in the House.

The motion which spurred the impromptu mass exit was to deal with Bermuda's possible entry into CARICOM. It read:

"That a Joint Select Committee of the Senate and the House of Assembly be appointed to investigate and report on the advantages and disadvantages to membership in CARICOM, and to have any recommendations the Committee deems appropriate as a result of its investigation."

Listed as Order number seven for the day, the motion was carried over to next week by Mr. Lowe personally in an unusual move.

"Order seven is carried over by the request - of myself - for further consideration," Mr. Lowe announced. On his feet, Mr. Burgess questioned why the motion was being carried over. "What further consideration?" he asked. "No explanation?"

To which Mr. Lowe replied that he would give a written explanation to the House in next Friday's session.

Mr. Lowe said he had previously told Mr. Burgess in private that he would carry over the motion.

As House business proceeded to the eighth order of the day, UBP MPs scrambled to gather their belongings and hastily exited the room as their Government counterparts derided them about disrespect to the Speaker. The final two orders of the day were also carried over and Parliament was quickly closed by Acting Premier Eugene Cox, without any speakers on motion to adjourn, shortly after 5.30 p.m.

But Opposition members said Mr. Lowe's actions were inappropriate. "It brings the House into disrepute," Paget West MP Patricia Pamplin-Gordon told The Royal Gazette, referring to Mr. Lowe's action as "extraordinary".

And Smith's North MP Allan Marshall said the Speaker's role was to implement the House Rules, "not to make them up as he goes along".

On his part as the motion's sponsor, Mr. Burgess told The Royal Gazette that the CARICOM matter had been discussed over recent weeks and the Speaker should have anticipated dealing with the motion yesterday.

To not deal with the Opposition motion was unfair, he said.

Mr. Burgess pointed out that the Premier had been allowed to make a statement on CARICOM in Parliament.

"I understood that was because she did not deal with the pros and cons of joining CARICOM," he said.

"Nor does my motion. It is merely to debate the process by which Bermudians might engage in debate about the international relationships which are fostered and which will affect all of us. One of the ways that might occur is through a Joint Select Committee."

Mr. Burgess said he hoped Mr. Lowe would see fit to allow the motion to be debated next Friday.

"I don't think the Speaker wants to encourage the stifling of opinion and debate on the way forward in deciding Bermuda's international relations," Mr. Burgess said.

"And if this Government tries to call itself the People's Government, I don't think it wants to stifle debate and the expression of different views on the whole question of CARICOM or any other international relationship we wish to engage upon.

"Next week, I will be relieved to be told we can proceed with the debate indicating that fairness and justice will rise again."