Julian Hall shows the PLP is unfit to govern, the Hon. Quinton Edness has claimed.

Earlier this week, Mr. Frederick Wade called the suspension a "storm in a teacup''.

"That was not a storm in a teacup,'' Mr. Edness said on Wednesday. "It was a very serious matter for an elected representative to carry on like that. It's very indicative of what's going on in that political party. It's good that this sort of behaviour was exposed.'' Mr. Hall was suspended for three weeks after challenging a Speaker's order for him to stop talking. A row then broke out in which Mr. Hall initially refused an order to leave the chamber and called the Speaker "bigoted and prejudiced''.

"An MP's expulsion is never a storm in a teacup,'' said Mr. Edness. Mr. Wade tried to "make little'' of it, but the fact was one of his high-ranking PLP MPs was suspended.

In addition, Mr. Edness said, the incident stemmed from Mr. Hall's claims that he had not said things on the News & Views television show that "everybody else'' saw as denigrating remarks about the Chief Justice, Police Commissioner, Senate President and Premier.

"Everybody heard him say they had no power -- no real power ...What he was trying to do is mislead the House that he said something else.'' When it was pointed out to Mr. Hall, Mr. Edness said, he made derogatory remarks towards the Speaker and was expelled.

Just last week Mr. Wade told the Hamilton Lion's Club that the PLP was ready to govern. But Mr. Edness said last week's events -- and Mr. Wade's subsequent description of them as a storm in a teacup -- show that the PLP is "in no way ready to lead this community. It is immature and it is childish.'' He also objected to Mr. Wade's statement: "Quinton Edness started to apologise for the white community, which he generally does.'' "He is resorting to the thoughts that he and his party used to have toward black separatism,'' said Mr. Edness, who like Mr. Wade is black.

"I don't apologise for any person in the community. And my entire fight in politics has been one of bringing the races together and promoting equality and tolerance between the races, something I have had to fight Mr. Wade over all his political life because he has had a different view, and his view has to do with separating the races.

"What does he mean? Does the white community not exist? I do not apologise for the white community or the black community. I respect both black and white.''