Vexed Bermoothes

House of Assembly met today with the usual poor communication with the public and lack of debate.

The motor/traffic amendment passed 13-11.  By my reckoning, that means Dr. Brown (who I think was not present) didn’t get 8 votes from his own side of the aisle … and a couple of UBP MPs were no shows.

Despite the normal time-spinning on congrats and obits, they ran out of things to talk about by noon and packed it up for the day.

Yes, Bermudians, your elected representatives feel that they have nothing to talk about.  Everything is hunky dory in Bermuda.  Parliament has nothing to add.  Drinks over at Greg’s then let’s go play golf.

Pathetic.  Our Parliament and its procedures are in dire need of reform:

• Agenda published in advance on internet
• All tabled motions and prospective laws published in advance on internet
• Recorded votes by MP name
• Hansard transcript
• Publication of all parliamentary questions and responses
• More bipartisan committees that meet in public
• Weekly Q&A time

I am amused at the “blame game” the Premier’s proxies are playing trying to pin the resistance to the gambling bill on the UBP.  Shouldn’t that finger first be pointed at the PLP MPs who also question the bill?  Like many, I find the Holland America “gun to the head” letter a bit contrived.

With the resistance in the backbench, it looks like we can expect a non-productive legislative session as Dr. Brown dodges challenges to his authority.