7 News Belize

House Speaker Scolds Representatives for Lightweight Debate
posted (March 25, 2014)
At this hour, the budget debate is deep into its second day at the House of Representatives in Belmopan. Only 13 of the 31 members spoke yesterday, and so far today, 14 more have spoken - bringing the total to 27 of 31. Elvin Penner didn't show up, and Michael Finnegan is not expected to speak, so there are two representatives left to go.

So, the debate will rage into the night, and Prime Minister Dean Barrow will wind it up, probably around 7:30 or 7:45 pm.

But, while this year's debate is lengthy, many observers have commented that it lacks substance, and has disintegrated to little more than unenlightened name-calling, endless self-aggrandizement, silly catch phrases and wide, elliptical digressions.

No one is more aware of that than the speaker Michael Peyrefitte who's got to sit through it all. He lost his patience today and had to take on the tone of a schoolmarm - scolding the representatives. Here's what he said:..

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Speaker of the House
"If I were to stop everybody who spoke irrelevant material, nobody would be able to talk so far except for one member. Nobody so far has addressed these estimates, nobody except for one member. So if that's the rule that we want to implement and we talk about disgracing each other - you look at how you disgrace yourselves every time, come on man."

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