Leacock curtails speech after clash with PM

A showdown between Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves and Opposition Senator St.Clair Leacock turned ugly last Tuesday evening.{{more}}

Both men have a reputation of getting under each other’s skin, but their altercation at the presentation of the 2010 Estimates may have been the worst to date.

Moments before their egos got the better of them, Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hendrick Alexander, had warned the elected and nominated members of the House to cut their cross talk.

Leacock’s critique that the Gonsalves’ led administration had not allocated funds for Local Government had incensed members of the Government, who suggested that would have been catered for had the November 25, 2009 Referendum passed.

Leacock, the Vice President of the New Democratic Party (NDP), responded that a referendum is not needed to make such provisions.

“That’s utter nonsense!” Leacock remarked.

The House immediately erupted into cross talk before Alexander cut in and warned the members that he would not tolerate them hurling insults at each other.

“That’s not the parliamentary language that we encourage in here and we have to be careful,” said Alexander.

He added that he believed much more could be accomplished in the House if the cross talk is cut out.

Alexander then made reference to Opposition Leader Arnhim Eustace’s presentation that went smoothly within the allotted period granted to him.

Order was restored, but five minutes hadn’t elapsed when there was the major outburst between the Prime Minister and Leacock.

Leacock made the point that despite Government’s claim that St.Vincent and the Grenadines would not incur any debt for the construction of the international airport, it still went ahead in December and borrowed over $50 million for the project.

Leacock then noted that he didn’t understand the complex issues relating to the SUCRE and other currencies.

The SUCRE is a virtual currency.

An infuriated prime minister then questioned the need to introduce the SUCRE into the debate.

“What does SUCRE have to do with this? asked Gonsalves.

An irate Gonsalves then stated: “That’s why you will never win Central Kingstown. Not so long as I am prime minister. Never in a million years. I will do everything short of illegal matters to make sure you don’t enter, because you are not worthy to be an elected member.”

Leacock shouted: “You are out of place! You are out of your place. There is nothing about you that makes you more worthy than me to be here.”

Speaker Alexander interrupted and warned that he couldn’t allow mayhem and chaos to take place in the House of Assembly.

After things had settled down, Leacock did not continue his presentation.