Leacock – I have no beef with the Speaker of the House

Despite the frequent clashes which have occurred in Parliament between Speaker of the House Hendrick Alexander and St Claire Leacock, the Opposition Parliamentarian said that he does not have any “beef” with the Speaker.{{more}}

Speaking on the television programme “Unrendered” on IKTV last Sunday, Leacock said that the Speaker had disrespected him publicly.

He went on to accuse Alexander of abusing the office of Speaker of the House, not just against him (Leacock), but other members of the Opposition.

“It is so glaring, that you don’t have to spend time enumerating what they are and no self-respecting person would tolerate that level of indecency that has been exhibited by the Speaker,” Leacock said.

“These are facts; there have been insulting moments,” he continued.

The area representative for Central Kingstown said that he is not going to let the Speaker have his way in that regard.

He said that he did not want to spend too much time on the issue, because it was disgusting.

“Time and time again the Speaker just refuses to manage the House properly,” Leacock said.

Among the highlights of the numerous confrontations which have occurred between the two men was an instance where Leacock called on Alexander to apologise for comments he (Alexander) made about him earlier this year.

The Speaker had said that Leacock was “rude and out of place” and that he was a man who was “not fit to be a Parliamentarian to represent people anywhere in this country”.

Alexander was at the time responding to comments made by Leacock that he was “incompetent” and was being manipulated by the ruling regime.

“Sometimes, I wonder if he does not suffer from some sort of complex or the other,” Alexander said at the time.

This comment prompted Leacock to demand an apology from the Speaker.

“And I think there will be a formal call by this party, because it is already the feeling of the members of this constituency that the Speaker should be made to apologize for interfering into the democratic process of this country, for which he has a privileged opportunity to be the Speaker of the House,” Leacock said.

He made a further call for the Speaker of the House to be removed, saying that his comments were a clear indication of how biased he was towards the members of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in the House. (DD)