Censure Motion Against Speaker Delayed Again

June 2, 2015

The Censure Motion against Speaker of the House Randy Horton was carried over again during the most recent sitting of the House of Assembly, leading the Premier to say he “feels “that a Motion of this serious nature should have been taken up at the first opportunity.”

In March 2015, PLP MP Michael Scott gave notice of a Motion seeking to censure Speaker of the House Randy Horton for what they said was his “misconduct of suppressing debate in the House of Assembly” and the “misuse and abuse of his authority as Speaker.”

The Opposition’s Censure Motion followed Speaker Horton’s decision on March 13 to eject PLP MP David Burt from the House for trying to make Points of Order over an amendment being taken straight to a vote without debate, and the Speaker subsequently said that “with the benefit of hindsight, I now accept that I should not have allowed the amended motion to be brought to a vote at such an early stage.”

Screenshot of a tweet sent by the OBA account:

Fullscreen capture 5312015 110925 AM

Speaking during the Motion to Adjourn on Friday, Premier Michael Dunkley said, “I just want to draw my concern that item number 23, the Motion laid by the honourable member Mr. Scott who is not in the chambers at this time, for 2 weeks now hasn’t been taken up.

“Mr. Speaker, my colleagues and I feel that a Motion of this serious nature should have been taken up at the first opportunity. Now we will adjourn tonight and next week will be the third opportunity for the Motion to be taken up.

Audio excerpt of the Premier speaking in the House

“I think it’s unacceptable, inappropriate that this motion is allowed to stay on the order paper. It needs to be dealt with at the earliest possible opportunity, Mr. Speaker. I just want to note that for the record,” added the Premier.

“There’s no explainable reason why the honorable member hasn’t picked up the motion. If they felt so aggrieved, they put it down a couple of weeks ago, they could have picked it up as soon as appropriate and dealt with it and not carried over from week to week. It is simply unacceptable at this point. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.”

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Comments (28)

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  1. Starting Point says:

    Prob related the fact that the motion only reflects poorly on either the PLP members who may be found to wasting everyones time or the former PLP member who is now the speaker lol.

    Either way, PLP legacy of incompetence continues.

  2. Triangle Drifter says:

    This too shall pass. Add it to the very long list of things that the PLP was gonna do but never did.

    • Interested Party says:

      Politicians Lying to the People like to talk and talk and talk …. and talk, say nothing and do nothing. That’s their specialty…

    • Rhonda says:

      OBA lol…….they are transparent…. we see right through them…

      • Unbelievable says:

        Unfortunately, your comment has nothing to do with the article above :)

    • Mockingjay says:

      Somerset people must feel real embarrassed about the House * I mean speaker.

      • Ed Case says:

        Mockgay: You mean the speaker, or the one who makes all the noise?

        • Unbelievable says:

          And the women of the PLP must also be embarrassed by their leader.

  3. Cow Polly says:

    The Opposition are counting the number of Government members present and will only table it when they stand a chance of carrying it through. Pathetic.

    • Raymond Ray says:

      @ Cow Polly: I agree with you 100%. Now, let us hope that the Government Members, “can see the writing on the wall” as well…

    • Lois Frederick says:

      Not a chance. The OBA are quite disciplined now apart, from one member! They learned their lesson from the land grab debate. All present for votes now. The AG was sick last Friday and dragged himself in for the vote. Its a sensible strategy with the way the numbers are in the House.

  4. serengeti says:

    Still waiting for Bean to keep his promise never to enter the House of Assembly again.

  5. Vote for Me says:

    An interesting strategy by the Premier. Trying to embarass the PLP and force their hand. It will be interesting to see what information is revealed during the censure motion.

    The OBA will obviously oppose the motion so the real exercise is to disclose information as opposed to winning the censure motion.

    Lets see what happens at the next sitting.

  6. Jeremy Deacon says:

    It was said with such apparent vehemence by Marc Bean that the Speaker had a week left. What has changed?

    • inna says:

      Two weeks passing is the only change i see!

    • Cow Polly says:

      Nothing came of Mr Bean’s trip to the Police Station either….. Guess it was all just grandstanding then

  7. Rhonda says:

    OBA trying to make something stick…..ahahahhahahahahha

    • aceboy says:

      This is not the OBA, this is more talk and inaction by your PLP.

      Does the PLP wish to censure the speaker or not?

      Stop all the wind and get on with it.

    • serengeti says:

      Actually it’s Bean failing miserably to make something stick.

      As every day passes he has less and less credibility. Explains why he keeps such a low profile – every time he says anything he opens himself to ridicule.

    • Unbelievable says:

      Rhonda, you have nothing to add to his conversation. All you do is make stuff up and try to deflect. Go sit down.

  8. blow in says:

    WHATEVER happened about the LED lighting at GLOBAL HOUSE?? THIS is back a few years now,

  9. Kangoocar says:

    Is it possible the plp have come to their senses and realized what a waste of f’n time this is???? ……. NAH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just pure incompetence on their part I am sure!!!!

  10. Rockfish #2 says:

    In most countries a serious matter like this would be at the top of the Opposition priority list. It’s time for Bean and Co to stop this foolishness and either put up or shut up….Now.
    They really should drink good ole H20!

  11. Balanced Facts says:

    “Next week will be Randy Hortons last in PArliament!”‘ Marc Bean 3 weeks ago. More exaggerated nonsense and threats from the most un-statesman like leader of any any political party the Country has ever seen. Bean is “dangerous” for Bermuda. Do the right thing PLP and get rid of the Hon.(LOL) asap!

  12. Unbelievable says:

    Well Marc Bean played a HUGE gamble when he marched down to the police station with names and information on various people within Govt.

    If there is truth to what he said, then we should see a sea change in Govt. If it was all just “crying wolf” and the information he reportedly has amounts to nothing then I think Marc Bean needs to step down and let Walton take over.

    It’s a big gamble, Mr. Bean.

  13. clearasmud says:

    @ Unbelievable what you suggest is not unreasonable but its probably too early to know since the police would have to do a proper investigation first and ther would be no set time frame for that.

    • Unbelievable says:

      I hear you, clearasmud, all I’m saying is that those are the only two scenarios as far as I can see. It is way too early but if he claimed that Randy Horton would no longer be a member of the House within a week and it’s now been two weeks that’s entering into a third…..I don’t know.

      Also did you note that no female members of the PLP were present at Marc Bean’s court hearing the other day. At least that’s what was reported. To me that speaks some volumes. Regardless, he’ll come thru all of this with flying colours. I’m pretty sure of that.