HOA seemingly an extension to the Premier’s Office — Fraser
Senior Opposition legislator Julian Fraser has said he believes the House of Assembly (HOA) is currently being operated as though it is an extension of the Premier’s Office.
Fraser made that assertion in response to presumably negative public speculations about Opposition members. These speculations follow a recent comment by Premier Andrew Fahie.
During a late session in the House in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, Premier Fahie brought to the attention of all viewers and listeners, the absence of members from the Opposition during the sitting.
Fraser said he believes the action by the Premier was a ploy to deceive the public into thinking that the members of the Opposition were absent from their seats due to negligence of some kind.
“There’s no disrespect when you see our seats are empty. But you have to know this, it was 2:30 in morning when he said that; whereas the Standing Orders is that the House of Assembly should not go beyond 9 pm. So you have to put these things in context,” Fraser said while speaking at a media conference with members of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition.
“You can’t try to abuse your privilege to have your Speaker stay there until 2:30 in the morning and expect members to do the same. You may be able to get your members in the other group to do that but it’s a stretch to go beyond that,” he added.
Late times due to disregard for prompt starts
Fraser attributed the long late-night sessions to what he said was a neglect in starting parliamentary proceedings on time.
“Our situation in the House of Assembly here; it has become a ‘house of comedy’ right now where we’re supposed to start at 10 am. But sometimes we don’t get started until midday. For instance, yesterday (Tuesday), it was 11:41 am when I got a message from the leader of the Opposition saying that we are about to start. We were supposed to start at 10,” he stated.
“The Premier is actually running the House of Assembly as an extension of his office. I’ve seen us come there, start a session; one hour later or less even before we sit down, we hear that the sitting is in recess until two days later or whatever the case is because the Premier has to go somewhere. Why he think he has a deputy?” Fraser questioned.
Plea to Speaker to get affairs in order
Fraser also said he appealed to the Speaker of the House, Julian Willock to ensure that the regular disregard by some Members to abide by the stipulated times, becomes a thing of the past.
“I said to him, ‘listen … please speak to your leader, do something about it because if you don’t do something about it, this Fourth House of Assembly will go down in history as the worse House of Assembly that we have had in this territory, and it will be tied to your legacy’,” Fraser stated.
“I’ve been in the House of Assembly for quite sometime and I’ve never seen anything like this,” he added.
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The childishness of you all are really played out. Everything will not go according to plan and that is just life. I am sure that when you accepted your position, somewhere in that clause clearly read that you will need to go beyond your regular line of duties. Why are you and your other colleagues finding everything wrong to complain about? It is so funny, when your party was in power for years, you guys never complained about anything, at least not in the public because you guys were also eating huge slices of the corruption cake so all was fine. Now it is no more so everything seems to be a publicity stunt to be relevant. Respect the people who are in power, you are all a big disgrace.
Thank you. It is the worse house and the worse government, in BVI’s history.
I am not ashamed to say that I voted for the wrong people. Apart from the poor planning of this government, I see a leader who is not t***hful, who is a******t and who is really a b***y. I thought the NDP was bad but this government is worse. There were some in the NDP who needed to go but not all of them.
Hon Fraser, that suits you just fine. For the past months instead of being an good opposition member, you busy sucking up to VIP trying to get favours.
You told your boy ********? The monster you created? It was all good and well when this was happening and you had the handle. Better late than never I guess. But you right this is the worst administration in the past 21 years but political party allegiance is more important to many of you than good governance. They even converted cut deep now.
The Premier is bull headed and if nothing is done about his behavior and spending he is going to take the BVI down. In the letter that leaked you spoke as if the people of the BVI agreed with what you were saying when if it didn’t leak we won’t have known anything about it. Stop been so bull headed and start working with the House and let us know your plans for opening or do want the Governor to do that for you. I thought you were a humble man but I was wrong. Get off your high horse and work with the people of the BVI.
One thing i like about fraser is that he calls a spade a spade, he tells it like it is.
It’s time for the UK to step in and end this charade
Andrew Fahie is BAD for the BVI and the members on his team are too soft and blinded to do anything about it. The people need to rise up before it is too late, the BVI is currently in bad shape and getting worst!
WE NEED TO MARCH AGAINST THE VIP
Exactly. Frazer is right. I’ve been listening….The aggression, the anger, the bitterness, the Bullying.. This no plan Government is on a collision course..
come on Frazer, Willock is doing an excellent job, but in the last house where at one time Frazer was opposition leader they never started on time…so ayo need to hush to me its just pure jealousy because Andrew got the top job before many of them.
The Government service is his personal playground
THE VIP IS THE BEST GOVERNMENT THE BVI EVER HAD JUST MEAN THEY HAVE TO CLEAN UP YHEIR SELF AND CONTINIE TO RUN THE COUNTRY, DO NOT LET NO BODT FROM NDP GET BACK IN THERE TGEN YOU WILL SEE THE BVI IN S**T AND SINK, ENGLAND DO NOT WANT TO SEE NOR HEAR ABOUT THEM. TIS THING TO TALK AMD THING TO HEAR. JUST WAIT
VIP ALL THE WAY
All the way to h**l