Opposition can only talk — Skelton
Opposition Leader Ronnie Skelton has refuted the notion that opposition members can do much more than they already have in their efforts to force the government to improve living conditions for residents.
Skelton said that despite the many complaints by opposition members about being stymied in the House of Assembly (HOA) over efforts to keep the government accountable and to get answers to questions that residents need, there is not much the opposition can do to be more effective.
“Our job as the opposition is to talk. So if we don’t talk, what else are we going to do,” Skelton said while fending off accusations of only talking without taking action.
Skelton said the opposition made a proposal to Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley to give the opposition more resources, but this has so far not been fulfilled.
“According to the great Ralph T O’Neal, where we sit in government, in the legislature, we can neither mash gas or hold brakes,” Skelton explained. “We have to scream and that’s what we can do. That’s what oppositions do.”
The Opposition Leader dismissed suggestions that members should move a vote of no-confidence or even protest by walking out of the HOA and said they were not elected to do that.
Meanwhile, Second District Representative Mitch Turnbull said, “We have to do our job to carry forth the concerns of our people to the government and hope and pray and etch them and push them to do what needs to be done.”
Stacy Mather, a newly elected Territorial At-Large Representative, argued that many of the issues facing the country that opposition members are keen on addressing are systematic and require a different approach than interpersonal intervention.
He also argued that the government is reactive and suggested its response to a walk-out or no-confidence motion may not be sufficient to address the issues that residents are facing.
“Now, if you say walk off, sit down, I guarantee you tomorrow the government will do some of the things we’re talking about,” Mather said. “There’ll be a press conference, there’ll be something coming out, someone will get up and say something in the House of Assembly next week, addressing some of the same things that we’ve said today because they are reactive.”
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the opposition is weak and useless
You can organize march and protests. Collaborate with legal officers to revoke and implement pertinent legislations. Example the ‘greedy’ bill needs to be revoked completely. The greedy bill is a horrible oppression and travesty to the BVI tax payers and residents.
not really doing their job because the 6 losers are to involved in living their glamorous government employee lifestyle. The result is lots of meaningless words, no substance and definitely no progressive action.
Some people really do not understand the effects it could have on the BVI’s financial services sector if the BVI appears unstable. Government and the opposition must work together for the good of the country, they cannot be getting involved in marches and all these verbal altercations people want them to engage in. Some of us are so used to being aggressive, we do not know how to handle matters without pulling a gun.
The opposition can be as effective as the government! The opposite can draft bills and lay them in the house of assembly to go for vote , yes they do not have the majority to pass bills but they can rally around a bill get public support and we the people force the government to pass the bill the opposition proposed if it’s in the best interest of the public! It is time these people do there jobs they use the excuse of being on the opposition to sit n collect basically free money in the form of their salaries.
Well said , but you left out the lame excuse all of them using ( it’s the UK , it’s the UK , it’s the UK ) as scapegoats
this is a great idea — i think we should get the opposition organised to do the work that we see needs to be done. They can bring bills to the house and do research and present policy proposals to the public. What is the list of items they should be tackling?
– free legal representation for persons charged with offences and family law matters
– transparency and freedom of information – if they complaining about not having access to information – then bring the legislation back to the house. if the government votes it down then we see where the priorities are
– create a committee on freedom of information to work through whatever problems there are with enacting the bill into law
– what else???
Are we listening? We have been had .The opposition is useless