A few weeks ago, the Speaker of the National Assembly rejected the request by the APNU+AFC caretaker government that he should overturn the no-confidence vote that had gone against it some days before on the ludicrous grounds that 33 is half of 65 and that thus 34 is required for a majority. Many, particularly PPP/C supporters, commended him for his courage, while in a similar vein many government supporters were livid. In the words of one of them, ‘Scotland should just collect he pension and stay the hell home: who he think put him there.’
I have since heard other not so muted comments about what the Speaker did, but did not think about writing about this issue until last Friday night after the Chief Justice (ag) gave her decision, which also for the most part went against the government. In a discourse with another staunch PNCR supporter only hours after the decision, I was quite calmly informed that the judge and her whole family are known PPP/C sympathisers so her decision was not surprising. This went against my own views so I requested some evidence of this and was told that she had gone against the government before, but that more to the point, the late Anglican Bishop Randolph George, who was chairperson of the Integrity Commission under the PPP/C, was her uncle and a known PPP/C sympathiser!