Brantley calls on colleagues to set higher standards
Claims Premier called him idiot, rogue, vagabond...

By Melissa Bryant
Reporter~SKNVibes.com

Leader of the Federal Opposition the Hon. Mark Brantley

Brantley delivered this advice during his response to the 2009 Federal Budget Address in Parliament on Wednesday, December 17.

He stated that the words spoken in Parliament are heard by everyone and youth may be quick to mimic and sometimes misinterpret their bad behaviour. He acknowledged his own culpability in this matter but stressed that Parliamentarians, as “the leaders in this country”, need to behave better.

He pointed to a recent incident during the Nevisian Budget Debates as proof of this troubling climate.

“No less a man than the Honourable Premier of Nevis, Joseph Walcott Parry, himself referred to me as an idiot, a heathen, a rogue, a vagabond. In this prevailing climate of crime and violence he stated that in relation to the members of the Concerned Citizens’ Movement (CCM) he had given his men instructions to take them out…to fire at will.

“When in a prevailing atmosphere of crime and violence our Premier chooses to use inflammatory language of taking people out and firing at will, it must tell us all that we have tremendous work to do as leaders in setting the right tone for dialogue and discussion, and even disagreement in this country,” Brantley said.

He pledged to do better and called upon all government and opposition members in Nevis and St. Kitts to resist the urge to fan the flames of disrespect and criminal discontent.

“We must stop this madness where we feel that we can say anything as leaders and that our bombastic gangster attitude will not reverberate into our communities and be used by our misguided youths as a basis for their own bombastic gangster attitude. We must remember that it is always easy to do wrong but always just that we do what is right.” ~~Adz:Right~~