Open mouths and hot parliamentary air

Mr Everald Warmington, who still occupies a seat in the House of Representatives and is chairman of its committee on the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), responded to this newspaper's report on the misadventures of his committee and the policy malfeasance that the CDF represents in typical fashion: with an open mouth and little else.

Except, perhaps, for the gush of hot air felt all around.

Mr Warmington's tantrum, of which there have been many, would normally be noted and ignored until his next bout of unrestraint. What was unexpected at Tuesday's session of the CDF committee was that Mr Warmington would be followed into this schoolyard display of puerility by Mr St Aubyn Bartlett.

We have two recommendations to both members of parliament, assuming they have regained their composure and are no longer in danger of hyperventilating.

Rather than suggesting that the committee should be closed again to the public, they should recommend the disbanding of the CDF and that the $1.2 billion be reverted to the responsible agencies with the appropriate oversight. It is time to end this salivating by politicians with their direct access to pork.

Second, Mr Warmington should be urged to release all the minutes from all the meetings when the CDF committee conducted its meeting in secret and arrived at decisions such as the retroactive approval of overspending, as was the case with Mrs Natalie Neita-Headley.

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