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When fussing over Bermuda’s Westminster style Parliamentary government, critics tend to concentrate on the need for politeness and niceness. I don’t have a problem with decorum in Bermuda’s House of Assembly.

Certainly members ought not use the ‘f’ word and should be held to high standards of discussion. Members ought to always treat one another as the ladies and gentlemen that they claimed they were when they stood on our doorsteps and asked each of us to vote for them — instead of that other person who was far less trustworthy, intelligent, experienced, capable, and so on, than they were.

That doesn’t mean, though, that they cannot — or should not — be severely and honestly critical of the performance of Ministers or other Members.

Here’s the late Sir Winston Churchill referring, critically, to the UK’s Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald: “I remember, when I was a child, being taken to the celebrated Barnum’s circus, which contained an exhibition of freaks and monstrosities, but the exhibit I most desired to see was the ‘The Boneless Wonder’. My parents judged that that spectacle would be too revolting and demoralizing for youthful eyes and I have waited fifty years to see ‘The Boneless Wonder’ sitting on the Treasury Bench.” How elegant. How sharply pointed. Nary a swear word in sight. What style!

I support the Westminster parliamentary style. I deplore the American style of flitting across the floor and never being able to promise a majority vote on anything without dubious backroom deals and under-the-table trade-offs. And God forbid that we should ever adopt the Italian style of coalition government — a style of governance that seems prone to falling faster than Domino’s pizza is said to deliver.

So, for me, it’s best to stay with the Westminster style. I do believe, though, that it’s time for more change. Not great big change, because the system works fairly well as it is. However, there is room for significant improvement in both the style of operation of our House of Assembly and in the ability of Ministers to demonstrate their competence and their mastery of their Ministries and thus of the affairs of this island nation.

I believe that Bermuda’s House of Assembly should introduce a freer form of ‘Question Time’, permitting a Member of the House to put any question on any proper matter and have that question answered there and then. No delay!

Because questions do require answers that are factually correct, the actual question will still, as happens now, have to be put in writing, in advance. However, the change I’m recommending is that Bermuda’s House of Assembly should re-write its rules so that at every Friday sitting, up to half an hour is always set aside for ‘Question Time’.

The rule change is simple. Bermuda’s House of Assembly can re-write its own operating rules on any day. They’re completely free to do that.

‘Question Time’ need not, indeed should not, be limited to questions to the Premier. Questions, as now, should go to any Minister; and that Minister must then rise and answer or bear the awful consequence of being seen to be incompetent or not the master of his, or her, brief.

‘Question Time’ will allow good Minister’s to flaunt and flash and flag their skills. On the other hand, poor Minister’s — ‘Boneless Wonders’ — will soon die on their feet. That’s as it should be.

The circling sharks of the Opposition will seek out and tear the flesh off weak Ministers, but will learn to steer clear of competent Ministers. As Darwin showed, this will result in the continued survival of the fittest and the demise of the unfit. That, too, is as it should be. That process of regularly sorting out the fit from the unfit will help us all. It will help ensure that the people who end up in control are the ones best able to handle themselves and their Ministries.

There’s a strong hidden benefit. Ministers — those who are really good and real masters of their briefs — will be able to put their own point of view in the strongest possible way. They will not have to suffer the oft-complained filtering by some editor’s editing.

So, as a Bermudian voter, I’m voting for the introduction of ‘Parliamentary Question Time’. Every Friday in Bermuda’s House of Assembly, the first thirty minutes following Congrats and Obits should be ‘Parliamentary Question Time’.[[In-content Ad]]

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