THE House of Assembly Debates (OFFICIAL REPORT) FIRST SESSION 1999 – 2004 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY Rev. J. J. S. ATHERLEY, B.A., B.Sc. (Parliamentary Secretary to the Attorney-General and Minister of Home Tuesday, December 5, 2000 Affairs) Pursuant to the adjournment the House of Assembly Mr. D. T. GILL, B.Sc. met at 11.20 a.m. on Tuesday, December 5, 2000. Hon. N. A. LYNCH, B.Sc., M.B.A., (Minister of Tourism and International Transport) PRESENT Hon. A. P. WOOD, J.P., B.Sc., M.Sc. M.Phil. (Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development) His Honour I. A. ROETT, B.A., Dip. Ed. (Speaker) His Honour J. M. EDGHILL, J.P. (Deputy Speaker) Prayers were taken by Canon Father Ivan Harewood. Hon. Sir HENRY FORDE, K.A., Q.C., M.A., LL.M. (Cantab.) Mr. SPEAKER: The House is now in session. Rt. Hon. O. S. ARTHUR, M.Sc. (Econ.), (Prime MINUTES Minister, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs) (Minister of the Civil Service) Mr. SPEAKER: The Minutes of Tuesday, November Hon. D. A. C. SIMMONS, Q.C., LL.M. (Attorney 28, 2000. General and Minister of Home Affairs) (Leader of the House) Hon. D. A. C. SIMMONS: Mr. Speaker, I beg to Mr. D. J. H. THOMPSON, LL.B. (Hons.) (Leader of move that the Minutes for the Honourable the House of the Opposition) Assembly for its meeting of Tuesday, November 28, 2000, Sir HAROLD St. JOHN, K.A., Q.C., LL.B. which Minutes have been circulated, be taken as read. Mr. L. R. TULL, Q.C., M.A . (Oxon.) Hon. Miss B. A. MILLER, (Deputy Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. O. S. ARTHUR: I beg to second that, Sir. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade) Mr. G. W. PAYNE, LL.B. Mr. SPEAKER: If there are no corrections or Mr. D. CARTER (Chairman of Committees) observations, then let these Minutes stand confirmed. Hon. R. N. GREENIDGE, B.A., LL.B. (Minister of Labour, Sports and Public Sector Reform) PAPERS Hon. G. A. CLARKE, B.Sc., Dip. Ed., J.P. (Minister of Housing and Lands) Hon. D. A. C. SIMMONS: Mr. Speaker, Sir, on Hon. H. F. LASHLEY (Minister of Social behalf of the Minister of Tourism and International Transformation) Transport, I beg to lay the following: Hon. R. St. C. TOPPIN, LL.B. (Minister of Commerce, Consumer Affairs and Business Development) 1. Financial Statements of the Needham’s Point Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN Development Inc. for the year ending Miss H. E. THOMPSON, LL.B. December 31, 1998. Mr. M. Z. WILLIAMS Mr. T. A. PRESCOD, B.A. Rt. Hon. O. S. ARTHUR: I beg to second that, Sir. December 5, 2000 2 CONGRATULATORY SPEECHES chemistry and physics, as did for example, Oscar Jordan and then they went away and pursued their various disciplines. Hon. D. A. C. SIMMONS: Mr. Speaker, I think it is appropriate when one of our former colleagues has been Mr. Sandiford went to Mona and had a distinguished recognised that the House, just as it would if unfortunately academic career there. I never met him again – even though he had died, pays tribute. I think that it is appropriate, Sir, I got to know him in Barbados – until 1962 in a conference that we should say a few words by way of congratulations to at Oxford. He had then qualified. He was not yet Mr. that colleague. I refer obviously to the latest Knight, now to Barrow’s personal assistant. He was at Manchester, I think be known as Sir Lloyd rather than... it was, reading for a Masters. Asides. In those days we had a very vibrant West Indian Hon. D. A. C. SIMMONS: Sir, I refer to Sir Lloyd Students’ Centre which was owned by the Governments of Sandiford. the Caribbean, situated at 1 Collingham Gardens, Earls Court, which was a home away from home for most of us. It was my fortune, Sir, to have been in this Parliament We also had a powerful West Indian Students’ Union that from 1976 to 1981 and then from 1985 to 1994 to have sat in was active and was prepared to publish frequently about Parliament on the other side of Rt. Hon. Sir Lloyd Sandiford. matters affecting the Caribbean, even though we were four It was also my fortune to have known him from his school thousand miles away. It was at that West Indian Students’ days, though he went to Harrison College via, I believe, Centre, under the aegis of the West Indian Students’ Union Coleridge and Parry... that the leaders of the Caribbean in those days, when they visited England, always made it a point of duty to speak to Asides. West Indian students. Hon. D. A. C. SIMMONS: As was the case in the 1950s in the secondary schools, particularly Lodge and Sir, we had the benefit of yearly visits and lectures Harrison College, there was great rivalry among the boys in from Sir Grantley Adams, when he came up in the spring to the sixth forms. Even though I was from the Lodge School, attend the ILO meetings in Geneva. We had the benefit of I came to know of, and in some cases to know personally, hearing Mr. Norman Manley, Dr. Eric Williams and Mr. most of the boys in the sixth form in Harrison College, who Forbes Burnham. Cheddi Jagan was an annual performer at were either in the Classics Sixth or the Modern Studies Sixth the Students’ Centre and our idealism was constantly fired because they would have been direct competitors with me by interaction with the then leadership of these islands in the and others at Lodge School who were students in the Caribbean. Classics Sixth. One of things that the West Indian Students’ Centre did was to organise a series of meetings among ourselves where He was ahead of me and when he won the Barbados we brought together the West Indian students from as far as Scholarship in 1957, I had only been in the Sixth Form for Scotland in the north to those at the colleges and universities one year and of course, he duly left and went overseas. One in the south. We had one such meeting in Oxford in the was always aware that people like Lloyd Erskine Sandiford, summer of 1962 where I renewed my acquaintance with Mr. George Eustace Theodore Brancker, before them, Henry Sandiford once again and I found him a most congenial Forde were the “hot” boys who were likely to become person. scholarship winners. Sir, when we happened to be on this Side, I believe I Aside. gave him careful study during his years in Opposition, 1976 to 1981. He was a person who seldom intervened in a debate Hon. D. A. C. SIMMONS: Richie Haynes, of course, in those days and when he intervened, his contributions were was the most famous of that lot around 1957, known then always measured. because of his prowess in the classics as Pliny Haynes after 11.30 a.m. the great Roman author. I recall, in my parliamentary experience, that there have been two Members of this House who tended to keep notes In those days when you won a Barbados Scholarship, of each sitting. Between 1976 and 1981, Mr. Sandiford used you tended to remain for a year and go to work, perhaps in to have a large book, almost like a Judges’ notebook, in the teaching service, before going off overseas to pursue which he wrote his notes on the various debates. The other your scholarship. Mr. Sandiford remained in Barbados for a person who has adopted that practice is the Minister of year. Dr. Haynes then converted from classics to getting his Education, the present Honourable Member for St. Michael qualifications in ‘O’ level science subjects: biology, North East. She kept careful records of what transpired in 3 December 5, 2000 here particularly in the first term of this Government and his predecessors. Having to take that tough action in 1988 when she was in Opposition. I always wondered if Mr. and squeeze Barbadians, I think unfortunately, created an Sandiford used to keep notes to go back and use them with attitude to Mr. Sandiford by the people. He had to do what a view to writing the Manifesto. I never asked him why he was necessary to save the Barbadian economy because like did that but he was a careful student. what happened later on, those pains of 1988 and 1989 were self-induced by the prolificacy of the policies that captured I said two but there are three. The Honourable Member a Government in 1986. for Christ Church West, his yellow pads must now constitute a mountain in his house, because he writes almost everything Unfortunately, he did not learn from the mistakes of that is said in here and underlines it in various colours of ink. others because having boasted in 1989 that the economy was breaking records and performing like Sir Garfield Sobers, right out there in Independence Square, for the purposes of Mr. Sandiford made his contributions between 1976 the election in 1991 he repeated the medicine that had caused and 1981, as I said, in a very measured way and seemed to such pain. Before, he did not heed the warnings and he will time them in such a way as not to run into verbal blows from always be remembered for the famous statement ‘that he was the Other Side particularly the then Prime Minister ‘Tom’ not about to commit political suicide’.