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<span style="font-weight: bold">News Source: OTGNR - </span>
<span style="font-weight: bold"> Confirmed : Lightbourne chided ove...w leadership...</span>
ATTORNEY General and Justice Minister Senator Dorothy Lightbourne has come under fire from her opposition colleagues over the slow pace at which the Senate is addressing matters before it."I am a plain speaking man. The Senate needs new leadership and anything I can do to assist in that process I will do, " Opposition Senator KD Knight said yesterday after acting leader of government business Senator Dwight Nelson moved for the adjournment some fifteen minutes after they began sitting. Nelson was acting in the stead of Lightbourne who was said to be ill. Senator Knight, who was continuing on a point raised by leader of opposition business in the Senate, AJ Nicholson, said he was compelled to "join in that protest" since in deference to his duties in the Senate he had cancelled other appointments "only to be told "nothing is happening".Nicholson had earlier accused the leadership of the Senate of being "mean spirited". The Senator based his complaint on the failure of the Senate to begin debate on two motions brought by him that have been sitting on the Order Paper since November 5th and December 10th of last year, respectively.Based on the Standing Orders, which govern sittings of the Houses of Parliament, motions should be taken no less than 28 days after being moved."I have tabled motions in this House and had to withdraw them... I notice that there is a mean-spiritedness in how matters are approached in the Senate and I don't want to have to withdraw these motions," Senator Nicholson said, noting that he had "heard comments" which intimated that the "motions will never be taken"."One of my motions could be taken today. We get up, bathe, nice up wi self and more than powder up and come to the Senate and here it is we sit for 15 minutes," Nicholson complained."There is work to be done, do better than this," he added.He further pressed Nelson to inquire of Lightbourne as to when the motions would be taken."I cannot allow those remarks to go without responding. It is unfortunate that the bricks are being thrown while I am sitting in the chair acting in place of the substantive leader of government business in the Senate, but I will certainly convey what has been expressed... and I am certain she will take it from there," Senator Nelson said in responding to the concerns.The motion laid by Nicholson in November called on the Government and opposition to find a mechanism through which the current national road programme and other rehabilitation programmes will be approved "in a spirit of general agreement particularly since such programmes have become strikingly inescapable as a result of acts of God".The second motion called on the Government to come to an agreement with the opposition, in short order, concerning Jamaica's acceptance of the Caribbean Court of Justice in its appellate jurisdiction to "ward off further probable embarrassment and shame and for Jamaica to sever its link with the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council before" the country marks its 50th independence come August 2012.
<span style="font-weight: bold"> Confirmed : Lightbourne chided ove...w leadership...</span>
ATTORNEY General and Justice Minister Senator Dorothy Lightbourne has come under fire from her opposition colleagues over the slow pace at which the Senate is addressing matters before it."I am a plain speaking man. The Senate needs new leadership and anything I can do to assist in that process I will do, " Opposition Senator KD Knight said yesterday after acting leader of government business Senator Dwight Nelson moved for the adjournment some fifteen minutes after they began sitting. Nelson was acting in the stead of Lightbourne who was said to be ill. Senator Knight, who was continuing on a point raised by leader of opposition business in the Senate, AJ Nicholson, said he was compelled to "join in that protest" since in deference to his duties in the Senate he had cancelled other appointments "only to be told "nothing is happening".Nicholson had earlier accused the leadership of the Senate of being "mean spirited". The Senator based his complaint on the failure of the Senate to begin debate on two motions brought by him that have been sitting on the Order Paper since November 5th and December 10th of last year, respectively.Based on the Standing Orders, which govern sittings of the Houses of Parliament, motions should be taken no less than 28 days after being moved."I have tabled motions in this House and had to withdraw them... I notice that there is a mean-spiritedness in how matters are approached in the Senate and I don't want to have to withdraw these motions," Senator Nicholson said, noting that he had "heard comments" which intimated that the "motions will never be taken"."One of my motions could be taken today. We get up, bathe, nice up wi self and more than powder up and come to the Senate and here it is we sit for 15 minutes," Nicholson complained."There is work to be done, do better than this," he added.He further pressed Nelson to inquire of Lightbourne as to when the motions would be taken."I cannot allow those remarks to go without responding. It is unfortunate that the bricks are being thrown while I am sitting in the chair acting in place of the substantive leader of government business in the Senate, but I will certainly convey what has been expressed... and I am certain she will take it from there," Senator Nelson said in responding to the concerns.The motion laid by Nicholson in November called on the Government and opposition to find a mechanism through which the current national road programme and other rehabilitation programmes will be approved "in a spirit of general agreement particularly since such programmes have become strikingly inescapable as a result of acts of God".The second motion called on the Government to come to an agreement with the opposition, in short order, concerning Jamaica's acceptance of the Caribbean Court of Justice in its appellate jurisdiction to "ward off further probable embarrassment and shame and for Jamaica to sever its link with the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council before" the country marks its 50th independence come August 2012.