Bush agrees to ‘temporary’ leave
(CNS): Speaker McKeeva Bush is expected to formally announce that he is taking a leave of absence from his job presiding over the Legislative Assembly in the wake of allegations of assault against him last weekend. Bush has not yet released a statement but CNS has learned he is planning to “take an immediate leave of absence” in his role as speaker of the LA to take the grief counselling and emotional stress management that he spoke about in the statement he released Monday.
However, Bush is expected to retain his West Bay West constituency seat as he goes about dealing with his now admitted alcohol and mental health issues.
There is no indication how long Bush is expected to be out of the speaker’s seat, but with the ongoing police investigation into the assault and enormous public pressure, it appears Bush had few options.
It is not yet clear who will replace McKeeva Bush as speaker, though Bernie Bush is currently deputy speaker.
Check back to CNS for more on this story later.
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Category: Politics
McKeeva should not have a choice.
His ‘fall’ was cushioned again, with a slap on his hand.
Let him hit his Rock Bottom (facing consequences with no way out) – it is the only way an Addict may seriously address their addiction/s.
McKeeva is dually Addicted.
Alcohol and Gambling.
🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
ok…so we can now forget that do-nothing ppm and alden will do anything.
time to ramp up scrutiny on the spineless governor and the police farce……
what a god damn joke this place is!!!!…………
Nothing more than a Banana Republic with a Governor terrified to take any action. Not sure what useful function the Governor serves?
mckeeva decoded: i’m going on a full leave/vacation till this all blows over.
just another day in wonderland……………zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
an all-time low for cayman…
Now I have another concern, if Bush resigns and his Deputy is appointed, are we any better off?.
No.
This is a dangerous example to our future would be leaders. Failing to make an example out of this rogue minister condones his type of behaviour and creates greater divisions in our electorate.
Respect for the rule of law in Cayman is being increasingly eroded without this happening, so inaction makes this acceptable. The repercussions of this, if not properly and swiftly dealt with, will only fuel more anarchy within our society and in the ranks of our leaders and the unethical privileged.
Bush has so much power and so many IOU’s that others are terrified to take action against him. That is why no action is taken against him. Like Trump, he is above the law.
So he keeps his role as speaker, he keeps his seat in the LA, he keeps his salary, his pension, his eternally honorable title, his driver, his govt credit card and his status and power as a senior politician. All that happens is he takes a short, fully paid, leave to get counselling for a ridiculous condition he made up to get out of trouble.
Do they really think we will stand for this??
If heard from many sources this is a pattern of behaviour that been going on for years. I’ve heard of one other victim of his violence and many of the butt-grabbing variety.
What we urgently need is forum where those women can come forward and tell their story so everyone get a clear sense of what a monster this man is, and so that Alden can’t hide under his desk any longer.
We will stand for this. Just look at what we stood for with him in the past. West Bayers still love the guy which probably says something about the voters in West Bay.
Deportation order?
Piece of 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
Criminal suspects don’t get to decide the tempo of what comes next. Where is Derek Byrne with an update on the process we all expect at this point?!?
The only regret I have in all of this is that he wasn’t wearing his speakers wig when he rocked up to Coral Beach.
We’ve all seen the video Alden, kick him out for good or you’re next.
Please send to the police. And share.
The police have the video. Which begs the question, why no arrest?
Please don’t tell me Bernie Bush is going to be Speaker. I’ve heard a rumor Mary Lawrence may be called back. Both these possibilities demonstrate how desperately short of real substantive talent we suffer from in Cayman. Something has to change to get rid of these intellectually mediocre and in some cases female beating MLAs. Have we not progressed from the days when we had bus drivers and failed civil servants as our MLAs?
Sad to say we are a Banana Republic. Mediocracy reigns. Makes me very sad.
Protest on Friday yes but don’t forget to keep your signs and take them to A Walk In Her Shoes in support of the Cayman Islands Crisis Centre next Thursday as well.
Anyone here in the late 90s remember Mckeeva’s candle in the wind march in West Bay? Can’t make this stuff up..l
Immediate resignation is the only option.
Let’s meet him at the airport when he comes back and protest his continuance in the Legislative Assembly.
WTF! Leave of absence, I also just read another news article with a statement from Mac stating he will be back as speaker soon! I’ve said it before and will say it again, he has no sympathy or regrets towards his actions.
Its time to stand up, let’s effect his pocket and boycott Coral Beach which he is an owner.
& what a waste of funds to fly to the UK to get this sort of results. Alden, you and your PPM are done!
Troubling…
If McKeeva Bush would learn from the mother of King Lemuel, what should told him more than 3000 years ago. If all the male leaders of the land would just consider golden words from the Hebrew scriptures:
“The words of Lemuel, king of Massa, which his mother taught him: What, my son? What, son of my womb? What, son of my vows?
Give not your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings.
It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to desire strong drink; lest they drink and FORGET what has been decreed, and PERVERT the rights of all the afflicted.
Give strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress; let them drink and forget their poverty, and remember their misery no more.
Open your mouth for the dumb, for the rights of all who are left desolate. Open your mouth, judge RIGHTEOUSLY, maintain the rights of the poor and needy.”
Proverbs 31:1-9, RSV
It scares me that even after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake, a wake up call, we have leaders in high position, professing to reverence God, yey would drink themselves at places they are not suppose to be, and commit serious sins.
And if our leaders fall in morality, this entire island will be spiritually affected.
Unison
every time there’s an update, this louse disgusts me even more. Besides a self evaluation of grief and work related stress to justify assaulting a woman as per his first statement, I’m assuming until this next one comes out he’s also the one dictating a leave of absence.
FORMALLY CHARGE THE FELLA, HAVE HIM BROUGHT TO COURT, GRANT HIM A PSYCHIATRIC EVALUATION, IF GUILTY, SENTENCE HIM ACCORDINGLY, – DON’T PERMIT HIM TO CREATE HIS OWN COURSE TO FOLLOW WHEN THERE’S BEEN A CRIME OF ASSAULT & BATTERY COMMITTED.
Has he at least been arrested on “suspicion” of the Assault since he said he dont remember it?
You’re absolutely right, and for the reasons you give, the police are doing their work, and then the DPP will make its decision whether or not to charge him. If he doesn’t want to resign and the government won’t force him, then we have to leave the matter in the hands of the criminal justice system.
Arrest him!
Now this is really BS
There is NO excuse now to coddle him.
McKeeva IS drunk with Power😡
He is above the law. Don’t you get that?
Ted Hastings, is it really you?
This time everyone is watching and waiting for investigators to produce a report and Director of Public Prosecution to make a decision to formally charge him..
I don’t think, this time, unlike other times, RCIPS would be able and allowed to drag its feet for too long.
I hope the victim is also “working” on filing compensation claims against Mr.Bush as a person, against her employer, and workcomp or its equivalent.
And media for data privacy breach exposing her identity to a lifetime of loyalist reprisals.
Like you?
The RCIPS has already dragged its feet for too long!
Anyone wanna bet the investigation goes no where?
Has RCIPS even formally arrested and bailed him??
If he does not go there will be a march which I fully support.
yep…cayman justice=no justice.
Nope. Not this time. It is too big to hide. Even Rome fell, remember? It is 2020.
Caymanian entitlement at its finest.
I imagine this is an attempt to try and get out of the public eye and avoid criminal conviction. Lets not forget, assault and bodily harm is a criminal offense and not a civil one. A ticket to northward needs to be the order, not a “temporary” leave of his duties.
Wait and see how our RCIPS will handle the next assault case. Will it be handled with kid gloves? Now is the time to make a difference, and show your true colours, because no one is above the LAW.
Leave of absence means you can come back to the position. No; the People want him to resign from the Chair. If his people want to vote him back as their MP in the next election, it is up to them.
And they will. Very sad.
No they won’t.
They couldn’t decide this over Skype? I wonder if there scoping good rehabilitation centers in the UK. Two birds one stone.
Maybe “the powers that be” hauled him in for a meeting in the UK. I don’t mean Alden either! This was a black-eye to the government and I’m sure the FCO wasn’t tickled about it.
One thing is CERTAIN, a “temporary leave of absence” is not appropriate and that better be his spin on losing his job!
Time to rein him in once and for all!
Ans who will pay for his accommodation at what hotel
Drinking and Gambling across the pond?
Why did Alden not return to meet with the Governor, members of the MLA and McKeeva here???
Wuts up with that?
Does anyone know how long the Premiers visit is to Europe? Is he going to Monaco again too? Smarter to go to Brussels instead.
He was scheduled to go…wasn’t called because of “the incident”. The incident being of course his drunkenly and publicly physically ASSAULTING a young woman.
He shouldn’t have been permitted to go. He should have been arrested, as any expat would have been.
‘Hello, my Nama is Mckeeva and I have issues.’
There that’s the counselling done, can I go back to my job now?
“I suggest you don’t try to help me”
And if you disagree with me I’ll slap ya!
How can we the public expect to get justice for his victim(s) and make this a permanent leave of absence.
The voting public and the rest who still support and have supported this idiot need a serious reality check if he ever gets to sit his lard ass down on the Speaker’s chair ever again. Those who do are no better than he is.
This is in no way trying to take the light from what from Mr Bush infact him and his actions discuss me, the only sympathy he gets from me is the embarrassment he has caused to his immediate family especially his wife, children and grandchildren. However, this would be a great time to clean the LA, as I challenge ALL the men presently in the LA who have abused (physical/mentally) their wife’s and/or significant other to follow Mr Bush. We need real honest gentlemen to lead this country.
CAYMAN LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY NEEDS A CLEAN SWEEP 🧹 RIGHT NOW WE HAVE A HOUSE OF WOMEN BEATERS. THAT WHY THEY WERE SO QUITE, XXXX
It’s all about him and his “emotional” and “stress” problems.
No shame , no remorse, it’s back to business as usual as no one has the guts to get rid of this repeat offender .
Straight out of “crisis/negative publicity management 101″……….
R e s i g n !
#SheIsSupported
No. He should be fired! Our entire elected government is complicit by their silence.
He should not be allowed to resign. He should be fired!
Step one is completed.
Now take the next step and RESIGN FROM THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. The good people of West Bay deserve much better than this.
GO!
But the good people of West Bay are not capable, after all these years, and incidents, to see what is going on with their elected representative. A sad reflection on West Bay.
If this is a representation of the people of West Bay, what does this say about the people of Prospect. Their representatives was convicted in the Courts for abuse of a woman before he was selected as their MLA.
No less of the people of Red Bay
#notevenclosetoenough
#lockhimup
#pos
If he thinks that will quiet the people, he is sadly mistaken. No mention of his alcohol problem.
This should be PERMANENT! Not temporary. Nuf said.
All constituents should petition for his PERMANENT resignation of McKeeva Bush. His continual disregard for the law has been and iconti ues to be dispicable, dishonest and disrespectful.
PPM should ‘man-up’ and set an example for Government’s moral, ethical and behavorial standards!!
Certainly, as Caymanians we deserve at least that!!
Man up?? No Cuz, the only ones in the PPM wid any balls are the women
And what have the women said about the Bush issue? NADA
Not good enough!
Not enough woman beater.
Temporary? Lmao only in cayman
Guess it would’ve played out better where you come from ?
You got a point. The groper in chief still sits in the White House
The groper in Chief still sits in the a White House because he is above the law. Similar to Bush.
6.30pm If this had happened in the UK he would have been out of the door already, long before his court appearance.
Almost certainly.
Couple points I was thinking as I read this
-They will want to put in someone who is pro port as the temporary speaker which rules out Bernie Bush and any members of the opposition, it will either be one of the PPM backbenchers or someone from outside of the house who is loyal to the PPM, because elevating an anti port member of the opposition to the role while not having the votes to remove him if necessary would be the peak of stupidity for this government
Also It is clear now if it comes down to it, Alden is not willing to jeopardize his majority even on a matter as cut and dry as this
this is less than a slap on the wrist, at least a slap on the wrist is final, this non-action leaves the door wide open for Mckeeva to wait a couple months till after the summer when this is no longer at the forefront of people’s minds and step back up into the role, people will still be angry but by that point it will be the sort of residual anger that is normal for Cayman
– I also wouldn’t expect any criminal charges seeing as Alden has probably been liaising directly with the DPP and Governor over the past 5 days figuring out just how bad this is
If there were any large prospects of a serious charge I think they wouldn’t have bothered with this temporary measure
This is temporary measure meant as damage control for the short term, plain as day
So in all likelihood Mckeeva will get away with this sort of behavior again, and will be left to run for reelection in 2021
As a warning, if you actually care about law and order in this country, or the protection of women or even basic standards of ethics and civility for members of public office
Now is the time to fight, the PPM are now complicit and clearly have no interest in seeing this issue handled
They had days to respond publicly, they waited to see what the public reaction to Mckeeva’s story would be and now they have decided to be on letting this blow over in a couple months
If this happens persons in power will never be accountable to us again
We have to Protest, write letters or emails, show up to your MLAs office, call your MLAs, call them out in public, do whatever it takes
If Mckeeva gets away with this any MLAs in the government’s good graces are officially above the law, understand that
Do any of us for a second think that if Kenneth Bryan had gone out gone drunk and assaulted someone in public that the PPM would for a second sit back and let this be a small issue (as an example)?
Kenneth Bryan don’t drink. Alcohol that is .
They would have arrested Kenneth in the blink of an eye, for more reason than one. They have no respect for him because he is the youngest MLA and he does not play “Simon says”. He always come back to us, his people, to hear our views on important matters before he makes serious decision. so, the first chance they get to kick him out the LA they would take it.
And then they expect us to believe in the Justice system? what a joke!!
But yes, Kenneth hardly ever drinks and gets drunk, especially for the past few years…
This comment hasn’t aged well.
How pathetic from the rest of them. Letting him make the moves publicly in an attempt to save face.
I’ll register to vote tomorrow just to have a chance of being on the jury that finally puts his sorry ass where it belongs.
#lockhimup
It appears that you have already formed an opinion about his guilt prior to judicial proceedings commencing.
If called as a potential juror, you will be disqualified.
You assume I’ll declare that. I won’t. Ps. I don’t fear your bible so I’ll swear whatever the hell you want me to on it.
They think we will be placated with the barest bare minimum of repercussions for his actions? Hell no!
Woe is me, shame and scandal in de family…
What BS. Grief counselling after 9 years. Mental health. And now not touching alcohol. The Islands are not stupid. Unlike the RCIPS command team that dealt with this at the weekend. When are they going to arrest and interview him?
A woman was left with bruises, marks etc has an arrest been made or they cant because they looking for the perpetrator????
Good on you Mac for seeking help. May God richly bless and remember you.
Oh after the attack and numerous other instances of his lewd, un-diplomatic like behaviour, god must richly bless him. You people are the worst.
5.37pm It’s West Bay pawns like you who got us into this mess.
“May God richly bless and remember you.” – said a Christian to a woman beater, but protests against two gay Caymanians who found love because “biblical morals”.
What a joke
Are these people serious?
So wait, he gets to make the call…?????
Temporary!?? What the actual $&#%!?!
The “leave” from the Speakers Chair, MUST be for good. He has tarnished the Speakers Office and must not be allowed to ever return. And I suggest that the Speaker now be someone from outside the current composition of LA members.
This is not good enough. He must resign. Along with the Port Project the majority of the Cayman people do not want them. Neither bring anything constructive to Cayman.
Chris, I completely agree, like you and almost every voter outside of West Bay, I feel he has to resign, never to hold that office again. I also trust that our laws will prevail and he is prosecuted for his attack on that defenceless lady.
Another backroom deal in the hopes that this will blow over and he will be able to go back in as speaker and say “all is well”
Not good enough Alden
Not nearly good enough
He should have been forced to get help in 2017 with that Casino incident
This is a bridge too far, you don’t just get to get piss drunk and attack someone and say “my bad”
He needs to go, full stop
Vote No
This is not enough Alden! Temporary leave is unacceptable where are the criminal charges?
McKeeva Bush should never have even had a choice in this matter. The Unity government members failed to act and do the right thing.
How much more evidence does the RCIPS need to charge for assault and battery plus drunk and disorderly behavior?
Alden McLaughlin has again cut another sweetheart deal with McKeeva and proves they will do anything to retain power. Big Mac is the tail that wags the dog!
VOTE THEM ALL OUT in 2021 for a Better Cayman
Why wait. We should demand early elections.
Yeah, but what is the alternative? This place is a hotbed of political mediocracy.