Speaker takes on Mac’s conspiracy motion
Julianna O’Connor-Connolly, Speaker of the Cayman Islands Legislative Assembly (Photo by Dennie Warren Jr)
(CNS): The opposition leader has mounted the first of what could be a number of hurdles to his controversial conspiracy motion being debated by the country’s parliament. The speaker has confirmed that she has accepted McKeeva Bush’s motion calling for an internal enquiry surrounding his arrest and subsequent trial ,which he says was a conspiracy to unlawfully remove him from office. However, Premier Alden McLaughlin has confirmed that the budget is the priority business and Bush’s motion won’t be on the agenda before June.
House Speaker Julianna O’Connor-Connolly confirmed with CNS Thursday that Bush had filed his motion and that it would be passed to the Business Committee, which will decide when it will be placed on the Legislative Assembly’s agenda and a subsequent order paper for debate.
That committee is chaired by the premier and the members include the deputy premier, the opposition leader, one government backbencher and one opposition member.
Premier McLaughlin told CNS Friday that neither the motion in question nor any other private member’s motion, not even government business, would be debated before the budget is dealt with, as that is the government’s priority.
Opposition Leader McKeeva Bush with his Private Member’s Motion, 14 April 2015
The budget has been penciled in for delivery on Friday 15 May and the debate on the content expected to take place the following week. After that, Finance Committee scrutiny could take another two weeks. Government also has a number of laws that are expected to be on the order paper once the appropriations bill for government’s budget has been passed. This means that the opposition leader’s motion won’t be scheduled until well into June.
While the speaker has accepted the motion, indicating that she believes it is not unconstitutional, there are still some legal question marks around the content and allegations made in the motion, which Bush unveiled less than two weeks ago.
Pointing the finger not just at the current premier, who was the leader of the opposition at the time, but also at the police commissioner, the former governor and other UK officials, Bush has implied there are other people who were involved in the criminal allegations against him in what he claims is a conspiracy to bring him down.
Bush’s is making serious allegations that suggest his political opponents were not just taking advantage of his circumstances when he was charged over the use of his government credit card. He has gone further to suggest some took part in the conspiracy, including the current premier. McLaughlin has categorically denied any involvement and has stated there is no documentation in existence to support what he has stated are Bush’s lies.
Premier Alden McLaughlin at Minimum Wage press conference, April 2015
But the opposition leader is calling for an independent public enquiry into what happened to him, as he says the whole affair was a UK-led conspiracy to end his political career outside of the democratic process.
He said theft accusations were quietly dropped before trial and the court case focused on misconduct. The question was whether Bush’s use of his government credit card to draw cash in casinos while gambling on slot machines during both personal and government business trips was abuse of office.
When the court heard that there was no rule preventing personal use of government cards at the time, only that the cash was paid back and Bush had issued blank cheques to his accounting staff to cover all of his expenses, it was clear there was no real criminal case. The revelations of the extent of Bush’s early morning gambling in casinos and the quantity of money he was losing may have been damaging to him but it wasn’t a crime.
But before the community had seen the evidence in December 2012, a few months ahead of the start of the election campaign, Bush was arrested and charged. He was ousted from office via a no confidence motion, which saw half of the UDP government members at the time turn against him and he remained the subject of a number of other investigations, from the Stan Thomas affair to the dynamite scandal, that were left open.
Against that backdrop, Bush pressed ahead as leader of the UDP and fielded team of 12 candidates in the election. But the UDP was ousted completely in the capital and did not win any seats in Bodden Town. But Bush held on to his own seat in West Bay, remaining the top candidate in the district, and carried both Bernie Bush and Captain Eugene Ebanks with him, losing just one seat to Tara Rivers, the C4C candidate and now education minister.
Bush believes he could have won the election but he claims that not only had the UK authorities smeared him with the trumped-up charges which cost him votes, he has also questioned the legitimacy of the national poll and plans to make that a key part of his debate if the motion ever hits the floor of the country’s parliament.
Shouldn’t it be the Speaker of the house called down for allowing this motion to be tabled?
True–and it’s a conflict of interest. She’s opted to approve and hear a motion that she was once partied to. Perhaps she, too, is curious to know who was behind ousting her, when she was the UDP Member/Deputy Premier to Mr. Bush?
…makes you wonder, huh? :)*
25/04/2015 at 9:36 am
Mac must be given an ooprtunity to submit his side of the story. He did start this issue and was freed of the all the trmped up charges against him. The buffoons took him to court and lost and now must pay for this ill advised and baseless case.
26/04/2015 at 7:44 pm
You obviously are not balanced in your views. Firstly, Mac did not create this situation and naturally he has to be given an opportunity to tell his side of the story. Mac sat in the court dock for months with a bad back and listen to these trumped up charges against him that were clearly misguided and baseless. His character was obviously at stake and not to mention his expenses. He says he has evidence against the sitting Premier and needs to expose him in the L.A. where the no confidence motion was filed against him. This is not a waste of the people’s time; it a matter for setting the right precedent for any other individual who may have to be exposed to this occurrence. Wake up Sleeper! The ink is about to dry on the law suits. Finally, he will be giving a lot of thanks for the money the CIG will be paying him.
This is the biggest load of rubbish I have ever heard of if Mckeeva is so sure that he has evidence against the Premier why don’t he sue him in a Court of Law. He should be debating this across the street in the Court Houseand not in the LA. He knows he does not have any evidence but being the selfish person that he is and because he’s is still upset because he is not the Premier he is trying his best to destabilize the country. I am so tired of seeing him flapping these papers around – papers that probably has no basis or merit. A couple of years ago he had a long list of people to sue and it all went up in a puff . He is lucky he is not in Prison for how he mistreated these Beloved Isles Cayman. I don’t think he should have been permitted to even stand for the last election with those charges hanging over his head. It appears that he thinks this country cannot survive without him- well here is a news flash it can and it will. He should be thanking God that he got off and that some charges were dropped. Does’t he know that correspondence can be doctored and made to look legitimate when they are fakes, maybe he does not know that it can be proven if an email or other correspondence is fake or genuine. Legislative need this time to focus on the business of the country, like trying to get the people employed to get a handle on crime, drunk driving, etc instead they will have to sit and listen to this drivel. If I was a legislator I would boycott the LA when this motion is being tabled. He would be talking to the empty chairs.
He does not have evidence, but he can use parliamentary privilage so he cannot be sued for any slanderous comments
The buffoon is a joke and we keep enabling him by giving him the opportunity to divert attention from his well documented self serving shameless plunder of the country.
Among the questions that might be answered by this parliamentary debate is exactly what happened in the Stan Thomas affair and why the serious allegations surrounding this matter did not make it into court.
The Stan Thomas affair alone would explain why legislators at the time had such an enormous test of loyalty.
If the truth of the Stan Thomas affair alone comes out, it may very well be a case of be-careful-what-you-wish-for.
Stan could not get a guarantee of immunity in the US.
WOW. Just when we thought these lunatics were getting paid to run the country.
Another unnecessary farce designed to detract attention from the real issues
In the meantime people can’t find jobs, can not pay there utility bills and suffer.
These millionaire politicians should accept that their troubles are part of the job.
Help the people that voted for and get over it.
Disgusting . . . . .
Note that the ONLY millionaire from being a politician is the man who has filed the motion. Ironic is it not?
No dump solution, no cruise port, no proper public transport, old ass airport, unemployment issues, gang violence, gangs in school, outrageous cost of living, no real alternative energy solutions; but they have time for this shit.
Calling on the electorate to vote every single one of these ‘bobo the clowns’ out of parliament come the next election. Do it for the sake of your children and grand-children.
But who shall we put in instead? Not really much out there to pick or refuse from. England needs to come in and rule for the sake of transparency and good governance.
Do not wait until then. The longer these fools are left plundering and stumbling, the deeper we seek into the quagmire of indecision and double dipping deficit. Every day they are not only taking their own pension, but what’s is left of yours too.
Get them out quicker rather than later.
But for some reason nobody seems to understand this, and they continue to just bury their heads in the sand.
We are talking about the driveway queen here!
Indeed we are. I wonder if there will be a motion for an investigation into the conspiracy to keep her out of jail for that. What a bunch of world class losers. The really sick part is we are all forfeiting a significant portion of our very hard earned paychecks to support this stupendous ignorance. .
The conquering saviour shall break every chain and give us the victory again and again ..
Indeed he shall. He already tek gamblin mac seat. We just have to continue praying He will tek the one he has now. And sister ju ju’s along with him. What a bunch of absolute wasters.
Savior at the casino was the credit card.
Wasn’t McKeeva Bush one of the people who kicked off the Operation Tempura fiasco in 2007?
2:01 say it loud and clear, he who is quiet now, wasn’t quiet then. Some people conveniently remember what they want.
To be fair, he said that he didn’t have proof to give the COP, but someone had told him that they had heard from somebody who overheard somebody else say “it was the bald head one”.
8:19 – that’s the best summing up of the whole Tempura farce I’ve ever read 🙂 Nobody had any evidence of anything from day one until the end. Which is pretty much exactly what happened when McKeeva was investigated and charged. I wonder who RCIPS and the FCO will decide to target next?
Very good excellent news expose those elites.
Let’s focus on the business of the territory and moving forward please. Debating the whys and what ifs in the final days of the UDP, a party whose own membership voted no confidence in McKeeva, is not a productive use of the very limited time these salaried MLAs actually spend awake in the LA.
Mac fiddles while the dump burns.
Oh how I miss the LOL button 🙂