Roger Clarke, central Westmoreland member of parliament (MP), revived memories of the verbal flooring he received from Western St Mary MP Robert Montague during last year's sitting of the standing finance committee.
Clarke stormed out of the standing finance committee after Montague called him dishonest.
During Wednesday's sitting of the committee, which is examining the proposed estimates of expenditure, Clarke told Montague that he would not be running away this time around.
"You will not silence me this year my brother, and I will not walk out this year, I will walk across," Clarke said as he grinned at Montague, who was attempting to heckle him.
Dishonest
During last year's sitting, Clarke was ruffled by charges from Montague and West St Thomas MP James Robertson that he had led the country to believe that the receipt-book system was the answer to the country's praedial larceny problem.
"You are dishonest! Dishonest! ... . You told the country it could work and you knew it could not. You are dishonest!" Montague shouted at Clarke.
The central Westmoreland MP grabbed his books and headed for the door in a fit.
"Who is dishonest? Who you calling dishonest? Don't do that! Don't do that! Don't do that! You don't call me dishonest!"
Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller missed no attempt to lament any cut in expenditure which she believed would affect society's most vulnerable.
"I don't want that when my maker comes to judge me he says that I was hungry and you fed me not," Simpson Miller said in the House while protesting instances of what she said was an underallocation of funds.
But tourism minister Edmund Bartlett had no such problems - at least not from his utterances. He found time to coin the term "projectise" and was successful in leading the "multi-modal" Mike Henry to believe that it was a proper word. So Henry used it too.
Government MPs Everald Warmington and Robert Montague needed no help in finding words. They found them and spoke out of turn.
Classless
For the most part, Montague was witty, but Warmington at times bordered on being classless. Aside from his regular shouting across the floor, he barked nastily at his government colleague, Rudyard Spencer, who was attempting to speak to him on one occasion when he went rabble-rousing.
"Shut yuh mouth!" Warmington barked at Spencer, who hung his head and turned away.
At least one MP found no reason to laugh or accept the conventions regarding the way the House carries out its affairs.
Central Kingston MP Ronald Thwaites protested that convention should not supersede logic after he was barred from asking questions about the operations of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) and the funds allocated to it.
The examination of the estimates for the JDF was done in camera. Thwaites had unanswered questions and proceeded to ask them of justice minister Dorothy Lightbourne while the committee sat, but was barred. He was not amused.
- D.L.