Gail Alexan­der

PNM MPs Colm Im­bert and Pat McIn­tosh have tak­en is­sue with words used by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad- Bisses­sar about crit­ics of Gov­ern­ment's job pro­gramme. De­liv­er­ing the fea­ture ad­dress at Tues­day's launch of the "Colour Me Or­ange" job pro­gramme, Per­sad-Bisses­sar had said: "For those who say we are in­sult­ing you by giv­ing you a food, an op­por­tu­ni­ty to get a food, I say, to them, take your mouth and put it where you don't want to show it to any­one... and let's take the youth for­ward."

Yes­ter­day, Im­bert, PNM's Diego Mar­tin North East MP, said: "I am shocked and amazed. I can­not be­lieve the Prime Min­is­ter used that kind of lan­guage and ut­tered those words, talk­ing about 'putting it where you don't want to show it... etc.'" Port-of-Spain North MP, Pa­tri­cia McIn­tosh, added: "While I'm thank­ful that peo­ple got jobs, I'm con­cerned about the way the Prime Min­is­ter spoke." Say­ing the Prime Min­is­ter used a con­de­scend­ing style, McIn­tosh said: "To move from the usu­al fan­cy ac­cent and talk about 'get a food' and 'put it where you don't want to show it' is very in­sult­ing. I don't agree my con­stituents should be treat­ed like that."