An election in St Joseph and God's face are things PNMites won't see. That was the view of UNC chairman Jack Warner during yesterday's House of Representatives budget debate. Warner said while former prime minister Patrick Manning's "raging bull" statements about his successor Keith Rowley were still relevant, the PP has not ostracised sacked MP?Herbert Volney (St Joseph).
He read Manning's statement from 2009, after Manning fired Rowley, when Manning said he had seen "hate, bitterness, animosity and acrimony, a man completely out of control-a raging bull." Warner asked: "And Diego Martin?West (Rowley) wants to lead and be Prime Minister? Another wannabe. I?hope Mr Manning gets better quickly to bring some sense back to this organisation."
He said?Volney, now on the back bench as an independent UNC?MP, could sit there without "being a raging bull, being vilified by his prime minister or ostracised by his colleagues." Warner said there was a time when Rowley was on the PNM?backbench and nobody spoke to him or in his favour.
He said former sport minister Gary Hunt refused to give Rowley football game tickets and he had to give Rowley some. He said PNM's Marlene McDonald, now Rowley's Opposition whip, had sat behind Manning when he made his "raging bull" statements and supported them. Warner warned PNMites not to make kuchoor (confusion) with the Volney issue, since, he said, PP MPs had embraced Volney last week.
On those who wanted an election in St Joseph, he said: "That and God's face they won't see... they could do what they want. Mr Volney is made of sterner stuff than that." Warner accused PNM MPs of shifting murder statistics from one area to another to make it appear as if there were murders in Laventille. He listed police statistics from October 1 to date, saying there were two murders on October 3 in Port-of-Spain and a murder yesterday was in Northern Division but none in Laventille.
He said Laventille had 81 murders so far, the last on?September 9.?He said the day when murder would be a thing of the past is a "long way off" but it would happen.