This article is not meant as a personal dig at anyone in particular. But mainly, at the level, or lack of real parliamentary democracy. There seems to be quite a few common parliamentary misconceptions which continue to grow. Like the role of opposition party, which as the name suggests, is limited to opposing everything or anything an incumbent government proposes or suggests!

Panorama editor Joe Garcia yesterday made reference in his (panoramic view) column how both the Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition the previous day were going at it ‘hammer-and-tongues’ in open parliament. He questioned, as the title of his piece suggested ‘Who Would go First Picardo or Azopardi’ drawing attention to a serious parliamentary exchange between the two main party leaders.

Healthy Criticism Should be Welcomed

I have also reported on this issue many times. Where it is clear, that any criticism of government in parliament attributed to the GSD opposition is labelled as a negative style of opposition. Something I do not agree with at all, because healthy criticism should be welcomed by all.

Obviously, for the government, it is very convenient to regard any criticism as a display of negativity.  The most recent example is the opposition’s insistence regarding the Governments recently announced joint venture deal with a Chinese consortium to build an elderly people’s residence using modular construction techniques. Which in my opinion was perfectly justified?  

The fact is, Gibraltar needs a firm and strong opposition which leaves no stone unturned in its scrutiny of government performance, especially in parliament. In recent months the main opposition party has shown renown moments of political maturity. In my book, it needs to show even more?

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16-07-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR