Political scientists appear baffled by the rationale and direction of the Mia Mottley administration ahead of the Governor General’s Throne Speech next week, describing it as an unusual development.
Political pundits were left scratching their heads when Mottley announced on July 22 that Parliament would be prorogued on August 8 and resume on September 15 with the delivery of the new directives in the speech which traditionally signals the new direction to be embarked on by a sitting administration.
During her address to the nation, the PM also made sweeping changes to her cabinet. More recently, she announced the appointment of former Ambassador Reginald Farley to the Senate where he is expected to replace Sir Richard Cheltenham as the President.
While noted former UWI Cave Hill lecturer Dr George Belle and leading pollster Peter Wickham have described the developments as significant, they both noted that a Throne Speech was not necessary.
They have however acknowledged that social, political, and economic disruption caused by COVID-19 may have forced the administration to take fresh guard.
“When I think of a throne speech, I normally think that something big is coming, but my question now in this COVID environment is what could be so big that would require a throne speech?” Wickham asked.
He said measures like the Welcome Stamp Initiative, possible changes to immigration policy or even changes to the country’s foreign policy objectives may be expounded upon in the speech.
“Clearly, they may need to be some further budgetary adjustments that have to be made as a result of COVID, but I don’t know that you need a throne speech to achieve that. I don’t know whether she is looking at constitutional change as an option, but again, what would the constitutional changes be? I am not really sure.
“I think anything that helps us to deal with COVID or would be relating to COVID would be helpful,” the political scientist added.
During the Throne Speech of 2018, the Governor General pointed to a number of priorities for the Mia Mottley government including fixing the country’s decaying infrastructure, ailing economy and spiraling cost of living, and addressing the crime situation .
The administration is now attempting to stave off the effects of a global pandemic which has brought tremendous economic uncertainty and driven unemployment to almost 40 per cent.
Dr Belle meanwhile suggested that the move might simply be the PM’s way of charting new policy directions out of the pandemic.
“That is a difficult one because we don’t even know why she prorogued Parliament and I have received no indications, evidence, or intel. to base a conclusion”, Belle told Barbados TODAY.
“The most you could say about what Miss Mottley is doing is because of the COVID experience, that for example has resulted in the abandonment of We Gatherin’.
“It looks like the COVID experience has influenced the government to take fresh guard. She has to take fresh guard because of political, social, and economic changes that require, in a sense, a new policy vision. That is what I would expect that she would have to be talking on,” he added.
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There is nothing odd or mysterious about proroguing Parliament within the Westminster system. Most Westminster style democracies do it annually. When the UK government sat for more than two years (2017 -2019) without a prorogation it resulted in the longest sitting Parliament since the Civil War of 1649 and there was much criticism. Prorogation is essentially an annual event that lasts a short period of time, sometimes a few days, and it marks the end of one session of Parliament and the beginning of another. (In 2019 Boris Johnson lost a bid in the High Court to prorogue parliament because it was deemed too long and as such interfered with the parliamentarians right to asess the Brexit bIll. This prorogation was to be for slightly more than a month and well over the average prorogation of 18 days.)
Prorogation leads to a Speech from the Throne where the Government sets out its priorities for the coming year, much as it sets out its financial priorities in a Budget. Both of these processes are key disciplines of good governance, transparency and effective administration. The mystery is perhaps not that Parliament is being prorogued but why it happens so infrequently.
This isn’t a routine prorogation.
Canada’s government used prorogation to interrupt ongoing committee investigations into corruption throughout its cabinet.
It is part of the problem with anachronistic parliamentary procedure.
Good luck with your Republic aspirations.