Attorney Dickie Bradley Issues Warning Against Cabinet Interference with Senate

Richard “Dickie” Bradley

Back to the issue of the senate select investigation…this afternoon, News Five sat down with attorney and former Leader of Government Business in the Senate, Richard “Dickie” Bradley, for his take on the situation. Like John Briceño, Bradley insists that the Executive, which includes the Prime Minister and his Cabinet, should respect the separation of powers and allow the legislative arm – in this case, the Senate – to make its own decisions as to the composition and chairmanship of the Select Committee.

Richard “Dickie” Bradley, Former Lead Senator of Government Business

“So how the Cabinet get eena di Senate business? You know, how cow deh eena horse gallop? How? Dehn no business een deh – no Prime Minister, no Cabinet fi di tell you what wah be di composition of anybody that you set up? Dehn no business fi tell you who wah chair it? Dehn no business fi tell you, “Well, the Opposition will have one member, and this is in accordance with something in the Standing Orders” – no, no, no, deh no business with that! The Senate has the authority to proceed to do the job given to it by the Constitution – not by the Prime Minister, he no have authority to give nobody nothing. He could turn the six U.D.P. Senators into rubberstamps, as he has done recently and on regular occasions, by having all of them – some of them are people who we all looked up to and they let us down – di rubberstamp decisions of politicians over in the Executive Branch of Government. He is free to do that, but he want to be very careful about what he is saying and if he tries to say that this is how it will be comprised and composed, and that the chairperson must come from so-and-so, all the Senators need to roundly reject that, including his Senators. No tell we how fi do we business, mein; come on! Because the next thing you wah wahn do, you wahn tell the judge dem over in the Judicial Branch how to do their business. So that is a very wrong thing; it sends a wrong signal; it is bad optics for the Cabinet to be discussing how the Senate is to go about doing its job.”