Apr 13 – GSD: Government Behaviour During Giraldi Motion One Of “Most Shameful Episodes In Political History Of Gibraltar”
The GSD has said that Government behaviour during the Dr Giraldi Parliamentary Motion “will go down as one of the most shameful episodes in the political history of Gibraltar.”
A statement from the party issued this afternoon continues:
“Anything said in Parliament by MPs (however unjustifiable) cannot be questioned in any court of law. Of course, as the Leader of the Opposition reminded the House, it is for that reason that Parliamentary privilege should not be abused.
“During the Dr Giraldi debate, that privilege was abused in the most cynical manner to repeat allegations which have been investigated by Sir Jonathan Parker and discredited in his report.
“The Government sought to trash the very report it had commissioned at significant public expense, just weeks after the Chief Minister had welcomed the report and welcomed the findings. Sadly, the motives of Sir Jonathan himself, a senior and distinguished member of the judiciary who came to head the Inquiry at the request of the Government of Gibraltar, were called into question too by Mr Bossano who suggested that Sir Jonathan had been brought to Gibraltar to do a hatchet job on former Chief Justice Schofield and that because he (Mr Bossano) had defended Schofield, Sir Jonathan had criticised him in the Dr Giraldi Report. It is a scandal that a minister should suggest such a motive of a senior judge inside the House.
“What is worse, is that the Chief Minister and Leader of the House, Fabian Picardo, clearly endorsed what Joe Bossano had to say as follows: "Mr Speaker can I start first of all by congratulating the Honourable the Father of the House for what has been in my view one of the most passionate and masterful interventions I have seen him make since I was elected alongside him in 2003. I have told him, although he does not take it as a compliment for reasons I find difficulty in fathoming that his forensic analysis is worthy of one of the best lawyers at the Bar. "”
GSD Chairman, Trevor Hammond, commented “Time and again we, the public, are exposed to the impetuous nature of this Government. They are happy to commission an independent inquiry, selecting the judge, then when the outcome differs from the one they desired they have no qualms in attempting to discredit those involved, in this case a judge of some considerable standing. The damage this must do to our international reputation as a modern democracy is untold. Yet still the allegations of bullying by 35 young people at the ETB by a senior manager go uninvestigated”.
{fcomment}
